Here we are:

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs, intended to thaw commercial paper and money markets, are also helping banks limit losses from some of their $4 trillion in off-the-books guarantees and loan commitments.

A Fed program to buy as much as $1.8 trillion of short-term debt from U.S. companies means they don't have to tap backup credit lines provided by banks, which would have forced JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and other financial institutions to record the loans on their balance sheets and raise more capital. Another Fed program, with the acronym ABCPMMMFLF, aims to shore up the $1 trillion market for asset-backed commercial paper issued by off-the-books financing vehicles guaranteed by banks.

Why do CONgress and The American People permit this sort of "off the books" financing crap in the first place?

The Fed claims to be a "private central bank" but in fact that's a lie too - their losses are yours, and their "liquidity" is your tax money.  If The Fed wants to be a "private bank" then cut it off from taxpayer subsidy and revoke its right to print money - instead, force it to compete for private capital just like everyone else.  (Threaten Bernanke with that and watch his face turn white and underwear brown.)

The entire reason we are in this mess is because banks and other institutions have been lying about their exposure, capital levels and valuations, and we the people have allowed it to go on for more than a decade.

As noted previously both Wachovia and National City were sold for about 1/3rd of their claimed balance sheet value just days before the sale.

Trillions of dollars off-balance-sheet?

Can anyone spell ENRON?

How many times do you need to be sheared, American Sheep?  How many times do corporations get to intentionally hide so-called "assets" (making it impossible for investors, including you, to value the firm accurately) which turn out to be worth far less than they claim, before we start locking up executives en-masse and ejecting so-called "regulators" who are instead schmoozing the executives of the firms they're supposed to be regulating?

It appears the answer is "at least one more time", even though we had clear and unmistakable warning when ENRON blew up.

Will we ever learn?

Senator Inhofe makes lots of "learned" noise, but will he act?

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Saturday that Congress was not told the truth about the bailout of the nation's financial system and should take back what is left of the $700 billion "blank check'' it gave the Bush administration.

"It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone,'' the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World.

"It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don't know. There is no way of knowing.''

Sure there is.  It was, is, and will be given to Hank's friends.  They will spend it on bonuses and acquisitions following false statements of "value" in publicly reported balance sheets.

Despite the fact that its supposed to be illegal to lie about valuations and other matters financial in our capital markets, neither you or any other Senator or Representative has (or will) place these executives and officials in the dock and demand they cough up all the supporting documentation to back their public statements (remember Bear Stearns and Lehman claiming they were "fine" just days before blowing up?) nor will you go after the people who caused those explosions, especially if they're politically connected (gee, you don't think that the NY Fed might have engineered Bear's - and maybe Lehman's - failure, do you?)

The documentation necessary to prove (or disprove) this will not be demanded and put into the public view, despite the fact that the entirety of The Federal Reserve System (and all its member banks) are in fact drawing upon and tampering with our funds, in that Federal Reserve Notes are in fact debt instruments drawn upon the government's future ability to tax its citizens.

Why not Senator Inhofe?

Wake up Senator - and America in general.

The time for bluster and BS has passed; action is long overdue.