- It wasn't going to be just a $700 Billion Fix-it-all
patch at the end of 2008 which Bush&Buckshot handed over to the Wall
$treet Criminals who caused the Global Meltdown.
-
- Nope, that was just the trial run. These Wall $treet
MasterCons had much bigger plans in the works once they learned how to
run their scams off US Taxpayers.
-
- Now a year later, the total is up to $14.4 TRILLION,
going to the same Wall $treet Criminals, plus still more to their Insurance
buddies in the Healthcare Mafia.
-
- Not one single Corporate Fascist who caused the
Greatest Bank Heist in history has gone to jail, tho everyone knows who
they are.
-
- Question is: why do YOU do business with any of
these criminals? For 2010, take your money out of Big Banks and move
your accounts to member-owned Credit Unions, including your new, one (1)
lower-cost credit card (that you will pay off each month).
-
- To wrap up this Wall $treet RipOff, below is
where your $14.4 TRILLION has gone.
-
- Who's going to pay for this? Do you have to ask?
-
-
- The Real Size of the Bail-Out
-
- A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs
that make up the $14.4 TRILLION federal Bailout of Wall $treet
-
- (Mother Jones magazine, Dec. 21) -- The price tag for
the Wall Street Bailout is often put at $700 billion -- the size of the
Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). But TARP is just the best known
program in an array of more than 30 overseen by the Treasury Department
and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial
firms and inject money into (free) markets. (Free is the operational word.)
Below is a guide to many pieces of the puzzle:
- .
- Treasury Department bail-out programs
-
- Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury
announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market
mutual funds. According to the "special inspector general" for
the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), these guarantees could have potentially
cost the federal government more than $3 trillion.
-
- Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal
Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages -- as much
as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to the TARP special inspector
general, the government's potential exposure from this fund is between
$500 million and $1 trillion.
-
- TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the
Treasury has made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial
institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below).
As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been re-paid.
-
- Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase:
The Treasury has bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae
and another $200 million from Freddie Mac to show that they "will
remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage
markets."
-
- GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing
and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury may buy mortgage-backed
securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to the TARP special
inspector general, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion.
-
- Citigroup asset guarantee: In this joint Treasury, Federal
Reserve, and FDIC program, the government agreed to cover potential losses
to a Citigroup asset pool worth $301 billion.
-
- T-bill auctions to fund the Fed: In November 2008, the
Treasury announced that it would borrow $260 billion to fund the Supplementary
Financing Program, whose proceeds were deposited with the Federal Reserve.
-
- TARP overpayment: This June, the Congressional Budget
Office estimated that the federal government would lose $159 billion from
its TARP loans and investments due to changes in their market value. (So
far, Treasury has earned $14.4 billion in dividends from TARP.)
-
- Bank of America asset guarantee: In this joint Treasury-Federal
Reserve-FDIC program, the government agreed to cover potential losses to
a Bank of America asset pool worth $118 billion. Bank of America has withdrawn
from the program and has paid the government $425 million in compensation.
-
- Potential international fund liabilities: In April, the
United States committed up to $100 billion to fund the International Monetary
Fund's lending and ensure that it "has adequate resources to play
its central role in resolving and preventing the spread of international
economic and financial crises."
-
- The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) offers
financial incentives to lenders to modify home loans. $75 billion in federal
funds has been committed; $50 billion of that comes from TARP, and is set
aside to modify mortgages not owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac or other government-sponsored entities.
-
- Treasury exchange stabilization fund: A temporary program
to insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds.
-
- GSE credit facility program: Additional credit made available
to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Expires December 31, 2009.
-
-
- Federal Reserve bail-out programs
-
- Commercial Paper Funding Facility: With the support from
the Treasury, the Fed established the CPFF in October 2008 to increase
the availability of short-term debt (commercial paper) funding. Up to $1.8
trillion was earmarked for the program.
-
- Mortgage-backed securities purchase: In 2009, the Fed
earmarked up to $1.25 trillion to buy investments based on home loans.
-
- Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility: TALF provides
financing to investors who are buying asset-backed securities. In February
2009, the Fed and Treasury announced an expansion of the program to generate
up to $1 trillion in new lending.
-
- Foreign Central Bank Currency Liquidity Swaps: The Fed
has provided $755 billion for currency liquidity swaps with foreign central
banks.
-
- Money Market Investor Funding Facility: The MMIF was
established in October 2008 to provide loans for investors buying certificates
of deposit and commercial paper. According to the TARP special inspector
general, $600 billion was allocated for the program.
-
- Treasury Purchase Program: In March 2009, the Fed was
authorized to purchase up to $300 billion of Treasury securities.
-
- GSE Program: In March 2009, the Fed increased its purchases
of debt from government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac)
from $100 billion to $200 billion.
