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US Federal Reserve Data On Loans During Crisis Released
oDDmON oUT writes "Pursuant to a FOIA request, Bloomberg has acquired numbers from the Fed on loans made to banks and businesses during the financial crisis between 2007 and 2009. They also posted a direct link to the spreadsheets in zipped format and updated their data visualization of the lending."
The magnitude of the losses would have been such that the FDIC fund would have been sucked dry in a heartbeat. Then it would be up to the U.S. Government to make up the shortfall, piling the new government debt on to the national debt pile. Haven't we been doing enough to "pile on" already?
Also, there's a lot of "interconnected-ness" in the banking industry. If one large bank fails, it will drag another handful with it. They will drag others with them, etc. Only "smallish" banks can fail and have the system absorb the impact without massive "domino effect" collapse. "Too big to fail" is a sobering thought...
The thing is, the Constitution delegated to Congress the rights to "coin money" for a reason. They have interpreted that instead as a right to delegate the right to print currency, and delegated said right to the Federal Reserve so they dont have to waste time actually doing their jobs. And every time the Fed turns on the printing press, by diluting the pool of currency, it's the same effect as milling coins or flat-out counterfeiting really - it's a hidden, involuntary tax. We all pay the bill through inflation and reduction in value of our savings and retirement. That makes it the people's money just the same if it were revenue taxed openly.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
"Too big to fail" is a sobering thought...
Which is why one iether does not let them get too big or restricts them so that they cannot engage in practices and businesses likely to make the fail. The fact that we spent the last twenty or so years removing these constraints were at the root of this particular downturn. The fact that this problem has not been addressed as a result is our shame.
That is all.