OpEd News

Bloomberg reports that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's closest aides earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other Wall Street firms. Bloomberg reports that none of these aides faced Senate confirmation. Yet, they are overseeing the handout of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to their former employers.

The gifts of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money provided the banks with an abundance of low cost capital that has boosted the banks' profits, while the taxpayers who provided the capital are increasingly unemployed and homeless.

Bloomberg

Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, posted its second quarterly loss in less than a year, unable to shake off effects of the economic contraction that drove the company to take two taxpayer bailouts.

The $1 billion third-quarter loss, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with a profit of $1.18 billion, or 15 cents, a year earlier, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said today in a statement. That exceeded the average estimate of 24 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg for a loss of 12 cents a share, and the shares fell 2.8 percent in early New York trading. The bank said it set aside less money to cover future loan losses.

Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner are in for a rude awakening.

Even as they declare “victory” in their battle against the debt disaster on Wall Street, they face defeat in the war against four dangerous, unintended consequences on Main Street:

Dangerous Consequence #1 Fed Rewarding High-Roller Gamblers, While Punishing Prudent U.S. Savers!

Bernanke promises he’ll keep official interest rates near zero indefinitely, vows to print as much paper money as needed, and leaves the distinct impression that he won’t change course until hell freezes over.

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