United States Treasury security

Who Owns The Federal Reserve?

~ admin ~ 7 Comments

Global Research January 29 2012

NY Federal Reserve Building

The Fed is privately owned. Its shareholders are private banks

“Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders.” – The Honorable Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in the 1930s

The Federal Reserve (or Fed) has assumed sweeping new powers in the last year. In an unprecedented move in March 2008, the New York Fed advanced the funds for JPMorgan Chase Bank to buy investment bank Bear Stearns for pennies on the dollar. The deal was particularly controversial because Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, sits on the board of the New York Fed and participated in the secret weekend negotiations.1 In September 2008, the Federal Reserve did something even more unprecedented, when it bought the world’s largest insurance company. The Fed announced on September 16 that it was giving an $85 billion loan to American International Group (AIG) for a nearly 80% stake in the mega-insurer. The Associated Press called it a “government takeover,” but this was no ordinary nationalization. Unlike the U.S. Treasury, which took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the week before, the Fed is not a government-owned agency. Also unprecedented was the way the deal was funded. The Associated Press reported:

“The Treasury Department, for the first time in its history, said it would begin selling bonds for the Federal Reserve in an effort to help the central bank deal with its unprecedented borrowing needs.”2

This is extraordinary. Why is the Treasury issuing U.S. government bonds (or debt) to fund the Fed, which is itself supposedly “the lender of last resort” created to fund the banks and the federal government? Yahoo Finance reported on September 17:

“The Treasury is setting up a temporary financing program at the Fed’s request. The program will auction Treasury bills to raise cash for the Fed’s use. The initiative aims to help the Fed manage its balance sheet following its efforts to enhance its liquidity facilities over the previous few quarters.”

Continue reading →

The Illusion Laid Bare

~ admin ~ 3 Comments

Surviving Survivalism Blog | November 14 2012

cartoon_draghi

If you are waiting for the economic collapse, you’re too late – it’s already happened. And it’s TWCTM (Those Who Control the Money) who did it. They pulled the rug right out from under themselves. We are living in a world of complete economic fantasy, using numbers that are unfathomable, unconscionable, and un-repayable.

Those of you who already know this, bear with me for the sake of those who don’t, but here’s a quick primer on big-picture economics in the U.S.: Congress tells the Treasury that it needs some amount of money. The treasury asks the Federal Reserve Bank (“the Fed” – a privately held company, not a U.S. Government agency) to print/issue an amount of money. The Treasury issues Treasury Notes (a.k.a. T-Bills) to cover that amount of money and these Notes are sold to other countries who are, in effect, loaning us that money until the maturity date of the note. (Lately, though, other countries are less than enthusiastically buying up our T-bills. The biggest purchaser is now the Fed, themselves.)

That’s why it’s called a “Note” – it’s a loan. Every dollar in circulation since 1913 is a loan. On top of the principle, the Fed requires a payment of interest for this “service” they provide. The purchasers of the T-bills also collect an interest payment as motivation to loan us money. Who is ultimately responsible for the loans and interest for every penny used in the United States? YOU ARE. No matter what they do with the money, no matter in who’s pocket it winds up, YOU GET THE BILL. And don’t think the bill is paid by Income Taxes – that only pays a fraction of the interest due!

Continue reading →