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Both are tres apropos.
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Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...18&ft=1&f=1001
As part of the bailouts of AIG and Bear Stearns, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York spent more than $70 billion to buy toxic assets the companies owned. Last week, prompted by a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg News, the Fed finally told the world exactly what it bought.
The Fed now owns loans to Hilton hotels in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Malaysia and Trinidad. It owns loans to the Miami airport, and the Civic Opera House in Chicago.
It also owned a loan to Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City. Then, when the owners of the mall couldn't make the payments, the Fed foreclosed. So now it owns the mall, which includes a Chick-fil-A and an AMC theater.
The mall's for sale — cheap! "This lender owned distressed asset ... can be purchased at far below replacement cost," the listing says.
The Fed Wants To Sell You A Mall In Oklahoma April 6, 2010
The Fed also owns credit-default swaps — basically, insurance policies that pay off if a borrower defaults on a loan. It holds swaps on the debt of Florida schools, and on debt owed by California and Nevada. So the Fed would profit if one of those states defaulted on its debt.
Here's how Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed economist who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, describes the odd state of the bank's balance sheet:
"You should have the image of Chairman Ben Bernanke flying to a speaking engagement," Reinhart says. "And he can look out the window and look down and say, 'Boy, I own a piece of that, I own a piece of that, I own a piece of that, I own a piece of that.' "
The New York Fed, which bundled the assets into special companies called Maiden Lane I, II and III, says it only bought the assets because the crisis was so extreme.
"We're not happy about it. These were special circumstances," says William Dudley, president of the New York Fed. "I did not expect as president of the New York Federal Reserve that I'd have to be worried about a mall in Oklahoma City."
The Fed is an independent entity, so it's not quite right to say that the purchases were funded with taxpayer money.
But the Maiden Lane purchases — which the Fed says were necessary to keep the financial system afloat — could wind up affecting us. Every year, the Fed passes profits on to taxpayers, via the Treasury. If the Fed winds up losing money on the Maiden Lane properties, that would mean less money flowing back to the Treasury. -
About that odd name "Maiden Lane", politico.com says
A little research about that street name from the 17th century Dutch in New York ("New Amterdam" back then) shows:But why Maiden Lane? And is there a Maiden Lane II and a Maiden Lane I?
Suspicious that somebody at AIG had named the financing vehicle after the address of his mansion in the Hamptons or the street where he grew up, we asked AIG spokesman Nick Ashooh what’s up with the strange moniker.
Turns out, the name didn’t come from AIG at all but, rather, from the Fed. And it doesn’t have anything to do with the posh homes in the Hamptons. “The name ‘Maiden Lane’ comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s address on Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan,” Ashooh said. “Maiden Lane I, I understand, was Bear Stearns. Maiden Lane II is AIG’s securities lending facility, and Maiden Lane III is AIG’s credit default swap facility.”
So the street address of the NY Fed...The name might also stem from the street’s rep as New Amsterdam’s clothes-washing center. “Maiden Lane was the site of a freshwater stream where young maidens did their laundry,” explains Gerard R. Wolfe’s New York: A Guide to the Metropolis.
..and the name of the LLC holding the toxic assets..
..both pay homage to...
(wait for it...)
A PLACE WHERE LAUNDERING IS DONE. :p
:p
You cant make up stuff funnier than this...Last edited by thriftyandboringinohio; April 13, 2010, 03:24 PM.Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
It was commonplace in the Victorian era to rename streets in the red light district to Maiden Lane. We have one here in San Francisco:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_...n_Francisco%29
Maiden Lane was a code word for prostitution. How is that for a metaphor!Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
Originally posted by c1ue View Post
And the FED wants more powers!:eek:
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...739#post153739
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...502#post153502Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
"The Fed is an independent entity, so it's not quite right to say that the purchases were funded with taxpayer money."
Well fantastic! Now, where does the FED get it's money again? How does that work exactly? Explain to me again why some gov't independent organization gets the franchise to create money out of thin air when I have to go work for it?
