Dear Jud

I try to refrain from subjects that raise my ire, if not my eyebrows. Politics is one of them but it keeps finding me in-spite of my efforts. My liberal tendencies in a blood-red state apparently makes me a moving target. I wrote this to the DH in response to his recent email to me about what he had described as "missing trillions" that the Federal Reserve lost.

"Lost?" I repeated.

How does one lose 9 trillion dollars, exactly? I've lost my wallet numerous time–he can vouch for that. I mindlessly left behind a few hundred dollars on the passenger seat of my unlocked car once. I've even lost a few dollars here and there to slot machines. But I must admit, losing that much money is staggering to the imagination.

I checked my inbox but I never did get that email. Knowing Jud's recent foray into ultra-right-wing politics, I was, nevertheless, curious about what his buddies have managed to feed him now and so I looked into this 9 trillion dollar mystery and found only that someone has been brewing another batch of red-tea logic:

Okay, this is old news but here we go again...

I'm always curious about the stuff that you guys keep tossing my way so here's a little fact checking:

When did this happen? Pre-Obama Administration (in case you guys are holding the black man responsible) doled out approximately 9T in overnight loans to major banks starting in 2008 when the banks started to fall apart at a measly interest rate of 0.007%. Most have all been repaid but at such a low interest rate, I'd have to agree that those Wall Street banks sure got a sweet deal that they apparently weren't willing to share with the average consumer on Main Street.

As to where did all the money go? Well, I suppose you could say it went into a hole that the average population didn't get a chance to partake in but it certainly wasn't missing. The top three recipients of the golden eggs that the Federal Reserve Chickens literally pulled out from their collective behind was Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley at about 2T each. Goldman Sachs for anyone who thinks they were the primary instigator received 500 Billion. Not that I'm giving the bastards credit because that's no chump change.

The big question is why and that should be obvious. The Feds wanted to prevent a banking system collapse so it acted like the mother in denial by saying, "my babies are perfect" and tried to save them from their infantile behavior by over-compensating for their children's shortcomings. Of course, the alternative would be unthinkable because it would have put the whole global neighborhood in a tailspin because that collapse would have ruined everything that we once thought had value (like retirement funds that lost a lot of money).

Justification? To the average person, probably not much because the whole process didn't exactly "trickle" down to the rest of us. The banks don't apparently subscribe to the credit score system that we have to play by and they continue to get huge loans and mystifying interest rates still–inspite of their poor financial and moral judgement.

Do send this to Bill, Cody and anyone else who feel that the current administration has taken them down the road to perdition. I can fault Obama for having been spineless (but not anymore because he bull-dogged the debt ceiling raise amidst all the political posturing on both sides) but you can't blame all this on just one guy.

Oh, and I still love you!