During
the national furor that erupted last year after
American International Group paid more than $165 million in bonuses, the
voices of those vilified for receiving the payments remained silent, at least in
public.
But behind closed doors, employees at AIG's Financial Products division -- the
very unit whose trading had hastened the insurance giant's collapse -- were
defiant, saying they were merely getting what they were due, recoiling at public
accusations that they were behind their capitalizing on the company's massive
taxpayer bailout.
"I will stand behind
every action I have taken in this company from Day One," one employee said,
according to a newly obtained transcript of a conference call the division's
head held last March with some of his staff. ...
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank caused a bit of an
uproar Friday when he suggested the U.S. government does not guarantee the debts
of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Rep. Frank later recanted and backed a Treasury Department statement
reassuring investors that, yes, Fannie and Freddie Mae debt is guaranteed by the
U.S. government. "Going forward," he said in a statement, we "will make sure
that there are no implicit guarantees, hints, suggestions, or winks and
nods...we will be explicit about what is and is not an obligation of the federal
government."
But after years of winks and nods, there's no
doubt that Fannie and Freddie now enjoy an explicit guarantee, according
to most observers. The U.S. government placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in
conservatorship in September 2008: "This means that the U.S. Taxpayer now stands
behind $5 trillion of GSE debt," according to the Congressional Research
Service. ...
Big
Banks Are Getting Bigger
WashingtonsBlog.com - 031510
Fifteen Years Ago, the Combined Assets
of the 6 Biggest Banks Totaled 17% of GDP... By 2006, 55% ... Now, 63%
Wall Street's Bailout Hustle
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Matt Taibbi Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions
we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for
another crash.
Continue
This Is One of the Biggest Wall Street Frauds Ever
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Porter Stansberry
Once this fact becomes common knowledge, it will probably mean jail
time for several leading Goldman executives and the end of the firm.
...
Exposing the Great American Bubble Barons Join Us in the Investigation
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Kevin Connor Today's super-rich are not robber barons, but
bubble barons: they extract their fortunes from intensifying cycles of imaginary
wealth creation and destruction, live at a far remove from their businesses, and
evade accountability in the public spotlight. ...
A great – and still growing – divergence appeared in 2009 between public
statements by leaders and their public performance. The politicized,
romanticized theater of increasingly populist “democratic” leaders and media
seemed to be of a different planet from activities taking place in the real
world.
While a large part of the global population
appears still transfixed by words, there is a growing perception that great
fissures already rend the global strategic architecture.
This is a trend which will compound during 2010.
...
Our World Balances on a Sea of Debt
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Darius Guppy The banks that control the world’s
supply of money are no better than counterfeiters – and their system of juggling
debt has left the global economy teetering on the brink of ruin. Convicted
fraudster Darius Guppy offers a provocative personal view.
Madoff Tipster Markopolos Cites SEC’s ‘Ineptitude’
Bloomberg.com,
By Jesse Westbrook, David Scheer and Mark Pittman
020410 Harry
Markopolos, a former money manager who sought to convince regulators for
nine years that
Bernard Madoff was a fraud, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
suffers from “investigative ineptitude.”
Markopolos told Congress today that he contacted
the SEC in 2000 after examining Madoff’s investment strategy and determining in
four hours that returns exceeding 10 percent weren’t possible. Markopolos, in
almost a decade of communication, said only one SEC staff member understood
Madoff’s scheme and “the threat it posed to the public.” ...
"Real" Unemployment Could Surge to 25%, Portfolio Manager Says
InformationClearinghouse.info
Lekas sees the headline unemployment rate rising to 10% in February and climbing
to 15% or 16% by mid-year. Even more dire, he sees the "real" unemployment
figure surging to 25%.
Capitalism & Other Kids' Stuff
The Case against Greenspan and Bernanke
InformationClearinghouse.info, byBy Mike Whitney Greenspan and Bernanke are either criminally negligent in failing to
execute their regulatory duties or complicit in aiding and abetting the banks
and other financial institutions in the sale of fraudulent loans to investors
and homeowners. Which is it? ...
Of course Wall Street's most powerful company wouldn't stoop to
rigging an online poll, right? In fact, one of their spinners said the bank
had “just received this information and is investigating fully”. Yeah, I think
they're going to join O.J. Simpson in looking for the perpetrators!
Around 3:41 pm yesterday, the technical team watching the vote counter on a
grass root campaign's website noticed that the “no” votes increased
dramatically.... (Read
More)
And This Is What It's All About
Obama's Proposal To Tax Wall St. Has Their CEOs
Pleading With Legislators CrooksandLiars.com, by
Susie Madrak Tuesday Feb 02, 2010 9:00am Obama's tax proposal has disturbed Wall Street so
much, according to
this New York Times story, that the CEOs are going over the heads of their
own lobbyists to plead their case directly with senators. (Perhaps even
lobbyists draw the line at outright bribes?) This was my favorite sentence in
the entire story: "The big banks, the lobbyists say, have become increasingly
alarmed that the legislative process may move
in unexpected directions outside their control."
...
Markets Fail When Humans Are Unregulated
InformationClearinghouse.info,
by Paul Craig Roberts The failure to regulate financial markets has produced enormous losses to all
Americans except the super-rich. But the U.S. government is guilty of an even
greater failure.
Continue
The world's top banking gurus aren’t sure how to
fight back against a global push for tougher financial regulation, with
commercial and investment banks struggling to reach common ground, according
to a recent
Reuters report.
“Top executives
from Wall Street and Europe's leading banks have been holding
behind-the-scenes talks at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort
of Davos, sources close to the negotiations said, but a deal has proved
elusive,” Reuters reported.
Both Wall Street's largest banks and some
major European ones have argued to support each other against politicians
who are calling for tougher procedures to regulate the industry in the wake
of financial crises. ...
The Crisis Is Not Over
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Paul Craig Roberts
Readers ask if the financial crisis is over, if
the recovery is for real and, if not, what are Americans’ prospects. The short
answer is that the financial crisis is not over, the recovery is not real, and
the U.S. faces a far worse crisis than the financial one. Here is the situation
as I understand it:
Continue
Senator Sherrod
Brown Speaks Out On Bonuses By Bailout CEOs
They begged for our money and now they're keeping it for their
bonuses.
World bankers meet in Sydney as recovery fears intensify HeraldSun.com
The world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia for high-level talks
as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped
world share markets.
G7 finance ministers dine near Arctic Circle RebelNews.org -
020710 The trustees
of the world's richest nations sat down for a dinner meeting at a hotel
restaurant in Iqaluit just 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the Arctic Circle.
The Power Of Money
SEC Considered National Security Status For AIG Details Reuters.com,
by Matthew Goldstein - -012410 (NEW YORK) -
U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid
to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout
like a request to protect matters of national security, according to emails
obtained by Reuters. ...
The average top executive's salary at a big American company was more than 170
times the average worker's earnings in 2004, up from a multiple of 68 in 1940.
Economic And Political Advice From The
Movie 'Network'
You've Got To Get Active When Let Down By The System
That's mere chump change to these guys! I just
have to wonder if the Democrats are still
dumb enough to roll over for them:
Banks are mobilising a smooth-running lobbying
machine in Washington to battle Barack Obama's plans to limit the size and
scope of Wall Street institutions, as financial services firms gear up to stop a
shake-up that could slice away large chunks of their operations.
Their influence on Capitol Hill is broad – the
top eight US banks spent $26m (£16m) on lobbying efforts last year, an increase
of 6% on 2008 despite their financial woes, according to Congressional records.
And in the first 10 months of 2009, the
financial industry donated $78.2m to federal candidates and party committees –
more than any other business sector – according to political research
institute the Centre for Responsive Politics.... (Read
More)
Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein gets stock-based $9 million
bonus
InformationClearinghouse.info
The amount, although
eye-popping by Main Street standards, is smaller than the stock-based bonuses
his rivals received for 2009. On Friday, J.P. Morgan Chase said it would award
$17 million to chief executive Jamie Dimon.
Of course, Geithner is pushing the Very Serious Idea
of reforming Social Security and Medicare. Doesn't everyone?
Considering that the Greenspan commission
didn't actually work - at least, not the way that Geithner says it did - it
kind of leads me to wonder what he actually means. ...
NewsFocus: "Ruh roh Raggy."
Here's Comes Another Fleecing
“Money is Power”, or shall we say, “The Monopoly to Create Credit Money and
charge interest is Absolute Power”. (Alex James)
Amsel (Amschel) Bauer
Mayer Rothschild, 1838: “Let me issue and control a Nation’s money and I care not who makes its
laws”.
Letter written from London by the Rothschilds to their New York agents
introducing their banking method into America: “The few who can understand
the system will be either so interested in its profits, or so dependent on
its favours, that there will be no opposition from that class, while, on the
other hand, that great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending
the tremendous advantage that Capital derives from the system, will bear its
burden without complaint and, perhaps, without even suspecting that the
system is inimical to their interests.”...
The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free
and open society; and we are as a people inherently and
historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to
secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of
excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far
outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even
today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed
society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today,
there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if
our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave
danger that an announced need for increased security will be
seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very
limits of official censorship and concealment.
--President John F. Kennedy 4/27/61
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by
Timothy Geithner, told American International
Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s
payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails
between the company and its regulator show. ...
Something's Not Right Here
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Bill Moyers - Mat Taibbi - Robert Kuttner
- 122809 Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans
are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful
Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist.
This is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying
politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog market.
Continue
The Woman Democrats Need
MichaelMoore.com, by Ethan Porter (Boston
Globe)
January 24th, 2010 On the day after Tuesday’s electoral loss,
the Obama administration brought an unfamiliar face to the White House -
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor noted for her staunch advocacy on
behalf the middle class and fierce criticism of the bank bailouts. Perhaps the
administration will take a more aggressive approach to Wall Street, along the
lines of what Warren wants. But for Democrats to truly take ownership of the
economic crisis, Warren will need to play a more prominent role. Not just her
ideas, but the force of her personality is needed. ...
