Federal Reserve’s shocking level of monetary support for big bank

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So often you hear me complain about the giant monster mega-banks and why they’re responsible for so much of the unemployment we have right now. Well, I’ve got to give you some numbers that will stun you.

Did you know that unemployment was at 4% before the foolishness of the banks brought world markets to their knees? Today we sit with millions of people unemployed. Thanks to the banks’ careless disregard for the right way to do business, we have been through a brutal recession.

These banks are responsible for the instability now of the European economy and worries about our own economy and the government’s ability to fund things.

Yet after the failure of banks and the taxpayer rescue of those deemed “Too Big To Fail,” we are still as much at risk of financial problems as we were before. We should have blown the big banks to smithereens. No bank should be large enough to threaten the financial sovereignty of a nation.

Listen to these numbers that the Federal Reserve was forced to release kicking and screaming: The Fed issued $1.2 trillion in emergency money to prop up banks both domestic and international. (That’s on top of the hundreds of billions issued by the U.S. Treasury to prop up giant banks.)

  • Citibank alone took in just a hair under $100 billion from the Federal Reserve.
  • Bank of America got $92 billion from the Fed, on top of $138 billion from the U.S. Treasury. We’re talking almost a quarter trillion all told just for the still-troubled bank that may now require yet another bailout.  
  • Morgan Stanley, the big brokerage house, got $107 billion.
  • Internationally, the Royal Bank of Scotland got $85 billion and UBS got $77 billion. The list goes on and on. One German outfit borrowed an average of $21 million for each of its 1,366 employees, according to Bloomberg.

The amount of money handed out by the Fed was three times the size of the U.S. federal budget deficit of 2008. To put it another way, the money is so large that you could take 539 Olympic swimming pools and fill them top to bottom with $1 bills before you run out of space.

These reckless giant monster mega-banks played in the casino knowing that they always had the house’s money — your money and my money — to back them up. That is unacceptable. The idea of “Too Big To Fail” is unacceptable. We as a country need to overcome the dirty money that all the banks have given to your Congressman and your two senators to buy them off to keep the big banks operating.

There’s no reason that Bank of America should have 10% of all the banking action in the United States. I’m sick and tired of these careless companies coming to the trough of the taxpayer again and again.

If you know somebody unemployed or you are unemployed, know that it’s not all the banks’ fault. There are lots of other factors in play too. But the greatest catalyst for the trouble of the last four years can be laid at the feet of the giant monster mega-banks. Their lack of ethics and honesty and their carelessness has led us here.

When are we going to get people in Washington who do what’s right for America, instead of what’s right for the money that goes in their pockets?

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