To big to fail and the secret loans from the Fed

I usually leave financial musings to others because it makes my head spin an my eyes roll back and glaze over in its complexity.  I have just read a Bloomberg article HERE that has forced the secret loans of the Bernanke led Federal Reserve to be reviewed and analyzed somewhat.

I say somewhat because the Fed was only forced to release some documents and it took Court cases and a SCOTUS decision to force the issue.  The bottom line in this cursory review was a whopping 7.7 TRILLION bucks were secretly manipulated (I use that term since there has been no transparency), a amount one half the size of the full American economy in the year. Done without Congressional oversight as well.

TARP was a pikers dream compared to the secret, off the books loans the 700 or so banks received in December 2009.  The largest banks, six in total, received the bulk of the secret money.  Supposedly the money was paid back but since the Fed was so intransigent and secretive about releasing any details over the last three years, I would doubt they are telling the truth.  Maybe Ron Paul is on to something?  So, it appears every American got a bailout since every American deposits money n these banks and all of them got bailouts, whether through TARP or these secret loans.

I know that is convoluted as a accusation, but when one looks at the article, one can see how all the secret money wormed its way into every level of finance in America.  Even "hedge funds" received money for goodness sakes.  They are an unregulated form of money conglomeration and have no backup insurance as far as I know!  All this stems from the housing collapse here in America.  Trillions of dollars were lost as 3.5 million homes were foreclosed by the banks.  It is ironic to me that these "too big to fail" institutions are still alive and kicking after taking back trillions in home losses (and making billions).  But, I guess the taxpayers are a bottomless pit since even Congress can't stop the Federal Reserve.  Where this is written in as law is still a mystery.

This statement from the Bloomberg article sums up this whole broken system which was saved by the fear of failure by the "smarter than the peons" folks, 

“The lack of transparency is not just frustrating; it really blocked accountability,” Barofsky says. “When people don’t know the details, they fill in the blanks. They believe in conspiracies.” 

In the end, Geithner had his way. The Brown-Kaufman proposal to limit the size of banks was defeated, 60 to 31. Bank supervisors meeting in Switzerland did mandate minimum reserves that institutions will have to hold, with higher levels for the world’s largest banks, including the six biggest in the U.S. Those rules can be changed by individual countries. "

So it would appear if the problem was not solved by 7.7 TRILLION in secret loans, we are going to see this again and there is not enough money on the planet to save our economy if it happens.  You just have to shake your heads in amazement that our institutions of higher learning could turn out such economic dunces.  I know local high school graduates with more smarts.  Too big to fail is a myth. God help us!