When the smoke clears and the mirrors go back into storage, it’s always refreshing to return to the actual facts at hand. Back on October 16th, 2008, I reported in the “blahgue” as follows:
Dear (Colleague),
The last published report by the OCC of total outstanding US derivatives contracts revealed a notional value of 182.1 trillion in the second quarter of ’08.
http://www.occ.gov/ftp/release/2008-115a.pdf
Note that “Derivatives activity in the U.S. banking system is dominated by a small group of large financial institutions. Five large commercial banks represent 97% of the total industry notional amount and 89% of industry net current credit exposure.”
These five banks also happen to be the five largest recipients of Federal Bailouts.
To offer some perspective on these sums of money, the entire gross domestic product of the US reported by (the) Bureau of Economic Analysts in October was 14 trillion ($14,294.5 billion)
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm
In the LINKS section at left is the most recent OCC derivatives report, listing the U.S. total now at 200.4 trillion.
This is what we are bailing out in America – over 1400% of a rapidly contracting annual gross domestic product, and growing.
What is that 200.4 trillion really worth as the incomes that once fueled CDO’s and similar revenue streams are shut off with lost jobs, and mortgage defaults?
Maybe that’s why the FED wants banks NOT to disclose the results of their “stress tests”. At least not until we help them cook the books a little with the new mark to market restrictions removed.
How’s THAT for transparency!
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My comment is not for this particular post. It’s the way I view not only this post but your entire site. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!! Our tax dollars has already made these white collar criminals too wealthy already!
But why should they think any different? We’ve bailed out these people several times over the past century. They knew the taxpayers money would come to the rescue when they entered their ‘den of theives’.