Lining Up for the Wall Street Gravy Train
InformationClearinghouse.info, By Mike Whitney
010110
The banks are not only taking depositors money and using it in high-risk
derivatives transactions and currency "carry trades", they're also propping up
the long daisy-chain of insolvent creditors whose default could domino
Lehman-like through the entire financial system. Funny how the media skips
little tidbits like this when they give their rosy evening roundup.
Continue
Goldmann Sachs and Jobless Jack
US in fiscal peril with $12.1 trillion debt USA Today -
Richard Wolf - Dec 30,
2009
Influential experts from former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan to
former comptroller general David Walker have joined the cause. ...
You bail me out, I'll bail you out Banks are investing more in the government than the economy Houston Chronicle -
Loren Steffy - Dec 30,
2009
The structure of the bank bailouts engineered by the Treasury and
the Federal Reserve gives banks no incentive to lend. More than a year after
enacting the ...
The Real Reason Banks Aren't LendingMotley Fool
Society would never allow this, unless it was run by the
bankers.
Only Way Out-
Nationalize The Federal Reserve!
NATIONALIZE THE FEDERAL RESERVE Banks Only Care Is Profit. Return The Power To Print
Money To 'We The People' By Nathan Diebenow,
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Let Private Predator Banks Die:
Lawyer DALLAS, Texas — Still pissed
off at the Wall Street bailout? President Barack Obama’s stimulus package?
Private bank nationalization? The new homeowner mortgage bailout? Also afraid
that the federal government won’t have enough money to fund Medicare, Medicaid,
and Social Security in the future? Well, Ellen Hodgson Brown has a solution for
you. Nationalize the Federal Reserve. ...
Spitzer: Federal Reserve
is 'a Ponzi scheme, an inside job' The Raw Story.com, by
Daniel Tencer- July 25,
2009
The Federal Reserve — the quasi-autonomous body that controls the
US’s money supply — is a “Ponzi scheme” that created “bubble after bubble” in
the US economy and needs to be held accountable for its actions, says Eliot
Spitzer, the former governor and attorney-general of New York. ...
Learn More About
The Federal Reserve Here: Return The Control Of Our
Money To The US Government The Federal Reserve Sets The Rules When It Comes To Our Monetary
System
NewsFocus, By Tim Watts 031209
What Most Don’t Know About Our System of Currency The Takeover of the United States of America For over two
hundred years, the United States of America has been the beacon of
democracy and freedom for the world, or so we have been led
to believe. While sadly unbeknownst to many, our democracy was
infiltrated long, long ago. If that is a statement that you
personally take issue with, you are encouraged to please take the time to
read this paper and see if there isn’t something hidden that you
just might not know about regarding our beloved country. Please consider
the following. (Read more)
Alan Greenspan
Admits There Is No Authority Above The Federal Reserve
75% of Americans Favor Auditing The Federal
Reserve
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
So much for the ongoing secrecy of the nation’s independent
central banking system. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds
that 75% of Americans favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results
available to the public. ...
The Federal Reserve Must Die, Part 1 Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value --
zero. – Voltaire
SeekingAlpha.com, by James Quinn 082409
The Federal Reserve in collaboration with the giant banks has created the
greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen. The foolish notion that
unlimited amounts of money and credit created out of thin air can provide
sustainable economic growth has delivered this crisis to us. ...
The Federal Reserve Must Die, Part 2
The Federal Reserve Must Die, Part 3
Outlaw the Shadow Banking System! Guess Who Said It? Global Research,
by Matthias Chang, March 10, 2009
When I read the remarks of President Obama and Prime Minister
Gordon Brown after their meeting at the Oval Office on March 3, 2009 and the
speech of the latter to the Joint Session of Congress on March 4, 2009, I
realized that a growing antagonism has emerged between certain factions of the
ruling elites in the City of London and in Washington DC. ...
The
Federal Reserve is Bankrupt How Did It Happen and What are the Ugly Consequences
Global Research - by Matthias Chang - 2009-03-10
The Federal Reserve is bankrupt for all
intents and purposes. The same goes for the Bank of England! This article will
focus largely on the Fed, because the Fed is the "financial
land-mine".
How long can someone who has stepped on a landmine, remain standing – hours,
days? Eventually, when he is exhausted and his legs give way, the mine will just
explode! The shadow banking system has not only stepped on the land-mine, it is
carrying such a heavy load (trillions of toxic wastes) that sooner or later it
will tilt, give way and trigger off the land-mine! ...
Congressman Ron Paul and HR 1207
Ron Paul wants a thorough and complete audit of the Federal
Reserve
Jan 26, 2009 ... Amazing…
all because of the
federal
reserve… they want global ... time and time again
not to work with a substantial
national
deficit. ...
Congressman Kucinich
Proposes Nationalizing The Federal Reserve
The good congressman has this one right on.
Banks Own The US Government There are smart ways to raise money and regulate the
market, but Wall Street is working to kill any meaningful financial reform
The Guardian - by Dean Baker - 2009-06-30
Last month, when the
US Congress failed to
pass a bankruptcy reform measure that would have
allowed home mortgages to be modified in bankruptcy, senator Dick Durbin
succinctly commented: "The
banks own the place." That seems pretty clear. After all, it was the
banks' greed that fed the housing bubble with loony loans that were
guaranteed to go bad. Of course the finance guys also made a fortune
guaranteeing the loans that were guaranteed to go bad (ie
AIG), and when
everything went bust, the taxpayers got handed the bill. The cost of the
bailout will certainly be in the hundreds of billions, if not more than $1tn
when it is all over. ...
The Privately Owned Federal Reserve Runs Our Country Unemployment On The Rise The International
Forecaster, by Bob Chapman, July 16, 2009 We hope people are starting to
realize that the privately owned Federal Reserve runs our country, not our
branches of government. The new proposal to give the Fed new powers is the worst
possible thing that could be happening to our country. It is a total
centralization of banking and financial power. ...
Federal Reserve Says They Don't Know Where $500-Billion
Went
Alan Grayson asks Bernanke which foreign banks received half a
trillion $.
Faulty
Forecasting
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Ralph Nader
Unlike sloppy plumbers and carpenters who pay a price for their
mistakes, Wall Street forecasters seem to be paid very well despite being
chronically wrong.
Read More
Monetary reform: reclaiming $1 trillion every year
through public creation of money
August 22, 9:11 AMLA
County Nonpartisan ExaminerCarl
Herman
Without knowing how money is created and managed, all other
topics concerning money are out of context. This is crucial: regarding
trillions of dollars of economic power, you have no idea where money comes
from. It’s time for you to learn. When people don’t know how money is
created and managed, the only thing between them and tyranny is trust in
ethical government. American democracy is founded upon cautious distrust of
government. To compensate for temptations of power and personal profit in
government, the US Constitution is designed with checks and balances.
However, because checks and balances can be thwarted if politicians are
unethical, the only real protection of liberty is citizen responsibility.
American democracy is dependent upon our taking personal responsibility for
understanding our most important economic and political issues. This is one
of them. ...
National Irish Bank moves to cashless banking IrishTimes.com
- 123009
National Irish Bank has written to thousands of its customers this month
informing them of a “new style of banking” in which branches will not handle
over-the-counter cash transactions.
NewsFocus: And so it begins. Globalist
economic reform or a too for Big Brother?
Treasury Injects $3.8-Billion Into GMAC
AFP - 123009 The US Treasury announced Tuesday a 3.8
billion dollar fresh capital injection into ailing GMAC, the former finance arm
of General Motors that became a bank to access federal rescue aid.
"Due to a variety of factors,
including that the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler were
accomplished with less disruption to GMAC than banking supervisors initially
projected, Treasury will commit 3.8 billion dollars of new capital to GMAC
rather than the 5.6 billion dollars originally announced," the Treasury said in
a statement.
The lower amount will result in a
1.8 billion dollar reduction in Treasury?s previously forecasted spending under
the 700-billion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Treasury said.
The Treasury had previously injected
12.5 billion dollars in capital in GMAC. ...
WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more
than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages,
but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S.
housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.
Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the
brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment
bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage
defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had
promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and
foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are
facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that
Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent
housing crash may have violated securities laws.
"The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very
interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is
a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar
products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said
Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a
massive overhaul of the nation's banks. "This is fraud and should be
prosecuted."
Very interesting - if Congress actually
intends to pass this. (Or if the banks let them!) The repeal also removed
protections that kept banking and insurance interests separate, which
accelerated the Wall St. meltdown:
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A one-page proposal gaining traction in Congress
could turn back the clock on Wall Street 10 years, forcing the breakup of
banks, including Citigroup Inc.
Lawmakers in both parties, seeking to prevent future financial crises while
soothing public anger over bailouts and bonuses, are turning to an approach
that’s both simple and transformative: re-imposing sections of the
1933 Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking.
...
Congress lets 50 tax breaks expire Most of the Fading Tax Breaks Likely Will
Be Reauthorized Retroactively but That Still Means an Inconvenience for
Taxpayers (What
About Those For The Ultra-The Rich?)
ABC News,
By Ashlea Ebeling, Forbes.com -
122709 When members of the U.S. Senate finally head
home, they will be leaving the future of 50 individual and business tax breaks
in limbo. All expire at the end of 2009. ...
So Far, 25 States Have Emptied Their Unemployment Funds
CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Wednesday Dec 23, 2009 2:00pm
You have to love how utterly shameless these Republican oligarchs
are. In the middle of a massive recession, a Republican governor is
complaining about "Rolls Royce" unemployment benefits in Indiana. By "Rolls
Royce," I assume he means anyone who's getting enough money to pay for heat is
living too damned high on the hog.
Maximum weekly unemployment benefit
in Indiana: $360.
But that's not even news, is it?
That the party that so happily poured billions of untracked dollars down the
memory hole in Iraq is suddenly so thrifty when it comes to us cannot be a shock
to any sentient being:
The recession's jobless toll is
draining unemployment-compensation funds so fast that according to federal
projections, 40 state programs will go broke
within two years and need $90 billion in loans to keep issuing the benefit
checks. ...
Social Security Administration Sends Letters Explaining
No COLA Reason Given Is No Rise In Cost of Living. (Say What!? Seriously?)
