Forum Post: Bloomberg vs Bernanke
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 7, 2011, 2:05 p.m. EST by pandoras
(56)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Bloomberg ran this on Nov 27: "Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html
Then Ben Bernanke wrote a letter to the Senate yesterday: "Emergency Lending Financial Crisis" http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/271227-emergency-lending-financial-crisis-20111206.html#document/p1
Bloomberg then replied to the accusations yesterday: "Bloomberg News Responds to Bernanke Criticism" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-06/bloomberg-news-responds-to-bernanke-criticism.html
Too long, didn't read? Felix Salmon does a summary: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/12/07/smackdown-of-the-day-bloomberg-vs-the-fed/ FT Alphaville also followed with one: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/12/07/783951/bloomberg-vs-bernanke/
The Fed is trying to say 1.2 trillion dollars lent to banks is a more accurate figure. As though that makes much of a difference. As soon as you clear a trillion dollars, you are talking about Carl Sagan type numbers with a lot of zeros. The fact of the matter is that Bernanke and the Fed resisted with all their might divulging any information to the public. He claimed that such information could tarnish the names of the banks who borrowed large sums of money from the Fed's discount window. He considered the right of the public to know how its money is being used as less important than protecting the reputation of the banks, who are his advisers and benefactors. It was in his interest and the interest of the big banks that we must be kept in the dark. Bernanke thought it was better to have Wall Street tell everyone that it didn't need the money but only took it because the Fed insisted they take it. We now know that the opposite was true. Bernanke never interjected to stop the banks' exaggeration about their real fiscal condition. Why would he? Instead, investors were left to make decisions based on falsehoods about the nature the banking system's health while Bernanke and Fed sat on its hands just like they did when the debt bubble exploded in their face. It is okay as long as that fallout hits Main Street and we pick up the tab.
The Fed does it best work behind closed doors in consultation with the big banks. The pain-in-ass public is nothing but rabble in the Fed's view. We should leave the world of finance to the big boys. We should leave financial matters to the very individuals who cast us into the worst recession since the Great Depression. We have all seen how well that worked out for Wall Street and how badly that worked out for Main Street. This is what happens when congress and the president farm out our economic well-being to plutocrats and oligarchs who only care about themselves and themselves alone. Main Street Americans are not amused.
One Needs an Accountant and a Lawyer to get at the truth. Bernanke uses accounting gimmicks and regulations to get his numbers. In other words, the US of A's government sets the laws by which profit is measured. In Short, Lassie Faire Capitalist need the government to make a profit.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/this-is-what-a-trillion-dollars-looks-like/