7/27/2011 - The Federal Reserve ADMITS that Its 12 Banks Are PRIVATE – Not Government – Entities

Source: Washintong’s Blog
Much of the tens of trillions in bailout money and “easy” money from quantitative easing went to foreign banks (and see this, this and this).

Indeed, Ron Paul noted recently that one-third of all fed bailout loans – and essentially 100% of loans from the New York Fed – went to foreign banks.

The New York Fed is the most important Fed bank. As Bloomberg pointed out in 2009:

The New York Fed is one of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks and the one charged with monitoring capital markets. It is also managing $1.7trillion [now up to at least $1.9 trillion] of emergency lending programs [and accepting collateral from the banks in return].

However, the country’s most powerful “agency” – the Federal Reserve – is actually no more federal than Federal Express. The Fed itself admitted (via Bloomberg):

While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.

For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in the lawsuit brought by Bloomberg to force the Fed to reveal some information about its loans - Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) – that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act. As Bloomberg reported in a separate article:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York … runs most of the lending programs. Most documents relevant to [a freedom of information lawsuit filed by Bloomberg news] are at the New York Fed, which isn’t subject to FOIA law, according to the central bank. The Board of Governors has 231 pages of documents, to which it is denying access under an exemption for trade secrets.

As the long-time Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (Charles McFadden) said on June 10, 1932:

Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies ….

Similarly, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – often called the “central banks’ central bank”, as it coordinates transactions between central banks, and which is the entity determining the level of reserves banks are required to keep worldwide – is itself owned by the central banks of the world.

As Spiegel reported in 2009:

The BIS is a closed organization owned by the 55 central banks. The heads of these central banks travel to the Basel headquarters once every two months, and the General Meeting, the BIS’s supreme executive body, takes place once a year.

In, other words, the private banks own the Fed (and mos other central banks), and the central banks – in turn – own BIS, the global bank regulator.

Interestingly, Spiegel points out that BIS is largely immune from regulation, oversight or taxes:

Formally registered as a stock corporation, it is recognized as an international organization and, therefore, is not subject to any jurisdiction other than international law.It does not need to pay tax, and its members and employees enjoy extensive immunity. No other institution regulates the BIS, despite the fact that it manages about 4 percent of the world’s total currency reserves, or €217 trillion ($304 trillion), as well as 120 tons of gold…
Central bankers are not elected by the people but are appointed by their governments. Nevertheless, they wield power that exceeds that of many political leaders. Their decisions affect entire economies, and a single word from their lips is capable of moving financial markets. They set interest rates, thereby determining the cost of borrowing and the speed of global financial currents.

 http://www.blacklistednews.com/The_Federal_Reserve_ADMITS_that_Its_12_Banks_Are_PRIVATE_%E2%80%93_Not_Government_%E2%80%93_Entities_/14888/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Federal Reserve Attorneys: Fed Banks Are "Not Agencies" But "Independent Corporations" With "Private Boards of Directors"

Source: Washington's Blog

I notedyesterday that the Federal Reserve has admitted that its 12 member banks are private - not governmental - entities.
Reader Siesta00000 sent me the following post with links to C-Span video of two of the Federal Reserve's senior counsel stating in court that this is true [I've edited for readability]:

During the second circuit court of appeals case for FOX News & Bloomberg v. Board of Governors lawyers in defense of the Fed make some revealing statements during the arguments. At about 13:45, the Fed lawyer stated:

"We do not believe the Federal Reserve Board is an agency, the Board of Governors, . . . the Federal Reserve Bank excuse me." (He made the mistake of saying the Federal Reserve Board when he meant the Federal Reserve Bank.

***

He admitted the Federal Reserve Banks were not Federal Agencies in a court of law. Watch the lawyer's statement: here [video will play automatically once you click, but may take awhile to load. The videos are pre-set to play the relevant section, so you need not keep track of the times noted below.]

Another Federal Reserve lawyer goes further at 44:22 to state:

[The Federal Reserve Banks are] independent corporations [which carry on the day-to-day operations. But emergency lending must be approved by the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors.]

