$2 Trillion Handed out by Paulson and Bernanke, But Who Got It, Nobody Knows

[babylonsister]

$2 Trillion Handed out by Paulson and Bernanke, But Who Got It, Nobody Knows

By Nicholas von Hoffman, The Nation. Posted November 17, 2008.


We have no idea who got this money or the conditions or collateral put up in return for the loans.

With his latest policy switch to buying stock in banks and other companies, Henry Paulson has more zigs and zags to his credit than a fox trying to escape a pack of hounds.

The fox and the hounds, of course, have a clear idea of what they want to do and how they want to do it, which is more than you can say of Paulson. Sums of incalculable size are being spent or pledged by Paulson and his playmate, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and nobody outside their organizations, or maybe inside them either, knows who got what, how much they got, and under what conditions they got it.

In the past couple of months Bernanke has loaned out $2 trillion to unnamed companies under eleven different programs and all but three of them were slapped together in the past fifteen months of financial crisis.

To repeat, we do not know who got this money or what collateral was put up in return for the loans or what conditions were attached to them.

The sums involved are almost three times as large as Paulson's $700 billion muddled bailout efforts that Congress voted for last month. Bernanke does have the legal authority to pass out these trillions without Congressional authorization and without explanation, but secrecy breeds suspicion and loss of confidence.

These officials preface every speech by talking about "transparency," their favorite word, at the same time they are handing off $2 trillion and they won't say to whom, and leading Bloomberg News to file suit under the Freedom of Information Act.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/107340/%242_trillion_handed_out_by_paulson_and_bernanke%2C_but_who_got_it%2C_nobody_knows/?page=entire

[dipsydoodle]

1. At what , if ever , does this money

become actual dollar bills . Anyone know ?

[glitch]

9. When we, our children and grandchildren pay for it with our taxes?

Just a guess.

[MadrasT]

2. Enthusiastic K&R, and bookmarked for later. n/t

:kick:

[tnlurker]

3. I can truthfully say

That I recieve none of it.

[babylonsister]

4. I don't know anyone who does. We're not in the same financial category. nt

[tnlurker]

5. Well I am having some financial difficulties myself.

I could certainly use some of the 2 trillion but I don't expect to get any.

[tavalon]

7. I don't know if that's true

It may be, no one can tell the alternate reality that may, or may not have been averted. If this prevented us from slamming into a Depression, then, yes, you will have benefited as all of us will have, but there's the rub, we'll never know if this averted something or not, now will we?

[tavalon]

6. This isn't Iraq

Someone kept records, now we just need to get them away from the most secretive administration ever.

[madhawk]

8. forms

i was wondering............what forms do i fill out to get my government bailout? i am going under too.
hawk

[BeFree]

10. Trickle down

This whole bag of you-know-what is the last gasp of Reaganism's Trickle Down theory of economics, aka, Voodoo.

Call it lemonade if you want, but the warm Golden Shower we may (if we be lucky) one day experience as the vast sums of wealth, the tiny minority of super wealthy consume and excreet, comes down on us so that we may once have a job, again.

They will be thinking of us as we get back to work. Thinking how easily we have been fooled and thinking ahead to the next time they can steal such vast sums from so many, so easily. Get A Job!

[xiamiam]

11. can someone do the math..if each of the 300 mil of us were given a share..

how much would every american get..i tried to use the calculator..but i just dont know how many zeros are in 2 trillion...

[dipsydoodle]

12. Twelve in the USA

but in the UK it's 10 to the 18th power - 1.000,000 x 1.000.000 x 1.000,000.

[The Hope Mobile]

15. my husband and I were figuring this out the other day

we came up with approx 6600 per every US citizen for just this situation. When you think about all of the taxes that the corporations never paid and all of the unaccounted for debt from the wars I bet we're looking at closer to $40K/person. We have 4 children so that's about a quarter million dollars for our family alone. Wonder why we're struggling.

[Festivito]

16. ($6,000 to $8,000)/American. Use ($3 to $4)/B$, then *1000 for T$

303 million Americans

3.3 dollars from each American would be one billion dollars.

$6,601 per American

$26,403 for an American family of four.

[boomerbust]

13. Bush and Cheney

Will have a billion or two waiting for them when they leave office. Tinfoil? I dont think so.

[xiamiam]

18. cheneys interest in energy and water and who knows what else leads me to believe he 's got enough

stashed to buy his own country..

[acmavm]

14. Okay, before the agreement was 'reached' these two crooked

bastards said that there would be complete 'transparency' over who got what. Now, if they lied, they need to go to jail for fraud. If they changed their mind, they need to shut the fuck up and put their hands back in their own pockets. They breached the agreement, it should be null and void.

[Joanne98]

17. Bloomberg is suing. That tells you a lot about Pelosi. She doesn't care!

Or else she'd be having a fit.