Shocking Stats from Fed Audit
Historic audit of Federal Reserve reveals $16 trillion in handouts
By Pete Papaherakles
A report
on the first ever audit of the Federal Reserve was released on September
1 and it is revealing some startling information. While only a partial
review of the
privately owned and controlled central bank, it is still
considered a big win for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
The audit
was carried out by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the
past few months. In the House, it came about as a result of an
amendment introduced by Paul and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), which was
added to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill that passed in 2010. On
the Senate side, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
led the charge for a Fed audit. While the Senate watered down the
original language, eventually a compromise between the House and the
Senate was reached so that a limited audit of the Federal Reserve’s
emergency lending would then take place.
The
landmark audit revealed that from December 2007 to June 2010 the Federal
Reserve secretly gave out a staggering $16T to major U.S. banks
and corporations as well as to large foreign banks in Europe. Although
the Fed claims that these secret bailouts were loans, little of the money has been returned and it was all loaned out at 0% interest.
In late
2008 the big banks that caused the subprime debt crisis were given an
unprecedented $800B in the government’s TARP “bailout.” But
that was only the tip of the iceberg. Goldman Sachs alone received
$814B from the Fed and others received far more than that.
The top
eight Wall Street banks received over $10T. Citigroup led the pack with a
whopping $2.5T. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch both
received about $2T each, while Bank of America got $1.35T. Bear Stearns
was given $853B. JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers got $391 and $183B
respectively.
Barclays was the biggest overseas winner with $868B, and the Royal Bank of Scotland received a hefty $541B—both from the Federal Reserve.
Deutsche Bank got $354B, UBS of Switzerland was handed $287B, Credit
Suisse got $262B, Bank of Scotland got $181B and France’s BNP Paribas
received $175B. The remaining trillions went to many smaller banks and
corporations mostly in the United States and Europe.
To put
this $16T in perspective, if the Fed gave this money to the United
States at 0% interest instead of their criminal banker friends, the
entire national debt would be paid off.
——
Pete Papaherakles, a U.S. citizen since 1986, was born in Greece. If you would like to see AFP speakers at your rally, contact Pete at 202-544-5977.
——
Pete Papaherakles, a U.S. citizen since 1986, was born in Greece. If you would like to see AFP speakers at your rally, contact Pete at 202-544-5977.
