Alan Grayson: Which Foreign Banks Got The Fed's $500 Billion? - Bernanke: I Have No Idea

In light of yesterday's Federal Reserve document dump, Daily Bail is running this clip of Congressman Alan Grayson questioning Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.



Here's a key part of the testimony:

Grayson: "What's that (the $553 billion)?"

B-52: "Those are swaps that were done with foreign central banks..."

Grayson: "So who got the money?"

B-52: "Financial institutions in Europe and other countries..."

Grayson: "Which ones?"

B-52: "I don't know."

Grayson: "Half a trillion dollars and you don't know who got the money?"

B-52: "Um, um, the loans go to the central banks and they then put them out to their institutions..."

Grayson: "Let's start with which central banks?"

B-52: "Well there's 14 of them...I'm sure they're listed in here somewhere."

We know today, as a result of the document dump, that Bank of Scotland and RBS of the UK, Société Générale of France, Dresdner Bank and Bayerische Landesbank of Germany, Allied Irish Bank and Dexia of Belgium were among the banks that directly received funds from the Fed as part of the Term Auction Facility.

Also is it my imagination or does the usually smooth and arrogant Bernanke sound nervous answering Grayson's questions?