Friday
Aug242012
There Are No Words To Describe The Following Part II
WHO IS KEEPING TRACK OF THE TRILLIONS?
Alan Grayson questions the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve - 05/09/10
Circulate Far and Wide.
Our only hope to stop the heist will come from greater awareness.
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WHO IS KEEPING TRACK OF THE TRILLIONS?
If you're in a hurry, start watching at the 3-minute mark. At issue is the accounting and oversight for $9 trillion in secret Fed bailouts of Wall Street banks, for which taxpayers are ultimately responsible to the tune of $32,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. Fed audit, anyone?
Aug 24, 2012 at 3:44 PM
Reader Comments (677)
Those are all good points. What I've found encouraging is that alot of people, both those who voted for Obama and those who didn't, are finding common ground on the bailouts, the reckless spending, and the dangerously large deficits. I know I speak for alot of people when I say I don't care whether Bush or Obama, Paulson or Geithner, Greenspan or Bernanke, is most to blame. Right now the Democrats are in power and so criticism must necessarily be directed at them. Some of the comments on this post in particular have been fairly partisan, but I don't think that's necessarily representative of the anti-bailout movment or of many of the "tea parties."
Anyhow, what alternatives are there to a Fed/central bank controlling the money supply?
Here's a nice little snippet from anti-bailout blogger, Karl Denninger of Niceville, Florida:
"In short, The Republican Party has become the party of fraud and abuse.
That, Mr. Gingrich, is why Republicans lost in November.
If I'm going to get bent over the table I will always choose the guy who tells me up front he's going to do it so I have time to assume the position and get ready for the assault, as opposed to being randomly and repeatedly raped by those who run on a platform of "conservatism" when in fact their policies amount to raw theft and fraud from The American Taxpayer for the benefit of those who generate the largest amount of bribes, er, "campaign contributions."
Go %#@^ yourself (perform an anatomically-impossible act) Mr. Gringrich.
Oh, and don't call me again looking for money. I'll simply repeat what I wrote here, and be none-too-polite about it.
Disclosure: I'm a lifelong Republican but I cannot vote for a party that practices and supports "in your face" theft, fraud, and financial rape."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1099-Republican-Irrelevance.html
Like Denninger and alot of other Republicans/conservatives/libertarians, I had hoped Obama would be the lesser of two evils. I'm not sure that hope is justified (personally I'm over it), but bailout politics has clearly gone way beyond squabbles between the D Gang and the R Gang.
At this current time I don't know if there is an alternative to the Fed/Central Bank controlling the money supply and monetary policy in general. This battle has been raging in America since the creation of the first national bank. The anti-bank crowd continues to challenge the constitutionality of the bank, but Congress has used and the Supreme Court has upheld the creation of such an extra-governmental resource as allowable under the "necessary and proper" clause. I think continuing this debate is a waste of time and energy.
So, if there is not viable alternative to the agency, what can we do. In the short term we can do what this site and others are already doing. Continue to bring news of the fiscal mismanagement and abuse of the government into the public sphere. We don't have enough of this, and it is not getting out broadly enough yet. I support any efforts to expand this kind of fact based communication. We can also challenge every elected official to adopt fiscal policy positions that reflect a clearly stated commitement to sustainable spending levels that can be funded from current revenues. Since I am a conservative, in my view this means as a commitment to balanced budgets and to further reducing existing tax burdens to stimulate growth in the economy. But even if you take a more liberal approach to both tax and spending issues, it is possible to create policies that do not violate the clear principles of sustainability and economic growth.
The current administration seems to completely ignore those core principles. It may be that they are ignorant of these principles, but I doubt that. It seems more likely that they are fully aware of the principles, but are more interested in an agenda of change that will force a fundamental transformation of our economic system. In short, the Obama administration seems committed to accumulating economic assets under goverment control in such a way that the end result is a managed economy. Since they already control (either directly or through "influence") more economic assets than any other individual or organization in US history, I would say they are well on the way to achieving their goal.
The only immediate counter to this massive power grab is for intelligent members of the public to take the government to task in the courts. I applaud the state of Indiana for leading the way in this. Their law suit forcing at least a pause in the Chrysler bankruptcy/bailout has raised the issue of the government's right to impose its will on the economy without regard to law. My hope is that the administration's planned bankruptcy will be declared unconstituional (because it is unconstitutional).
Which brings this post around full circle. All of those folks who want to attack the FED as unconstitutional would do well to shift their focus (even if just for the current emergency) to an attack on this administration's ongoing effort to consolidate power by acquiring control over private sector financial assets. There is no provision in the Constitution and no precedent for this kind of activity. In fact, the Supreme Court has held at several points that the government oversteps its bounds when it attempts to nationalize or control the actions of private companies. FDR learned this lesson the hard way. Seems to me like its time for BHO to learn it as well.
I do know that nothing has been done to determine what happened to 9 trillion bucks. I want the truth. The big corprations are lripping off the system and just laughing their asses off.
