It's a valid question that needs to be discussed. This type of information should have been public a long time ago and this should make everyone even more uncomfortable with the Fed having too much authority to call the shots. And yes, that includes having oversight with the recent financial regulations.
As painful as this recession has been for Americans (and others around the world) should the US Federal Reserve really be bailing out foreign banks to such an extent? It's not immediately clear how this is in the best interest of the American taxpayers or the American economy. Help is one thing but this does sound rather extreme. I also can't help but think back to all of the countries around the world who complained (hypocritically) that the US stimulus was unfair because it was supposed to favor US companies over foreign companies. Somehow those same countries overlooked the Fed saving their ugly financial problems.
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.”
