Lou Dobbs and Steven Mnuchin Have a Discussion Over John Bolton's Book - President Trump Fires Five Inspectors General - $350 Billion Unaccounted - Bolton's Book Is a Distraction - What Are the Connections To Israel No One Wants To Talk About?

Ed.'s note: Lou Dobbs, forget about John Bolton and what Steven Mnuchin thinks about him or his book which is nothing short of a distraction. Why not discuss instead with Mnuchin what is alleged to be more missing money in the amount of $350 billion that is "unaccounted" for by the Fed? Or the very least Lou, a rundown on BlackRock that has taken over management of the Fed's bonds? Another aspect concerning Bolton's book and its criticism of handling China, is that nothing is mentioned about the connections between China and Israel as to why the US can't get Israel to separate from China.

Meet BlackRock, the New Great Vampire Squid

Secretary Mnuchin, Israeli PM Netanyahu Deliver Statements to Press at PMO October 28, 2019

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Source: Wall Street On Parade

$340 Billion of the $454 Billion that Mnuchin Was to Turn Over to the Fed is Unaccounted For

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 22, 2020 ~

[Image] U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin

President Donald Trump has been sacking federal watchdogs at the speed of a bullet train. In just a six-week period in April and May, the President fired five Inspectors General of federal agencies. In last Friday night's coup d'état, Attorney General William Barr, acting as consigliere for the President, ousted the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the federal prosecutor that oversees prosecutions of Wall Street banks in that district. The privately owned Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is in charge of the bulk of the Fed's bailout programs, also resides in that district.

Barr and the President want to put a man with zero experience as a prosecutor in charge of that office, Jay Clayton, who currently heads the Securities and Exchange Commission which has only civil enforcement powers. Clayton represented 8 of the 10 largest Wall Street banks in the three years before going to the SEC as a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell.

Unfortunately, watchdogs and prosecutors are what American citizens need the most right now as vast sums of money are unaccounted for at both the Treasury and Federal Reserve.

The stimulus bill known as the CARES Act was signed into law by the President on March 27, 2020. It called for "Not more than the sum of $454,000,000,000…shall be available to make loans and loan guarantees to, and other investments in, programs or facilities established by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of providing liquidity to the financial system that supports lending to eligible businesses, States, or municipalities." In addition, if the Treasury had any of its $46 billion left over that Congress had allotted in the CARES Act to assist airlines or national security businesses, that was to be turned over to the Fed as well.

The CARES Act was passed almost three months ago at the outset of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression. One would have thought that the urgency with which Congress acted to pass the legislation would have resulted in rapid deployment of the $454 billion to the Fed to help shore up the economy.

But according to data released this past Thursday by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury has turned over just $114 billion of the $454 billion that was allocated to the Fed by Congress. The Federal Reserve’s weekly balance sheet data release, known as the H.4.1, showed a line item titled "Treasury contributions to credit facilities" and it showed a balance of just $114 billion.

A footnote on the H.4.1 explained exactly which Fed bailout programs had received the money from the Treasury:

"Amount of equity investments in Commercial Paper Funding Facility II LLC of $10 billion, Corporate Credit Facilities LLC of $37.5 billion, MS [Main Street] Facilities LLC of $37.5 billion, Municipal Liquidity Facility LLC of $17.5 billion, and TALF II LLC of $10 billion, and credit protection in the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility of $1.5 billion."

That leaves $340 billion of the $454 billion unaccounted for.

The President's economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, explained at a press briefing before the signing of the legislation, why the Fed was to get this vast sum of money. The money would be used as equity investments by the Fed in Special Purpose Vehicles that would use the money as "loss absorbing capital," meaning that taxpayers would eat the first $454 billion in losses. The Fed would then be free to leverage this money up by a factor of 10 to create $4.54 trillion in bailout programs.

Fed Chairman Powell made an unprecedented appearance on the Today show on March 26 and explained the plan like this:

Powell: "In certain circumstances like the present, we do have the ability to essentially use our emergency lending authorities and the only limit on that will be how much backstop we get from the Treasury Department. We're required to get full security for our loans so that we don't lose money. So the Treasury puts up money as we estimate what the losses might be…Effectively $1 of loss absorption of backstop from Treasury is enough to support $10 of loans."

The writers of the CARES Act legislation apparently expected that the Fed might want to keep some of its money transactions a secret because Section 4009 of the CARES Act suspends the Freedom of Information Act for the Fed and allows it to conduct its meetings in secret until the President says the coronavirus national emergency is over.

Please go to Wall Street On Parade to read the entire article.