I agree 100%. Arguing the constitutionality of almost anything is a lost cause these days. Tactically, the way to go is to attack the Fed's lack of transparency and how its actions have privileged certain players over others. If HR 1207 passes, I just hope that the Fed's partiality is obvious enough that it will piss people off, or at least piss off Congress, and that this will at least delay any ongoing bailouts. The real goal would be repeal and reform, but then we have the D Gang in power and they really seem to like having that power, no matter who it screws and no matter who it favors.
Any ideas on why the bank bondholders have been treated with kid gloves? I'm not naive enough to expect the powers that be to care about little ol' me, Joe Q Taxpayer, but still I'm curious why the bondholders haven't been allowed to lose a single penny? I suspect that it's China whining and screaming about the bonds they hold (Treasury market?), but maybe it's because the banks hold each other's debt and Geithner is just scared to death that one of his friends would have to go under. I would just LOVE for some enterprising young reporter to ask Obama, who says he doesn't "stand with" the Chrysler bondholders (i.e. "vultures") and yet he bends over backwards to protect Citi's bondholders. What would he say? What could he say? Too bad that your average "superstar" reporter doesn't have a clue about any of this.
The answer is, see the next institution above. Why this lady doesn't say that is, it strokes the ego to let everybody think she's supposed to rat on senior leadership gone amuck.
That's never been an "INSIDE" agency's agenda. That's for the appointing authority's to ferret out, that's why there are subpeonas and grand juries.
Excellent posts. I have been working on and off on a post for about week. It's called '10 questions for Tim Geithner.'
I should probably make it so that we can all arrive at the questions together as a group and tehn we can send them by registered mail to Geithner at Treasury as well as to several members of the financial press who might get the shot to interview him. My problem is that as currently written, it has about 25 questions.
But question #1 is what James mentioned. The bank bondholders versus taxpayers question. It's the question that Liesman never asks Geithner. Hell, no one has ever asked Geithner that question publicly. At least to my knowledge, and I think I've seen every Geithner interview since January.
You are one sick individual, DB. But one day karma will catch up with you and it will treat you well. Keep up the good work.
Indeed, the Fed is run by multinational banks, and are no more "federal" than Federal Express. Do the math on this, folks: the Treasury prints money at a cost of about 7 cents per bill, no matter what denomination it is.... $1, $5, $20, $100 ... all the same cost. Then we give it to the fed, who loans it to us at face value and charges us interest on the loan. How do we pay the interest?.... by the future productivity of our kids and grand-kids.
To "John Demo" ..... if so many people are "racists", then how did Barrack Hussein get elected? Here are some facts that might confuse you, but they are facts:
"It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.
It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s.
During the civil rights era of the 1960s, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation. Much is made of Democrat President Harry Truman's issuing an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military. Not mentioned is the fact that it was Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military."
Google "Martin Luther King was a republican" by Frances Rice. It was Republicans who started the NAACP, by the way.
As for racism, BHO is only 6% Black, and the rest Arab.
One only has to look into a bit of history, and you will find that Barrack is doing the same failed policies of FDR, only on steroids. The only other comparison would be to Mussolini's politics and policies. I firmly believe that the only reason that BHO is still around is because then Biden would be president.. which MIGHT actually be worse.
THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM:
Money issuing power - United States Congressman Dennis Kucinich, at the 2005 Monetary Reform Conference[153], raised the question of why the Federal Reserve should have the power to issue the United States' currency. Kucinich has also questioned the idea that the Federal Reserve should be independent. He suggested that it should be "accountable" instead.
Private Ownership - Section 5 of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 states that the Federal Reserve Banks are owned, through stock issuance, by private member banks.[154] The issue of private ownership has been one of controversy for numerous reasons.
Dennis Kucinich has repeatedly stated, "The Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express"[155][156] Kucinich also stated that "we need to have public control over this if we're going to have public policies in the public interest."[157]
One of the first criticisms of the private nature of the Federal Reserve system was Charles August Lindbergh who criticized the problem of private banks working against the best interests of the citizens: "The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money."[158]
Board of Governors:
The seven-member Board of Governors is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the 12 District Reserve Banks and with helping implement national monetary policy. Governors are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate one on January 31 of every even-numbered year, for staggered, 14-year terms.[25]
By law, the appointments must yield a "fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of the country," and as stipulated in the Banking Act of 1935, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board are one of seven members of the Board of Governors who are appointed by the President from among the sitting Governors.[45][46]
As an independent federal government agency,[47] the Board of Governors does not receive funding from Congress, and the terms of the seven members of the Board span multiple presidential and congressional terms. Once a member of the Board of Governors is appointed by the president, he or she functions mostly independently.
The Board is required to make an annual report of operations to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.[48] It also supervises and regulates the operations of the Federal Reserve Banks, and US banking system in general.
