Fed gave out $16 Trillion in secret bailouts

[jimmy olsen]

 WTF? How is that even possible.

How did this not get reported more? Did I somehow miss a big uproar over this.
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3

http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillion-bailouts-under-reported/

[Ideologue]

Was all this actually created/spent/whatever?  That's more than our GDP.

[Admiral Yi]

Bernie Sanders is a kook and a liar, and Forbes link is a blog. 

[Sheilbh]

What's his lying record?

[Grinning_Colossus]

I'd also like some evidence that he's a kook, given that the social democratic policies he advocates demonstrably produce higher-utility outcomes.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

can't have been a good secret then if you know about it.

[Admiral Yi]

What's his lying record?

A while back he posted something on his official Senate website about "corporations that don't pay any taxes and whose CEOs make a million dollars."  Or something like that.  Turned out to be bunk.

[Sheilbh]

A while back he posted something on his official Senate website about "corporations that don't pay any taxes and whose CEOs make a million dollars."  Or something like that.  Turned out to be bunk.

That doesn't mean he was lying unless he knew it was bunk to begin with though.

[Admiral Yi]

That doesn't mean he was lying unless he knew it was bunk to begin with though.

I'm going to download the GAO report linked on Bernie's site tonight.  What do you think the chances are that that report states that the Fed gave out $16 trillion in secret bailouts?

[Sheilbh]

I'm going to download the GAO report linked on Bernie's site tonight.  What do you think the chances are that that report states that the Fed gave out $16 trillion in secret bailouts?

Unlikely.  But they're talking secret loans and total financial assistance - I imagine they mean that in the broadest possible sense.  I think TARP was around $700 billion for US institutions alone.  All financial assistance including things like Fed Funds and also short-term liquidity support that had to be kept secret to avoid meltdown and the real 'bail outs' that TARP replaced.  I think all told that could be roughly 20 times the size of TARP, especially if you're including foreign banks like RBS and Barclays.

The real questions are were they bail outs?  No.  Is this a story?  No.

[jimmy olsen]

Bernie Sanders is a kook and a liar, and Forbes link is a blog.

Is the Government Accountability Office also ran by kooks and liars, because they're the one who Sanders is quoting. He links to their report at the bottom of the page.

[Sheilbh]

Is the Government Accountability Office also ran by kooks and liars, because they're the one who Sanders is quoting. He links to their report at the bottom of the page.

I imagine the key is how Sanders interprets bailouts.

[KRonn]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Fed can give loans and bailouts on its own, without Congress or the President okaying it. But 16 trillion is a lot, seems way too much. It would be nice if the nation had 16 trillion dollars. Well, we do, but it's all debt, owed to someone else. And I think we borrow from ourselves too, from the Treasury or something.

[grumbler]

I imagine the key is how Sanders interprets bailouts.

A brief scan of the reports makes me think that, for Sanders, "transaction" = "bailout."

[DontSayBanana]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Fed can give loans and bailouts on its own, without Congress or the President okaying it. But 16 trillion is a lot, seems way too much. It would be nice if the nation had 16 trillion dollars. Well, we do, but it's all debt, owed to someone else. And I think we borrow from ourselves too, from the Treasury or something.

Correct.  The appointments are the end of the government's involvement in the Federal Reserve Bank.  It's technically run by a committee of people with 12-year "terms," who are, at the end of the day, bankers.