Isn't it nice to know that the US Federal Reserve financial crisis programs actually made American banks billions, while screwing the rest of the population?
As reported here, a report from the Congressional Research Service shows American banks made big bucks borrowing cash from the Fed – and then selling it back to the Fed. It was a total scam. The banks took near zero-interest funds from the Federal Reserve and then loaned money back to the federal government – at 12 times the rate. They got money for free, and then made a profit courtesy of the US government.
Releasing the report, Congressman Bernie Sanders has described the scam as "direct corporate welfare to big banks." And as he points out, the US government screwed ordinary people to make the banks rich. Millions of everyday borrowers, like households and small businesses, could not secure loans from the banks. They needed the money to tide them over until the crisis ended and instead, they went bust or had their homes repossessed by the banks.
"Instead of using this money to reinvest in the productive economy, however, it appears that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America used a large portion of these near-zero-interest loans to buy U.S. government securities and earn a higher interest rate at the same time, providing free money to some of the largest financial insti¬tu-tions in this country," Sanders said.
Just another example of the way banks are a protected species in the United States. It's corporate welfare, socialism for the rich, American style.
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