NewsFocus.org, by Tim Watts 121109
The Social Security Administration has sent letters out to Americans explaining
why there will be no cost of living. According to SSA there was "no rise in
the cost of living during the past year," although many of those needing
their social security to exist upon would beg to differ on that SSA assessment.
With many goods rising in price during the economic downturn, many are asking
exactly where SSA is getting their figures from.
The explanation given by SSA reads as follows...
By law, Social Security benefits increase automatically to
keep pace with inflation. When there is a period of no inflation, the law does
not permit an increase in benefits, Based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
published by the Department of Labor, there was no rise in the cost of living
during the past year, so your benefit will remain the same in 2010. The CPI
is the federal government's official measure used to calculate cost-of-living
increases.
Far be it from the government to bail-out social security,
helping those who need it most, instead of the rich Wall Street tycoons and
mega-wealthy bankers who caused this economic disaster.
Many of those relying on their social security find the excuse
from SSA to be highly disingenuous and insulting. A more honest approach might
have been to simply admit that the government is strapped for money after the
bail-outs to the rich, rather than attempting to say that the cost of essential
goods has not risen.
The American people do know better. We get the greed thing. Slap in the face well taken.
What makes all of this worse, our formerly esteemed Congress took
their 2009 cost of living increase and is now said to be planning on their 2010
increase as well. WTF?
10 Ways to Screw Over the Corporate Jackals Who've Been Screwing You Tired of getting pushed around by faceless big business?
Here are 10 ways to push back! AlterNet,
by
Scott Thill, - December 19, 2009
The New Year is nearly here, and so much has happened. Wait,
what's that? Nothing major at all has happened, you say? Oh right, we've been
stuck in neutral since dumping the toxic trash of the Republican Bush
administration and embracing Democratic promises of hope and change, neither of
which have blossomed.
A year of our collective life has flown by and our global
culture is still rife with schemers, screw jobs and sorry excuses for solutions.
And we just sit back and take it, year after year. But no more. When you make
that hefty list of New Year's resolutions, drop some of these bombs. Then duck.
You'll get your change faster than you can say, "Teabag this!"
...
55 banks miss TARP payments in October
YahooNews,
By Juan Lagorio
Juan Lagorio –
Wed Dec 23,2009
(Reuters) Fifty-five financial
companies failed to pay dividends in November on money they borrowed from the
U.S. government, bank research firm SNL said on Wednesday.
That number swelled
from 33 companies that missed an August payment on government funds, according
to an SNL analysis of government data. ...
Are the Democrats Fighting the Banks?
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Shamus Cooke
How pathetic. President Obama sat at a table
surrounded by super rich bankers, pleading with them to lend money to small
businesses and workers. The media mislabeled Obama’s groveling as “encouraging,”
“imploring,” and “pressing,” but a man who refuses to take action is powerless;
and powerless people can only beg.
Continue
The Art of the Possible: Dodd's Banking 'Reform' Will Have Republican Input
CrooksandLiars.com
, by Susie Madrak Tuesday Dec 22, 2009 7:00am
I think it's
pretty obvious that we need to change the procedural rules
in the Senate, and hopefully get around obstructionist tactics while still
allowing honest debate and compromise. We can't have a system where senators
from sparsely-populated states maintain such disproportionate power (and that's
not even getting into the reality of a Congress corrupted by K Street):
WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, who one
month ago proposed an overhaul of financial regulations that was hailed by many
consumer activists, has all but jettisoned that proposal following Republican
objections and has initiated talks for a new approach designed to satisfy some
of his fiercest GOP critics. ...
Fund Boss Made $7 Billion in the Panic Wall Street Journal -
Gregory Zuckerman - 122109
In this comeback year for investors, David Tepper may have scored one of the
biggest paydays of all. Mr. Tepper's hedge-fund firm has racked up about $7
billion of profit so far this year ...
How The Fed Allowed Banking Crisis To Grow Unchecked
CrooksandLiars.com, by
Susie Madrak Monday Dec 21, 2009 11:00am
The Post has
an in-depth look at how the Fed was oblivious to the nation's looming major
banking crisis, and the political maneuvering that will determine its future
operation.
The keynote speaker, Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, assured the bankers and businessmen gathered at the
Westin Hotel on Michigan Avenue that their prosperity was not threatened by the
plight of borrowers struggling to repay high-cost subprime loans.
Bernanke, who was in charge of
regulating the nation's largest banks, told the audience that these firms were
not at risk. He said most were not even involved in subprime lending. And the
broader economy, he concluded, would be fine.
NewsFocus:
And for this ignorant, moronic advice he gets to keep his big paying job and
also gets Time Magazine's "Man of the Year." "Oh the horror Will Robinson. Oh
the horror..."
NewsFocus Op/Ed:This is abhorrent, obscene, insulting, and truly disgusting!
I cannot say it loud enough. Nothing like rewarding a crook for his inept
handling of our economy.
Bernanke: Time's Man of the Year truthout -
Robert Borosage - 121709
Time Magazine's naming Ben Bernanke "Man of the Year" is a little
bit like celebrating an arsonist for his heroics in putting out a fire that he
set. ...
Eliot Spitzer: Geithner, Bernanke “Complicit” in Financial Crisis and Should Go DemocracyNow.org, 120409
In an extended interview, we speak with former New York governor Eliot Spitzer
about the financial crisis and how it was handled by Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Bernanke and Geithner
“actually built and participated in creating the structure that now has
collapsed,” Spitzer says and calls on them to be replaced. ...
Obama slams 'fat cat bankers'
RawStory.com,
Saturday, December 12th, 2009 -- 10:11 am
US President Barack Obama has hit out at Wall Street "fat cats",
expressing anger that banks bailed out by the government plan huge bonuses while
millions of Americans battle poverty and unemployment.
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat
bankers on Wall Street," Obama said Friday in excerpts of an interview with CBS
television to be aired on Sunday.
With unemployment still hovering at around 10 percent, amid a
recession triggered in part by the excesses of financial institutions, Obama
voiced frustration that "some people on Wall Street still don't get it."
Three men allegedly invade the home
of a former subprime lender, and are arrested after reportedly injuring three
people inside.
Vandals target the home of the
former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, smashing windows in the banker's home
and car.
Those are just three notable
incidents of violence aimed at people who were in some way linked to the
financial crisis that has unfolded over the past year. And while in many of
those cases it's unclear whether the incidents were politically motivated, or
motivated by financial issues, or just a coincidence, the cases fit into a
pattern of escalating crime and violence in the wake of the recession.
The U.S. economy grew at a $89 billion annualized rate in the
third quarter. That was the first growth since the second
quarter of 2008 and came to $22 billion in actual growth in the
third quarter.
The bankers, after causing the greatest economic calamity
since the Great Depression, are rewarded with
six times the growth accomplished so far in the much heralded “economic
recovery.”
Meanwhile, seven million
families face foreclosure and 25 million Americans can’t find full time work. (Read
More)
Kucinich:
'Class war is over, working people lost'
RawStory.com, by
Sahil Kapur - Thursday,
December 17th, 2009 -- 3:05 pm WASHINGTON -- Reflecting on the growing divide
between Wall Street and Main Street, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday
offered a powerful critique on the state of the economy in an open committee
hearing.
A Smart and Simple Tax
InformationClearinghouse.info, By William John Cox
It is time to discard our stupid and complex system of taxation and replace it
with a smart and simple tax that balances the burden of taxation with the
benefits of government.
Continue
House passes broad Wall Street regulatory overhaul
InformationClearinghouse.info
In a separate vote Friday, Democratic leaders failed to revive legislation that
would let bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages to lower homeowners' monthly
payments. The measure was rejected by a 241-188. ...
Not One House Republican Votes To Tighten Regulation on
Financial Industry
CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Saturday Dec 12, 2009 11:00am
Without one Republican vote, the House
passed a deeply flawed bill that attempts to control the excesses of the
financial services industry - while also letting them escalate many of the same
crazy practices that led to this crisis. The Republicans, of course, thought the
bill was too stringent. ... (Read
More)
In a video preview
of an upcoming Rolling Stone article, Taibbi explained
how the Obama administration started selling out to Wall Street
interests almost as soon as the 2008 election was over.
"The really big thing that's in
these bills that's really, really scary is that it kind of outlines a permanent
bailout mechanism," Taibbi said. "If it survives in the way that it was
originally conceived, it's basically going to formalize an arrangement whereby
the government is expected to bail out the top 20 to 25 largest financial
companies. ... It will be entirely up to the White House to determine whether or
not these companies are in trouble in the future, so there won't be any
congressional role in deciding when and when not to give a bailout." ...
The Ten Brands That Will Disappear In 2010
24/7WallSt.com - December 2, 2009
24/7 Wall St. has prepared its list of the ten brands that will
disappear in 2010. This list is based on a review of each firm’s financial
situation and other operating data, the current and ongoing value of its brand,
and whether the company that controls that brand can sell its assets.
This year a number of famous brands have closed or their
parents have announced that they will be shut down shortly. This includes
decades-old magazines like Gourmet and famous car brands like Pontiac. The
recession took whatever economic value these brands had left and destroyed it.
The brands on the 24/7 list for 2010 include companies that
have been in trouble for years. Some have been in slow decline and others were
irreparably damaged by the credit crisis. Most of these companies will be bought
and the rest will simply be closed. ...
I've been
saying this all along to people: The only real obstacles are in your head.
There's no reason in the world to keep throwing good money after bad.
Go ahead. Break the chains. Stop paying on your
mortgage if you owe more than the house is worth.
And most important:
Don't feel guilty about it. Don't think you're doing something morally wrong.
That's the incendiary core message of a new
academic paper by Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school
professor, titled "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social
Management of the Housing Crisis."
White argues that far more of the
estimated 15 million American homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages
should stiff their lenders and take a hike.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime,
said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only
liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last
year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was
absorbed into the economic system as a result.
This will raise questions about crime's influence on the
economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of
the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown,
call for new International Monetary Fund regulations.
Oh The Greed: Four Stories That Will Make You
Angry
Via Raw Story. You know, I not only want the money back, I
want these people put in jail. They took the money and ran
from their own culpability:
The CEOs of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the two
investment banks that collapsed during last year's financial
meltdown, walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars
in compensation even as the company's shareholders
lost everything, says a new report from Harvard Law
School.
