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The Fed is Audited

Mr. Invisible

Mr. Invisible

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So, the Federal Reserve was finally audited.

The Fed Audit - Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont)

The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
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The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse. In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.
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So, what do you guys think?
 
I think the Federal Reserve, and its policies, need to be more transparent in general.

Alan Greenspan once said, "If you understood what I said, I must have misspoke." We need to get rid of that bull****.
 
:cheers:

I applaud you Mr. Sanders.
 
Mr. Sanders hasn't "figured out" anything. It's been known since early June. Public knowledge for those who care to look.

Primary Dealers List - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

List of primary dealers:

BNP Paribas Securities Corp. - foreign
Barclays Capital Inc. - foreign
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC - foreign
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. - foreign
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - foreign
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. - foreign
Jefferies & Company, Inc.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
MF Global Inc.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. - foreign
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc - foreign.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC - foreign
RBS Securities Inc. - foreign
SG Americas Securities, LLC - foreign
UBS Securities LLC. -foreign

Primary dealers serve as trading counterparties of the New York Fed in its implementation of monetary policy. This role includes the obligations to: (i) participate consistently in open market operations to carry out U.S. monetary policy pursuant to the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC); and (ii) provide the New York Fed's trading desk with market information and analysis helpful in the formulation and implementation of monetary policy. Primary dealers are also required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt and to make reasonable markets for the New York Fed when it transacts on behalf of its foreign official account-holders.
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If theses banks are required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt, carry out your monetary policy and lend to your citizens...

...how can you not bail them out at all? That these banks repatriate some of the money is an entirely separate problem, and should be taken up in Congress. That's the government's fault for a moronic lack of oversight. But they were always going to get some of the bailout. They HAVE to. The Fed, as a lender, was doing its job.
 
Jefferson-ETF-end-the-fed.jpg
 
American said:
I'd like to know why we need it.
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Without the Federal reserve, there's no one to control the discount rate, and no one to conduct open market operations of US treasuries.

Essentially, there's no more national monetary policy.
 
The fact that the fate of the U.S. economic, its interest rates, and its currency are in private hands is simply outrageous.
 
Jeezy said:
Mr. Sanders hasn't "figured out" anything. It's been known since early June. Public knowledge for those who care to look.

Primary Dealers List - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

List of primary dealers:

BNP Paribas Securities Corp. - foreign
Barclays Capital Inc. - foreign
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC - foreign
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. - foreign
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - foreign
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. - foreign
Jefferies & Company, Inc.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
MF Global Inc.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. - foreign
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc - foreign.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC - foreign
RBS Securities Inc. - foreign
SG Americas Securities, LLC - foreign
UBS Securities LLC. -foreign



If theses banks are required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt, carry out your monetary policy and lend to your citizens...

...how can you not bail them out at all? That these banks repatriate some of the money is an entirely separate problem, and should be taken up in Congress. That's the government's fault for a moronic lack of oversight. But they were always going to get some of the bailout. They HAVE to. The Fed, as a lender, was doing its job.
Click to expand...

A lot of the banks you listed as foreign are no more foreign than Citi or JPM are, who also have big international divisions. I can go to half of their HQ in NYC within a 5 block radius.
 
The Federal Reserve is aligned too closely with the World Bank and the IMF and for years they have been involved with programs that have been set up to drag Nations into economical situations they could not get out of no matter what they did.





I personally talked with with John Perkins when his book came out and he is a credible man who is lucky to still be alive.

The Fed is a part of all this, and had been since the start.
 
Councilman said:
The Federal Reserve is aligned too closely with the World Bank and the IMF and for years they have been involved with programs that have been set up to drag Nations into economical situations they could not get out of no matter what they did.
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Which is amusing considering who owns basically the veto power within both organizations. Hint: The US.
 
Jeezy said:
Without the Federal reserve, there's no one to control the discount rate, and no one to conduct open market operations of US treasuries.

