The true scale of the bank bailout – it's not just TARP

Matt Taibbi, in a blog post praising Bernie Sanders to the detriment of Mr. Yes I Can (And You Can't Stop Me), has this to say in passing about the scale of the bank bailout.

This information came out as a result of Sen. Sanders persistence in inserting an "audit the Fed" provision into the Dodd-Frank regulatory bill. Here's Taibbi (my emphasis):

I was in Washington last week and visited Bernie in his office, mainly to talk about the incredible results of the Federal Reserve audit, about which I’ll be writing more in the upcoming weeks and after the New Year. The audit of the Fed was undertaken because Bernie and a few other members of congress fought very hard during the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform debate to force open Ben Bernanke’s books, and as a result we now know the staggering details of the secret bailout era. We know that Citigroup received $1.6 trillion in loans, and Morgan Stanley $2 trillion, and Goldman Sachs – the same Goldman Sachs that bragged about how quickly it paid back its $10 billion TARP bailout – over $600 billion. We know that hedge fund billionaires who moved their corporate addresses to the Cayman Islands to avoid U.S. taxes were rewarded by their buddies in government with huge Fed loans; we know that the U.S. government likewise has been extending massive loans to a variety of Japanese car companies at a time when many American auto workers in Detroit have seen their wages cut in half, to $14 an hour. There’s that and there’s more on the outrage front, and we know it all because Sanders kicked and screamed and stamped his feet about Fed secrecy until just enough other members of the Senate decided to go along with him.

Did you catch that? It's a ton of info.

Morgan Stanley — $2 trillion
Citigroup — $1.6 trillion
Goldman Sachs — more than one-half trillion (pikers)
Japanese automakers
Hyper-wealthy individuals

TARP is a drop in the bucket, and anyone who trumpets TARP repayments as meaningful is meaning to fool you.

These companies exist to hoover money into the pockets of the already wealthy. Obama just gave them tax cuts. Now he wants your Social Security. And it's Christmas.

The dots just connect themselves; they're not even pretending anymore.

GP