4.02.2010

Dirty Fed loaded up on crap assets, now in deep doo-doo with no exit strategy

Read all about it at JDA and Jesse.

And this is probably the first time I've ever agreed with angry drunken dwarf Robert Reich:
First, only Congress is supposed to risk taxpayer dollars. The Fed is not part of the legislative branch. Its secret deals, announced almost two years after they were done, violate the democratic process, if not the Constitution itself. Thomas Jefferson put a stop to Alexander Hamilton’s idea of a powerful central bank out of fear it would be unaccountable to the public. The Fed has just proven Jefferson’s point.

Second, if the Fed can secretly bail out big banks, the problem of “moral hazard” – bankers taking irresponsible risks because they know they’ll be rescued – is far greater than anyone assumed after Congress and the Bush and Obama administrations bailed out the banks. Big banks will always be too big to fail because they know the Fed will secretly back them up if they get into trouble, even if Congress won’t do it openly.


As we said, No Exit.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking it would be poetic justice if these "masters of the universe" types have built themselves a great big shit sandwich and now they're gonna have to take a great big bite in public - yum-yum, nut flavor! Do we detect an undigested kidney bean? I think the institution will survive but if my guess is right, it will be very funny for spectators who have been watching the individuals who make up the group.

Fed Christmas gift idea - Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" hard cover ?

Jeff

Happy Super Tuesday!