Friday, April 24, 2009

Another misleading and misinformed article by Bloomberg "journalist," Mark Pittman



In the article he claims that the Treasury will have to "reimburse" the Fed for losses on its assets. The article is rife with misinformation.

Here is my letter to Pittman:

Dear Mark,

Your journalism continues to misleading and misinformed. This ongoing claim about the Fed not disclosing what collateral it lends against is completely wrong and you know it. I've been all through this with you and you admitted to me that the collateral and margins are fully disclosed. Moreover, Bernanke gave the website out during recent Congressional testimony.

Your story today about the Fed having to be reimbursed by the Treasury for mark-to-market "losses" on assets is laughable in its lack of understanding. What you fail to mention is that the Fed earns quite a bit of money on the assets it holds, and for the fiscal year to date the Fed has handed over $15 billion in PROFITS to the U.S. Treasury. Not that it makes any difference to you (because you are clearly averse to the facts), but here is the link where this information is publicly disclosed (Table II, line item that reads, "Federal Reserve Earnings"):

http://www.fms.treas.gov/webservices/show/?ciURL=/dts/09042200.txt

You are not a journalist; you're a novelist. Why don't you write a good conspiracy story? I think it would do very well as you have a vivid imagination.

-Mike Norman


Here is Mark Pittman's email in case you feel inclined to tell him what you think of his agenda journalism. And if someone can get the name of Bloomberg's managing editor, that would be great. We need to be emailing this person as well to let them know that Bloomberg journalists are conducting personal-agenda-based journalism.

3 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Mike,

According to this report, the Fed made over 2.6B in investment earnings in just the 4th qtr of last year on the FOREX swaps we've been following. Page 14 of 16.

Link:
http://www.ny.frb.org/newsevents/news/markets/2009/fxq408.pdf

Probably made about the same this quarter too.

Matt

mike norman said...

Matt,

Fiscal YTD the Fed has given over $15 billion in profits to the Treasury. It's earning about $7-$8 billion per quarter.

-Mike

Ryan Harris said...

Mark Pittman Died Yesterday:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=afp8OC.OvRnI&pos=12