“A Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit revealed in 2011 that the Federal Reserve had secretly pumped $16 trillion in cumulative loans at almost zero interest rates to Wall Street banks and trading houses from December 2007 to July 2010. Citigroup was the largest recipient of the Fed loans, receiving $2.5 trillion in cumulative loans from late 2007 to the middle of 2010. In addition, Citigroup received $45 billion in capital injections from the U.S. Treasury; the Federal government guaranteed over $300 billion of Citigroup’s assets; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteed $5.75 billion of its senior unsecured debt and $26 billion of its commercial paper and interbank deposits.
“Weill walks away a billionaire and the tab to the taxpayer is in the trillions of dollars. This is the quintessential definition of kleptocracy.
“For more than a decade, Wall Street On Parade has reported on how this revitalized kleptocracy has plundered wealth from the little guy into the pockets of the 1 percent while simultaneously creating a no-law zone around itself with private justice systems, captured regulators, corrupted courts and a Congress that now marches to the beat of corporate campaign money instead of to the will of the people.
“Americans no longer recognize their ‘democracy’ because its soul has been crushed by the kleptocrats.”