and now we have this:
"Fedâs Biggest Foreign-Bank Bailout Saved U.S. Muni Bonds
By Bob Ivry - Apr 5, 2011 9:01 PM PT
Fedâs Biggest Foreign-Bank Bailout Kept Muni Bonds on Track
The Dexia SA headquarters are seen in Brussels. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
Fedâs Biggest Foreign-Bank Bailout Kept Muni Bonds on Track
The Dexia SA logo sits on display at the company headquarters in Brussels. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
A European bank that received the most Federal Reserve discount window help during the financial crisis also took $381 billion in aid from its home countries and owned subsidiaries implicated in bid-rigging that prosecutors say defrauded U.S. taxpayers.
Details of Fed lending released last week show that Dexia SA (DEXB), based in Brussels and Paris, borrowed as much as $37 billion, with an average daily loan amount of $12.3 billion in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September 2008. The House subcommittee that oversees the Fed plans hearings on the central bankâs discount window lending to offshore financial institutions next month.
By lending to Dexia, the Fed kept money flowing into local government projects throughout the U.S. as well as the money market funds that invested in them. Dexia guaranteed bonds issued by entities as varied as the Texas State Veterans Land Board in Austin and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
âIf Dexia went bankrupt, it could have been a catastrophe for municipal finance and money funds,â said Matt Fabian, a Concord, Massachusetts-based senior analyst and managing director at Municipal Markets Advisors, an independent research company. âThe market has extensive exposure to foreign banks.â "
continued here
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...lout-kept-u-s-municipal-finance-on-track.html