The top five executives at Bear Stearns made a total of
$1.4 billion from bonuses and equity sales between 2000 and
2008, while the top five executives at Lehman Brothers made
around $1 billion during that same period -- the period
during which the companies ran up the bad investments that
would see them collapse in 2008, according to "The
Wages of Failure" (PDF), a report from Harvard Law
School's Program on Corporate Governance.
"The government's actions to avoid financial collapse last
fall -- as distasteful and unfair as some undoubtedly were --
were unfortunately necessary to prevent a global economic
catastrophe that could have rivaled the Great Depression in
length and severity, with profound consequences for our economy
and society. (I know something about this, having spent my
career prior to public service studying these issues.) My
colleagues at the Federal Reserve and I were determined not to
allow that to happen."
It's nice to talk about the Fed's response to this crisis,
but Mr. Bernanke's studies apparently did not tell him the
obvious, that
allowing an $8 trillion housing bubble to grow unchecked
would lead to an economic disaster like what we are now
experiencing. He and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve Board
either could not see, or did not care about, this huge bubble.
As a result, Ben Bernanke has been running around for much of
the last year and a half telling us about his knowledge of the
Great Depression.
Rep. Alan Grayson Passes
Bill to Audit the Fed
Grayson on Auditing the Fed: We're About to See the Man Behind
the Curtain in Emerald City
CrooksandLiars.com, by
Heather Saturday Nov 21, 2009 7:00pm
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan talks to Rep. Alan Grayson about the
amendment passed by the House Financial Services Committee to
allow an independent audit of the Federal Reserve. If Alan
Greenspan is not happy about it, I take that as a good sign they
did the right thing. It only took putting this country on the
edge of financial ruin that we're not out of yet for the S.O.B.
to ever
admit he might be wrong about anything.
Lawmakers seek Fed audit after critical AIG report The Associated Press -
Daniel Wagner -
Nov 18, 2009
WASHINGTON — A group of House Democrats are stepping up
demands for greater transparency from the Federal Reserve
after reports that the Fed mishandled the ...
Goldman Sachs Doing "God's
Work"?
HuffingtonPost.com, 110909
The only thing worse than Goldman
Sachs amassing billions in bonus money for its executives, based on various
government subsidies and bailout measures, ...
Trickle-up Economics Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me
InformationClearinghouse.info, By Paul Craig Roberts
Little wonder the US can’t afford health care for the uninsured and unemployed.
It is far more important to finance multi-million dollar bonuses for investment
bankers. I mean, what would we do without capitalism?
Continue
While the middle class has been caught in an economic vise, the financial
industry that was supposed to serve them has prospered at their expense.
Consumer banking -- selling debt to middle class families -- has been a gold
mine. Boring banking has given way to creative banking, and the industry has
generated tens of billions of dollars annually in fees made possible by
deceptive and dangerous terms buried in the fine print of opaque,
incomprehensible, and largely unregulated contracts.
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun
permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good
character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to
the local police for a permit to buy a pistol.
The banker had told this friend of mine that
senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now
equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising
against the bank.
I
called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether
it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to
protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me
back. The New York Police Department has told me that “as a
preliminary matter”
it believes some
of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD
also said it will be a while before it can name names ...
Dylan Ratigan Has Some Fun "Celebrating" Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act
Women Now Hold Half of U.S. Jobs - For Less Money Than Men
CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Friday Nov 13, 2009
7:00am
When
these stories come out, I have to laugh. Because women on
the working-class end of the economic spectrum have had to work
for a very long time. Pay raises haven't get pace with the cost
of living, to the point where paychecks aren't worth what they
were in the 70s. Women stepped in to pick up the slack.
No, what the Wall St. Journal means is that the sort of women
who are married to the men who read the Journal have to work
now. (It's a class thing!) But some things remain the
same: Women still get paid less.
The composition of the nation's work force is approaching
an unprecedented benchmark. Due in part to deep layoffs of
men, women are poised to become the majority of
workers for the first time. As of September, women
held 49.9% of the nation's jobs, excluding farm workers and
the self-employed, a rise of 1.2 percentage points from their
48.7% share when the recession began in December 2007.
In 1970, women held 35% of jobs.
From Wall Street to Main Street to Skid Row BBC News -
Oct 15, 2009
As Goldman Sachs makes quarterly profits of more
than $3bn, and ponders paying bonuses, for the first time in 34 years social
security payments to Americans will not increase...
Dylan Ratigan And Michael Moore
Discuss The Greed of Goldman Sachs
Call your Congressional representatives. Demand our money back, with
their profits.
How the Servant Became a Predator Finance's Five Fatal Flaws InformationClearinghouse.info, by
William K. Black
Five fatal flaws in the financial sector's current structure have created a
monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens
democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.
Continue
Geithner Aides Reaped Millions Working for Banks, Hedge Funds
Bloomberg News
Some of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s closest aides, none of whom faced
Senate confirmation, earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs
Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other Wall Street firms, according to financial
disclosure forms.
The Rich Have Stolen The Economy
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Paul Craig
Roberts
The political system is unresponsive to the American people. It is monopolized
by a few powerful interest groups that control campaign contributions. Interest
groups have exercised their power to monopolize the economy for the benefit of
themselves, the American people be damned.
Continue
The People vs Wall Street
InformationClearinghouse.info
Amidst the economic wreckage, after 7 million job losses and approaching 2
million home foreclosures in the US alone, with businesses and consumers around
the world still struggling to get finance after the long credit crunch, Wall
Street is finally on trial. A little piece of Wall Street, at least.
Take America Back From the Banks!
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Dean Baker Reining in the financial industry's power and
greed will be a long, hard-fought war. But it is one that must be fought.
Continue
Barney Frank and the Planet of the Banks
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Ralph Nader
What planet is Congressman Barney Frank on, anyway? It is the planet of the
banks and other financial firms that keep his campaign coffers humming, as their
chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Continue
Gold strikes record high above $1,217 an ounce
AFP News
Gold struck
a record price above 1,217 dollars on Wednesday as the US currency weakened,
cementing the precious metal's surge over the past year as nervy investors seek
safe-haven investments.
Does The Federal Reserve Try To Manipulate Wall Street? Rep. Alan Grayson
(D-FL) Goes After The
Big Dog, The Federal Reserve
UNMASK
THE FED We The People Demand Answers! Where Did $2-Trillion Dollars of Our
Money Go To?
Make Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke Reveal Those Who Took Our Bailout Money.
This link will send a mass email on your behalf to all of Congress to let them
know we're tired of the secrecy and we demand an accounting of where our
tax-payer money went.
(Sponsored by the Committee to Elect Alan Grayson)
Gold Heading to $3000 Unless America Hits the "Reset"
Button, Tice Says
Yahoo Finance
Gold will hit at least $3000 per ounce before the current rally ends says Tice,
Federated's chief portfolio strategist for bear markets. The forecast falls
roughly in between Peter Schiff's $5000 per ounce call and Jimmy Rogers'
forecast of $2000.
UN Calls For New Reserve
Currency
By AFP The United Nations called on Tuesday
for a new global reserve currency to end dollar supremacy which has allowed the
United States the "privilege" of building a huge trade deficit.
Continue
The Demise of the Dollar InformationClearinghouse.info,
by Robert Fisk In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab
states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using
the US currency for oil trading.
Continue
Saudi Bank Governor Denies Talks to Replace Dollar
Bloomberg News
Saudi Arabia hasn’t held talks with China and other countries on dropping the
dollar as the currency for pricing oil, Saudi Central Bank Governor Muhammad al-Jasser
said, denying a report in the U.K.’s Independent newspaper.
A Hidden $34 Billion Bank Subsidy? Study Exposes How
Taxpayers Are Subsidizing Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Other
Large Banks
Democracy Now, 100609
One of the key terms to come out of the nation’s economic
meltdown has been “too big to fail.” The government has funneled billions of
dollars to large financial firms by arguing that their collapse would deal an
irreparable blow to economic recovery. A new study has calculated the tab of the
“too big to fail” approach, and it amounts to a far larger taxpayer-funded
subsidy than previously thought. The Center for Economic and Policy Research
says the bailout has allowed “too big to fail” banks to pay significantly lower
interest rates than those paid by smaller banks. According to one estimate,
that’s meant a subsidy for the nation’s eighteen largest bank holding companies
of $34.1 billion a year. That amount represents nearly half these companies’
combined annual profits. We speak to the study’s author, Dean Baker. ...
Banks Were Pushing Subprime Mortgages Behind The Scenes CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak
Wednesday Oct 14, 2009
Joe Nocera, who writes the Executive Suite column for the New
York Times, has done an
interesting thing today. He 1) points out banks are lying about their
involvement in subprime mortgages, he 2) notes that Barney Frank is absolutely
wrong to defend them and 3) offers documents that support his claim. This is
something we used to call "journalism," and I'm happy to see it. ...
I still get a thrill whenever I get my hands on a confidential
memo with "The White House, Washington" appearing on the letterhead. Even
when—like the one I'm looking at now—it's about a snoozy topic: This week's G-20
summit.
But the letter's content shook me awake, and may keep me up
the rest of the night.
The 6-page letter from the White House, dated September 3, was
sent to the 20 heads of state that will meet this Thursday in Pittsburgh. After
some initial diplo-blather, our President's "sherpa" for the summit, Michael
Froman, does a little victory dance, announcing that the recession has been
defeated. "Global equity markets have risen 35 percent since the end of March,"
writes Froman. In other words, the stock market is up and all's well.
While acknowledging that this year's economy has gone to hell in a handbag,
Obama's aide and ambassador to the G-20 seems to be parroting the irrational
exuberance of Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke who declared last week that,
"The recession is very likely over." All that was missing from Bernanke's
statement was a banner, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." ... (Read
More)
The Economy Is A Lie, Too
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Paul Craig Roberts Americans cannot get any truth out of their
government about anything, the economy included. Americans are being driven into
the ground economically, with one million school children now homeless, while
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke announces that the recession is over.
