$15+ Trillion, Now that’s a lot of money…..

I can’t even think about what I could buy for $15 trillion or how that much money could be spent. I guess we could call our Congressional members and ask them how they spent it but I don’t think they would know therefore, it would be a waste of time. What I do know is that it took Bloomberg to file a lawsuit against the federal government to get information on how our government spends money and that is insane.

Finally, after three years the federal government released 1000 of pages (29,346) of secret loan documents only because the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the banking industries attempt to hide the documents. The pages contain the financial institutions names and amount of money borrowed during a discount window given to the banks by the U.S. central bank.

Although it was extremely difficult for Bloomberg to access information about how our money was spent we now can read about the actions of our elected officials. The following were some of the ways that our politicians felt $15 trillion should be spent;
· Goldman Sachs Bank USA, 5 loans, the largest $50 million and the smallest was $1 million and today they are still losing money, while $15.3 billion has been set aside for bonuses this year alone.
· JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), 1 six month long loan process that equaled $5.9 billion
and the list goes on for another 28,000 thousand pages…

I realize that this story came out a few months ago but it just never seems to go away with the fact that some of these companies will give out millions if not billions in 2011 bonuses while millions of Americans are still suffering.

Questions that women should be thinking about:
· Why did the banks want this information hidden from the American people?
· Where was the average American’s bailout?
· Will there be a long term result of a stable economy from the all the money spent? and What will a stable economy really feel and look like?
· How did political campaign contributions from these organizations and/or banks affect the decisions made before and during the bailout process?
· Was the financial behavior by these organizations and/or banks criminal?
· What really would have been the impact on the financial system if the banks were allowed to fail?
· Did any political officials and/or their staff make any personal profits from any transactions?


Then there is the biggest question of all; What did those companies and/or banks do with that money they got from TARP, TALF and the FED Discount Window?

My best guess is that the government has no clue what happened with the trillions given out or what the results really will be. I think their all praying just like the rest of us that this all works out.

With trillions given out (some which have been paid back) with no accountability to the tax payers it’s not hard to understand that we may have a corrupt political system that needs to be changed.

Why should women be concerned about this mess?
The TARP, TALF and the FED Discount Windowtransactions affect the Nations ability too:
· to create jobs
· have healthy community
· pay down the debit


References:
Goldman Borrowed From Fed Discount Window at Least Five Times, Data Show
By Christine Harper, Michael J. Moore and Bob Ivry –
Goldman Sachs bankers to receive $15.3bn in pay and bonuses, Jill Treanor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011
JPMorgan Borrowed at Least $5.9 Billion From Fed Discount Window
By Dawn Kopecki - Mar 31, 2011 1:06 PM PT