“as of last Wednesday, ]The Fed] owns the following: $3.9 trillion in Treasury securities and $1.6 trillion in Mortgage-Backed Securities which it has purchased outright with money it creates out of thin air.” And it plans to buy corporate bonds, including junk, they say.
Charlie Cooper
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/04/29/mortgage-forbearance-balloons-home-sales-plunge/
U.S. government and the Federal Reserve may take serious losses on home mortgages.
Charlie Cooper
Sheila Bair fought for working people as head of the FDIC during the real estate crash of 2008-9. She is a Republican.
Charlie Cooper
https://prospect.org/health/trump-helps-health-insurers-swell-their-profits/
Cutting reimbursement rates, thus forcing salary cuts for frontline health care workers; expecting continued profitability; retaining the ability to buy back shares and raise executive compensation. Trump administration may waive rule that allows for payments to premium-payers if medical losses fall below 80%; and more.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/28/federal-reserve-bond-corporations/
Direct loans to big business from the Treasury will have the restrictions as will aid to mid-sized (500-10,000 employees) businesses. But Fed purchases of corporate bonds will not carry restrictions.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/28/federal-reserve-bond-corporations/
Mnuchin said in an interview, “Even before these facilities are up and running, they’ve had their desired impact of having stability in the markets.”
Marty Wulfe
https://prospect.org/politics/ultimate-corporate-democrat-versus-the-pandemic/
W&M Chair Richard Neal brags about his authorship of the Paycheck Protection Program and the advice he got from Rubin, one of the architects of deregulation that led to the Great Recession.
Charlie Cooper
https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-mortgage-servicers-trying-to-steal-homes-again/
Charlie Cooper.
https://popular.info/p/lebron-james-works-for-a-small-business
The fee structure incentivizes banks to make bigger loans rather than serve the smaller businesses that need it more.
Charlie Cooper
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From Matt Stoller and American Economic Liberties Project
Charlie Cooper
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200423b.htm
Congress provides funds to allow all kinds of financial institutions to make Paycheck Protection loans through the SBA. Some are forgivable if used to maintain pay to employees. The Fed is taking these loans as collateral to maintain liquidity of the lending institutions and also expanding the types of institutions that can get Fed funds under this program. They are relaxing constraints.
Charlie Cooper
H: 410-578-8291
M: 410-624-6095
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200423a.htm
Applies to the $4 trillion that will be backed by $454 billion in Treasury funds.
Charlie Cooper
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/24/coronavirus-small-business-loans-trump-donors-ppp/
large hospitality franchisees were included in bill.
Charlie Cooper
“Small businesses don’t have investors or millions in cash and credit to weather this storm,” one of the company’s employees said. “AutoNation could have made it through without taking these loans out."
Marty Wulfe
Opinion: The Coronavirus Stimulus Is Failing to Reach the Right People
Marty Wulfe
Save our democracy - get big money out of our elections
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/04/23/fed-slashed-qe-further-still-hasnt-bought-junk-bonds-or-etfs/
The Federal Reserve front-loaded its liquidity injections starting March 11. Now it is tapering off on CDOs, MBSs, repos, and other kinds of instruments, whether directly or through SPVs.
But also this:
"The Fed has printed $2.26 trillion since March 11 to inflate asset prices and bail out asset holders and Wall Street. If the Fed had spread that $2.26 trillion equally over the 130 million households in the US, each would have received $17,380. But this was helicopter money for Wall Street and the wealthy that were losing part their wealth in the sell-off. Those are the folks that matter to the Fed."
Charlie Cooper
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
It applies only to loans backed by U.S. Treasury and not to $ trillions in collateralized loans it makes on its own. The authors have concerns about the quality of the collateral.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200423b.htm
New categories of institutions will make PPP loans and the Fed will get the loans as collateral via its PPP Liquidity Facility.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/23/fed-to-disclose-bailouts-monthly-204953
Names of borrowers and terms of loans will be public. In addition, fees for pass-through agencies will be disclosed regularly.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2020/04/09/is-pandemic-relief-for-corporations-or-people/
“Now it is up to us to step up and tell them that corporate-drafted law is not what the founding fathers intended, and the First Amendment is about protecting our equal voices as equal citizens, not allowing our elections to be sold to the highest bidder. Furthermore, corporations should not have Constitutional rights; their powers, privileges and protections all derive from the statutory laws under which they are organized. If corporations want to be “people”, let them take the same $1,200 pandemic relief checks the rest of us get and call it good.”
