First Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions in Secret Bailouts

Ben Bernanke has been shoveling cash in secret to his mates on Wall Street an audit shows. He initially admitted to $45 billion in loans, but later it was discovered that Citigroup borrowed $2.5 trillion, Morgan Stanley $2 trillion, Merrill Lynch $1.9 trillion and the Bank of America got $1.3 trillion. Here is the story below by Matthew Cardinale. None of it ever reaches the people. I think America has had enough of Bent Ben and his dodgy friends on Wall Street, it is about time he left the scene, one way or another. Stuart Wilde www.stuartwilde.com

By Matthew Cardinale: The first-ever audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve has revealed 16 trillion dollars in secret bank bailouts and has raised more questions about the quasi-private agency’s opaque operations.

7000 metric tons of gold bars sit in the gold vault inside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else,” U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, said in a statement.

The majority of loans were issues by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY).

“From late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars… in emergency loans to the financial sector to address strains in credit markets and to avert failures of individual institutions believed to be a threat to the stability of the financial system,” the audit report states.

“The scale and nature of this assistance amounted to an unprecedented expansion of the Federal Reserve System’s traditional role as lender-of-last-resort to depository institutions,” according to the report.

The report notes that all the short-term, emergency loans were repaid, or are expected to be repaid.

The emergency loans included eight broad-based programs, and also provided assistance for certain individual financial institutions. The Fed provided loans to JP Morgan Chase bank to acquire Bear Stearns, a failed investment firm; provided loans to keep American International Group (AIG), a multinational insurance corporation, afloat; extended lending commitments to Bank of America and Citigroup; and purchased risky mortgage-backed securities to get them off private banks’ books.

Overall, the greatest borrowing was done by a small number of institutions. Over the three years, Citigroup borrowed a total of 2.5 trillion dollars, Morgan Stanley borrowed two trillion; Merrill Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America, borrowed 1.9 trillion; and Bank of America borrowed 1.3 trillion.