Fed's Bear Stearns Assets REVEALED, Many Now Worth Just Pennies On The Dollar

bloomberg.com:

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- After months of litigation and political scrutiny, the Federal Reserve yesterday ended a policy of secrecy over its Bear Stearns Cos. bailout.

In a 4:30 p.m. announcement in a week of congressional recess and religious holidays, the central bank released details of securities bought to aid Bear Stearns's takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bloomberg News sued the Fed for that information.

Read the whole story: bloomberg.com

Comments

[themodernleader]

03:42 PM on 04/04/2010

These documents must result in open investigation by Congress and indictments for usurping the role of Congress for the first time in history. If the persons committing these high crimes go unexamined and unindicted and punished, this nation's governance system will never be the same.
The Ancient Roman Senate lost their authority in much the same way as our Congress is losing theirs. We are a democracy in peril.

[themodernleader]

02:53 PM on 04/04/2010

There was a valid reason why Bernanke would not release the Bear Stearns sell-off to J.P. Morgan. For maybe the first time, Bernanke usurped the authority of Congress to legislate the expenditure of monies. He, alone, authorized the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars to purchase and back fraudulent created mortgages, so JPM would have guaranteed assets thrown in their lap.
This is the proof that is needed to indict Chairman Bernanke for subverting our Constitutional processes. The Congress must bring criminal indictments against Bernanke and others involved. If not, the Congress will have lost its right to legislate. This will be the final wound in a dying democratic system driven by a written Constitution.
Congress. Wake up. Act to save our Republic. Do your duty. Exercise your rights. Reclaim your proper place in American governance. If you refuse to act you are committing treason against your nation and your oath of Office.

[Javagold]

11:22 PM on 04/01/2010

Socialize Losses + Privatize Gains X Moral Hazard = NWO

[bayviking]

11:07 PM on 04/01/2010

Here's the real story. The US is policeman to the world, using its military to coerce economic "co-operation". But the country is borrowing money to operate. So when the "financial sector" screwed everybody else, the Fed and Treasury stepped up not because the "financial sector" deserved to be saved, but because otherwise our war machine would lose its funding. So they passed the losses onto US taxpayers. This is wrong. The "financial sector" is unethical at best and engaged in illegal activities at worst. They need to prosecuted, not saved. We need to stop policing the planet.

[InfinteShibumi]

10:16 PM on 04/01/2010

Gee, now what was that holdup all about? Oh yeah. Obfuscate.

[AwakeNow]

07:30 PM on 04/01/2010

Throw the "bewildered herd" a bone and then jump back in the closet. The sunlight hurts their eyes.

[booki]

07:30 PM on 04/01/2010

Talk about April Fools.......

[Kevin Atlanta]

06:19 PM on 04/01/2010

Truth from the FED? Please...
This arrogant Corporate Communist Bernanke took it upon himself to set US Policy, changed the very nature of Goldman Sachs and Citi and we are supposed to trust this creature.
Audit the FED and Destroy our relationship with this Central Bank.

[RenoSage]

06:16 PM on 04/01/2010

What is being ignored is the fact that if the Fed had not acted when and how it did, the recession would
have sunk to the level of 1929 with a run on the banks and unemployment at 25% and people
jumping out of windows.

[ErnestineBass]

08:24 PM on 04/01/2010

LOL...says you.

And the TBTF banksters.

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:54 AM on 04/02/2010

He's right.

[WIpatriot]

11:37 AM on 04/05/2010

I like the jumping out of windows part...instant karma.

[sonofsamphm1c]

05:51 PM on 04/01/2010

From the article:

"Assets in Maiden Lane II totaled $34.8 billion, according to the Fed, which set their current market value in its weekly balance sheet at $15.3 billion. That means Maiden Lane II assets are worth 44 cents on the dollar, or 44 percent of their face value, according to the Fed. ..."

The difference between 34.8 billion and 15.3 billion is 19.5 billion.

According to the theory of socializing losses and privatizing gains, who lost what?

