Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit

Initial jobless claims increase unexpectedly

Fed officials warn on bubbles but Bernanke cautious

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According to a audit report made public today by The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“SIGTARP”), “senior government officials”, appointed by the Bush Administration, deceived the American public last fall when they claimed that the nine financial institutions to first receive TARP funds were healthy.

Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky, is in charge of The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP.

While announcing the initial $125 billion TARP injection to these nine financial institutions on October 14 of 2008, then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson declared, “These are healthy institutions, and they have taken this step for the good of the U.S. economy. As these healthy institutions increase their capital base, they will be able to increase their funding to U.S. consumers and businesses.”

SIGTARP’s audit report questions Paulson’s declaration of the financial institutions’ health when it was abundantly apparent that “senior government officials had affirmative concerns about the health of at least some of these institutions.”

You can find the audit report here: Emergency Capital Injections Provided to Support the Viability of Bank of America, Other Major Banks, and the U.S. Financial System

Appendix H includes comments about the report from the Federal Reserve Board and Appendix I includes comments from the Treasury Department.

Tom Woods addresses 1,000+ on August 15, 2009 in Galveston Texas at the “Lectures on Liberty” event.

Thomas Woods: Lectures on Liberty – Four-Part Video:

Track H.R.1207 and S.604: Federal Reserve Transparency/Sunshine Act of 2009 here.

Contact Your U.S. Representative

Contact Your U.S. Senators

This is Congressman Alan Grayson questioning Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on $550B of loans to foreigners (or ‘central liquidity swaps’ in Federal Reserve-ese’).

Which financial institutions received this money? Bernanke’s answer: I don’t know.

As the Fed was lending this money, the dollar increased by 30% in value. Grayson asks, was this a coincidence? Bernanke’s answer: yes.