This really, REALLY pisses me off.

NathanielWingatePeaslee

NathanielWingatePeaslee

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
Staff member
If you were ever unsure about how untrustworthy the news is, who the people who govern this country actually work for, or how utterly corrupt the system is in general, this should clarify things for you.

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts | Unelected.org

unelected article said:
What was revealed in the audit was startling: $16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks

To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is “only” $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is “only” $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.
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It was also covered in by Forbes:

The Fed's $16 Trillion Bailouts Under-reported - Forbes

This is the link to the senator's site (official--note the .gov--as in not some conspiracy nut job site) who actually carried out the audit, in spite of very strong opposition from people like Alan Greenspan.

The Fed Audit - Newsroom: Bernie Sanders - U.S. Senator for Vermont

And I wouldn't even know about it if it wasn't on the FB feed of a friend. I searched the FOX news website, CNN, and MSNBC and I could find no mention of the results of the audit at all. After all, 16 TRILLION dollars of taxpayer money misspent can't possibly be important.

:mad:
 
R

Rembrandt Broam

Well-known member
Yep. This whole "market forces" idea only seems to apply to the little guy. If your small to medium sized business (which you've worked your arse off to try to make succeed) runs out of money, then that's just your tough luck. That's just the market at work.

But when some large corporation finds itself in the same position due to gross incompetence, mismanagement, and the people at the top awarding themselves obscene salaries and bonues for simply being the people at the top, then it's bailout time! After all, it's taxpayer's money, and there's an endless supply of that. :mad:

You know, if aliens were to land on this planet, they'd take a look around and ask "At what point did giving the majority of the resources to the people who actually do the least seem like a good idea?" :rolleyes:
 
MaliceInWickedland

MaliceInWickedland

Well-known member
So let me get this straight: people are over here, breaking their asses off to make a decent living to support themselves and their family, barely even able to do that successfully half the time with all these ridiculous taxes and the economy in general, and for what? To have their money all go to piss?

Such bull****.
 
Pyrophosphate

Pyrophosphate

1
Welcome to politics....

Except the Federal Reserve doesn't hand out 16 trillion taxpayer dollars, they don't have that much. They just print it and hand it out fresh.

Right now, it's impossible to determine exactly how many US dollars exist in the world, but about 75% of those dollars are outside the country, being held in foreign central banks. The value of each individual dollar drops constantly because they keep printing more of them (that's what inflation is, don't let any politician tell you otherwise).

Eventually, the value of the dollar will drop to a level where it is no longer valuable to the other countries' central banks, and their held money will flood back into the US. This won't happen overnight, more likely over 6 months to a year, but the total number of dollars in circulation in the US will quadruple (hyperinflation). Prices will quadruple, while each person would hold the same number of dollars, at 1/4 their value before the hyperinflation. When that happens (and it mostly likely will, probably within the next decade), it will be far worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.
 
S

SeniorRedrings

Banned
You may be "pissed off" to coin a term but the governments doesn't give these bailouts for no good goddamn reason.They do it so citizens can sleep safely on the streets at night.
 
MikeyC

MikeyC

Well-known member
This type of thing angers me beyond belief, as well, but there's absolutely nothing that you and I can do about it so it's best to just never think about it.

Kind of going off what Pyro has said, the Central Bank prints off this money and hands it to the government. But the government has to pay it back with interest. Now, that interest doesn't exist because the money hasn't been printed yet. So to pay it back with interest, more money needs to be printed. Thus, inflation. Thus, debt. Never-ending debt.
 
Pyrophosphate

Pyrophosphate

1
MikeyC said:
This type of thing angers me beyond belief, as well, but there's absolutely nothing that you and I can do about it so it's best to just never think about it.

Kind of going off what Pyro has said, the Central Bank prints off this money and hands it to the government. But the government has to pay it back with interest. Now, that interest doesn't exist because the money hasn't been printed yet. So to pay it back with interest, more money needs to be printed. Thus, inflation. Thus, debt. Never-ending debt.
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That's what the Federal Reserve system was designed to do. Already a WTF idea.

How it's actually used is that + exactly what you'd expect if you give a bunch of rich guys a money-printing device and don't hold them accountable to anyone and don't keep track of what they're doing.
 
MikeyC

MikeyC

Well-known member
Pyrophosphate said:
That's what the Federal Reserve system was designed to do. Already a WTF idea.

How it's actually used is that + exactly what you'd expect if you give a bunch of rich guys a money-printing device and don't hold them accountable to anyone and don't keep track of what they're doing.
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Yeah, I have no idea who approved such a flawed idea, but that's how it is now and getting out will take nothing short of a world revolt.
 
Aletheia

Aletheia

Well-known member
SeniorRedrings said:
You may be "pissed off" to coin a term but the governments doesn't give these bailouts for no good goddamn reason.They do it so citizens can sleep safely on the streets at night.
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I'd laugh if that weren't so tragically true.

(The number of homeless in California distressed me no end. Where were my taxes going?)
 
philly2bits

philly2bits

Well-known member
If it pisses you off so much Nate than why not do something about it? You're certainly smarter than 95% of the rabble that posts about politics on the internet.
 
NathanielWingatePeaslee

NathanielWingatePeaslee

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
Staff member
philly2bits said:
If it pisses you off so much Nate than why not do something about it?
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A logical question. I vote in most elections already, though I often wonder why. I can't figure that I'll have either money or time enough to do anything politically effective anytime soon. I'm not even entirely convinced anyone has the power to make any real change in the system at this point. Our species is most probably doomed, and maybe that's for the best.

philly2bits said:
You're certainly smarter than 95% of the rabble that posts about politics on the internet.
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I have an IQ of 1, remember? I posted it in the last IQ thread.
 
philly2bits

philly2bits

Well-known member
NathanielWingatePeaslee said:
A logical question. I vote in most elections already, though I often wonder why. I can't figure that I'll have either money or time enough to do anything politically effective anytime soon. I'm not even entirely convinced anyone has the power to make any real change in the system at this point. Our species is most probably doomed, and maybe that's for the best.
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It would take someone very charismatic to get anything I agree. And the irony is that most smart, charismatic people probably want nothing to do with the childish game that is politics. Why lower themselves right?

As for being doomed I doubt it. We are too many and too spread out to nuke ourselves into extinction anymore. A small island in the south pacific of survivors would be all it takes to repopulate the world in a few thousand years. Add to that any survivors in dense populations areas and we'll be on the moon again in no time.
 
coyote

coyote

Well-known member
philly2bits said:
It would take someone very charismatic to get anything I agree. And the irony is that most smart, charismatic people probably want nothing to do with the childish game that is politics. Why lower themselves right?
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the people who are most qualified to lead this country do not want to do it

leaving the job to the people who aren't

and we're forced to pick the "winner"
 
MikeyC

MikeyC

Well-known member
Voting is compulsory in Australia, and every time an election comes, I have to go to the polling booths and make my choice between the lesser of two evils.

Oh, wait, no I don't. I leave my ballot blank! *insert evil laughter here*
 
Aletheia

Aletheia

Well-known member
New Zealand's general election is this Saturday.

I'll vote. It's my duty as a citizen to vote. But I won't expect it to make any difference.

My father says of democracy that at least it ensures an orderly succession.
 
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