Continue
Reporter Calls American System Corporate
Communism Some In The Media Are Finally Beginning To Catch On
Michael Moore's New Movie On Capitalism And The
Economy
This will be his biggest hit of all, showing the rich getting richer.
(Also see, The Corporation)
Michael Moore On Nightline
Proving that unchecked American capitalism is the root of all evil.
The richest 10% of Americans account for 43% of income and 57% of
net worth.
How The CitiGroup Report Looks At Us Versus The
Ultra-Wealthy
"Our whole plutonomy thesis is based on the idea that the rich will keep getting
richer. This thesis is not without its risks. For example, a policy error
leading to asset deflation, would likely damage plutonomy. Furthermore, the
rising wealth gap between the rich and poor will probably at some point lead to
a political backlash. Whilst the rich are getting a greater share of the wealth,
and the poor a lesser share, political enfranchisement remains as was - one
person, one vote (in the plutonomies). At some point it is likely that labor
will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a
political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich. This could be felt
through higher taxation (on the rich or indirectly through higher corporate
taxes/regulation) or through trying to protect indigenous laborers, in a
push-back on globalization - either anti-immigration, or protectionism. We don't
see this happening yet, though there are signs of rising political tensions.
However we are keeping a close eye on developments."
America's Teacher: An Interview With Michael Moore The Shock Doctrine author interviews
Michael Moore on the roots of the economic crisis and the promise and peril of
this political moment
The Nation, by
Naomi Klein -
October 12, 2009 edition of The Nation. On September 17, in the midst of the publicity blitz for his cinematic
takedown of the capitalist order, Moore talked with Nation
columnist Naomi Klein by phone about the film, the roots of our economic crisis
and the promise and peril of the present political moment.
To listen to a podcast of the full conversation, click here. Following is an
edited transcript of their conversation.- -The Editors
Naomi Klein:
So, the film is wonderful. Congratulations. It is, as many people have already
heard, an unapologetic call for a revolt against capitalist madness. But the
week it premiered, a very different kind of revolt was in the news: the
so-called tea parties, seemingly a passionate defense of capitalism and against
social programs.
Meanwhile, we are not seeing too
many signs of the hordes storming Wall Street. Personally, I'm hoping that your
film is going to be the wake-up call and the catalyst for all of that changing.
But I'm just wondering how you're coping with this odd turn of events, these
revolts for capitalism led by Glenn Beck. ... (Read
More)
American Capitalism: Economic Dysfunction If You Think Our Economic System Is Fair And Just, Or
The Best There Is, You Might Want To Think Again After Reviewing A Few Facts
When 10% of America Controls All The Wealth, Is That Good For All?
NewsFocus, by Tim Watts 092809
Is It Time To Reform Capitalism Too?
With
far-right conservatives doing their best to rail against the perils of
socialism, let us intellectually weigh the merits of arguably the most dangerous
economic system to man and society, capitalism. ... (Read
More)
This is not a pretty picture for humanity. We can
do better as a society.
We're Being Manipulated Yet Most Don't Even Know It Most Aren't Aware of The Tools Used Against Us To Bring About Change NewsFocus, Op/ed by Tim Watts 100709
The Hegelian Principle is alive and well and working against us
all right now. Where, you ask? How about our economic downturn? What unpopular
reforms might spring forth from this arguably orchestrated worldwide disarray?
How about a change of currency, or the possible formation of a new world order?
These radical ideas are currently being considered. What about the health care
fiasco? HR-676 and a single-payer plan is what we need, yet all we hear about is
a public option that will create more revenue for the insurance industry.
Whether or not it is a cheaper option, regulated by the government, the
insurance industry will indeed prosper with the addition of 46-million new
customers.
Perhaps "Change" was a calculated ruse to prepare us
for a grand transformation. Considering what is occurring right now in America,
it is reasonable to entertain the concept of a premeditated ruse. We are all
hopeful for change, but let's make sure it benefits "We the People" and
not simply the ultra-wealthy.
As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
They charged me $35 for every single
one of my debit card transactions (it came to more than $400). When I called my
bank's customer service hotline, they told me it was in my service agreement
that it could take 10 days to clear something deposited at a "foreign" ATM -
even though they all belonged to the same STAR network. I argued with them, but
they wouldn't budge.
So I called their corporate
communications officer, told them I was writing a story about my experience
(noting I'd found a class-action suit filed against them for this very thing)
and asked for an official statement to include in my piece. Magically, my
charges disappeared and I got an apology. "You've been a customer for
such a long time, we'll make an exception this time," I was told.
Isn't America great? ...
Soc. Sec. to go into red next year
The Associated Press - September 27, 2009
Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from
laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it
collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the
1980s. ...
Obama
to take on Big Oil
RawStory.com 091909
Report: President
Obama preparing push to end subsidies for oil companies. ...
Globalization Goes Bankrupt
InformationClearinghouse.info, By Chris
Hedges
The rage of the disposed is fracturing the country, dividing it into camps that
are unmoored from the political mainstream. Movements are building on the ends
of the political spectrum that have lost faith in the mechanisms of democratic
change. You can't blame them. But unless we on the left move quickly this rage
will be captured by a virulent and racist right wing, one that seeks a
disturbing proto-fascism.
Continue
DoJ to
hunt wealthy tax evaders
RawStory.com 092709
Expect new cases vs. banks and the wealthy 'every couple of weeks': DoJ.
“They claim there’s a recovery
but the recovery ought to be measured by the people working. True
unemployment is now 16 percent, and the people who lost money have not
regained the money. The people who lost houses have not gotten their houses
back. There is no recovery,” said Paul. ...
One year after the
global banking system collapsed the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) 16th
Annual Executive Excess report -- "America's
Bailout Barons" -- shows that the perverse system of executive compensation
which contributed to the
financial meltdown is still thriving for top bailout recipients.
As a result historic inequality in pay is still prevalent and
the neo-Gilded Age tycoons are raking it in. According to the report, a
generation ago top execs rarely earned more than thirty to forty times the pay
of the average American worker. But now top execs make an average of 319
times more than the typical worker. For the top twenty financial industry
execs the divide is even greater -- 436 times more than the average worker in
2008. In the past three years, the top five execs at the twenty US financial
firms receiving the most Bailout Bucks took home pay packages worth a staggering
$3.2 billion -- an average of $32 million each. In 2008 those cats averaged
nearly $14 million each--even though their twenty firms laid off more than
160,000 people since January of that year. ... (Read
More)
The Corporation The Influence Of The Corporation On Society And
Its Disparaging Affect On Us All The Aim Of The Corporation Is To Protect The Owners Financially By
Giving It Rights As An Actual Human, But What Type Of Human Would Actually
Be? (The rise of the new fascism: Corporatism)
NewsFocus 083009
The Corporation
Psychologists examine the corporate entity as a human being
and determine that it is a dangerous psychopath.
The award winning documentary delves into the mindset of
the corporation, accepting it for what is has legally been set up for, as
a human entity with the rights of an individual. What they set out to
ascertain is, what type of an individual would the corporation be if it
were psychoanalyzed as a person? The shocking conclusion is that the all
pervasive and controlling corporate entity would be characterized as a
pysochopath.
Concentration Of Wealth For The Rich Is The Greatest On Record Thank You George W. Bush For Not Taxing The Top 1% Of
The Rich RawStory.com , by Daniel Tencer - 081609
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now have a
larger share of total income than they ever have in records going back
nearly a century — an even larger amount than during the Roaring Twenties,
the last time the US saw such similar disparities in wealth.
In recent years, the fact that differences between rich and
poor are the greatest they’ve been since the Great Depression has become a
popular talking point among liberal-leaning economists. ...
The Widening Gap In America's Two Tiered Society
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Emily Spence
If the U.S. populace somehow imagines that its members are viewed any
differently than any other populations across the world that are used to produce
maximal profits for the top economic class, there's a rude awakening in store
ahead. Further, most legislators simply do not care whether middle and lower
class interests are or aren't well served as long as they, themselves, can
somehow make out well in the times ahead.
Continue
1,000 Banks to Fail In Next Two Years: Bank CEO
CNBC.com
The US
banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said
John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May.
WASHINGTON --
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blasted top U.S.
financial regulators in an expletive-laced critique last
Friday as frustration grows over the Obama
administration's faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial
regulation, according to people familiar with the meeting.
The proposed
regulatory revamp is one of President Barack Obama's top
domestic priorities. But since it was unveiled in June,
the plan has been criticized by the financial-services
industry, as well as by financial regulators wary of
encroachment on their turf.
Mr.
Geithner told the regulators Friday that "enough is
enough," said one person familiar with the meeting. Mr.
Geithner said regulators had been given a chance to air
their concerns, but that it was time to stop, this person
said.
The Goldman Sachs Influence Scam:
The Great American Bubble
Machine From tech stocks to high gas prices,
Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation
since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it
again
Rolling Stone, by
MATT TAIBBI
- Posted Jul 13, 2009 1:49 PM The first thing you need
to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The
world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire
squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly
jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like
money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis,
which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of
the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a
Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates. ...
Max Keiser On Goldman Sachs Oligarchy -
Pt 1
Max Keiser On Goldman Sachs Oligarchy -
Pt 2
Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in
Milliseconds How The Game Is Rigged And
Fleeced By The Crooked Elite
New York Times, by
CHARLES DUHIGG
- July 24, 2009
It is the hot new thing on Wall
Street, a way for a handful of traders to master the stock
market, peek at investors’ orders and, critics say, even
subtly manipulate share prices. It is called high-frequency
trading — and it is suddenly one of the most talked-about
and mysterious forces in the markets. Powerful computers,
some housed right next to the machines that drive
marketplaces like the
New York Stock Exchange, enable high-frequency traders
to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their
detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s
expense. These systems are so fast they can outsmart or
outrun other investors, humans and computers alike. And
after growing in the shadows for years, they are generating
lots of talk. ...
How You Finance Goldman Sachs’ Profits Information
Clearinghouse.com, by Nomi Prins
This is perhaps the most important thing I
learned over my years working on Wall Street, including as a
managing director at Goldman Sachs: Numbers lie. In a normal
time, the fact that the numbers generated by the nation's
biggest banks can't be trusted might not matter very much to
the rest of us. But since the record bank profits we're now
hearing about are essentially created by massive federal
funding, perhaps it behooves us to dig beneath their data.
