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Archive for the ‘TALF’ Category

Glenn Beck finally connected the dots.  Not that we haven’t been hammering on this for over three years, but hey, again, better late than never.  Glenn Beck joins, Neil Cavuto, Dylan Ratigan and Eric Odom.

Yes, you ARE being robbed.  ‘Legally.’  Wall Street and the Big Banks were allowed to steal $14 TRILLION of taxpayer money in the past 3.5 years on the grounds of ‘economic emergency.’  The truth is, their fraudulent and criminal conduct rendered them insolvent, so the government was coerced (bribed and sometimes threatened) into transferring this enormous amount of YOUR money to them.  First in the form of TARP, TALF and the EESA and most recently through the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing.  

The ‘rich’ are not evil.  CRIMINALS are evil.  When those criminals are given a license to steal by our own government, that is beyond evil.  This is not a partisan issue.  BOTH sides of the aisle have enabled this theft.  It was initiated under George Bush and his Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson and continued and increased through Obama’s administration and his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – all aided by the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke.   These people on Wall Street are rich because they STOLE YOUR MONEY!  They are CONTINUING to steal your money.  (Linked in our right-hand column you can read our documented evidence over the past 4 years against some of the biggest players in this mess – even better, watch Inside Job for free over at NetFlix. )

Until this massive fraud and corruption is stopped, prosecuted and those responsible put in jail, our economy will not improve.  Indeed, it will get worse.  Much worse.  At some point, in the not-so-distant future, our country will collapse.

Nothing else matters right now but THIS issue.  It has been the ONLY important issue for the past four years.  It is unfortunate that FedUpUSA and Market-Ticker have been the only ones consistently exposing the fraud and preaching about the urgency of this.  Perhaps now we will have some help.  Maybe on Good Friday, miracles really can happen.

When will you WAKE UP AMERICA?!  STOP THE LOOTING AND START PROSECUTING!

Military.com posted an article discussing the various proposals for ‘balancing’ the ever-ballooning budget.

There has been some recent buzz about the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives propos­ing more cuts to vet­er­ans’ ben­e­fits. This time, the focus has fallen on VA Health­care and exclud­ing some vet­er­ans over oth­ers. Here is what you need to know about the debate.

The House Bud­get Com­mit­tee recently announced plans to cut $6 bil­lion from VA Health­care for 1.3 mil­lion vet­er­ans who are in Pri­or­ity Group 7 and 8. Roughly 10 per­cent of these, some 130,000 vet­er­ans, will be forced out of the VA sys­tem with no avail­able alter­na­tives. Vet­er­ans from Group 7 & 8 have either a 0 per­cent service-connection or no service-connected rat­ing. While this does not mean the vet­eran is fit as a fid­dle, it does imply they do not need the amount of care needed for other vets. These vet­er­ans pay co-pay and have incomes over $32,000 and net-worths under $80,000, depend­ing on geog­ra­phy. In other words, they aren’t dirt poor but cer­tainly not wealthy, either.

The Con­gres­sional Bud­get Office believes the U.S. can save $62 bil­lion over the next 10 years by remov­ing ser­vices for these vet­er­ans alto­gether. Accord­ing to the agency, 90 per­cent of the vet­er­ans in ques­tion have access to some form other health­care other than VA funded. How­ever, the CBO does not com­ment on whether the alter­na­tive health­care is afford­able.

I’m going to say right up front that this is reprehensible.  Not only is it disgusting, it’s pointless to pretend that ANY of these proposed cuts to VA benefits will be anything but a microscopic drop of water in an ocean.  Let’s talk about some reality here. 

So, let’s see….our overall spending on defense is only about 1/6th of our total budget outlay, or as indicated here, $744 billion.  Of that, only a tiny fraction goes towards healthcare to our current and retired military.  Keeping in mind that these brave men and women were willing to sacrifice their very LIVES to do their jobs, let’s compare that to banker welfare expenditures over the past 4 years.

First we have TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the program that has essentially been welfare for Wall Street bankers given by Congress to cover the massive Ponzi scheme they created by selling worthless securities to unsuspecting suckers like your pension and retirement fund managers.  This program allowed the US government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to ‘strengthen’ the financial sector.

Then we have TALF the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the program designed to allow the Federal Reserve to use taxpayer money to buy ‘distressed’ (I prefer ‘worthless’) loans.

Then we have the EESA, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.  Initiated under Bush, through acts of extortion by then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.  This spawned TARP cited above, as well as expanded the powers of the US government to basically use taxpayer money wherever and whenever Wall Street deemed it needed it.  This was where we got the ‘we’ll see tanks in the streets if we don’t get this money’ threat from Hank Paulson. 