Membership is generally limited to one term. However, if someone is appointed to serve the remainder of another member's uncompleted term, he or she may be reappointed to serve an additional 14-year term.[49] Conversely, a governor may serve the remainder of another governor's term even after he or she has completed a full term. The law provides for the removal of a member of the Board by the President "for cause."[49]
The current members of the Board of Governors are:
Ben Bernanke, Chairman
Donald Kohn, Vice-Chairman
Kevin Warsh
Elizabeth A. Duke
Daniel Tarullo
Vacancy*
Vacancy*
And to whoever said that those politicians aren't dumb, you are only partially correct. There can't be half a dozen of them who could ever hold a job in the private sector (unless it would be as a lobbyist, lobbying their government cohorts for a greater share of taxpayers' money), they're not that smart. But they are smart like the raccoons who live in my city's sewers: they'll do whatever it takes to survive. The big difference there is that the raccoons will work for their living and won't take more than they need. The politicians will do whatever it takes to keep their donors donating (e.g., save Big Union at the expense of individual secured Chrysler bondholders), PLUS whatever it takes to make themselves wealthy.
They realize that there are American citizens out here working to produce goods and services, but these citizens' value is only that which the politicians can steal.
This video only illustrates that Big Government is so big that NO ONE knows what's happening with our money--at any level. And the sheeple are only hoping that it will grow even bigger and take care of our medical needs. Maybe they can do as good a job with that as they're doing with our financial system.
Perhaps someone might get their congressional representative to propose that the government run Chrysler and GM for a couple of years and see how that works out. If the companies thrive under Big Government direction, perhaps then they can tackle our "broken" medical system.
So if Republicans vote for the other guy, even if he's a Democrat and the Democrats vote for the guys who are doing just fine...well, don't EVER think it can't get worse.
And thanks so much for visiting our site and helping to spread the word. Keep coming back. We'll keep posting the most outrageous abuses front and center each and every day as we cover the greatest heist in the history of our nation.
Thanks again, Steve
Here are some of our recent posts.
http://dailybail.com/home/james-grant-on-the-feds-im-balance-sheet-insolvency-rules.html
http://dailybail.com/home/whalen-regulators-banking-a-deal-with-the-devil-truth-bomb-c.html
http://dailybail.com/home/elizabeth-warren-on-bank-stress-tests-deja-vu-all-over-again.html
http://dailybail.com/home/matt-taibbi-eviscerates-henry-paulson-and-the-wsjs-evan-newm.html
Jamie Dimon planted "moles" in Wamu??? JPMorgan committed corporate fraud???
http://www.kccllc.net/documents/0812229/0812229090501000000000002.pdf
Wamu's claims against JPMorgan/Chase;
http://wmish.com/doc/gov/0603/JPM_V_WMI_-_ANSWER.PDF
http://wamustory.com/
http://wamuqd.com/
http://www.wamu-shareholders-resources.com/wamued.html
http://wamuequity.org/history.html
1. Not authorized by the Constitution despite the fact that is was created by the Congress.
2. Not authorized by the Constitution to provide debt notes in place of the money that Congress is mandated to coin, and which Congress is supposed to establish the value of.
3. That the Federal Reserve has no authority to use taxpayers money, or to inflate the money supply in order to save a private business.
4. That inflating the money supply is theft.
*/The best way for "Evil" to win is for good men(and women) everywhere to do nothing."/*
In years past, a good many people have called me "negative" or some such, some worse than that. However, I have either known, or suspected, as much from our government. Politicians are not trying to be elected so they can do the most good for the most in this nation; they are politicians whose ultimate goal is to see that they are re-elected. Corporate "managers" are in business not to truly serve up something good to the majority of the people; they are in business to see that they and their ilk retain control of the financial markets. Have you ever noticed that the more money a person makes, the easier it is to get away with whatever illegal action they are doing. The "little guy" who robs a bank or a store. . . and the burglar who burgles a few homes. . .both receive major time behind bars; but the ones who steal in the millions and hundreds of millions are off virtually scott-free. Frankly, it has made me sick at heart for many years now to see how the rich and powerful have absconded with varying percentages of public assets. It gives great and obvious truth to the statement that "our government is the best one can buy."
I have no idea when or how the revolution will be coming. But, until there is such a revolution, the common man and woman of this country will continue to be taken advantage of by the corporate vultures and the "career politicians."
Don't become like Obama & the Dems and color all "rich" people as evil and greedy. They're mostly looking at their rich Dem buddies and projecting their characteristics to the wealthy who actually gave many honest days' work for their wealth.
The Fed Might Have Painted Itself into a Corner
http://mises.org/story/3518
http://dailybail.com/home/peter-schiff-of-course-were-not-going-to-pay-back-the-chines.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpMM3zsdDUw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fglobaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Feight-step-program-to-improve-feds.html%3Fref%3Dpatrick.net&feature=player_embedded
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4418-0-5-5--.html?ref=patrick.net
The fact is there is no oversight for the money the FED has distributed, As for grandstanding, I'm happy that someone pointed this out!!
The bottom line is that it doesn't matter if you're a conservative or a liberal, this situation is ridiculous. Regardless of your political stance or who you voted for back in 1996, the solution itself needs to be corrected. So where do we go from here? If we were an intelligent society, we would band together and fix it. Sadly, I fear we're not capable of doing something so sound and logic. Let the political pissing contest continue....
As the story continues, where is an account of where all the Stimulas money has or will go? Did you'll think we really
would see any more of that in our pockets??
It looks like he'll be a one term president, thank goodness.
The man is a liar and his followers are fools. Then again, it's still a free country...until the "One" does away with elections for the national good of course.