Rep. Alan Grayson talks to the Federal Reserve Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman of the Federal Reserve, asking her questions regarding trillions of dollars that came from the Fed’s expanded balance sheet and what the losses on its $2 trillion portfolio are. The Inspector General does not have the answers Grayson is looking for. Grayson asked Coleman if her agency had done any research into the decision not to save Lehman Brothers, which “sent shockwaves through the entire financial system,” Coleman said it had not. “What about the $1 trillion plus expansion of the Federal reserve’s balance sheet since last September?” Grayson asked. “We have different connotations,” Coleman replied. “We’re actually conducting a fairly high-level review of the various lending facilities collectively.” Translation: Nobody at the Fed knows where the money went. Do you know what who got the $1 trillion or more in the Fed’s expansion of its balance, Grayson pressed. “I do not know. We have not looked at this specific area at the particular point on that specific review,” Coleman answer. What about the trillions of off-balance transactions since last September, Grayson asked. Coleman demurred again, saying the IG does not have jurisdiction to audit the Federal Reserve. Grayson pointed out that it was the inspector general’s job to audit such spending and asked again if the office had done any investigation at all. Coleman’s answer: Not enough yet to even respond. “We are in not a position to say if there losses.” Grayson concluded, “I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve, including the inspector general, is keeping track of this.” Video: Federal Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion Posted in Categories: Australia, Contributor, Economy, External Research, USA,Videos.Federal Reserve Cannot Account For $9 Trillion
By Gold Investments on May 14, 2009 | More Posts By Gold Investments | Author's Website
Subscribe by RSS 
Subscribe by Email 
Email This Post To A Friend
Saturday, 23 May 2009
If you like this article please...
2 Comments :
Posts
I find this particularly disturbing. And I think a lot of other people do too. I just wish more of the American public cared. I think there is so much smoke and mirrors going on that are distracting most from this kind of stuff. That and the MSM is in the pocket of DC.
You know foreign countries like China are looking at this and are doing what they can to get out of the dollar. Shouldn’t be any wonder that China has been building up their gold reserves and is pushing the IMF to sell some more gold so that they can buy it with all those dollar reserves they’ve got.
People wonder why gold remains so high and it’s ineptitude like this that answer the question. Looking at the ExactPrice widget I see gold is at $926.60 right now. Even silver is up. My guess they will remain up until inflation sets in from printing all that money to make up for that missing trillions.
I liked what Peter Grandich had to say about this: “I must say this news and some follow-up research I’ve done in the wee hours scares the living daylight out of me. I’ve been in the trenches for 25 years. I remember the mood immediately after the 1987 stock market crash, sadly after 911 and other terrible events but in all honesty, this display of ineptness and bewilderment by the person in charge of watching the people in charge of the printing press, has taken me to new lows of confidence in my government and our future.”
Finance News
Video: Federal Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion
By: Julie Crawshaw
The Federal Reserve apparently can't account for $9 trillion in off-balance sheet transactions.
When Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) asked Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman of the Federal Reserve some very basic questions about where the trillions of dollars that have come from the Fed's expanded balance sheet, the IG didn't know.
Worse, nobody at the Fed seems to have any idea what the losses on its $2 trillion portfolio really are.
"I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve is keeping track of anything," Grayson says.
Grayson asked Coleman if her agency had done any research into the decision not to save Lehman Brothers, which “sent shockwaves through the entire financial system,” Coleman said it had not.
“What about the $1 trillion plus expansion of the Federal reserve’s balance sheet since last September?” Grayson asked.
“We have different connotations,” Coleman replied. “We’re actually conducting a fairly high-level review of the various lending facilities collectively.”
Translation: Nobody at the Fed knows where the money went.
Do you know what who got the $1 trillion or more in the Fed's expansion of its balance, Grayson pressed.
"I do not know. We have not looked at this specific area at the particular point on that specific review," Coleman answer.
What about the trillions of off-balance transactions since last September, Grayson asked.
Coleman demurred again, saying the IG does not have jurisdiction to audit the Federal Reserve.
Grayson pointed out that it was the inspector general's job to audit such spending and asked again if the office had done any investigation at all.
Coleman's answer: Not enough yet to even respond. "We are in not a position to say if there losses."
Grayson concluded, "I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve, including the inspector general, is keeping track of this."
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the bank is working on ways to rein in the massive balance sheet commitments.
"A majority of the members who made these projections just recently took 2 percent as being an appropriate number" for inflation, Bernanke said Monday.
"Somewhere between 1-1/2 to 2 percent is basically the number that our committee has individually stated is the appropriate medium-term inflation rate.
"To achieve that we need to demonstrate that we will be able to exit from the balance sheet position that we currently have, and have been working on this intensively," Bernanke said in response to questions after a speech to a conference organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, reported by Reuters.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Editor's Notes: