Video clip of the day Pt. II

Quantative easing made easy... well, explained simply, shall we say.





W.C. , we're looking at you!


H/T: Instapundit

Tales from Bailout Nation XXIII

The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.

The Fed had argued that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. A three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision.

Looks like we’ll finally be able to find out who was naughty and who was nice and who really did and didn’t need bailout money when this whole thing turned ugly in the fall of 2008. Recall back in October of 2008, 9 of the largest banking institutions in the nation were summoned to a closed-door with then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed chief Ben Bernanke and were told to sign on the dotted line accepting bailout money whether they needed it or not.

And with respect to the Fed not wanting to stigmatize borrowers? Umm…. Isn’t this the sort of information you would want to make public in an effort to prevent it from happening again? As an investor, would you not want to know who were the bad actors and shouldn’t those bad actors be punished as a result in an open and transparent free market.

Well, of course, but that’s not how things work in Bailout Nation where bad behavior both on Wall St. and Main St. (see: Homeowner’s assistance programs) are rewarded and good behavior is punished in the form of higher fees and taxes to fund Bailout Nation.

In what is probably a first, we are in concurrence with Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont who called the decision a “major victory” for U.S. taxpayers.

We’ll savor this victory while we can as the governing trend of our “deem and pass” government is away from transparency and accountability and where our lives and everyday decisions are thought to be too important to be left to our own devices.

The Birth of Bailout Nation

This is something we have strongly suspected since last October. And while hundreds of billions in tax dollars were shuttled to banking institutions and to the lending industry before this, the mid-October '08 meeting between Paulson, Beranke and the Big Nine established the psychology and M.O. for Bailout Nation.

It has been widely reported that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chief Ben Bernanke summoned the CEOs of America's nine largest financial institutions to a meeting on October 13, 2008, at which they were told that their banks would be required to accept TARP money and give the federal government an ownership interest in their institutions, whether they wanted to do so or not. We have it on good authority that some of the bankers, at least, were told that they would not be allowed to leave the room until they signed documents that were presented to them at that meeting.

Powerline has the "offer they couldn't refuse" and a very interesting email, here.

H/T: Instapundit

Ready, Fire, Aim Pt. V

Ben Bernanke would like you to know that he hears your concerns and… that you can all go pound sand anyway.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned yesterday that the highly unpopular job of using taxpayer money to bail out financial institutions in the United States and other countries was far from over.

“More capital injections and guarantees may become necessary to ensure stability and the normalization of credit markets,” Bernanke said during a speech at the London School of Economics.

Though the Fed chairman acknowledged that people in many countries were “understandably concerned” about pumping government money into the financial industry while often turning a cold shoulder to other sectors, he defended the effort as unpleasant but necessary.

And about that original idea of buying-up bad mortgages? Well, perhaps, Obama can take that up again with the second $350 billion of the $700 billion financial bailout kitty.

Bernanke suggested that Obama might want to revive the original idea of the rescue plan to buy unsellable mortgage-backed securities and other illiquid assets. That idea was originally the centerpiece of the program as it was first promoted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Paulson abandoned the idea before getting started, arguing that it would be faster and more efficient to inject capital directly into the biggest banks and investment firms.

You’ll be pleased to know what a magnificent bi-partisan effort this has all been as any effective differences between D.C. Republicans and Democrats, in fiscal matters at least, has been papered over in an avalanche of green backs spewing forth from the Treasury.

Ready, Fire, Aim Pt. III

Ya know, that debt is laying around here somewhere.

B-Daddy at The Liberator Today explains why it is that despite the best efforts and good intentions of Fed chief, Ben Bernanke, the magic wand-waving just won’t work.