Was the Fed Just Nationalized?

From Ellen Brown at Web of Debt... Her analysis is always informative and mostly understandable.

ellenbrown.com...

Did Congress just nationalize the Fed? No. But the door to that result has been cracked open

Mainstream politicians have long insisted that Medicare for all, a universal basic income, student debt relief and a slew of other much-needed public programs are off the table because the federal government cannot afford them.

But that was before Wall Street and the stock market were driven onto life-support by a virus.

Congress has now suddenly discovered the magic money tree.

It took only a few days for Congress to unanimously pass the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which will be doling out $2.2 trillion in crisis relief, most of it going to Corporate America with few strings attached.

Beyond that, the Federal Reserve is making over $4 trillion available to banks, hedge funds and other financial entities of all stripes; it has dropped the fed funds rate (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) effectively to zero; and it has made $1.5 trillion available to the repo market.

It is also the Federal Reserve that will be picking up the tab for this bonanza, at least to start.

The US central bank has opened the sluice gates to unlimited quantitative easing, buying Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities “in the amounts needed to support smooth market functions.”

Last month, the Fed bought $650 billion worth of federal securities. At that rate, notes Wall Street on Parade, it will own the entire Treasury market in about 22 months. As Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari acknowledged on 60 Minutes, “There is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve.”

She continues:

The taxpayers have obviously been shortchanged in this deal.

David Dayen calls it “a robbery in progress.”

But there have been some promising developments that could be harnessed for the benefit of the people.

The Fed has evidently abandoned its vaunted “independence” and is now working in partnership with the Treasury. In some sense, it has been nationalized.

A true partnership, however, would make the printing press available for more than just buying toxic corporate assets. A central bank that was run as a public utility could fund programs designed to kickstart the economy, stimulate productivity and generally serve the public.

There is much more for those who are interested in such things.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Did Congress just nationalize the Fed? No. But

clickbait idiocy at its " finest "

a reply to: FyreByrd

Not much to add here. Folks like myself have been saying it for weeks now.

Are those 1200 checks worth all of this?

For god's sake, for our children's very lives, Mr. President, declare the FED a direct threat to national security and burn it to the ground!!!

They have literally destroyed our country and now the People are being violated and trampled on because of their insidious plan!

Seize their assets and get Congress to constitutionally reform our Treasury and monetary system!!

The only other two choices are:

1. Civil war, or

2. Submit

Plain and sobering.

That's it.

Can you tell me in plain English what the hell all that means for a working class person like me?

Won’t the majority of that be sold back once the economy straightens out .

Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump turned a profit . (Jk)

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: FyreByrd

Did Congress just nationalize the Fed? No. But

clickbait idiocy at its " finest "

Usually in pretty critical of click bait type headlines.

In this case though, a lot of what's happening with the fed is severely unreported or under played when it is.

There are different ways to word what's going on right now, but either way, it's unprecedented and extreme.

Rich people protecting their investments with your tax dollars.

Light the torches and grab your pitchforks Boyz. LOL.

♪ ♫ Gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight!! ♩ ♬

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Stooge...

Lol.

At the end of the day, the President is considered by wealth, if nothing else, an elitist himself.

I guess that never dawned on a lot of people, but he's a club member; just a different level of the club.

I mean come on...

He can't possibly stand up there spouting his reassurances when he knows perfectly well what's going on.
All his experience in corporate settings and entertainment arenas and he couldn't do some quick napkin math and see the utter folly of all this??

He's just managing the "transition" as would any other president we would of voted for, imo.

Hard choices ahead that will be made for us if don't make them for ourselves.

originally posted by: Fallingdown
Won’t the majority of that be sold back once the economy straightens out .

Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump turned a profit . (Jk)

The feds did turn a profit through some of their actions in 08'.

Is that possible now? Sure.

Does that outweigh the ramifications of keeping "too big to fail" companies addicted to federal money every time they get caught with their pants down? I don't think so.

What happens when we have another inevitable raging bull market that leads to a crash in 10-15 years? We raise the bar on assistance? What happens when we keep raising the bar and it finally goes bust? The taxpayer is left with the burden, as usual.

originally posted by: Trueman
Can you tell me in plain English what the hell all that means for a working class person like me?

I think it means that the working class will keep working, but will now have to work to serf.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Yes everybody hates the to big to fail ( pick you’re conglomerate )

But it’s not like we really have a choice this time .

a reply to: Fallingdown

But it’s not like we really have a choice this time .

That's what they said last time. And I'd almost accept that logic if they did anything once the environment was better to prevent that kind of situation from happening again.

Like, here's some loans... But if we go into a bull market for a few years, you damn well better have some cash reserves to prove you learned your lesson. Because we're not going to give you liquidity again if you haven't.

That's just an example. The point is, hardly anything was done to prevent this from happening again, and we can all even admit it's worse this time.

"it's not their fault" is just not true. Life throws curve balls. We don't live in a constant bull market.

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: Trueman
Can you tell me in plain English what the hell all that means for a working class person like me?

I think it means that the working class will keep working, but will now have to work to serf.

Oh I see now. So, nothing changed ?

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: EternalShadow

Trump is the perfect stooge to facilitate something nefarious.

I would agree if I was still in the stage of believing liberal propaganda.
But , I left that foolishness behind , years ago , when I matured.

it's not so worldly cut and dried like that

the paradigms keep changing faster....it's Biblical

do not look for the remedy....this is remedy for the devils bargain underway and it won't take long...

a reply to: CriticalStinker

A worldwide global shut down where nobody’s allowed to go in Home Depot a health check up. (src)

Isn’t quite the same as 2008 .

Oh wait I know somebody with a plan to fix it .

The global warming bunch they’ve been trying to take over the economy with that BS for two decades .

I’m quite comfortable with bailing big banks out to prevent those yahoos from screwing it up more ..

Through the Small Busines Administration forgivable loans are available to businesses with less than 500 employees. The loan is caped at 2.5 times the average monthly payroll in 2019. The money must be used for payroll, rent,and utilities of your business. Corporations and sole proprietorships can qualify. If you spend the money for anything else you have to pay it back.

I have high hopes that my company will qualify. We have closed for two weeks at the request of our governor. If the lockdown is extended and the SBA is refused, I will have no choice but to commit to a massive layoff.

So you see the evil corporations aren’t stealing all of the money.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I will not be belligerent. I thank the Federal reserve for bringing our borrowing rate to near Zero.

"Thank you." Was my first thought when I first heard this.

This justifies their service some what, and I appreciate that they feel they have enough and can give back to us in our time of need.

a reply to: Nickn3

From my experience small businesses aren’t utilizing this avenue. I know numerous small business owners and not one are interested in some government contract after how they reacted to Coronavirus. Think about it, they’re expected to take a loan to pay people that aren’t working from the same entity that just screwed their business and put them in that position.