Watch the lawyer's statement: here.

At 46:23, the lawyer ... stated:

[The Federal Reserve Banks are] not agencies [and they have] private board of directors.

The most [interesting] evidence is in this clip: here.

As a reader notes:

They want to be, or rather want to 'seem to be', government entities in the public eye when it suits them, but then they claim in court they're in fact privately owned and don't have to follow the same rules as governmental institutions (i.e audits) when the government tries to intervene or regulate.

A very intelligently set-up organisation, blame government when it suits them, then hide from government when they need to be audited.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Federal_Reserve_Attorneys%3A_Fed_Banks_Are_%22Not_Agencies%22_But_%22Independent_Corporations%22_With_%22Private_Boards_of_Directors%22/14894/0/38/38/Y/M.html

7/26/2011 - The Looting Of America: The Federal Reserve Made $16 Trillion In Secret Loans To Their Bankster Friends And The Media Is Ignoring The Eye-Popping Corruption That Has Been Uncovered

By Michael Snyder - BLN Contributing Writer
A one-time limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has uncovered some eye-popping corruption at the Fed and the mainstream media is barely even covering it.  It turns out that the Federal Reserve made $16.1 trillion in secret loans to their bankster friends during the financial crisis.  You can read a copy of the GAO investigation for yourself right here.  These loans only went to the "too big to fail" banks and to foreign financial institutions.  Not a penny of these loans went to small banks or to ordinary Americans.  Not only did the banksters get trillions in nearly interest-free loans, but the Fed actually paid them over 600 million dollars to help run the emergency lending program.  The GAO investigation revealed some absolutely stunning conflicts of interest, and yet the mainstream media does not even seem interested.  Solid evidence of the looting of America has been put right in front of us, and yet hardly anyone wants to talk about it.

Many Americans have a hard time grasping just how large 16.1 trillion dollars is.  It is an amount of money that is almost inconceivable.  It is more than the GDP of the United States for an entire year.  It is more than the U.S. government has spent over the last four years combined.

The Federal Reserve was just creating gigantic piles of cash out of thin air and throwing them around with wild abandon.

One of the only members of Congress that has wanted to talk about the GAO audit has been U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.  The following is a statement about this audit that was taken from his official website....

"As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world"

So precisely who got this money?

Well, a recent article on Raw Story named some of the big Wall Street banks that got some of this money....

Out of all borrowers, Citigroup received the most financial assistance from the Fed, at $2.5 trillion. Morgan Stanley came in second with $2.04 trillion, followed by Merill Lynch at $1.9 trillion and Bank of America at $1.3 trillion.

But it just wasn't U.S. banksters that were showered with nearly interest-free loans.  It turns out that approximately $3.08 trillion went to foreign financial institutions all over Europe and Asia.

So who in the world gave the Federal Reserve permission to bail out financial institutions all over the world?

Nobody did.

But under our current system the Federal Reserve doesn't have to get permission.  They literally get to do whatever they want.

On his website, Senator Sanders expressed his outrage over these foreign loans....

"No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president"

So should we expect Congress to approve legislation that would reduce the power of the Fed?

Of course not.

We all know that is not going to happen.

The Federal Reserve is run like a dictatorship.  They get to do what they want and nobody can stop them.

Not only did the Fed dish out over $16 trillion in secret loans to their friends, but they also paid their bankster friends over 600 million dollars to help them do it.

According to the GAO, the Federal Reserve paid $659.4 million to the very financial institutions which caused the financial crisis to help the Fed manage all of these emergency loans.

Can anyone say "conflict of interest"?

Not only were the banksters raking in trillions in secret loans, they were also paid to help run the lending process.

Wow.

So why isn't the mainstream media talking about this?

That is a very good question.

But wait, there is more.

It turns out that many Fed officials had very large investments in the financial institutions that were receiving these secret loans.

So what was done about all of the conflict of interest issues that arose?

According to Senator Sanders, "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."

Oh, everyone was given waivers.