Continue
Prior to the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, the American Colonies were subject to the rule of
English Common Law and pronouncements of the English Crown
and Parliament. Charters from the English Government delineated
legal powers granted to the colonies, and at least one,
Virginia’s Charter of 1606 , gave that colony the power to
coin its own money. Others, however, did not have this power,
and it was Massachusetts’ 1652 establishment of a
mint, for example, that led in part to revocation of its
Charter in 1684 and closure of the mint in 1688. ...
The Secret
History of the Credit Card
Something every person should know about the credit card
system.
My economic point of view is from ground
level. It is a point of view sometimes described as
“agrarian.” That means that in ordering the economy of a
household or community or nation, I would put nature first,
the economies of land use second, the manufacturing economy
third, and the consumer economy fourth.
A properly ordered economy, putting nature
first and consumption last, would start with the subsistence
or household economy and proceed from that to the economy of
markets. It would be the means by which people provide to
themselves and to others the things necessary to support
life: goods coming from nature and human work. It would
distinguish between needs and mere wants, and it would grant
a firm precedence to needs. ...
How the U.S. Uses Globalization to
Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
By John Perkins In his first book, Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man, John Perkins told the story of his work as
a highly paid consultant hired to strong-arm leaders into
creating policy favorable to the US government and
corporations, what he calls the “corporatocracy.” John
Perkins says he helped the US cheat poor countries around
the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more
money than they could possibly repay and then taking over
their economies. ...
Congressman Kucinich Grills AIG On Fraud
Kucinich rips apart AIG CEO for stealing millions.
Bailout Banks And Others (Bank of
America, Wells Fargo)To Leave CA for Broke, Turn Back On
State Issued IOUs Bank of America and other big
institutions plan to enforce a cutoff, making it harder to
cash vouchers. To protect IOU holders from third-party
speculators, the SEC defines the vouchers as securities.
Los Angeles Times, By Tiffany Hsu - July 10,
2009
People holding California state IOUs --
including taxpayers, vendors and local governments -- will
soon have a tougher time redeeming them, as most major banks
are standing firm on a vow not to cash the vouchers after
today. (071009) ...
Why America Now Supports Taxing the Rich Wall Street Journal Blogs -
Robert Frank - 15 hours
ago
A poll taken last month, and cited by the Wall Street Journal,
showed 55% of respondents supported limiting tax deductions for the wealthy on
charitable ...
The Financial Meltdown We will never know the true inside story of what really
went on
The International Forecaster by Bob Chapman On Friday, we had the
latest edition of the FDIC “Friday Night Financial Follies” as regulators
on Friday shut down Bank of Lincolnwood, a small bank in Illinois, marking the
37th failure this year of a federally insured bank. More are expected to succumb
amid the pressures of the weak economy and mounting loan defaults. ...
For the past eight months, we have been a nation focused on
bailouts and bankruptcies. For the past ten years, we have been a nation
ignoring massive wealth transfer and wealth concentration through a rigged Wall
Street.
As simple and clear as this picture is, some of the brightest minds in this
country are unwilling to connect the cause and effect of wealth in too few hands
to bankruptcies and a tanking economy.
Wealth-deprived consumers can't buy the goods and services being produced. This
leads to repetitive cycles of layoffs and growing unemployment which leads to
more wealth-deprived consumers leading to more overcapacity in production
plants, more layoffs, more shrinking purchasing power.
The accompanying, and equally dangerous, problem is that concentrated wealth
stifles the very innovation that is necessary to create new industries, new jobs
and lead us out of the downward economic spiral.
Let's think about the individuals who tapped into Wall Street's rigged wealth
transfer system and what they have done with their ill-gotten loot: typically,
they own three or more homes, fancy cars, multiple country club memberships,
airplanes, yachts, and numbered offshore bank accounts. The problem is, they
just can't buy enough to compensate for the purchases they have deprived
hundreds of thousands of other consumers from being able to make. ... (Read
more)
Economic And Political Advice From The
Movie 'Network'
You've Got To Get Active When Let Down By The System
The Great
Bail-Out Scam An open
letter to Congress on the bail-out NewsFocus, by Tim Watts 040209
For those not thinking properly on these
large bail-outs…. “we the people” want some
accountability. Congress is bankrupting us to save
the poor business dealings of others. So in essence,
let’s bankrupt our once great sovereign nation in order to
save a smaller not so great for-profit corporation.
There is no other way to parse that statement. ...
New American Hero: Brad Sherman Tells It Like
It Is
And yet CNBC still seems to be clueless to it all.
I guess we know who not to get our financial advice from now.
CORRECT ME IF I'M
WRONG... Are We Helping The Wong People With The Bail-Outs And
Stimulus? NewsFocus, by Tim Watts 032209
It seems to this American that all of the corporate bail-outs
deal with keeping the ultra-wealthy afloat. Someone please explain how giving
money to uber-rich banks and corporations will save this country. We are dealing
with the richest 1% of America while the other 99% with the real spending power
are left to rot and die. Where is the common sense in that approach?
It would seem apparent to most that we've
had enough of Reaganomics and the 'trickle-down" theory. It has been
proven undeniably that this rationale is very clearly a gross financial myth, if
not simply a bald faced lie from the fat cats that have gained all of their
wealth off the middle-class and the poor.
The rich easily forget where they
earned
(stole) their money from, through the over-valuing of retail goods and services,
ripping off the American consumer in the end process for obscene, outrageous
profits. I like to refer to this as "unchecked capitalism."
The benchmark of American capitalism
is that you charge 100% of what an item costs you in order to make your tidy
profit. Many have now egregiously overstepped that rule with the sky as the
limit principle for their unchecked, immoral avarice. For all the crap
rhetoric that this country likes to spew about communism and socialism, it
appears that unchecked capitalism has indeed truly been the worst evil
for humanity and the world.
Fact: The Bush administration
gave those 1% of America's most wealthy the largest tax breaks immediately upon
coming into office. So what did Americans ever get in return? Oh yeah, our
economy is in shambles.
Fact: More corporations leave
for off-shore tax shelters, refusing to pay their fair share in an economy whose
infrastructure they freely use and abuse on a daily basis. According to a 2008
Government Accounting Office (GAO) report, over 66% of these ultra-wealthy
corporations and overpaid executives give nothing back to America by
paying NO taxes whatsoever. With revenues of over $2.5 trillion dollars in
untaxed income, this is, to coin a new term, taxation treason.
Fact: Rather than use bail-out
money for what it was intended for, the wealthy elite have instead used it to,
1) get richer, 2) as a next egg for their own bad times, 2) grow more powerful
by buying up smaller institutions and competitors, and 4) paying dividends to
their top wealthy shareholders. All against the TARP and what the stimulus was
intended for.
Fact: Wall Street pariahs
fervently seek to destabilize markets and institutions through short selling and
other outlandish financial schemes, all so they can make a buck for themselves,
with no personal responsibility for the economic backlash they create.
Excuse me, but what is wrong with this
picture?
If the term "criminal behavior"
pops to mind, you're definitely on the right track.
For anyone to blame middle-class
America for accepting loans that our government and private financial
institutions enticed and teased them with is a wildly disingenuous accusation. As cold
as it sounds or truly may be, rape has always been a hard case to to prove in a
court of law when the victim eagerly urged and teased the predator on. So why do
we accept this disgusting reasoning when it is now applied to inflated mortgages
and loans in the current housing and financial crisis?
It would seem that if you seriously
wanted to stimulate the economy, you would help the 99% of Americans who hold
the true buying power in this country. That is where true economic recovery
begins. It does not take a master economist to grasp the principle in this
concept. Trying to appease the wealthy has already been proven to be a waste of
time and money. It merely depletes the middle class and creates more of the poor
and lower class.
Momma always said, don't trust
bankers, lawyers, politicians or insurance salesman. I guess we can now add Wall
Street investment brokers to that list as well.
Let the richest 1% wallow in the
financial cesspool that they created. Throw the bail-out lifeline to the other
99% of Americans who truly need it.
There I said it. Please correct me if
I'm wrong.
Sign me,
Just one more pissed off American.
News Video
School
House Rock - Where The Money Goes
News Video
School
House Rock - Wall Street
Do You Make Good Profits Or Bad Profits?
Explaining the difference between "good profits" and "bad profits." Another
example of capitalism gone awry, or "unchecked capitalism.".
BofA's Lewis Against Reinstating Glass-Steagall Act Crooks & Liars.com, by Susie Madrak Saturday Mar 28, 2009
No, of course not. Because so
far, that little arrangement has been working rather well for them - they got
obscenely rich, and we got the tab The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 prohibited banks from having
commercial- and investment-banking businesses under one roof, but the
law was repealed in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The change
followed the merger of Citicorp Inc. with Travelers Corp. Inc. to form
Citigroup Inc. ...
News Video
The Credit
Card Interest Rate Scam Explained
News Video
How To Get
Out Your Interest Rates Lowered
News Video
Why It's
Hard To Get Out of Debt
News Video
How To Get
Out of Debt The Right Way
THIS IS UNDENIABLY A HUGE PART OF THE PROBLEM
If working families have to pay their taxes then so should big, wealthy
corporations. When major corporations avoid paying state taxes, families and
small businesses pay more. We shouldn’t be increasing tuition, fees and
property taxes on working families to fix the budget deficit while big, wealthy
corporations dodge their taxes.-Wisconsin
State Representative Spencer Black, 77th District
GAO STUDY: $2.5 Trillion In Corporate Money Goes
Untaxed!
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. companies and 68% of foreign
corporations do not pay federal income taxes, according to a congressional
report released Tuesday. (August 2008) The Government Accountability Office
(GAO) examined samples of corporate tax returns filed between 1998 and 2005. In
that time period, an annual average of 1.3 million U.S. companies and 39,000
foreign companies doing business in the United States paid no income taxes -
despite having a combined $2.5 trillion in revenue. GAO-08-957
Tax
Administration: Comparison of the Reported Tax Liabilities of Foreign and
US Controlled Corporations 1998-2005 ...[PDF]
Corporate Welfare
Time, By Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele110998
How would you like to pay only a quarter of the real estate taxes
you owe on your home? And buy everything for the next 10 years without spending
a single penny in sales tax? Keep a chunk of your paycheck free of income taxes?
