The Fed gives out $3.3 trillion dollars, including to foreign companies

It has just been released that The Fed gave 3.3 trillion dollars in aid to banks at home and abroad. Fed chief Ben Bernanke authorized money for Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup, and General Electric among other businesses in America. But they didn’t end there, The Fed sent 37 billion dollars to Swiss bank UBS, 23 billion dollars to Belgium’s Dexia AG, Germany’s Commerzbank AG got 13 billion dollars from one program and 25 other separate loans amounting to 7.25 billion dollars, and Britain’s Barclays PLC was handed 10 billion dollars. Additionally, 600 billion dollars in credit went to international central banks.

Here at home, we don’t have any money in the government yet The Fed acts on behalf of our country by giving billions upon billions to foreign companies so that they don’t struggle. The citizens struggle in America but banks and bank representatives aren’t suffering. Seems like exactly what Americans want, right?

This information is coming out as a result of the Dodd-Frank law that was created in July. Under the provisions of the act… after a two-year
delay, the Fed is required to identify firms that borrow through its discount window and participate in its purchases or sales of assets such as mortgage-backed securities and treasuries. Further regulations include(from wikipedia):

1. the consolidation of regulatory agencies, elimination of the national thrift charter, and new oversight council to evaluate systemic risk;
2. comprehensive regulation of financial markets, including increased transparency of derivatives (bringing them onto exchanges);
3. consumer protection reforms including a new consumer protection agency and uniform standards for “plain vanilla” products as well as strengthened investor protection;
4. tools for financial crises, including a “resolution regime” complementing the existing FDIC authority to allow for orderly winding down of bankrupt firms, and including a proposal that the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) receive authorization from the Treasury for extensions of credit in “unusual or exigent circumstances”;
5. various measures aimed at increasing international standards and cooperation, including in this section were proposals related to improved accounting and tightened regulation of credit rating agencies.

The key part of this release falls under number 4 above “including a proposal that the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) receive authorization from the Treasury for extensions of credit in “unusual or exigent circumstances”… Apparently those foreign companies fall under unusual AND exigent circumstances, otherwise I’m not sure how they can justify giving money to foreign entities.

Likewise, American companies found themselves to be quite desperate… to the tune of 18 billion dollars after 84 requests by Goldman Sachs and 60 billion dollars for Morgan Stanley after a total of 212 requests for credit. Is there a justifiable reason for that many requests for help? Afterall, shouldn’t they either give their highest and best request in a single shot or fail if they can’t recover?