Grayson on the Fed bailout: "If you're not a Wall Street bank, you're screwed"

Bloomberg: Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion

By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz - Nov 27, 2011 4:01 PM PT
Bloomberg Markets Magazine

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. Betty Liu reports on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
Enlarge image Kenneth D. Lewis Former CEO of Bank of America Corp.

On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

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VIDEO: Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing of May 5, 2009.

SocialSecurity & The Deficit: Keeping the Promise

Pushing Crisis: GOP Cries Wolf on Debt Ceiling in Order to Impose Radical Pro-Rich Agenda

DEMOCRACY NOW  July 22. 2011

President Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner are allegedly close to a $3 trillion deficit-reduction package as part of a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling before an Aug. 2 deadline. But the deal is coming under fire from both congressional Democrats and Republicans. Part of it calls for lowering personal and corporate income tax rates, while eliminating or reducing an array of popular tax breaks, such as the deduction for home mortgage interest. Some Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage on Thursday because the Obama-Boehner agreement appears to violate their pledge not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, as well as Obama’s promise not to make deep cuts in programs for the poor without extracting some tax concessions from the rich. We’re joined by economist Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and author of "Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire."

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US House & Senate speak with one voice on Israel: Sound Familiar?

House Speaker, Republican Leader Praise Netanyahu

AIPAC March 25, 2010
After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) praised the Israeli leader and reaffirmed the U.S.-Israel alliance. "We in Congress stand by Israel; in Congress we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel," Pelosi said. Added Boehner: "We have no stronger ally anywhere in the world than Israel." Pelosi and Boehner both pointed to the threat from Iran as a top concern and an area in which the United States will cooperate with Israel. More...