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Fed saves the world...


You'll be happy to know that the Fed secretly loaned $16 trillion to banks around the world between December, 2007 to June of 2010 to save your ass, or so they say.

No telling how much more since then.

See anyone you recognize here?

The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places


Don November 23, 2011 - 9:32am
Don's diary | printer friendly version | digg
( categories: Miscellany )

Took Me A While To Find It...,

but I knew this was a bit of an old story..., though the price tag has appreciated a few trillion. You broke it here just under a year ago with Do What Don. Quite a lively discussion ensued..., great reading..., and well worth re-reading. ScotJen61 contended that it was a great success..., keeping us.., and the rest of the world..., from falling into complete depression. I am particularly interested if he still feels the same way? His recent posts reflect that he realizes that due to lack of energy resources we will not see sufficient growth to pull out of this recession. ScotJen61..., do you still feel that this Bail Out was the correct course of action..., or did it just delay the day of reckoning that seems to be fast approaching with the current developments in Europe? BTW..., sorry I didn't pay you proper tribute for your last diary entry..., it was great. Right on partner..., write on.

Scott R. November 25, 2011 - 2:18pm
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Was a time when Scott grated on me

But now, I think he's a decent type. He believe(s,d) in Keynesian economic theory like many, that if we stimulated, sooner or later the economy would kick back in, bad debt would be cured and we'd be off to the races once again.

I didn't.

But, perhaps he could have been right. Revival efforts did work for a time.

Among others that shared this view were no less that Paul Krugman, who, incidentally won a nobel prize for economics.

I see stimualtion like keeping a patient on life support when there's no apparent recovery possible.

Scott (Obama, etc.) knows the consequences of economic collapse will be so brutal as to be unthinkable; therefore he (they) do all they can to heal the current system. I can't blame them.

For I have no solution that doesn't involve massive hardship, pain and loss of life. (Try running a campaign on that.)

We appear to have gone way too far down this road to avoid a catastrophic conclusion at this point.

I did inhale.

Don December 2, 2011 - 9:17am
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In Complete Agreement With You Don...,

I always seek out ScotJen's diaries and comments. He isn't afraid to stick his neck out and make predictions. Some folks think he comes off as cocky..., but I admire that. A man should have the courage to voice his convictions. But I am wondering if his thinking has changed of late. I have commented a couple of times, giving him credit for calling the initial rebound..., wish I would have taken his advice back then..., but I said that we were Living on Stimulus and it would not hold. It has held..., but ScotJen also wrote back on June 18, 2010..., The Boom That No One Sees Coming. "The next three years will become the boom that no one sees, and the problem we will be dealing with at the end of it will be inflation, not deflation. Ironically, it is the depth of the present crisis that makes this assessment almost a certainty." and "It follows, the ball bounces back to the extent it was thrown down. This one slammed to the ground and it will come back hard."

He has sure been a lot more right than I have been..., but there have been a lot of new developments and disclosures since then..., I was hoping for a new assessment from him. The Europe thing looks to me like a disaster..., but I thought the same thing about the US situation that now appears to be slowing improving even though the stimulus is (supposedly) at an end..., but it certainly is not booming. There certainly has to be a lot of pent up demand put on hold through these last few years. Is it primed for a big release? There are signs of it.

Scott R. December 3, 2011 - 2:34pm
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S&P's lowers sovereign credit rating on Belgium

S&P's lowers sovereign credit rating on Belgium
POSTED: 11/25/2011 11:30:45 AM MST

UPDATED: 11/25/2011 12:16:57 PM MST The Associated Press
BRUSSELS—Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating for Belgium on Friday, citing the country's lack of a permanent government and a looming European recession that threatens the country's exports.

In a sign that financial contagion is spreading across Europe, the agency cut Belgium's credit rating from AA+ to AA, a moved that sent shocked politicians immediately back into new negotiations Friday night.

Belgium has been without a permanent government for 530 days, as a series of negotiators has struggled without success to bridge the country's divide between its French-speakers and its Dutch-speakers.

"In our opinion, protracted political uncertainty remains a risk to its creditworthiness," the ratings agency said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme said Friday "we really need strong signals now" from the six political parties trying to resolve the 2012 budget. He said the six parties needed a deal "tonight, the coming days—but preferably before we hit the market again" on Monday.

After negotiators reached a constitutional deal two month ago giving regions more autonomy, talks are now stuck over how to contain Belgium's high debt and deficit.

In a statement, Standard & Poor's said Leterme's caretaker government "lacks a mandate to implement deeper fiscal and structural reforms."

The country's yields on long-term bonds are closing in on 6 percent—getting closer to the 7 percent financial danger zone that has pushed other European nations into international bailouts.

The negotiators need to find euro11 billion ($14.8 billion) more in austerity measures.

Leterme aims to get the budget deficit down to 2.8 percent of GDP in 2012, but the European Union is far from convinced, forecasting a wider shortfall of 4.6 percent for the country. It is also forecasting that Belgium's debt-to-GDP ratio will break through the 100 percent barrier in 2013 without big budget reforms.

Read more: S&P's lowers sovereign credit rating on Belgium - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19411414#ixzz1ekMdv3Em
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Tina November 25, 2011 - 3:24pm
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