Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

QE For the People - What Else Could We Buy With $29 Trillion?


Central banks could be helping communities instead of enriching predatory, parasitic "too big to fail" banks and financial feudalism.

In a system that depends on lies and the credulity of the citizenry, the greatest lie is that the Federal Reserve's "quantitative easing" bailouts of the banks somehow help our citizens and communities.

To clarify this, ask yourself this question: what else could we have bought with the $29 trillion the Fed loaned or backstopped to the banks?

If you enjoy quibbling about the total sum of Fed support, be my guest; the Levy Institute [16]came up with $29 trillion after poring over all the data, while the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) tally topped $16 trillion. That's 100% of the nation's GDP and roughly 100% of the $16 trillion national debt.

While we're asking about opportunity costs [17], let's ask what else we could have bought with the $10 trillion that the Federal government has borrowed and blown in the past 11.7 years. The national debt was $5.727 trillion when G.W. Bush was sworn into office on January 20, 2001. It had risen to $10.626 trillion when President Obama was sworn into office in January, 2009. It is now $16.016 trillion, an increase of $5 trillion in less than four years in "debt held by the public" (i.e. the Chinese central bank, the Japanese central bank, the Federal Reserve, etc.)

You can check the totals for any recent date on treasurydirect.gov.

From time to time I have suggested alternatives to "wars of choice" and bailing out the financial Plutocracy, for example Cost of Iraq War: $3 Trillion; Cost of Solar Plants to Power all 105 million U.S Households: $500 Billion [19](April 10, 2008) and We’re Dropping the Ball on Renewable Energy [20](June 25, 2011).

$500 billion is roughly 3% of $16 trillion. That is rather astounding, isn't it? We could have switched to a (largely) solar-powered electrical grid for a mere 3% of what the Fed squandered to save the "too big to fail" banks. Yes, yes, I know we need a massive energy storage system for any solar-powered grid; shall we throw $1.1 trillion at the problem? That would total a mere 10% of what the Fed has provided to "save" crony-capitalist financial feudalism.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's be clear:

The "too big to fail banks" ARE the Federal Reserve.

The secret group of international bankers who own the Federal Reserve Bank are the same exact people who own the majority shares of Citi, Bank of America, Chase, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and so on.

They loan money to themselves at the Fed's discount window at 0% interest. Then expect US to pay them back for creating the money out of thin air WITH INTEREST!

The Fed IS the problem with Amerika and the entire world.

Research: Jekyll Island, 1913, Federal Reserve Bank

Anonymous said...

5:50 nailed it! Wake up people! It's not about black vs white , democrip vs rebloodican. It's about liberty vs oppression. The blood sucking global bankers are slowly destroying the very fabric of our republic. The wars, the bailouts, the backing of derivatives with our tax money. The jobs all moved overseas for slave wages in the name of profit. It's time to take out the trash!

Anonymous said...

It's time to take out the trash!

September 25, 2012 8:25 PM

I think you and 5:50 PM should be the first ones to go.

The "too big to fail banks" ARE the Federal Reserve.

No. They ARE NOT.

I don't know where you copied that crap from but you shouldn't go back there.

What is worse than you believing it is you spreading it around trying to get like minded buffoons to believe it also.

Please stop.