Charlie Cooper
H: 410-578-8291
M: 410-624-6095
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
Although they have been reported as grassroots protests, Freedom Works, a campaign finance group founded by the Koch brothers, is organizing and promoting Tea-Party-style protests to re-open the economy. Their efforts to promote hydroxychloroquine may be linked to drug manufacturers.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/18/unitedhealth-trump-coronavirus-recovery-funds-193716
Stephen Parente of the White House Council of Economic Advisors received a grant from United Health and is now overseeing their disbursal of $30 billion in federal aid to hospitals. Critics say United Health’s role is unnecessary and that DHHS could have disbursed the funds.
Charlie Cooper
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/bcreg20200417a.htm
They can lend to their officers and shareholders.
Charlie Cooper
A Congress Without Lobbyists and the Coming End of Federal Reserve Independence
https://mattstoller.substack.com/
The authors opines that fraud and abuse in the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Programhas been minimal, the bulk of the loans went thru community banks to real businesses, and thence to employees. He credits Marco Rubio, Ben Cardin, Jean Shaheen, and Susan Collins.
Charlie Cooper
Donna Shalala has no expertise in finance and may have conflicts in her investment portfolio.
Charlie Cooper
https://prospect.org/coronavirus/usaa-bank-grabs-stimulus-checks-from-military-families/
Hard-pressed families facing dire circumstances. Some banks have reversed course.
Charlie Cooper
https://prospect.org/economy/the-bailout-the-fed-and-the-aftermath/
Sarah Bloom Raskin was a Governor of the Federal Reserve Board and then Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration. She is the wife of Rep. Jamie Raskin. She explains the need for transparency in the CARES Act and related actions by The Fed and also indicates that a large-scale restructuring of the entire economy may be imminent. It could heighten economic inequality and monopoly or it could help build a more equal and sustainable system.
Charlie Cooper
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
“But the rules don't appear to bind big businesses in line to receive the rest of the $4 trillion in taxpayer-backed loans and loan guarantees the Fed will extend using $454 billion that Congress handed it.”
Charlie Cooper
The administration has not been forthcoming about the distribution of bailout money
Marty Wulfe
BlackRock will serve as an advisor to the Fed Reserve system in its $4 trillion corporate bailout.
Charlie Cooper
from Fed to NY (or Boston) Fed to agent (like BlackRock) to SPV (run by Wall Street firms). This article does not indicate what fees are taken at each step.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/bcreg20200417a.htm
This applies to PPP loans where the businesses have fewer than 500 employees.
Charlie Cooper
The Mainstreet Loan Program for businesses with 500-10,000 employees is not yet operating. The Fed allocated $75 billion of the $454 billion in Treasury Dept. Funds to guarantee loans under that program. The loans are not forgivable.
Charlie Cooper
As of this writing, the Fed is making loans to and not releasing the names of recipients or amounts. These loans are underwritten by the U.S. Treasury. The Congressional oversight panel has only 1 member, although it is supposed to have 5.
Charlie Cooper
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
Dem Congressional leadership wants to subsidize health insurance premiums during pandemic crisis rather than support Medicare for All. This leaves strapped workers still responsible for co-pays and deductibles.
Charlie Cooper
Dateline Wed., 4/15/20 “The SBA reported that, as of 9 p.m. Wednesday, there had been more than 1.5 million applications approved totaling $324 billion, leaving only $25 billion left in its account.”
Charlie Cooper
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
Offices that issue the IDs are closed.
Charlie Cooper
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/14/one-nation-pfizer-lobbyist-drug-prices/
They run ads for GOP Senate candidates and claim to support lower drug prices.
Thanks to Angad Singh for this one.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/14/coronavirus-law-congress-tax-change/
Thanks to Marty Wulfe.
Charlie Cooper
https://www.ft.com/content/52a46bcf-f238-43cd-82dd-c48c3c1883e3
Fed is buying junk bonds.
Charlie Cooper
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
The New York Federal Reserve Bank will create the Special Purpose Vehicle that will dole out $4 trillion in loans to big businesses. The New York Fed is owned by AND regulates major institutions such as Citibank and JP Morgan Chase.
Charlie Cooper
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/03/29/corruption-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-fed-treasury-corporate/
Special purpose vehicles can use loans from The Fed to buy municipal bonds, non-agency mortgages, corporate bonds, commercial paper, and every variety of asset-backed security. BlackRock will run at least one of these SPVs, and can buy its own funds! Oversight will be inadequate.
Charlie Cooper
H: 410-578-8291
M: 410-624-6095
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