Essentially, there's no more national monetary policy.
Click to expand...
the same monetary policy that devalued the dollar some 95% in almost the same amount of years?
 
majora$$hole said:
the same monetary policy that devalued the dollar some 95% in almost the same amount of years?
Click to expand...

Yes that same one.

The Fed operates outside of the Constitution and the 3 body's of government. It shouldn't exist and should be removed. Yes there would be a vacuum that would have to be address and should/could be addressed - but not by creating another organization that works outside of the government, but one which requires both legislative and executive majority to run.
 
Jeezy said:
Mr. Sanders hasn't "figured out" anything. It's been known since early June. Public knowledge for those who care to look.

Primary Dealers List - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

List of primary dealers:

BNP Paribas Securities Corp. - foreign
Barclays Capital Inc. - foreign
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC - foreign
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. - foreign
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - foreign
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. - foreign
Jefferies & Company, Inc.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
MF Global Inc.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. - foreign
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc - foreign.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC - foreign
RBS Securities Inc. - foreign
SG Americas Securities, LLC - foreign
UBS Securities LLC. -foreign



If theses banks are required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt, carry out your monetary policy and lend to your citizens...

...how can you not bail them out at all? That these banks repatriate some of the money is an entirely separate problem, and should be taken up in Congress. That's the government's fault for a moronic lack of oversight. But they were always going to get some of the bailout. They HAVE to. The Fed, as a lender, was doing its job.
Click to expand...

Alot of that was brought out in the book, "Too Big To Fail". Four things are very clear to me in my reading of this book (I still haven't finished with it):

1) The FedResv failed in its duty to audit investment banks. Had it done its duty, it would have discovered the "mark-to-market" and "off-balance sheet accounting" wrong-doing conducted by these banks long ago.

2) Large investment banks were going to get bailed out by the Fed. That was a given due to the widespread systematic risk involved. There was just no way to let them fail without causing widespread economic problems to our economy.

3) Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and BofA all play key roles in "stablizing" the economy via bank bailouts...or shall I say, "capital infusions".

4) Many people who now and have worked in Treasury and the Federal Reserve all come from "Corporate America", specifically investment banks with the largest alumni being...Goldman Sachs!

Put it all together and it spells: "We are not going to allow our nation's economy to fail because if they (the banks) fall, we fall."
 
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majora$$hole said:
the same monetary policy that devalued the dollar some 95% in almost the same amount of years?
Click to expand...

Except.....

Per capita disposable personal income, adjusted for inflation, increased 566% from 1933 to 2008, and has more than doubled since 1971. A dollar invested in the stock market at the beginning of 1933 would have been worth $2,513 at the end of 2008 – adjusted for inflation, that’s a real increase of 15,660%. A dollar invested at the beginning of 1971 would have been worth $33 at the end of 2008, or a 525% inflation-adjusted increase.

But I mean yeah...I guess if you discount wage growth for the general population, a rise in living expectations for said population, and a general enlargement of the economy? We're in a real pickle. Oh THAT WASCALLY WABBIT FEDEWAL WESEWVE!
 
The fed was suppose to regulate the mortgage crisis in such a way that it was far smaller or didn't occur at all.
It failed at this mission. However, after it failed and we had the mortgage crisis, the fed helped avert further financial meltdown with lending is part of the feds responsibility, it did that responsibly (I think).

Being angry with the Fed is well placed IMO, just for other reasons!

The problem with the fed is that it is fine with spending in a crisis, but it can't seem to handle the notion that it has to slow the economy while it's in a boom (via regulation, consumer protection, oversight, etc.) Using the below list, it failed at the first two bolded, however it did excecute the last two bolded.
========
Current functions of the Federal Reserve System include:[7][31]

To address the problem of banking panics
To serve as the central bank for the United States
To strike a balance between private interests of banks and the centralized responsibility of government
To supervise and regulate banking institutions
To protect the credit rights of consumers
To manage the nation's money supply through monetary policy to achieve the sometimes-conflicting goals of maximum employment stable prices, including prevention of either inflation or deflation[32]
moderate long-term interest rates
To maintain the stability of the financial system and contain systemic risk in financial markets
To provide financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation's payments system
To facilitate the exchange of payments among regions
To respond to local liquidity needs
To strengthen U.S. standing in the world economy
 
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Jeezy said:
Mr. Sanders hasn't "figured out" anything. It's been known since early June. Public knowledge for those who care to look.