Apparently corruption is okay if we just get everyone to sign a bunch of forms.

The following is one example of a conflict of interest that occurred during this lending program that Senator Sanders noted on his website....

For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed.  Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed's emergency lending programs.

This is a classic case of the foxes watching the hen house.

It was the banksters that caused the financial crisis.  They were the only ones that the Federal Reserve helped.  In fact, the Federal Reserve ended up having the banksters basically run the entire emergency lending program as Senator Sanders noted on his site....

The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.  The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates.

If you were not outraged by that, then you need to read it again.

What the banksters have been getting away with is absolutely mind blowing.

So will changes be made to make sure that something like this never happens again in the future?

Well, the GAO has recommended that significant changes should be made.

But as mentioned above, the only one that gets to tell the Federal Reserve what to do is the Federal Reserve.

According to the Washington Post, the Federal Reserve is promising to "strongly consider" the recommendations of the GAO....

The Fed’s general counsel, Scott Alvarez, said in a letter responding to the GAO’s audit that officials will “strongly consider” the recommendations.

Most Americans do not realize that the Federal Reserve is not actually part of the federal government.  It is a privately-owned central bank that is not accountable to anyone.

But most Americans still believe that the Fed is a government agency.

The truth is that the Federal Reserve is about as "federal" as Federal Express is.

In another article about the Federal Reserve, I noted that the Federal Reserve has even admitted that it is not an agency of the federal government in court....

In defending itself against a Bloomberg request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Reserve objected by declaring that it was "not an agency" of the U.S. government and therefore it was not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Basically, an unaccountable private monopoly creates our money, sets our interest rates, regulates our banking system and makes secret loans to whoever they want.

The Federal Reserve has more power over our economy than any other institution and nobody can overrule any decisions that they make.

Does that sound very "American" to you?

Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, it has been systematically destroying the wealth of America through constant and never ending inflation.

The U.S. dollar loses more value every single year.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, what you could buy for $1.00 in 1965 will cost you $7.17 today.

Sadly, the devaluation of our money is actually accelerating.  That is one reason why we are seeing precious metals soar right now.

Not only that, but the Federal Reserve was also designed to be a perpetual government debt creation machine.

Do you know how money is created in this country?

Normally, more money is only created when more debt is created.

What this sets up is a never end spiral where the amount of money and the amount of debt are continually increasing.

Most Americans believe that we could solve the government debt problem if we could just control spending.

But that is not the case.

The Federal Reserve system was designed to get the U.S. government into constantly increasing amounts of debt and this is exactly what has happened....

The U.S. government will never fix the national debt problem as long as it participates in the Federal Reserve system.

Founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson tried to warn us about the danger of central banking.

Jefferson strongly believed that when the federal government borrows money in one generation that must be paid back by future generations it is equivalent to theft....

And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Not only that, Thomas Jefferson actually said that if he could add just one more amendment to the U.S. Constitution it would be a complete ban on all government debt....

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

Of course we did not listen to Thomas Jefferson, did we?

Now we have gotten ourselves into one fine mess.

If the federal government shut down the Federal Reserve system, started issuing debt-free money and established a new system based on sound financial principles we might have a chance of turning this thing around.

But if we continue on the path that we are currently on, we are going to experience a financial disaster of unprecedented magnitude.  We have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and a day of reckoning is approaching.

Our founding fathers tried to warn us about this, but we thought that we were so much smarter than them.

Now we get to suffer the consequences of our foolishness.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/The_Looting_Of_America%3A_The_Federal_Reserve_Made_%2416_Trillion_In_Secret_Loans_To_Their_Bankster_Friends_And_The_Media_Is_Ignoring_The_Eye-Popping_Corruption_That_Has_Been_Uncovered/14877/0/0/0/Y/M.html

7/26/2011 - The Super Congress Will Be - Like the Federal Reserve - a Non-Constitutional Committee: "The Super Congress Amounts To An Institutionalization Of The Gang Structure That Exists Informally ..."