See if you can figure it out from this hopelessly horrible article.

Write down what you think Geithner paid for the ML2 "toxic" assets. Write down what you think the Federal Reserve has lost on them. Try to be honest: write what you think he paid, what he lost, and then go look it up.

[RenoSage]

06:10 PM on 04/01/2010

The best place to read the whole story is in THE FED WE TRUST. It was written by a reporter from
the Wall ST. Journal. (I can't remember his name. sorry)

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:40 AM on 04/02/2010

David Wessel. Good book.

But really, all you have to do is read the AUDITED financial statements of the Federal Reserve, and the periodic reports. They're much more up to date than Wessel's book. They're available online.

The Fed paid 19.8 billion. AIG paid 1 billion, and AIG is on the hook for the first one billion of any subsequently realized loss.

So at that moment in time somebody lost 14 billion dollars, and it was not the taxpayer. In point of fact, because of Geithner's shrewdness, the taxpaying public is going to get to read a news article someday in which he is informed that his principal has been repaid along with a nice little return for his trouble.

After so many similar news articles to date, one would think this might be sinking in, but it's a hard-headed world.

[lightningbolt]

04:18 PM on 04/01/2010

We must continue pressuring the Fed to reveal everything it knows. We must continue to push for an audit of the Fed. Only an audit will show us the truth.

[sonofsamphm1c]

04:42 PM on 04/01/2010

An audit will attach names to numbers we already know to the dime.

And then everybody will do a SCHEDULE A shrug of their shoulders and forget about it because here is nothing there.

[lightningbolt]

04:45 PM on 04/01/2010

How do you know there is nothing there if the audit hasn't been completed? Your assumptions are based on no evidence.

[Stencil]

03:00 PM on 04/01/2010

What a surprise, garbage assets and losses were absorbed by the public; profitable assets privatized by JPM, then today: "Geithner: Disparity in recovery 'deeply unfair'". Oh really Mr. Geithner, now why is it that the recovery is deeply unfair? Today we also get to learn that George Soros made a cool 3 billion this year, about a 20% gain in net assets, no doubt largely do to his assets being still worth something thanks to Mr. Geithner. Well I suppose this is trickle down economics at their best.

Mikhail Bakunin made a target out of religion, and while I agree with him on that matter, he missed the broader deleterious aspect of religion that extends into modern society, dogma, and it's force against reason in politics and economics.

[sonofsamphm1c]

03:08 PM on 04/01/2010

Show your math.

[lowfiron]

04:56 PM on 04/01/2010

Good point there Stencil.

[ConnectedTraveler]

02:43 PM on 04/01/2010

It took them this long to cook the books properly.

[lowfiron]

04:57 PM on 04/01/2010

Cool, that was a good laugh Traveler.

[CanHandleTheTruth]

02:07 PM on 04/01/2010

Trust the Fed to tell you the truth about the Bear buyout, do ya?

What won't be discussed is the covering of the silver shorts that Bear retained that posed a systemic threat to the economy...which served as a core, albeit certainly clandestine, reason for the Bear bail-out by JPM.

If you want the truth about Bear and the entire Ponzi Scheme that is modern finance, don't go to the Fed, nor to the MSM, which is owned. Go to ZeroHedge.com, GATA.org, and other independent analysts blogging online.

[lowfiron]

05:04 PM on 04/01/2010

During all this bullshit it dawned on me WHY there is a Skull and Bones Club and Ivy League Fratboys. Even if they were not in a fraternity or sorority, that Ivy League Finance Club Stink is finally being noticed!!
No! I'm not mad, resentful or pissed off. I'm having a few French Revolution fantasies tho!

[ErnestineBass]

07:48 PM on 04/01/2010

BINGO!

100:1 is the magic number.

Nathan Lewis has posted a couple of good articles here on HP pertaining to the "funny business" going on at COMEX, and the GATA revelations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-lewis/its-ponzimonium-in-the-go_b_519893.html