Commercial banks and bond dealers borrowed $348.2 billion from the Federal Reserve as of yesterday, an increase of 60 percent from the prior week.
The Fed's ownership of "total liabilities" as of 10/2/08 is now at 1.5 Trillion dollars. As of 9/18/08, just two weeks ago, the Fed's total liabilities and "assets" was at 996 billion. That is over 500 Billion dollars new liabilities/"assets" in two weeks! What does this mean? Companies in distress are borrowing from the fed in record amounts to meet their capital requirements, by lending to the Fed "assets" in exchange. These "assets" are likely worth significantly less than face value, hence, no one else in the world is "smart" enough to take it as collateral, so the USA does.
What happens if these companies are deemed insolvent? The fed gets to keep the "assets". If the Federal government revalues the "assets", they are put in the awkward position of trying to draw blood from a stone for the rest of the liabilities.
The point is, the 700 Billion dollar bailout will NOT resolve this issue even if 100% of the money was used for USA companies, which is not the case. In the last two weeks alone companies have borrowed 500 Billion dollars to meet their requirements.
If the Fed bubble pops, and I really do hope it doesn't, I have a hard time trying to comprehend the fallout. It will be the mother of all stock market crashes, not to mention our government's solvency being questioned.
May I remind you that one of the Federal Governors warned this downturn will go through 2010 in August, before this bailout issue arose. That level of downturn could hardly be curbed by 700 Billion dollars. And the same government states we are NOT in a recession but we need a bailout to staff of a depression?!?!?
And as a further warning, the details a previous 30 Billion dollar bail out tied to Bear Sterns is not being revealed. The Federal Reserve and Treasury are blocking congressional questioning on details on the bailout. If 30 billion is above questioning, imagine 700 billion!
Not to mention who will buy this debt? Japan is getting wise to the USA, Citibank had to "delay" a debt offering.
Stop the bailout! Unfortunately all sides look bad (bailout or no bailout), it's just a matter of who is impacted the most, the financial corporations or the federal government's debt. (taxpayer)
Watch this video here, on the real spin from Congressman Brad Sherman on the bailout
"We will have shot our entire wad, which is to help the executives on wall street."
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