Federal Reserve's Bailout of the Rich and Well-Connected

The conflicts of interest and policy controversies in the Federal Reserve's bailout of the financial system now include helping out millionaires, billionaires, foreign automakers, and companies whose executives sit on the board of directors of the U.S. central bank. General Electric GE, JPMorgan Chase JPM, Goldman Sachs GS, Banco Popular, SunTrust Banks STI and Fifth Third Bank FITB received “hundreds of billions of dollars in low-interest Federal Reserve loans at the same time that senior executives at these institutions served on the Federal Reserve's regional board of directors,” says Senator Bernie Sanders (Ind.-VT) in a letter to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke Monday. Sanders backed a new clause in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that forced the Fed to disclose more than 21,000 transactions it entered into between Dec.1, 2007, and July 21, 2010, involving more than $3.3 trillion to float the financial system after it collapsed. Continue reading the article.