Rep. Katie Porter calling out the Federal Reserve

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:Rep. Katie Porter
@RepKatiePorter
In March, Congress gave billions in COVID relief to the @federalreserve to help struggling businesses. The Fed pledged these taxpayer dollars would *not* bail out Wall Street banks. They went back on their word—to the tune of 2 billion dollars. So I'm calling them out. (THREAD)
10:59 AM · Nov 13, 2020

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1327310218724659200.html

In March, Congress gave billions in COVID relief to the @federalreserve to help struggling businesses. The Fed pledged these taxpayer dollars would *not* bail out Wall Street banks. They went back on their word—to the tune of 2 billion dollars. So I'm calling them out. (THREAD)

The Fed explicitly stated that COVID relief funds would not help “insured depository institutions”—aka banks. That makes sense, since many of those banks have had record profits during the coronavirus pandemic. And we just bailed them out in 2008-2009. (2/5)
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Yet, the Fed used COVID relief funding to purchase $1.3 billion of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are baskets of stocks, similar to mutual funds, and they contain billions of Wall Street's debt. (3/5)

Federal Reserve Discloses Holdings of $1.3 Billion in Exchange-Traded Funds
The Federal Reserve’s first $1.3 billion of purchases of exchange-traded funds that invest in corporate bonds show that funds that focus on buying non-investment grade debt accounted for around one si…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-reserve-discloses-holdings-of-1-3-billion-in-exchange-traded-funds-11590782661?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D59634828373946770323978863549584710469%7CMCORGID%3DCB68E4BA55144CAA0A4C98A5%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1605144727

Back in October, I wrote to the head of the Federal Reserve about this clear abuse of taxpayer dollars. I never got a response. (4/5)

So yesterday, I followed up with @federalreserve Vice Chair Randy Quarles directly. Rather than being honest about purchasing debts of megabanks like @jpmorgan, Mr. Quarles tried to hide behind a loophole.

Watch 👇 (5/5)


• • •

[SheltieLover]

1. I love Porter!

[whathehell]

2. Me too!

[SheltieLover]

3. I can just hear them quivering

At the thought of her white board!

[whathehell]

5. Yep, she's a protege of Elizabeth Warren, & I love her too!

[SheltieLover]

6. Yes she is!

I hope to help vote for her for president one day!

[crickets]

4. The Fed bought bank debt with COVID relief money. 🤦‍♀️

No amount of weaseling about EFTs can hide that they bought bank debt. This doesn't 'help everybody' as Quarles claims, it just helps the banks. At a time when food lines have never been longer, when people are losing their jobs and their homes, these scum still keep throwing money back up to the top dogs.

THANK YOU, KATIE PORTER.

Any chance you can claw any of it back?

[MerryBlooms]

7. R&K Thank you.