CMD Releases Comprehensive Bailout Tally, $4.6 Trillion Spent on the Bailout to Date-

[kpete]

Source: Banster

CMD Releases Comprehensive Bailout Tally, $4.6 Trillion Spent on the Bailout to Date
Submitted by Mary Bottari on April 1, 2010 - 21:50
TALLY SHOWS THAT THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS THE REAL SOURCE OF BAILOUT FUNDS

Today, the Real Economy Project of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released an assessment of the total cost to taxpayers of the Wall Street bailout. CMD concludes that multiple federal agencies have disbursed $4.6 trillion dollars in supporting the financial sector since the meltdown in 2007-2008. Of that, $2 trillion is still outstanding.

CMD’s assessment demonstrates that while the press has focused its attention on the $700 billion TARP bill passed by Congress, the Federal Reserve has provided by far the bulk of the funding for the bailout in the form of loans amounting to $3.8 trillion.

Little information has been disclosed about what collateral taxpayers have received in return for these loans, sparking the Bloomberg News lawsuit covered earlier. CMD also concludes that the bailout is far from over as the government has active programs authorized to cost up to $2.9 trillion and still has $2 trillion in outstanding investments and loans.

Learn more about the 35 programs included in the CMD tally by visiting our Total Wall Street Bailout Cost Table, which contains links to pages on each bailout program with details including the current balance sheet for each program.

Read more: http://banksterusa.org/content/cmd-releases-comprehensive-bailout-tally-46-trillion-spent-bailout-date

[nc4bo]

1. It's enough to make you lose your lunch and your mind.

The really important question would be: What have we done to prevent it from happening over again?

Zilch.

Bookmarking that link, thanks.

[OhioChick]

9. No kidding. n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

2. But real health care is "too expensive"!

[nc4bo]

3. A entire Trillion to health insurance reform will break the country's back11!! nt

[high density]

4. $3.8 trillion in loans is not a "spend"

That is called lending. A loan is considered an asset to the entity that is getting paid back. We're already seeing repayment take place. Yes, there will probably be some losses, but you can be damned sure they won't total $3.8 trillion.

[liberation]

5. Most of that money was "lended" at 0% interests and no expiration/repayment timetables

So yeah, if it makes you feel better "technically" we can call those money injections "loans"... in the same fashion that my grandma could have technically grown balls and be known as grandpa.

Only a few billions under TARP were actually written as loans, with a small interest and due dates. The rest is basically the world's largest single transfer of wealth by volume in the history of mankind.

Then there is the "itsy bitsy" detail that most of those trillions were not approved by the legislative process. I.e. the largest single fiscal expenditure in our nation's history was done with no representation, since most of the money went in a "submarine" fashion via the Fed et al. I gotta hand it to WallStreet though, they managed to pull an inverse "taxation without representation" and the average "tea partier" is unaware of that. LOL.


They don't say that no one went broke for underestimating the intelligence of the average American for nothing....


Oh, and there was the "small" detail that a lot of those "loans" were written with toxic assets as their only collateral.

[high density]

6. The interest rate on the loans doesn't matter.

It's not a spend if the money is lent with the idea it will be paid back. When somebody buys a $20,000 car from Ford with 0% financing, Ford is not "spending" $20,000 to facilitate the loan for the car. It's a transfer on a balance sheet from one asset class to another.

I know it is fun to get outraged over trillions of dollars and call it spending, but I don't see what that accomplishes other than confusing the issue. The bailout happened and that's that. We can only hope that Obama will now enable some real financial system reforms to prevent this from being required again. I assume it's on his menu of things to accomplish.

[pundaint]

8. Ever hear of a concept called "time value of money?" It's what the banks charge us for, and it

is the foundation for the Insurance industry.

[Tansy_Gold]

10. Actually, Ford *did* spend $20,000 to facilitate the loan for the car

Ford spent the money to make the car.

Raw materials and purchased parts.
Labor (direct, indirect, pensions, etc.)
Overhead (plant, equipment, utilities, taxes, etc.)

If Ford doesn't get paid for that car (or too many others like it), it has no cash flow to build other cars.

That's why there's a financing arm, either within the manufacturer or outside in the form of a bank or other lender, to give the owner the money to give to Ford to pay for the car.

The car remains as collateral -- a form of hostage, so to speak -- to guarantee that either the loan will be repaid or the lender who actually put up the money will own/repossess the car. Either way, Ford got their money so they can continue to make more cars.

Obviously, this is simplified for the production and sale of one automobile out of thousands/millions, but the concept is the same. It's called cash flow, and if there isn't any, business can't continue.

The ultimate source of cash flow through an economy is manufacturing. If an economy isn't turning raw materials into finished goods, it's not creating new wealth and it can't survive without new wealth indefinitely.


Tansy Gold

[Festivito]

7. About $15,000 per capita. Only about $2,000,000 to go to pay of CDSs.

Well, more or less, about $2,070,000 to go. But, not to worry, we saddled the rest of the world with those puppies. So, divide by 7.2-billion people.

It's still a laugh.

[bananas]

11. k&r for CMD's new website www.banksterusa.org

www.banksterusa.org

[Chemical Bill]

12. K&R. n/t