Fed May Be ‘Central Bank of the World’ After UBS, Barclays Aid

[dkf]

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve data showing UBS AG and Barclays Plc ranked among the top users of $3.3 trillion from emergency programs is stoking debate on whether U.S. regulators bear responsibility for aiding other nations’ banks.

UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday. London-based Barclays Plc took the biggest single amount under another program that made overnight loans, when it got $47.9 billion on Sept. 18, 2008.

“We’re talking about huge sums of money going to bail out large foreign banks,” said Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent who wrote the provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that required the Fed disclosures. “Has the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world? I think that is a question that needs to be examined.”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-02/fed-may-be-central-bank-of-the-world-after-ubs-barclays-aid.html

[LaurenG]

1. Didn't Andrew Jackson try to disable the Central Bank in the 1800's?

I find a "Bank of the World" very disturbing.

edit to add link: http://www.andrewjacksonsociety.org/

[dkf]

2. The rumor yesterday was that we were going to kick in more funds into the IMF

to help bailout Europe. That was squashed by a US official but who knows.

[lonestarnot]

3. hmmmf a few more "lost billions." Who cares.

:sarcasm:

[Octafish]

4. Ex. Sen. Phil Gramm took a job with UBS.

Vice Chairman. It's just a coincidence he was an enabler of ENRON and a destroyer of Glass-Steagall, among other things.