U.S. Federal Reserve joins central banks worldwide take emergency action to keep European banks afloat, but isn’t this a repeat of the 2008 debacle?

Did the U.S. Federal Reserve just throw European banks a lifeline at the expense of working class Americans? This is a throwback to 2008 when we were saw the Bear Stearns collapse that sent shock waves throughout the financial markets, resulting in an economic crisis. I came across an interesting article on AmericaBlog about the little scheme of the Federal Reserve:

In essence, the US central bank, or Federal Reserve, agreed to provide cheaper dollar funding to the European Central Bank—which can then provide cheaper dollar loans to cash-strapped European banks.

The participation of the central banks of Canada, England, Japan and Switzerland is more of an effort to show that all the central bankers are working together than any expectation that there will be lots of dollar borrowings under their facility.

The goal is to ease the credit crunch in Europe. Lots of European banks make dollar denominated loans, in part because US interest rates are so low. The banks do not usually finance these loans in the way you might think—by lending out the deposits of their retail customers. Instead, the loans are financed by short-term borrowings from other financial institutions.

We bailed out the “too-big-to-fail” banks in 2008, who did little to help Main Street, and we are bailing out Europe, while unemployment claims continue to climb? Where’s the logic? We are coming to everyone’s rescue but that of our own people. Just Monday Deutsche Bank through its servicer Chase Bank tried to evict a 103 year old woman, Vinia Hall, from her Atlanta home because of a delinquent second mortgage. The central banks are stepping into dangerous territory again — extending cheap loans (practically free) to the banks to help them maintain liquidity so they can continue to function. Sounds like 2008 all over again. Please, share your thoughts….