1.  The Government As Investor:  Total expenditure of taxpayer money – $9.0 TRILLION.  This includes direct investments in financial institutions, purchases of ‘high-grade’ corporate debt and purchases of mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae (the latter of which is the only legitimately government-guaranteed entity). 

2.  The Government as Insurer:  Total expenditure of taxpayer money – $1.7 TRILLION.  Includes insuring debt issued by financial institutions and guaranteeing poorly performing assets owned by banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

3.  The Government as Lender:  Total expenditure of taxpayer money – $1.4 TRILLION.  A significant expansion of the government’s traditional overnight lending to banks, including extending terms to as many as 90 days and allowing borrowing by other financial institutions, which includes foreign banks.

Sources

This only includes figures up through February 2009.  (Is your hair on fire yet?)

Now, let’s add in the most recent and nefarious taxpayer theft of all, ‘quantitative easing.’  What’s that?  Here’s a primer:

While it is often explained as ‘printing money out of thin air’ – that’s not quite accurate.  It is more specifically, printing money guaranteed by your future production.  It borrows against the taxpayer’s future potential to actually produce something of value.  If it sounds a little bit like exploitation or slavery, that’s because that is exactly what it is, which is precisely why the Federal Reserve is content to allow you to think it is printing money out of thin air.  As distasteful as that is, it’s preferrable to the truth.

Each time the Federal Reserve prints money for which there is no current production to support, it is ‘pulling forward demand’ or, devaluing the US dollar.  This is, in effect, a stealth tax on you, the taxpayer, as it then costs you more of those devalued dollars to purchase the things you need.  This is commonly referred to as price inflation.  So, you get hit on both sides.  Your future production has been used as collateral for these new dollars created and at the same time, it causes you to need to produce more to afford the things you need to live – like food and energy (gas, oil).  Conveniently those two catagories of expenditures are not included in the government’s calculation of inflation, (the Consumer Price Index or CPI). 

So, what is your total liability for the two rounds of Quantitative Easing performed by the Federal Reserve?

$2.7 TRILLION.

So, let’s see, $14.8 TRILLION has been spent on WELFARE FOR WALL STREET BANKERS!

Now, tell me how there is ANY justification for cutting health care benefits to our Veterans.

While you’re at it, tell me what items can be cut from the budget that even comes close to the liability our government has created by bailing out insolvent banking institutions.

Wake up America.  I don’t care where you stand on the current wars, are you willing to throw our troops under the bus for Wall Street welfare?!!

Who and what else are you willing to throw under the bus to allow our government to continue to support and hide massive corruption?

STOP THE LOOTING & START PROSECUTING!

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Treasury Department Releases Text of Letter from Secretary Geithner
to Hill Leadership on Administration’s Exit Strategy for TARP

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury released the
text of identical letters sent today from Secretary Tim Geithner to
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid outlining the
Administration’s exit strategy for the Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP) established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
(EESA). The text of the letter to Speaker Pelosi follows.

December 9, 2009

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker          
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

I am writing to update you on the status of the Obama
Administration’s financial policies, including programs initiated under
the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) established by the Emergency
Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA), the results they have
achieved, the challenges ahead, and our plan for exiting TARP.

These policies are working.  When the Obama Administration took
office, the financial system was extremely fragile and the economy was
contracting sharply.  The Administration’s financial and economic
policies have helped to shore up confidence in our financial system. 
Credit is starting to flow again to consumers and businesses, and the
economy is growing.  Further, private capital is replacing public
capital in our major institutions.

As a result of improved financial conditions and careful stewardship
of the program, losses on TARP investments are likely to be
significantly lower than previously expected.  We now expect a positive
return from the government’s investments in banks.  These banks will
soon have repaid nearly half of the TARP funds they received.  We also
expect to recover all but $42 billion of the $364 billion in TARP funds
disbursed in FY2009.  Further, we plan to use significantly less than
the full $700 billion in EESA authority.  As a result, we expect that
TARP will cost taxpayers at least $200 billion less than was projected
in the August Mid-Session Review of the President’s Budget.

But significant challenges remain.  Too many American families,
homeowners, and small businesses still face severe financial pressure. 
Although the economy is recovering, foreclosures are increasing, and
unemployment is unacceptably high.  Businesses are still cautious in
the face of uncertainty about the strength of the recovery, and many
small businesses face very difficult credit conditions.  Although bank
lending standards are starting to ease, many categories of bank lending
continue to contract.  This contraction has hit small businesses very
hard because they rely heavily on such lending, and do not have the
ability to substitute credit from securities issuance.  Commercial real
estate losses also weigh heavily on many small banks, impairing their
ability to extend new loans.

Further, the recovery of our financial system remains incomplete. 
And near-term shocks to that system could undermine the economic
recovery we have seen to date.

