ADD ANOTHER TRILLION TO THE POT . . .

The numbers from the Federal Reserve are out, and they're not pretty. The only problem is that they are also buried in a bundle of numbers that only geeks like me try and keep track of. Here's the facts, in real simple terms: the Federal Reserve has lent out more than $1 trillion to U.S. banks.

This is not from the increasingly useless TARP money approved by Congress at the beginning of October. This is not money approved by Congress under committee secrecy. This is money the Federal Reserve has simply created and lent, without congressional approval.

Here it is, in black and white, from the just released (Dec. 11, 2008) Federal Reserve's "Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States."

It's kind of difficult to find, so here are the steps:

1) click here;

2) scroll down 54 pages (although it will say page #46 on the actual PDF file);

3) look at #11 on page 46, it will say "+ Loans from Federal Reserve banks"

And Congress says they can't find $14 billion for the auto industry. This economic mess is not anywhere close to being over. This is going to get uglier. Stay tuned.

- Mark