Fed secretly loaned $1.2 trillion in public money to Wall St. firms

By Stephen C. Webster - RAW Story

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

An analysis of tens of thousands of documents obtained by Bloomberg through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows that the U.S. Federal Reserve made approximately $1.2 trillion in loans from public money to support Wall Street firms in the midst of one of the worst financial crises ever.

Differing from the $16 trillion in loans made through asset swaps and preferred stock agreements, which were first revealed by a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit mandated by Congress, these loans came from public money, representing the greatest largess of the financial sector during a crisis that threatened to pull the whole globalized system of finance to its knees.

Made from August 2007 through April 2010, the largest borrowers included familiar names like Morgan Stanley, which took $107.3 billion; Citigroup at $99.5 billion; and Bank of America with $91.4 billion.

Foreign firms got a piece of the pie too: the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc was given $84.5 billion; UBS AG took $77.2 billion; and German bank Hypo Real Estate Holding AG took out $28.7 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The Fed claimed it suffered "no credit losses" on the emergency loans, insisting that it has even made back over $13 billion in interest and fees. The loans were made in secret, and not even disclosed to the GAO, to prevent the appearance of weakness in the system, the Bloomberg report said.

Homeland Security works for the oil & gas companies

Published on 09-15-2010 - Source: Tech Eye

The US Department of Homeland Security has been spying on people who don't like gas drilling and handing on the data to the oil companies.

According to recently leaked documents, the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security has been using high-tech tracking of anti-gas drilling groups and their meetings.

It has then sent bulletins to gas companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

The local State Homeland Security Director James Powers said the Oil Companies needed to have all the data because there have been "five to 10" incidents of vandalism around the state related to the natural gas industry.

He said that the briefings are sent to local coppers and the owners and operators of "critical infrastructure."

However once the information has been sent to the oil companies they have been sharing the data and publishing it on pro-drilling internet site and disseminated among anti-drilling activists.

Powers admitted that was a cock-up and said he had emailed the woman who posted it.

In that email, which confusingly ended up in the paws of the anti-drilling groups, he was quoted as saying Homeland Security wanted to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale formation natural gas stakeholders, while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies.

The status that Homeland Security is giving the anti-drilling movement is somewhat strange. The bulletin also includes information on anarchists, "black power radicals," Ramadan, the "Jewish High Holiday season" and anti-war activists.

He confirmed to the local press that "someone" was monitoring the web traffic of the anti-drilling groups.

The protesters point out that the only thing Homeland Security has not given the oil companies is a "An enemies-of-gas-drilling" compiled by the government so that police can keep an eye on them.

They are calling for the government to investigate why public money was being used to spy for private companies.

They are not going to get much support from their local governor. His spokesman has gone on record saying that it was part of Homeland Security's responsibility to "alert local law enforcement, local officials and potential victims" to any possible problems.