Exit Strategy for TARP

Our exit strategy for TARP balances the mandate of EESA to address
these challenges with the need to exercise fiscal discipline and reduce
the burden on current and future taxpayers.  There are four broad
elements to our strategy.

First, we will continue terminating and winding down many of the
government programs put in place last fall.  In September, Treasury
ended its Money Market Fund Guarantee Program, which guaranteed at its
peak over $3 trillion of assets.  The program incurred no losses, and
generated $1.2 billion in fees.  The Capital Purchase Program, through
which the majority of TARP investments in banks have been made, is
effectively closed.  Before this Administration took office, nearly
$240 billion in TARP funds had been committed to banks.  Since January
20, we have committed about $7 billion to banks, much of which went to
small institutions.  Major U.S. banks subject to the “stress test”
conducted last spring have raised over $110 billion in high-quality
capital from the private sector.  And banks will soon have repaid $116
billion of TARP funds

Second, we will limit new commitments in 2010 to three areas.

• We will continue to mitigate foreclosure for responsible American
  homeowners as we take the steps necessary to stabilize our housing
  market.
• We recently launched initiatives to provide capital to small
  and community banks, which are important sources of credit for small
  businesses.  We are also reserving funds for additional efforts to
  facilitate small business lending.
• Finally, we may increase our commitment to the Term
  Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), which is improving
  securitization markets that facilitate consumer and small business
  loans, as well as commercial mortgage loans.  We expect that increasing
  our commitment to TALF would not result in additional cost to taxpayers.

Beyond these limited new commitments, we will not use remaining EESA
funds unless necessary to respond to an immediate and substantial
threat to the economy stemming from financial instability.  As a nation
we must maintain capacity to respond to such a threat.  Banks are still
experiencing significant new credit losses, and the pace of bank
failures, which tend to lag economic cycles, remains elevated.  At the
same time, many of the Federal Reserve and FDIC programs that have
complemented TARP investments are ending.  This creates a financial
environment in which new shocks could have an outsized effect –
especially if an adequate financial stability reserve is not
maintained.  As we wind down many of the government programs launched
initially to address the crisis, it is imperative that we maintain this
capacity to respond if financial conditions worsen and threaten our
economy.  However, before using EESA funds to respond to new financial
threats, I would consult with the President and Chairman of the Federal
Reserve Board and submit written notification to the Congress.  This
capacity will bolster confidence and improve financial stability,
thereby decreasing the probability that it will need to be used.  This
is the third element of our exit strategy.

In order to accomplish these goals, pursuant to Section 120(b) of
EESA, I certify that I am hereby extending the authority provided under
the Act to October 3, 2010.  This extension is necessary to assist
American families and stabilize financial markets because it will,
among other things, enable us to continue to implement programs that
address housing markets and the needs of small businesses, and to
maintain the capacity to respond to unforeseen threats, as described
above.

While we are extending the $700 billion program, we do not expect to
deploy more than $550 billion.  We also expect up to $175 billion in
repayments by the end of next year, and substantial additional
repayments thereafter.  The combination of the reduced scale of TARP
commitments and substantial repayments should allow us to commit
significant resources to pay down the federal debt over time and slow
its growth rate.

Even with this extension, we expect that TARP will cost taxpayers at
least $200 billion less than was projected in the August Mid-Session
Review of the President’s Budget, including $25 billion in potential
costs from new TARP commitments in 2010.  We expect that the vast
majority of these potential costs would come from mitigating
foreclosure for responsible American homeowners as we take the steps
necessary to stabilize our housing market.

The final element to our exit strategy is how we manage equity
investments acquired through EESA while protecting taxpayers.  We will
continue to manage those investments in a commercial manner and seek to
dispose of them as soon as practicable.  We will exercise our voting
rights only on core issues such as election of directors, and we will
not interfere in the day-to-day management of individual companies.  In
addition, as the steward of taxpayers’ funds, Treasury will continue to
manage investments in a manner that ensures accountability,
transparency and oversight.  And we will work with recipients of EESA
funds and their supervisors to accelerate repayment where appropriate. 
We want to see the capital base of our financial system return to
private hands as quickly as possible, while preserving financial
stability and promoting economic recovery.

History suggests that exiting prematurely from policies designed to
contain a financial crisis can significantly prolong an economic
downturn.  We must not waver in our resolve to ensure the stability of
the financial system and to support the nascent recovery that the
Administration and the Congress have worked so hard to achieve. 
Improvements in the financial performance of EESA programs put us in a
better position to address the economic and financial challenges many
Americans still face.  I look forward to continuing to work with you to
achieve these
goals.                                                               

Sincerely,

Timothy F. Geithner

Identical copy of this letter sent to:
            The Honorable Harry Reid

cc:       The Honorable Barney Frank
           The Honorable Spencer Bachus
           The Honorable David Obey
           The Honorable Jerry Lewis