How does that saying go?  If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas?

Thanks to a provision authored by Bernie Sanders in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, it has been revealed that between December 2007 and March 2010, the Federal Reserve loaned over $26 billion dollars to the Arab Banking Corporation, the majority of which is owned by the Libyan government! The interest rate for those loans?  Practically nothing…0.25%! [one-quarter of one percent]* This corporation’s toehold in the U.S. consists of exactly  two branches, both located in New York City (one identified as the “U.S. Branch” and the other, as the “Grand Cayman Branch.”)

Wow!  ‘Way to honor your commitment to  the American taxpayers, Federal Reserve!

Says Senator Sanders:

In another dubious twist, the Fed loans, at interest rates as low as 0.25 percent, relied on U.S. Treasury securities as collateral. In other words, at the same time that the Arab Banking Corp. was borrowing money at almost zero interest from one arm of the government, the Fed, it was lending money at a higher interest rate to another arm of the U.S. government, the Treasury Department.

This, while small U.S. businesses find it to be like squeezing water from a stone to get any kind of help from U.S. banks; and while tens of thousands of Americans face foreclosure and ruin.

There’s ample reason why we are awash in cynicism these days.

Anyway, Senator Sanders has sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke,  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner,  and John Walsh (Acting Comptroller of the Currency and Admin. of National Banks) demanding an accounting for this extraordinary behavior.  The letter poses a number of questions that beg where exactly the Federal Reserve’s allegiance lies:

.Why would the U.S. government exempt the Arab Banking Corp. from economic sanctions when it is primarily owned by the Central Bank of Libya?

.How many U.S. Treasury Securities does the Arab Banking Corp. currently own?

.How much money has the Federal Reserve lent to the Arab Banking Corp. since December 1, 2010?

.Is it in the U.S.’s interest to be borrowing and lending money from a bank that is predomiantly owned by the Central Bank of Libya?

.How may U.S. Treasury Securities did the Arab Banking Corp. purchase when it was borrowing money from the Federal Reservve’s various emergency lending facilities?

and finally:

.Why would the U.S. government allow a bank that is predominantly owned by the Central Bank of Libya..an institution on which the U.S. has imposed strict economic sanctions.. to operate two banking branches within our own borders?

The letter itself is well-worth a read as it contains many points of fact that will only serve to increase your level of indignation.

* corrected