Source: Washington's Blog

Ryan Grim has an update on his story about the "Super Congress", which I discussedyesterday:

The Super Congress amounts to an institutionalization of the gang structure that exists informally in the Senate, where a small number of lawmakers write legislation behind closed doors and then announce it to the public। Legislation written by the Super Congress would be extremely difficult for individual members of Congress to stop.

No wonder both liberals and conservatives hate the proposal.

Indeed, the Founding Fathers' vision of prosperity has been destroyed - and we've gone from the "wealth of nations" to the "debt of nations" - at least in part because our political system has been subverted by non-Constitutional committees and entities.

For example, the country's most powerful "agency" - the Federal Reserve - is actually no more federal than Federal Express. The Fed itself admits(via Bloomberg):

While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.

For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in a lawsuit - Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) - that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act.

As the long-time Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (Charles McFadden) said on June 10, 1932:

Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies ....

 http://www.blacklistednews.com/The_Super_Congress_Will_Be_-_Like_the_Federal_Reserve_-_a_Non-Constitutional_Committee%3A_%22The_Super_Congress_Amounts_To_An_Institutionalization_Of_The_Gang_Structure_That_Exists_Informally_...%22/14883/0/38/38/Y/M.html

7/20/2011 - US Federal Reserve Destroying Dollar; Buy Gold For Protection: Faber

Investing guru Marc Faber advises investors to switch off Ben Bernanke, ignore his government-sponsored “We will keep inflation in check” line — and be sure to buy gold to protect yourself.

“Government is there to do something for itself, not for people,” he observes.

Faber says the government will have no choice but to print money like crazy and soon.

He points out the huge existing debt and the financial crunch that’s coming by 2018 when more retiring Baby Boomers make demands on Social Security and Medicare,

Don’t buy bonds or keep your money in cash, Faber counsels: Put money instead into things that will hold their value, like gold, preferably stored outside the U.S.

“With a chairman like Mr. Bernanke, I would assume that cash will be worth zero,” he says.

“Gold … has been a relatively stable commodity, unlike oil, which (last year) went from $147 to $32 a barrel.”

“I repeat what I have said in the past,” Faber says.

“No decent citizen should trust the Federal Reserve for one second. It’s very important that everyone own some gold because the government will make the dollar useless.”

President Barack Obama said that when it comes to declaring the recession over, he’ll defer to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“I’ll leave that up to the Fed chairman to pronounce whether it’s officially over or not,” Obama told CNN.

Original article at Newsmax

http://www.thecomingdepression.net/survival-tips/us-federal-reserve-destroying-dollar-buy-gold-for-protection-faber/

7/5/2011 - How the Federal Reserve continues to conducts shadow bailouts for the banking beasts and sets the world economy on FIRE. Fed balance sheet now at a record $2.84 trillion as wages decline and banking profits soar.

Source: My Budget 360


The Federal Reserve is primarily concerned with one thing and that is to protect the interests of the banking industry.  The Fed has no desire or need to protect the underlying economy.  If they can get away with allowing banks to jump from one bubble to another they will do so.  The success of the overall economy is only consequential if it aligns with the deeper interests of the banking cabal.  This weekend former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan mentioned that simply bailing out Greece was a temporary measure.  When pressed he went back into “Greenspeak” and rambled on in his typical obtuse language.  The reason why global banks fear Greece is not because of the country itself, but because the country has billions of dollars in debt that global banks hold.  These banks do not want to pay for their bad bets and would rather shift the cost to the overall population in general.  The Fed balance sheet here in the U.S. is now up to $2.84 trillion, another record that gets no airtime in the press.  The Federal Reserve continues with clandestine bailouts only to protect the interests of the banking elite.