Sooner or later even the dimmest light bulbs will catch on to this fraud.Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
Well, I don't think they create money out of thin air.Originally posted by skidder View Post
Rather they monetize stuff, such as perhaps mark to magic derivatives of derivatives of credit default swaps on unregulated hedge funds investing in fraudulent mortgage backed securities sold through a bankrupt investment bank ... or some such.
Now there. Doesn't that make you feel better? No thin air.
Surely you would rather breath the toxic fumes from an ill-maintained cesspool than you would breath the thin air from atop the nearest mountain, no?Most folks are good; a few aren't.Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
Jon Kyl, 47:45min,,,why not use BK laws.Originally posted by bill View Post
And Bunning 1:28:00 min and 1:38:00 ,,Fed wants more powers.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/293295-1
Today, on now:
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2.aspx
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbyi...wall-st-reform
05/04/10 07:44 PM ET
Over the next two weeks, the Senate will consider possibly hundreds of amendments to the Wall Street overhaul package
bill links
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...212#post158212Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
There's also AIA Aurora LLC and ALICO Holdings LLC (about $25 billion balance currently), and the Maiden Lane stuff is on the weekly H41 report in section 1 ( http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/Current/ ).Originally posted by thriftyandboringinohio View PostComment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
Originally posted by bill View Post
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...mostcommentart
MAY 21, 2010 WASHINGTON—The Senate on Thursday approved the most extensive overhaul of financial-sector regulation since the 1930s
• Empower the Federal Reserve to supervise the largest, most complex financial companiesComment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
This seems ridiculous; now that all the largest financial companies are banks - the Fed already has supervisory powers, no?Originally posted by billComment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
In addition to supervisory powers FED will have liquidation powers.Originally posted by c1ue View Post
The link above listen to Bunning,,1:30:30,,” FED BUY UP ASSETS”
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...53739#poststop
bill 03-21-10 12:33 PM
If Fed is granted powers we get an orderly asset transfer to the Fed. Fed expands balance sheet assets are transferred, crisis contained and controlled liquidation takes place. Inflationary as Fed expands Balance sheet to accommodate asset liquidation. Non performing debt, toxic assets are dumped onto Fed ‘s balance sheet in return for capital liquidity, paper received is replaced with “REAL ASSETS” hedged against inflation.Comment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
Its a circular argument at its best. Private banks create a consortium call themselves the 'Fed' - they than lend money to the nation. In return the nation prints gook and calls them treasuries. These treasuries are collateral for the loans. Most a vast majority are bought by the consortium itself - in effect financing the debt. This could be done with leverage but it enforced by a vig (Income tax/ Sales tax whatever). That takes back revenue and it used along with savings/checkings/etc as a fractional reserve which it then uses to issue debt.
When it has issued to much debt -the government then writes 'laws' that make these banks whole by the very people that add to its fractional reserve the most - the people. The vast tranche of 100 million people that pour on average 10 trillion back as part of this fractional reserve. Soon the contribution of roughly 10K a year will be 15 and they 17 - finely tuning an over worked, over indebted, over armed society -forcing it to have a war every decade atleast so as to make sure -many of the foreign investors who are slowly the biggest holders of debt (GCC/Japan/Germany/India/Russia) realize that if they don't buy them bad things can happen in Georgia/Yemen/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iraq and coming soon to a theater near you -North Korea -because they Chinese may get uppity.
What a systemComment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
liveOriginally posted by bill View Post
House - Senate Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Conference
http://financialservices.house.gov/schedule.htmlComment
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Re: Fed here. Fed there. Fed EVERYWHERE!
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/20...form+Bill.aspx
Conferees Continue to Negotiate Details on Financial Reform Bill
Today
Members of the House-Senate Conference Committee on financial regulation met for a third day of deliberations on the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The 43 committee members, or conferees, debated sections of the bill related to investor protections, executive compensation and corporate governance – as well as rules governing audits of the Federal Reserve. The bill contains 12 major sections and spans almost 2000 pages.
The committee hopes to have a bill approved by both chambers of Congress and signed into law by President Obama by July 4th.
Washington, DCComment
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