Do Big Banks Control the US Government?
huffingtonpost.com
huffingtonpost.com
"If you do wish to break or limit the power of the major banks, running a balanced budget is probably the most important step we could take. It would mean that our government no longer needs to worry so much about financing its activities. Of course such an outcome is distant these days, mostly because American voters love both high government spending and relatively low taxes."
Now it is getting somewhere, but it basically ends on that note--although the last part of the last sentence was a baseless jab. Unfortunate this article had potential but the focus was wrong.
This even including audited postings based on FASB rules, given what's been allowed under that in recent times.
This whole area is incredibly murky, and there's way too much spin generated from all sides.
Here's a different view of the numbers behind the "profit":
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/did-we-make-a-profi...
The loans that are available from the US treasury are a huge amount of cash flowing into certain businesses, for instance.
Federal Reserve(family of bankers) is lending money to the US government (money which by the way they create out of thin air by printing paper) so of course they have the power.
Also the name Federal Reserve is quite deceiving - it is a private entity with special status, it has nothing federal at all.
So US operates like a big ass corporation which right now is bankrupt.
Looking at all these things makes you question a lot of the issues that are happening around us.
The Federal Reserve is partly a federal agency (led by the Board of Governors) and partly a group of quasi-independent banks. The 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks are nominally independent, but have a lot of control from the federal agency, including direction of their open market operations.
The Federal Reserve does not directly lend money to the federal government. It usually buys U.S. Treasury securities on the open market. This benefits the government by leading to lower interest rates.
Most of the profits from the Federal Reserve are paid to the U.S. federal government (the member banks get a 6% dividend on what they are required to pay in to the Reserve).
I mean, duh. Not only do Banks purchase a large amount of control (e.g. the Government and get bailouts without strings attached) but also the bill being discussed now to put strings on them also gives them a virtual monopoly in financing by making it more difficult for anyone to be an angel investor.