Wall Street profits from trades with Fed

Reading stuff like this makes my blood boil. We're being led by a gang of thieves, Barney Frank leading the parade. He doesn't want to try to 'drive too hard a bargain'. WHY NOT! Let the taxpayer benefit instead of the banks. - MBC

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e84383dc-7f8c-11de-85dc-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1

"...Wall Street banks are reaping outsized profits by trading with the Federal Reserve, raising questions about whether the central bank is driving hard enough bargains in its dealings with private sector counterparties..."

“You can make big money trading with the government,” said an executive at one leading investment management firm. “The government is a huge buyer and seller and Wall Street has all the pricing power.”

A former official of the US Treasury and the Fed said the situation had reached the point that “everyone games them. Their transparency hurts them. Everyone picks their pocket.”

Barney Frank, chairman of the House financial services committee, said the potential profiteering may be part of the price for stabilising the financial system.

“You can’t rescue the credit system without benefiting some of the people in it.” Still, Mr Frank said Congress would be watching. “We don’t want the Fed to drive the hardest possible bargain, but we don’t want them to get ripped off.”