-
- Primary Dealer Credit Facility: The PDCF provides overnight
loans to primary dealers (financial firms that can engage in direct transactions
with the federal government). The Fed allocated $147.7 billion for it in
2009.
-
- The Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) Money Market
Mutual Fund (MMMF) Liquidity Facility provides loans to financial institutions
purchasing commercial paper from money market mutual funds. According to
the TARP special inspector general, the Fed allocated $145.9 billion in
2009.
-
- JPMorgan Chase/Lehman Brothers: In September 2008, the
Fed gave JPMorgan Chase $148 billion in help the near-bankrupt Lehman Brothers.
-
- Open Market Operations: In September 2008, the Fed injected
$125 billion into the market by purchasing securities and re-purchase agreements
(or repos), in which primary dealers borrow cash from the Fed.
-
- Tri-Party Repurchase Agreements: The Fed provided $124.6
billion for this type of repo in 2009.
-
- Primary Credit: The Fed provided $112 billion to offer
loans at a discounted rate to eligible institutions in 2009.
-
- Temporary Reserves: Between August and September 2007,
the Fed made $93 billion of temporary reserves available for loans to financial
firms.
-
- Single-Tranche Repurchase Agreements: In 2009, the Fed
offered a total of $80 billion for short-term loans to holders of mortgage-backed
securities.
-
- Term Auction Facility: Under TAF, the Fed auctions short-term
loans to financial institutions. The amount of loans offered has varied
widely; between December 2009 and January 2010, $75 billion in loans will
be available.
-
- AIG preferred stock interests, credit, and loan: The
Fed provided $53 billion to the struggling AIG in various forms between
2008 and 2009.
-
- AIG Securities Lending Facility: In October 2008, the
Fed authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to borrow up to $37.8
billion in securities from AIG.
-
- Maiden Lane II and III (AIG): In 2008, the Fed authorized
its New York branch to form three limited liability companies: Maiden Lane,
Maiden Lane II, and Maiden Lane III. It provided $52.5 billion to Maiden
Lane II and III to assist AIG.
-
- Maiden Lane I (Bear Stearns): The Fed provided $29.8
billion to Maiden Lane I to acquire Bear Stearns' assets and facilitate
its merger with JPMorgan Chase.
-
- TSLF: The Term Securities Lending Facility offers Treasury
collateral to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York so it can auction weekly
loans to financial institutions. $25 billion in loans will be available
between November 2009 and January 2010.
-
- TOP: The TSLF Options Program allowed primary dealers
to get TSLF loans in exchange for collateral. At the time of the program's
termination in June 2009, $50 billion loans had been offered.
-
- Expansion of system open market account securities lending:
In July 2009, the Fed increased its limit for loans of securities to brokers
from $3 billion to $5 billion, for a total of $36 billion in new lending.
-
- JPMC/Bear Stearns Loan: The Fed provided a $12.9 billion
bridge loan to JPMorgan Chase during its acquisition of Bear Stearns.
-
- To get a sense of the relative sizes of the $14.4 TRILLION
Bailout Components, see this chart:
-
- http://motherjones.com/files/images/the-real-size-of-bailout.jpg
-
- _____________________
-
- NOT INCLUDED: More MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR costs: for
escalating the AfganWar; for slowing catastrophic loses from Climate
Change; for slowing the murder and torture of Americans by the Healthcare
Mafia; for previous debt run up by Republican Presidents since Reagan;
AND for the day-to-day cost of running the Government, not including
the INTEREST on all of this debt.
-
- Welcome to the greatest Wall $treet Entitlement
Program ever invented.
-
- _____________________
-
- Back when the World as we knew it was almost collapsed
by greedy Wall $treet Bankers, when we were told this would cost us
Taxpayers an unbelievable $700,000 BILLION-- and might conceivably
reach the then astronomical figure of ONE TRILLION DOLLARS --
I sat down to calculate how tall was a stack of a TRILLION One Dollar
Bills. You can read about it here: <http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-can-you-visualize-a-tr-
- by-Gene-Messick-090103-512.html>How can you visualize
a trillion dollars?
-
- A stack of 1,000,000,000,000 greenbacks, in
round numbers, is 63,000 miles high.
-
- That was for TARP in 2008. The 2009 stack of $14.4
TRILLION Dollar Bills would reach to the Moon almost 4 times, or there-and-back
twice.
-
- That's just the Wall $treet RipOff for 2009, with
no other outstanding bills included.
-
- Here's the kicker: This could be reduced significantly
by a 50% tax on the net worth of the richest 10% of Americans, who lay
claim to most of the wealth in America.
-
- Click on <http://www.toomuchonline.org/inequality.html>Statistically
Speaking from Too Much: An online weekly on excess and inequality.
-
- They'd never miss it. And it's only fair: the top
10% got what they have by stealing it from the rest of us ordinary folks.
-
- "Take it back!" would be a great Resolution
for the New Year!
-
-
- © 2009 Gene Messick, wordsmith
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