Federal Reserve earned $45 billion in 2009

[impik]

Source: Washington Post

The Fed will return about $45 billion to the U.S. Treasury for 2009, according to calculations by The Washington Post based on public documents. That reflects the highest earnings in the 96-year history of the central bank. The Fed, unlike most government agencies, funds itself from its own operations and returns its profits to the Treasury.

The numbers are good news for the federal budget and a sign that the Fed has been successful, at least so far, in protecting taxpayers as it intervenes in the economy — though there remains a risk of significant losses in the future if the Fed sells some of its investments or loses money on its stakes in bailed-out firms.

This turn of events comes as the banks that benefited from the Fed's actions are under the microscope: Major banks are expected to announce massive earnings and employee bonuses starting at the end of this week, and anger in Washington is at such a high boil that the Obama administration is likely to propose a fee on financial firms to recoup the cost of their bailout, officials confirmed Monday.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34816272/ns/business-washington_post/

[Mithreal]

1. How much did it cost us to have them return $45 billion?

[Kokonoe]

2. $12 Trillion

They must have swept it off the floor.

[high density]

5. No, $12 trillion is the max liability if everything went tits up

It has not "cost" us $12 trillion.

[girl gone mad]

10. we're on the hook for up to 23.7 trillion.

[BP2]

4. Exactly. A $45B return for a few trillion dollar investment is not

something to be "woo-hoo" about.

Didn't the Fed buy about 80% of the Treasury's debt in 2009?

[No Elephants]

3. Is that why the D of J has been defending the Fed so hard against the Bloomberg FOIA lawsuit?

Taxpayer dollars going to prevent taxpayers from knowing which banks got their tax dollars in the bailout. And, during the most transparent administration ever, too.

Ah, well. It was only three quarter of a trillion. Not as though it was real money.

[coyote]

6. Put it another way....

for every dollar of Fed profit, there is $77+ dollars of deficit spending and US Treasury refinance!

The Titanic is taking on water faster than they can bail it out and these bastards are advertising success!

[lonestarnot]

7. And here I thought people in hell were supposed to crave ice water!

:P

[Celebration]

8. Here is what I want to know

The list of institutions that receive the 6% dividend of the Federal Reserve............I would like the specifics of that, including the individual stockholders of the institutions that receive the money. We only have a general description of that.

We don't get all the profits of the Federal Reserve returned to the Treasury, because they give dividends.

[Mithreal]

9. The Federal Reserve policy that rewards banks not to lend, right?

Would like to know more about that as well.