by Pam Martens and Russ Martens at Wall Street on Parade
According to the December 6 release of Federal Reserve H.8 data, cash assets at the 25 largest U.S. banks have dropped by a stunning $663 billion from their peak levels on December 15, 2021. (See chart above, taken from the St. Louis Fed’s FRED graph, which is updated on an ongoing basis. Put your cursor on the FRED chart line here to get the weekly dollar figures.)
Notice also on the chart that cash levels at the largest U.S. banks were a sea of calm for more than two decades prior to the financial crash of 2008, but since that time cash assets have displayed wild gyrations, rising sharply then precipitously plunging.
It should provide no comfort to Americans that the wild gyrations on the chart above are a product of the central bank of the United States (the “Fed”) inserting itself, time and again since December 2007, into bailing out the trading houses on Wall Street – which since the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 are in drag as federally-insured banks.
The Fed’s first giant money funnel began secretly in December 2007 and lasted through at least July 2010. The Fed battled in court for more than two years to keep the names of the banks and the $16 trillion they borrowed a secret from the American people. (See chart below from the GAO audit.) If you add in the dollar swap lines that the Fed made available to foreign central banks during the financial crisis, the Fed’s money funnel comes to an even more staggering $29 trillion.
On July 21, 2011 the investigative arm of Congress,…
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