Fed balance sheet reaches $2.84 trillion


The Federal Reserve balance sheet is now up to $2.84 trillion.  The Fed has become the silo for shadow bailouts including bailouts for the commercial real estate industry, toxic residential loans, mortgage backed securities, and even loans that have no business being on its books.  Yet all this is seen as providing more liquidity for the banking system in the country.  Since the crisis started four years ago little benefit has been seen in the underlying economy.  Keep in mind the fiscal stimulus which is a fraction of what the Fed now holds on its balance sheet is what many Americans see on infrastructure projects.  The total amount spent since August of 2008 approximates $550 billion (roughly 3 percent of GDP).  On the other hand the Federal Reserve balance sheet specifically targeted to the banks now is up to 20 percent of GDP.

Of course little is discussed in the press about the Fed balance sheet.  The Federal Reservehas specially focused on bailing out the banking sector and this has worked well.  The too big to fail banks are now larger and profits are back to record levels.  Their biggest success was ripping off the public and more specifically have kept most of their hidden secrets buried deep in the belly of the un-audited Federal Reserve balance sheet.  We know that the Fed is holding $2.84 trillion in various “assets” but what exactly is being held?  They would like the public to believe that only pristine assets are being held in exchange for U.S. Treasuries but in reality the Fed is purchasing every questionable asset under the sun.  The Fed is ignoring the needs of the economy and simply focusing on protecting the interests of the banking elite.


Case and point with commercial real estate

Source:  MIT

Commercial real estate values have plummeted by 50 percent since their peak.  The crash has been monumental and devastating for the industry.  Yet banks have shifted many of these bad loans fixed to CRE and have “temporarily” placed them at the Federal Reserve.  This isn’t a tiny industry.  The CRE sector at its peak reached a nominal value of $6.5 trillion.  Today the value has fallen closer to $3 trillion.  Many of the CRE properties are solidly underwater yet the Fed has given the banks time to figure out ways to stuff their bad loans into the belly of the Fed balance sheet.

The banking system has plenty of money to lend out to the public:

The above chart shows how much money banks currently have that is readily available to lend to the public.  Yet these too big to fail banks would rather keep the funds at the Fed and earn 0.25 percent on the money while they decide what other bubble they will jump into next.  The too big to fail banks have nearly $1.6 trillion in excess money to lend to the American public!  This is money that back in 2007 they claimed they needed to help small businesses and keep credit going.  All of that was a lie and what really was the main purpose of the bailouts was to save the banking industry on the backs of taxpayers.  As the chart clearly shows, the banking system is simply looking for their next big profit machine and all that excess reserves has come from the Fed being friendly with their banking cronies.

Squeezing the working and middle class

The line out of Wall Street banks has now shifted from:

-(2007)  We need money from the Fed to keep money going to American families and small businesses.

And the new line now follows:

-(2011)  We need to cut spending and wages to keep competitive in the global marketplace.

What happened to lending to American families and small businesses, the actual reason for the bailouts?  These financial liars of course will say anything to steal more taxpayer money.  Now it is a narrative of more stealing.  These bankers of course don’t follow that line of cutting their own wages but then again, what do expect from the new oligarchysponsored by the Fed?

The above chart shows how much money banks currently have that is readily available to lend to the public.  Yet these too big to fail banks would rather keep the funds at the Fed and earn 0.25 percent on the money while they decide what other bubble they will jump into next.  The too big to fail banks have nearly $1.6 trillion in excess money to lend to the American public!  This is money that back in 2007 they claimed they needed to help small businesses and keep credit going.  All of that was a lie and what really was the main purpose of the bailouts was to save the banking industry on the backs of taxpayers.  As the chart clearly shows, the banking system is simply looking for their next big profit machine and all that excess reserves has come from the Fed being friendly with their banking cronies.

Squeezing the working and middle class

The line out of Wall Street banks has now shifted from:

-(2007)  We need money from the Fed to keep money going to American families and small businesses.

And the new line now follows:

-(2011)  We need to cut spending and wages to keep competitive in the global marketplace.

What happened to lending to American families and small businesses, the actual reason for the bailouts?  These financial liars of course will say anything to steal more taxpayer money.  Now it is a narrative of more stealing.  These bankers of course don’t follow that line of cutting their own wages but then again, what do expect from the new oligarchysponsored by the Fed?

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=14521