TARP, TALF, Stimulus and The Fed

A good way to keep a secret is to put it in plain sight. The Federal Reserve has given a ton of money to companies and countries over the last few years and people seemed little concerned although the specifics have been easily available since the Fed has had a public audit. Strangely, we know more specifics about the Fed program than we do about TARP, TALF and The Stimulus. The details appears on Sen. Sander's webpage as does his comment, "This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else."

From December 2007 to June 2010 the Federal Reserve bailed out many of the world's banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve  refers to these secret bailouts as a "loan program" but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. This when the average American taxpayer has been suffering. Remember, this is separate from the TARP Bailout of 2008 which sent $800 Billion dollars to failing banks and corporations, separate from TALF which protects bad consumer debts from $200 billion to $1 trillion in capacity, and separate from the $787 Billion Stimulus Package which was only loosely targeted but apparently went to debt resolution for the states. (The Wall Street Journal estimates that only 12% of the funds will be spent on initiatives which could be considered growth stimulus.) And it is also different because it is sending American money to foreign corporations.

Although the GAO was mandated through recent law to audit the Fed, there has been little reaction. This is a summary of the largest loans, from page 131 of the GAO report. The caps are mine.

Citigroup - $2.513 TRILLION
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 TRILLION
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 TRILLION (Failed and became a part of Bank of America)
Bank of America - $1.344 TRILLION
Barclays - $868 BILLION (A Uk bank)
Bear Stearns - $853 BILLION (Failed and became a part of JP Morgan Chase)
Goldman Sachs - $814 BILLION
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 BILLION (Another bank from the UK)
Deutsche Bank - $354 BILLION (A bank from Germany)
United Bank Suisse - $287 BILLION (A bank from  Switzerland)
JP Morgan Chase - $391 BILLION
Credit Suisse - $262 BILLION (Another Swiss bank)
Lehman Brothers - $183 BILLION ( Failed)
Bank of Scotland - $181 BILLION (Another UK bank)
BNP Paribas - $175 BILLION (A bank from France)
Wells Fargo - $159 BILLION
Dexia - $159 BILLION (A bank from Belgium)
Wachovia - $142 BILLION (Failed and became a part of Wells Fargo)
Dresdner Bank - $135 BILLION (Another German bank)
Societe Generals - $124 BILLION (Another French bank)

And then there is this line item: All other borrowers $2.639 TRILLION 
All other borrowers? 2.639 Trillion? Is that like etc.?

Much of the management of these bailouts were assigned to the same troubled companies, without bid, of course. Many of the companies had board members on the Fed Board.

They probably think this is capitalism.

Isn't this just unbelievable?