Trillions to Europe

[Every year, friend-of-the-site David Collum writes a detailed "Year in Review" synopsis full of keen perspective and plenty of wit. This year's is no exception. Moreover, he's graciously selected CM.com as the site where it will be published in full. It's quite longer than our usual posts, but by any measure 2011 offered an over-abundance of 'business as unusual' developments to summarize. We hope you enjoy David's colorful observations and insights - which are very much his own. -- cheers,

To encourage your read, here is one excerpt from this long piece:

Here's my biggest gripe in a nutshell. The Fed, whether it's a wholly owned subsidiary of the banking cartel or not, is charged with protecting the banking system. Period/full stop. The banking system is global. Period/full stop. Ergo, one does not even know if the Fed's actions are in the best interest of the United States. Period/full stop. What is to prevent them from sending trillions to Europe, Asia, or any faraway place because bankers got themselves in trouble? Absolutely nothing; they do it relentlessly. (They even sent the missing pallets of $100 dollar bills to Iraq for Christ's sakes!) Bloomberg's FOIA suit showed how far off the reservation they had strayed, pumping in at least $7.7 trillion. Bernie Sanders claims the audit shows $16 trillion. The Levy Economics Institute claims numbers approaching $30 trillion. We keep hearing that we made money on the bailouts, including from General Motors! That's an OMG/LOL/WTF all rolled into one. The $700 billion TARP was put on display for public consumption. It wasdesigned to be paid back in the light of day. The rest of the money entered the system covertly. They saved GM during the crisis by pooling their ample toxic assets, named it Ally Bank, and bailed it. GM cost us a fortune. Bankruptcy lawyers saw alternative strategies and better outcomes as described in an Econtalk interview . They are selling off assets and declaring profits (like junkies selling blood), but have a balance sheet filled with dregs. Bank of America recently dumped its enormous derivatives book into its banking subsidiary to assist the Fed with another profitable bailout in the near future. Hussman outlined in vivid detail the illegality of a number of Fed’s asset purchases .