As if any more evidence is needed that the US is a corporatocracy of, by, and for the wealthy few and that regular Americans are ignored, disdained and told they're on their own by the GOP and DINOs, under Bush and Obama.....

From John Nichols at The Nation:

"With the lifting of the “veil of secrecy at the Fed,” in response to a legislative push led by US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, reveals that the Federal Reserve gave banks, multinational corporations and foreign financial institutions—many of them with limited ties to the United States—an estimated $3.3 trillion in emergency loans and other forms of assistance during the course of the current financial crisis.

“We now know that the Fed loaned trillions of dollars at zero or near-zero interest rates not only to the largest financial institutions in this country, but also to many of our largest corporations—including GE, McDonalds and Verizon. Most surprising, the Fed also lent huge sums of money to foreign private banks and corporations” says Sanders, who since the 1990s has, with Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Florida Congressman Alan Grayson and a handful of others, been an ardent critic of the Fed’s secrecy, unaccountable financial manipulations and coziness with Wall Street.

"Questions like that explain why the Fed did not want to release this information. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke lobbied against the amendment Sanders attached to the financial services reform legislation passed this year by the Congress.  Sanders and his allies prevailed—although not too the full extent that they had hoped—in forcing an the release of secret Fed files and forcing the Government Accountability Office to conduct a top-to-bottom audit of the Fed.

“ 'Almost two years ago I asked Chairman Bernanke to tell the American people which financial institutions and corporations received trillions of dollars as part of the Wall Street bailout.  He refused,' says Sanders. 'Today, as a result of an audit-the-Fed provision I put into the financial reform bill, we finally learn the truth—and it is astounding.' ”

"-Citigroup collected over $1.8 trillion. 

"-Morgan Stanley grabbed $2 trillion. 

"-Goldman Sachs took $600 billion. 

"-Bear Stearns received almost $1 trillion in short-term loans with interest rates as low as 0.5 percent.

Dominic Rushe at The Guardian writes: "....the Fed's aid reached far beyond Wall Street, offering finance to the motorbike manufacturer Harley-Davidson, the industrial equipment maker Caterpillar, the telecoms company Verizon and even the computer billionaire Michael Dell as it struggled to keep the economy going. The lending reached $3.3tn (£2.1tn) at its peak.

"The disclosures show that UK banks were major beneficiaries of the Fed's extensive support for foreign banks. Barclays was the biggest borrower under one scheme, the term auction facility, taking loans totalling $232bn, which it has since repaid. Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland (now part of Lloyds), Abbey National and HSBC also received billions in loans."

Actually, it wasn't "aid" but a giveaway of taxpayers' and borrowed monies to wealthy criminals.

John Nichols continues:

"Indeed, Sanders suggests, the paperwork from the Fed raises the prospect that the banks and corporations used the money to pad their bottom lines. Indeed, an analysis by Sanders’ office, points to the prospect that  “secret Fed loans turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks.” 

"Sanders wants an investigation to determine whether banks took loans at near-zero interest and then loaned that same money back to the federal government at a significantly higher interest rate.  

“Instead of using this money to reinvest in the productive economy, I suspect a large portion of these near-zero interest loans were used to buy Treasury securities at a higher interest rate providing free money to some of the largest financial institutions in this country on the backs of American taxpayers,” says Sanders. 

"Sanders also wants to know:  “How many big banks repaid Treasury Department bailouts in order to avoid limits on executive compensation received no-strings attached loans from the Federal Reserve?”  

"Those are all good questions. 

"Here’s one more: Isn’t it time for members of Congress to get serious about  proposals to free up money sitting in Fed accounts so that it can strengthen the US economy—as opposed to merely collect interest for big banks and corporations?"

Don't hold your breath.

The criminal financial institutions and corporations got rewarded with trillions of dollars even though they avariciously caused the economic meltdown while regular Main Street Americans got the shaft and are told to go pound sand.

It's time for Main Streeters to get out the pitchforks.