February 9th, 2009 | 
Author: If the stimulus package that the U.S. congress is proposing is completed in its present form it will raise the government’s financial commitments to $9.7 trillion and the pledges amount to almost two-thirds of the value of everything that was produced in the U.S. last year!
How big is $9.7 trillion?
To put it into perspective, it’s enough to pay off more than 90% of the nation’s home mortgages or enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the entire world!
Over the course of the last two years ‘The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department’ and ‘Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’ have either lent or spent close to $3 trillion and they have pledged to provide up to $5.7 trillion more.
The ‘Troubled Asset Relief Program’ (TAR) which was approved four months ago was granted $700 billion and since then an additional $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates have been approved.
So who will get the other $8 trillion?
· Well none of the names have been disclosed, but the money will supposedly be used for lending programs and guarantees, all of which will be under the authority of the Fed and the FDIC.
What’s more, the commitments are expected to grow even more in the very near future!
The Treasury postponed a planned announcement about new guarantees for illiquid assets to insure against losses without taking them off banks’ balance sheets and said that the announcement will only be made after the Senate votes on the stimulus package.
The Fed said on Friday, February 2009, that it will delay the start of a $200 billion program called the ‘Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility’ (TALF) which is intended to revive the market for securities that are based on consumer loans for credit-cards, automobiles and students.
When Congress approved TARP on Oct. 3 2008, both Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Henry Paulson who was then Treasury Secretary accepted the need for transparency and oversight but so far the Federal Reserve has refused to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral that they are getting!
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Posted in congress, FDIC, FED, mortgages, stimulus package, TALF, TAR, tax credit, Treasury | 
Tags: congress, FDIC, FED, mortgages, stimulus package, TALF, TAR, tax credit, Treasury