Have the city in which you live lend you money at rates cheaper than any bank
charges? Then have the same city install free water and sewer lines to your
house, offer you a perpetual discount on utility bills--and top it all off by
landscaping your front yard at no charge? ...
Anyone
that still believes in the trickle-down theory (Reaganomics) needs to take a serious
look at the state of our economy. Bush gave the wealthiest 1% of Americans the
biggest tax breaks immediately after taking office and look what it did for our
country.
News Video
School
House Rock - Paying Taxes
News Video
School
House Rock - Tyrannosaurus Debt
The Corporation
A Must See Psychoanalysis of the Modern Corporation
Hey, GOP... remember this one? Bush Signs Landmark $700-Billion Bailout Legislation!
Reuters - by
Eddie Evans and Kevin Krolicki - October 3, 2008
President Bush Friday signed landmark US$700-billion legislation
to help lenders unload distressed real estate assets off their books, a move
aimed at curbing a spreading financial crisis. The White House confirmed that
Bush had signed the bill, which was approved earlier by the House of
Representatives, just before he was due to leave for a political fund-raiser in
St. Louis and a weekend stay at his Texas ranch. ....
Remember $29-Billion In Financing For JP Morgan/Chase's
Buyout of Bear Stearns
First We Had $200-Billion For Fanny Mae And Freddie Mac
Then We Had The First AIG Bail-Out For $85-Billion
Then There Was The Second AIG Bail-Out For $37-Billion (up to $148-B
under Bush)
And Don't Forget The $25-Billion Auto-Bail-Out
We Gave Bank of America $118-Billion
And on and on and on. It's hard to keep up at this point.
Love Him Or Hate Him: Glenn Beck Nails
This One On The Head
What's the old saying?... A broken clock is right twice a day.
Congressman: Culprits Of Financial Collapse Should Be
Arrested Not treated as saviors and given
more power to “fix” the problem that they created PrisonPlanet.com, By Paul Joseph Watson - March 12, 2009
Congressman Ron Paul says that the people responsible for the economic crisis
should not be hailed as saviors and given more power to fix the problem that
they created, but arrested and criminally prosecuted. Paul told the Alex Jones
Show that the only way the private Federal Reserve could be brought under
control would come as a result of a mass uprising, noting that there is a lot
more awareness in Washington about the Fed’s contribution to the economic
crisis.
The Congressman has two
bills before Congress, one to abolish the Fed altogether and another to audit
the organization. “Today they’re protected, they’re in total secrecy and
they’re protected by the law - if 1207 is passed we have an audit and they have
to answer the questions and I figure, if we ever get that far and get the
exposure and get the transparency that we need then people will wake up and
realize, why do we have them at all,” said Paul. ...
A PR attempt to calm the country down, but how can we trust the Fed?
Jon Stewart Ices Jim Cramer With Earnest Anger, Not Bombast Cramer's Day of 'Stewarts'... Martha meek in the
morning, Jon right on at night U.S. News & World Report - 17
hours ago 031309 If you haven't seen
it, the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer interview from Thursday night was actually worth
the hype. You know there's something going on when the people weighing
positively for Stewart afterward range from TPM and James Fallows, who compares
Stewart to both Edward R. Murrow and
David
Frost
(so who plays whom in "Stewart/Cramer"?) ...
AIG releases list of bailout
benificiaries guardian.co.uk - 31
minutes ago 031609
Despite denials, Goldman Sachs tops lists of
benificiaries from US taxpayer bailout of insurance giant AIG.
Bowing to building pressure from the media,
...
Obama: AIG Bonuses an 'Outrage' to
Taxpayers Washington Post - By
William Branigin 031609
President Obama today blasted the plan of
insurance giant AIG to pay millions of dollars in bonuses to
traders who helped bring the company to the brink of ruin,
calling the payments an "outrage" that violates "fundamental
values" ...
AIG Threatened with Subpoenas Over BonusesABC News
AIG Still Living in Denial As It Pays Out
Millions in Bonuses By Mary Kane 3/15/09 11:33 AM
Bailed-out insurance giant AIG will no doubt be a
heated topic of discussion today, with The Wall Street Journal
and other news organizations
reporting that the failed and essentially insolvent company
is vowing to pay out $450 million in bonuses to its “top
performers” — you know, the folks in the financial products
unit, many of whom contributed to bringing the company to ruin
and helped tank the entire economy in the process.
The Bush-Cheney Record:
An economic review of the
last eight years in America.
Why is it comedians get this but Congress doesn't?
Switzerland breaks with tradition on tax evasion The Associated Press - 5
hours ago
GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland's days as a safe haven for the world's
tax evaders are numbered. Under pressure from the United States
and other troubled economies, the Swiss government announced
Friday that it will cooperate in international tax
...
Switzerland eases banking secrecy BBC News - 14
hours ago
Switzerland, the world's largest offshore financial centre, has
agreed to accept concessions on bank secrecy. However, while it
will now abide by international rules on bank data sharing, it
said it would only respond to "concrete and justified"
...
Bank secrecy moves may force
wealthy back onshore Reuters - 9
hours ago
By Lisa Jucca - Analysis BERNE (Reuters) - Wealthy people who
have stashed cash in undeclared accounts in Switzerland and
other offshore centers may now seek ways to legitimize their
money after Berne and other tax haven governments relaxed bank
...
Madoff plea may lead to incrimination of
others Newsday - BY
ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO 15
hours ago 030709
Wall Street pariah Bernard Madoff is set to leave
his midtown penthouse twice this week, get into a vehicle
accompanied by security guards and be driven downtown to federal
court. ...
Madoff investors prepare for court
confrontation The Associated Press - 20
hours ago 030709
NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard Madoff has yet to face
the many investors he is accused of ripping off in a
jaw-dropping Ponzi scheme that amounted to one of the biggest
financial frauds in history. The disgraced financier has been
insulated from them in his ...
Chicago Bank Hosts Lavish Party After Receiving Bail-Out MSNBC 022509 Reports of lavish spending by a Chicago
bank has lawmakers fuming and demanding your money back.
Northern Trust sponsored a PGA event in California last ...
The American people are not going to stand much longer for this.
There's even more greed:
Banks' golf-loving execs fiddle while Wall Street burns
San Jose Mercury News,
By John Ryan - 022509 Golf is going to have to live it up
without Morgan Stanley. Will this economy show no mercy? No
mercy at all? The investment bank announced
...
US senator wants Fed to name loan
recipients Reuters - 30
minutes ago 030309
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - A US senator
berated Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday for
refusing to name banks that borrow from the central bank and
introduced legislation that would require public disclosure. ...
"Diseases desperate grown
are by desperate appliances relieved, or not at all." –
Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
Moody’s credit rating agency is warning that the
U.S. government’s AAA credit rating is at risk, because it has
taken on so much debt that there are few creditors left to
underwrite it. Foreigners have bought as much as two-thirds of
U.S. debt in recent years, but they could be doing much less
purchasing of U.S. Treasury securities in the future, not so
much out of a desire to chastise America as simply because they
won’t have the funds to do it. Oil prices have fallen off a
cliff and the U.S. purchase of foreign exports has dried up,
slashing the surpluses that those countries previously recycled
back into U.S. Treasuries. And domestic buyers of securities, to
the extent that they can be found, will no doubt demand
substantially higher returns than the rock-bottom interest rates
at which Treasuries are available now.
G7 Meeting: Italy's Giulio Tremonti calls for a "new global
order"
By
Andrew Willis 021609
Finance ministers and central bank governors of
the Group of Seven industrialised nations (G7) met over the
weekend in Rome to discuss the ongoing financial crisis and
economic slowdown.
G-20 needs joint efforts, not talk of a 'new order'
International Herald
Tribune, France - 12 hours ago
In this new economic game, the state will
have a greater role to play. Never before has the question of
our civilization been posed as clearly! ...
Lansing Mayor Rips FOX
Anchor On Financial Crisis One thing is clear to the public, the American worker did
not cause this mess.
Financial Crisis: Toxic Plans for Toxic
Assets
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research,
February 16, 2009
Exit Paulson, enter Geithner with the latest "no
banker left behind plan" - aka whatever Wall Street wants, Wall
Street gets. Yet, the reception was underwhelming. The Dow
plummeted 382 points while investors took shelter in bonds and
gold. AP reported that "the new bank rescue plan landed with a
thud on Wall Street" as investors worried that no end to the
crisis is in sight. Editorial and op-ed commentaries were near
unanimously negative and some especially critical. ...
Obama and lawmakers give back Stanford donations
Reuters - 4
hours ago Stanford was a relative newcomer to
Washington politics, but still managed to spread a fair amount
of money on both sides of the aisle over the past decade, ...
Disgraced banker Stanford didn't pay
his own taxes
The Associated Press -
Feb 18, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — Public records show disgraced
financier R. Allen Stanford owes hundreds of millions of
dollars in federal taxes. ...
Texas Billionaire Stanford sought on fraud charges
Belfast Telegraph, United
Kingdom - 11 hours ago
The charismatic Texan financier, who's had
extensive dealings with the England and Wales Cricket board and
funded the 'Standford Millions' Twenty20 event, ...
House Finance
Panel Rips Into Bankers Over Bailout
For some, the bankers conduct during this
crisis is tantamount to treason.
Bailout Includes Executive Pay Limits For Some Firms Allows More Than Presidential Pay With
Half-Million Bar For Bail-Out Execs
Washington Post - 1 hour ago 020409 By David
Cho, Binyamin Appelbaum and Howard Schneider
The Obama administration plans to slap a $500,000 limit on
annual salaries of top executives at some of the financial firms
at the heart of a government bailout program, part on effort to
curb public ...
Obama reining in CEO payBoston Globe
President Puts Bailout Companies On NoticeCBS News
Keith
Olbermann Rails Against Fat-Cat Corporate Greed
Time for greed to take a backseat to the US economy.
