We were assured by the leaders of both political parties (gangs) that the government of the American people -" specifically the Department of Treasury -- had to borrow these trillions from the Central Bank of China and give it to our banksters, so that the banksters could start making loans again to American businesses and would-be home owners. It sounds so stupid when you think about it: we borrow from the Chinese to give to the banks so they could loan it back to us. But that's the only way the banks could or would start loaning to us; it had to be us who were put on the hook, not them. (What do you expect them to do, loan us their own money?! Don't be silly. Why would they do that when they can get our Treasury Department to borrow the money, in our good name, from the Chinese (and from the many others who buy Treasury bonds) and then get the Fed to buy these Treasury bonds from banksters like Goldman Sachs, so that Goldman can take a cut on the sale?
How in the world did we ever go for something so idiotic? Well in some sense "we' didn't, of course. But "our' government did: In a show of bi-partisan disregard for the wishes of the American people, Congress passed the legislation that authorized the deal and Bush signed it -- over the strident objections of the vast majority of people who voted all of them into office.
And then, after all that, the banks did not start making loans to us again, as they had promised. And, for the most part, they still haven't. It seems they do not trust us with the money that we essentially arranged to have provided to them for that purpose! And yet they had to do something with the massive tonnage of cash that the Fed lavished on them. So the Fed helped them out again: It started paying them interest for any excess funds the banksters left on deposit at the Federal Reserve. And that just served as further disincentive for them to loan to businesses and individuals, as they were supposed to do. -- why bother to make such loans when their excess (and interest-earning) funds were completely safe with the Fed? Sure the interest rate was small, but even a small interest rate on 500 billion dollars is a healthy profit -- especially when you got the money basically as a gift! So dig this: the Fed has been paying the banks to deposit back with them the money that they gave to the banks in exchange for their trash-toxic assets! And so it was that the Fed's excess reserves, held for the banks, soared to record levels.
And that brings us to the Fed's current problem: They bought all of those assets that are generating income streams (for them) that are only a tiny fraction of what they are supposed to be generating, yet the Fed itself is paying interest to all those big banks to re-deposit that money with them. In addition, the Fed has operating expenses. Normally they cover those expenses by doing things like selling assets. Too bad for them there are no buyers for their assets except at a significant loss. Even treasuries would sell at a loss since the Fed has been working so hard to keep interest rates artificially low. And the assets they got from the banks? Fuggedaboudit! The Fed itself would become insolvent if it sold those assets for what they were really worth, because they would then have to sell them at huge losses, i.e. at prices that were much less than their book value (i.e. the amount of money the Fed gave their bankster friends for the assets).
The solution they have devised for this problem is elegantly wicked.
Not only does this solution get the Fed out of its trap, it also solves the new problem that their bankster friends have, which is what to do with all this cash they are sitting on. They have so much cash, they can't find profitable places to stick it all. They could buy bonds, but they know the dollar is due to take big losses -- and that's one reason they are in a hurry to find places to profitably spend as much of their cash as possible. They could buy stocks, but they are so swollen with cash that they have already bid up the price of stocks to levels that are completely unjustified by the expected profitability of the companies themselves. Bottom line: The banks simply have too much cash to be easily absorbed. They have scammed the American People out of more money than they can possibly figure out how to spend. So what to do with all this ill-gotten gain?
Well, there actually is a large pile of assets that might be tempting targets -- if they could just get them for the right price. That pile of assets sits on the Feds books. Why, its the very assets that they sold to the Fed at or near book value! The banks are so flush with cash right now that they might be willing to buy back some of those assets -- if the price is right.
Of course they won't pay book value which is what they sold them for. That would be ridiculous! Instead, they will pick them up for maybe half price, or even quarter price. They will buy back all or most of their toxic dogs at such bargain-basement prices that they will in the process turn them into cash cows! They will rob the taxpayers both coming and going, cheating them twice on the same asset. How sweet is that?! They will then wind up with the cash and the assets, leaving us commoners with only the debt used to finance this shell game. To see how all this is going to be worked out, continue reading.
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