Financial advisor Dennis Tubbergen takes a look at some questionable loans made by the Federal Reserve.

Grand Rapids, MI -- (SBWire) -- 05/19/2011 --Financial advisor Dennis Tubbergen frequently takes time on his online blog and in his monthly Moving Markets newsletter to comment on financial news, in the U.S. and around the world.

Tubbergen is CEO of USA Wealth Management, LLC, a federally-registered investment advisory company, and is also an advisor to financial advisors, an author, and host of The Everything Financial Radio Show. For the past few months Tubbergen has been discussing the Federal Reserve and quantitative easing. A recent blog posted by Tubbergen takes another look at the Federal Reserve, this time for an unusual loan.

“Rolling Stone magazine, admittedly not a traditional source of financial information, recently published an article that I would highly recommend reading,” explains Tubbergen. “The article, titled, ‘The Real Housewives of Wall Street,’ asks why the Federal Reserve would loan the wives of two officials at Wall Street banking firms a quarter of a billion dollars with no strings attached.”

It’s a good question.

“The Federal Reserve, for nearly one hundred years, has functioned as the nation’s central bank, and the bank has operated in secrecy with no oversight from Congress,” adds Tubbergen. “Before reaching the third page of the Rolling Stone article, any taxpaying American will be livid and outraged at the fact that while the President and members of Congress are standing up, telling Americans that it’s time to pay more in taxes and face spending cuts, the Federal Reserve has been providing welfare to millionaires and billionaires.”

The article also states, “America has two national budgets, one official and one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about.”

The other budget is supposedly maintained in secrecy and is doled out with no apparent methodology. But due to a Congressional act that requires the Fed’s books from the bailout time frame to become at least partially a matter of record, some of these transactions are now coming to light.

One of the questionable transactions was made through a Fed bailout program to Waterfall TALF Opportunity to the tune of $220 million, to Christy Mack and Susan Karches. Mack is the spouse of the chairman of Morgan Stanley, John Mack, and Karches is the widow of Peter Karches, who was president of Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division.

According to the article, neither woman has a substantive history in business, “Yet the Federal Reserve handed them both low-interest loans of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars through a complicated bailout program that virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income.”

“This is, in a word, outrageous,” concludes Tubbergen. “The Federal Reserve is printing money, insisting that it’s not causing inflation and a decline in the living standards of the average American, while providing sweetheart, no-risk loan deals to their banking buddy cronies.”

Dennis Tubbergen has been in the financial industry for over 25 years and has his corporate offices in the USA Wealth Management Building in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tubbergen is CEO of USA Wealth Management, LLC and has an online blog that can be viewed at http://www.dennistubbergen.com. His weekly talk show The Everything Financial Radio Show is simulcast on two Michigan metro stations and also airs to over 600,000 financial advisors, with recent podcasts available at http://www.everythingfinancialradio.com.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the writer and not necessarily those of USA Wealth Management, LLC. This update may contain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements as to future events that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those that were forecasted. Therefore, no forecast should be construed as a guarantee. Prior to making any investment decision, individuals should consult a professional to determine the risks, costs, benefits and fees associated with a particular investment. Information obtained from third party resources is believed to be reliable but the accuracy cannot be guaranteed.