Primary Dealers List - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

List of primary dealers:

BNP Paribas Securities Corp. - foreign
Barclays Capital Inc. - foreign
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC - foreign
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. - foreign
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - foreign
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. - foreign
Jefferies & Company, Inc.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
MF Global Inc.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. - foreign
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc - foreign.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC - foreign
RBS Securities Inc. - foreign
SG Americas Securities, LLC - foreign
UBS Securities LLC. -foreign



If theses banks are required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt, carry out your monetary policy and lend to your citizens...

...how can you not bail them out at all? That these banks repatriate some of the money is an entirely separate problem, and should be taken up in Congress. That's the government's fault for a moronic lack of oversight. But they were always going to get some of the bailout. They HAVE to. The Fed, as a lender, was doing its job.
Click to expand...

If you look at the (foreign) aspect of that list, we then can begin to understand why the fed funds over-nite auction rate < interest paid on excess reserves.

Something interesting to consider!
 
A private bank operating for profit? I am simply shocked. Honestly, I expected them to find more dirt than that when they finally got around to auditing the Fed. They probably just didn't do a thorough enough job or something.
 
Jeezy said:
Mr. Sanders hasn't "figured out" anything. It's been known since early June. Public knowledge for those who care to look.

Primary Dealers List - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

List of primary dealers:

BNP Paribas Securities Corp. - foreign
Barclays Capital Inc. - foreign
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC - foreign
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. - foreign
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - foreign
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. - foreign
Jefferies & Company, Inc.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
MF Global Inc.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. - foreign
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc - foreign.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC - foreign
RBS Securities Inc. - foreign
SG Americas Securities, LLC - foreign
UBS Securities LLC. -foreign



If theses banks are required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt, carry out your monetary policy and lend to your citizens...

...how can you not bail them out at all? That these banks repatriate some of the money is an entirely separate problem, and should be taken up in Congress. That's the government's fault for a moronic lack of oversight. But they were always going to get some of the bailout. They HAVE to. The Fed, as a lender, was doing its job.
Click to expand...

Really? 16 TRILLION in bailouts has been known about since June? How does this NOT outrage you?

Jeezy said:
Except.....

Per capita disposable personal income, adjusted for inflation, increased 566% from 1933 to 2008, and has more than doubled since 1971. A dollar invested in the stock market at the beginning of 1933 would have been worth $2,513 at the end of 2008 – adjusted for inflation, that’s a real increase of 15,660%. A dollar invested at the beginning of 1971 would have been worth $33 at the end of 2008, or a 525% inflation-adjusted increase.

But I mean yeah...I guess if you discount wage growth for the general population, a rise in living expectations for said population, and a general enlargement of the economy? We're in a real pickle. Oh THAT WASCALLY WABBIT FEDEWAL WESEWVE!
Click to expand...

Where are you getting these numbers? Source? You a shill for the FED or something?
 
BmanMcfly said:
I think this has been a seriously watered down audit from what it SHOULD have been, but it IS a step in the right direction.
Click to expand...

It is. The bill Sanders introduced is a watered down version of the original. He and Ron Paul worked on a bill, but Sanders switched it last minute. The original one would have called for a much more thorough audit of the Fed. Paul is one of the few politicians I trust to really go after the Federal Reserve. The rest are just hacks, Sanders included....

Edit: Unless Sanders switched the bill in the Senate because the original bill wouldn't pass... I'd consider that valid.
 
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