Maiden Lane???

Could someone (if you know) explain the idea behind the term "Maiden Lane?" Is there some meaning there that I'm missing? Is it just a name?

Or is it the concept that it is were we are taken and then forcibly abused.... by the Fed. Sort of a financial "date rape."

Maiden Lane LLC is the first holding company bearing the name that was created when JPMorgan Chase took over Bear Stearns in early 2008. It holds an asset portfolio that JPMorgan found too risky to assume in whole, and consequently the Federal Reserve Bank of New York extended a $30 billion credit line to the limited liability company to facilitate the unwinding of these assets over time...

A November 6, 2008, update by the Federal Reserve showed that the fair value of the assets was at $26.8 billion, meaning a book loss of $2 billion for the Federal Reserve.

en.wikipedia.org...

Maiden Lane II LLC is a limited liability company created when American International Group Inc. (AIG) was taken over by the U.S. government in September 2008. Since AIG's subsidiaries hold a great many residential mortgage-backed securities that are very risky, Maiden Lane II LLC was formed to purchase these RMBS. On December 12, 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began extending credit to Maiden Lane II LLC. On the Fed's Balance Sheet as of May 6, 2009, net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane II LLC are 18,016 million dollars

en.wikipedia.org...

Maiden Lane III LLC is a holding company created when American International Group Inc. (AIG) was taken over by the U.S. government in September 2008. Similar to Maiden Lane II LLC, Maiden Lane III LLC aims to purchase multi-sector collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) on which the Financial Products group of AIG had written credit default swap contracts. On November 25, 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began extending credit to Maiden Lane III LLC. As of May 6, 2009, The Federal Reserve's net portfolio holding of Maiden Lane III LLC is 26.4 billion dollars

en.wikipedia.org...

Bloomberg has an interesting story up on the AIG derivative "payoff" mess I've repeatedly written about (just stick "aig & billions" into the search box and start reading. Make sure you have a lot of time):

Beginning late in the week of Nov. 3, the New York Fed, led by President Timothy Geithner, took over negotiations with the banks from AIG, together with the Treasury Department and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s Federal Reserve. Geithner’s team circulated a draft term sheet outlining how the New York Fed wanted to deal with the swaps -- insurance-like contracts that backed soured collateralized-debt obligations.

....

Part of a sentence in the document was crossed out. It contained a blank space that was intended to show the amount of the haircut the banks would take, according to people who saw the term sheet. After less than a week of private negotiations with the banks, the New York Fed instructed AIG to pay them par, or 100 cents on the dollar. The content of its deliberations has never been made public.

Where did the NY Fed get this authority? Remember, this wasn't the NY Fed's money - it was ours. Where was it appropriated by Congress? This was not part of TARP - AIG was separate.

All appropriation bills must originate in The House.

This one didn't originate at all. It was simply arrogated by The Federal Reserve and the NY Fed.

...


This deal was even worse than it first appeared. The Fed also took a bunch of assets (which, it appears, is flatly illegal) and set them forward in an "off balance sheet" thing called Maiden Lane. How are they doing?

According to a quarterly New York Fed report on its holdings, the $29.6 billion in securities held by Maiden Lane III had declined in value by about $7 billion as of June 30.

Remember, Bernanke has repeatedly told us that The Federal Reserve was highly unlikely to lose any money on any of their programs.

In reality it looks like the loss - so far - has been 25%.

If that's "unlikely" I'd like to know what "likely" is.

More to the point, this appears to be an unauthorized appropriation of funds in fact by The Federal Reserve and NY Fed in which not only United States asset losses but those of FOREIGN INTERESTS were effectively transferred to the US Taxpayer without Congressional review or approval.

market-ticker.org...



[edit on 27-10-2009 by RoofMonkey]

reply to post by RoofMonkey



It comes from the Federal Reserve Bank's (back door) address in lower Manhattan, New York.

What's in a Maiden Lane Name?

So it literally is "the back door" for their shenanigans.

Irritating. Nice of them to rub our faces in it.

Originally posted by RoofMonkey
So it literally is "the back door" for their shenanigans.

Choosing the back door address does sound somewhat tongue-in-cheek, to put it nicely...





[edit on 28-10-2009 by Vanitas]

Look. A lot of these banking transactions make people angry for no good reason. Is it a scam? Yes. And no. It is all a scam. Learn to enjoy the scam. The Fed are simply facilitating LIFE. This is what we all do. We all bank. The extreme majority of us humans don't hunt and gather animals and crops anymore. We bank. The starting position is sweat equity. That is your labor. You can work and save up excess money to a position of capital. Then you can CAPITALIZE! This is the joy of capitalism. The idea that by work and intellect you can achieve ''hunting and gathering'' via profits earned on capital investment. Old folks run out of sweat equity, people. Old folks need to capitalize on..... wait for it..... the sweat equity of..... here it comes.... the YOUTH!

Want a new suit? Here it is. Sign right here. Get up and go to work tomorrow. Be responsible. Make your payment. Live LIFE!!

Want a car? Here it is. Sign right here. Get up and go to work tomorrow. Be responsible. Make your payment. Live LIFE!!

Want a house? Here it is. Sign right here. Get up and go to work tomorrow. Be responsible. Make your payment. Live LIFE!!

All forms of social organization other than capitalism are total failures due to the natural growth of the individual, the natural growth that is waiting to occur within all of us.

When you are a baby, you just goo-goo-goo, you do nothing for yourself. Your parents do it all for you. When you grow up you are supposed to do it all for yourself and not expect ''substitute parents'' to do it for you. In other words, tax payers, government officials, etc. are the substitute parents to the lost little lambs that refuse to grow up. This is a very dangerous position to be in. You are at the mercy of fascists when you let others do everything for you.

When you are stable on your own, and you can support others with your surplus, then you can make more goo-goo babies. Not before! Here is another problem the world over.... babies making babies.

Thats Almost exactly what the UK government is doing.

But because we have Gorden in charge it hasn't happened yet.

Is simple really.

The companies are created as 'bad companies' for financial institutions.

The really bad assets of these companies are then transferred to these maiden lane companies.

thus the private companies, take the good bits, keep the profits.

the tax payers look after the 'bad' bits and guarantee the losses.

Its effectively an excuse to quietly transfer 'billions' of bad debts out of these companies onto the books of the tax payer.

The UK is trying to do the same with northern rock, but hasn't been competent enough to implement it yet.

Originally posted by Jamesy_boy

...
thus the private companies, take the good bits, keep the profits.

the tax payers look after the 'bad' bits and guarantee the losses.

Its effectively an excuse to quietly transfer 'billions' of bad debts out of these companies onto the books of the tax payer.

...

And this is the part about it that pisses me off to the extreme.

Not the money fiddling at the banks... not the capitalism. It's the rampant cheating at business.

If you suffer a loss from your business model... you are supposed to FAIL. Let someone else sift through the mess and figure out how to salvage something usable from it through their own hard work.

Thats what bankruptcy proceedings are all about. They were put in place for a reason. USE EM.