Where All the TARP Money Went
U.S. News & World
Report, DC - 22 hours ago 021209
Yesterday’s interrogation of the eight bank CEOs
by the 71 inmates of the House Financial Services Committee was
surreal. The politicians all demanded to ...
Congress
goes after the big bankers
Congress
asks, 'Why do you need bonuses'
Top bank officials, Treasury chief,
grilled by Congress
Chicago Tribune, United
States - Feb 12, 2009 Congress has said part of the remainder
must be devoted to helping troubled homeowners facing
foreclosure. "I just don't believe that's enough money to fix
...
Bank CEOs haven’t been buying own stock
InvestmentNews, NY -
Feb 11, 2009
By Jed Horowitz Only three of the eight bank
chief executives testifying before the House Financial Services
Committee on Wednesday on their use of ...
House Panel Asks, 'Where's The
Money?'
Bankers feebly try to defend why they're hoarding our money.
Vanity Fair Editor Uncovers Bail-Out
Application Apply To Get Your Cut of The
Bail-Out Pie Today! by
Bruce Feirstein December 1, 2008,
9:47 AM Well, it turns out that V.F.
contributing editor Bruce Feirstein has discovered the über-top-secret
Federal Bailout application—the one-page “EZ-CASH” form that’s
been making the rounds at corporate board rooms, weekend ski
chalets, and NetJets waiting rooms all across America. ...
Time Magazine: The New World Order A New Central Bank For The World Is Needed By
Justin FoxThursday, Feb. 05, 2009 In recent weeks, the world has been
politely standing by and watching how things play out with the
fiscal stimulus and latest bank-bailout plans in Washington. ...
We
Need a Bank Of the World The financial crisis is
global- Only an international central bank can deal with it.
NEWSWEEK, By Jeffrey E.
Garten, Published Oct 25, 2008 (From the magazine issue dated
Nov 3, 2008)
If George W. Bush's upcoming
global summit on how to fix the world's broken financial
system—an event proposed by several European presidents and
prime ministers—is to be a serious effort, the leaders should
begin laying the groundwork for establishing a global central
bank. The idea of such an institution would have been a
political nonstarter before the current debacle. ...
Paul Krugman
Schools The Talking Heads On The Economy
Krugman displays a clear insight into the financial crisis
Richest 400 Earn More, Pay Lower Tax Rate
Forbes, NY -
Jan 29, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC--The 400 highest-earning
taxpayers in the US reported a record $105 billion in total
adjusted gross income in 2006, but they paid just $18 ...
Income of 400 richest Americans doubled during Bush era
Raw Story, MA -
Jan 31, 2009
The 21st century Gilded Age party really got
going before the US economy went bust. It was a party
disproportionately enjoyed by high-income Americans, ...
Feds foil plot to wipe Fannie Mae
data
Associated Press 013009
URBANA, Md. (AP) — The Justice Department
says it foiled a plot by a fired Fannie Mae contract worker in
Maryland to destroy all the data on the mortgage giant's 4,000
computer servers nationwide.
Electronics giant to cut 20,000 jobs
AP
updated 10:04
a.m. CT,
Fri., Jan. 30, 2009
TOKYO - Japanese electronics giant NEC Corp. said
it will cut 20,000 workers worldwide as it tries to stanch
widening losses from semiconductors and other
businesses that have
been hard hit by competition and the global economic slump.
US Companies Cut 45,000 Jobs Before Stock
Market Opens Somebody was working this weekend to make sure
thousands of other people didn't
John Byrne
Published: Monday
January 26, 2009
Update: GM slashes 2,000 more jobs, Obama
addresses 'deepening crisis'
Bank of America: Bad For America? Reports of Bail-Out Money Misuse
Brave New Films 012809
Bank of America is spending bailout funds like a
drunken sailor, but not on anything that will serve as a life
raft for our drowning economy. The largest bank in the US
received a whopping $25 billion in bailout funds with another
$20 billion on the way. And yet they just spent $4 billion on
executive bonuses, invested $7 billion overseas, and dropped
millions more on DC lobbyists. Meanwhile, they are laying off
35,000 workers and actively trying to block the Employee Free
Choice Act.
Bank of
America Flaunts Bail-Out Money
Anyone defrauding the bail-out needs to be indicted and
prosecuted to the fullest.
Our overrated financial industry; more abundant
with greed than with morals.
Study: Cable news stacks stimulus debate
with GOP voices
By SilentPatriot Thursday Jan 29, 2009 12:00pm In perhaps the most shocking news
since the dawn of time, a new ThinkProgress report finds that
when it comes to discussion of the Obama stimulus plan on cable
news, FOX News has actually been the most "balanced", hosting
only slightly more Republicans than Democrats. MSNBC and CNN, on
the other hand, have given substantially more time to the GOP.
Geithner Says China Manipulating Its Currency
New
York Times - 1 hour ago 012209 By JACKIE
CALMES and DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON - Timothy F. Geithner, who took a big step toward
confirmation as Treasury secretary on Thursday, told senators
that the Obama administration believes China is “manipulating”
its currency, suggesting a more ...
US Senate vote on Geithner sought on MondayReuters
Retirement savings can get lost in the hedge fund maze
Personal Finance, South
Africa - 38 minutes ago
But it is not compulsory for hedge fund
managers to go the best-practice route. Best practice, for
example, requires a hedge fund manager to use an ...
Congressman Kucinich Explains Financial Crisis And The Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve Is Not Owned By The US Government
Senate Votes to Release Second Part of TARP
Wall
Street Journal - 24 minutes ago 011509
By COREY
BOLES WASHINGTON
The US Senate voted to release the second tranche of $350
billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to the Treasury,
in a close vote that was a clear indication of the uncertainty
by lawmakers about the program.
US Congress advances emergency economic aid plansReuters
Follow The Money: Was Part Of Bailout A "Bait And Switch?"
CBS News, NY -
Jan 12, 2009
It took a full month for many in Congress and
the American public to realize that billions in bailout funds
were not going to be used the way they thought. ...
US auto groups ask for more government billions
Telegraph.co.uk, United
Kingdom - Jan 12, 2009
General Motors and Chrysler are to call upon the
US government for billions more in extra funding as
President-Elect Barack Obama asks the US Congress to ...
Government shouldn't tell banks how to lend: Paulson
Oh really? The guys that created this mess need
no government supervision; seriously?
Reuters - Jan
12, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Banks that receive
government rescue funds must not hoard the cash, but the
government should not tell the banks how to lend money, ...
Don't give Bush control over $350 billion in bailout money
Kansas City Star, MO -
Jan 10, 2009
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star
Editorial Page columnist President Bush apparently wants his
administration to get control over the $350 billion in ...
AIG Execs Get Millions In Cash Awards
Payouts Are Being Called 'Retention Payments,'
Not Bonuses It seems AIG has done it again, this time by
going out of its way to rename bonuses so they won't be reported
as such...
Ideas for Obama
By
PAUL KRUGMAN Published: January 11, 2009
Last week President-elect Barack Obama was asked
to respond to critics who say that his stimulus plan won’t do
enough to help the economy. Mr. Obama answered that he wants to
hear ideas about “how to spend money efficiently and effectively
to jump-start the economy.”
O.K., I’ll bite — although as I’ll explain
shortly, the “jump-start” metaphor is part of the problem. (
Read more )
Here's A
Huge Part of the Financial Crisis
It's unpatriotic to exploit our country for profit while
depriving "we the people" a tax.
Corporations and their executives need to be held
accountable.
Bernard Madoff Will Remain Free on Bail, Judge Rules
Bloomberg - 37 minutes ago 011209
By David
Glovin and Erik Larson Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Madoff
will remain free on a $10 million bond, a federal judge ruled,
denying a request by US prosecutors that he be jailed while
awaiting trial on a federal securities fraud charge.
60 Minutes:
Did Wall Street speculators create oil price bubble?
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Monday January 12, 2009
One of the most inexplicable economic
events of the past year involved the doubling of the price of
oil last spring and summer from $69 a barrel to nearly $150 --
driving gasoline and heating oil costs through the roof --
followed by its even more rapid collapse this fall to under $50
60 Minutes looked into various theories of what happened
and concluded that "many people believe it was a speculative
bubble .. and that it had more to do with traders and
speculators on Wall Street than with oil company executives or
sheiks in Saudi Arabia." (Story
and video here )
W. And The Damage Done
The Harm To The Country And The World Is Unprecedented By Vincent Rossmeier and Gabriel Winant 010808 President Bush inherited a peaceful, prosperous America.
As he exits, Salon consults experts in seven fields to try to assess the
devastation.
The $10 trillion hangover:
Paying the price for eight years of Bush
By Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes In a new article in
Harper’s Magazine, Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz estimate that the
cost of undoing the Bush administration’s economic choices, from the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan to the collapse of the financial system, soaring debt,
and new commitments to interest payments and Medicare, all add up to over
$10 trillion.
(
See Democracy Now interview )
Dude, where's my $700 billion?
Congress handed Wall Street a huge wad of cash to
jump-start the economy. It didn't work -- so where did all that
money go?
Bank of Spain Chief: World Faces "Total" Financial Meltdown Dec 21 11:40 AM
US/Eastern The governor of the
Bank of Spain on Sunday issued a bleak assessment of the
economic crisis, warning that the world faced a "total"
financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression. ...
China Losing Taste for Debt From US
New York Times, United
States - 3 hours ago
By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG — China has
bought more than $1 trillion of American debt, but as the global
downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to ...
US Congress accepts pay increase Despite Tanking Economy, Congress Accepts Cost of
Living Raise
MINA, Canada -
22 hours ago 122308
Each member of Congress will receive a $4700 pay
increase at the beginning of the year. Congress has set up for
themselves an automatic “cost-of living ...
Madoff investors hope for bailout
The Associated Press -
4 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — One week ago, Ronnie Ambrosino
was a millionaire. Now, Ambrosino is among the long list of
investors whose fortunes were allegedly wiped out.
Wealth Creation, or a Ponzi Scheme?
Last week the Good Lord evidently realized that
not enough people had been reading Hyman Minsky’s explanation of
how financial cycles end in Ponzi schemes – the stage in which
banks keep the boom going by lending their customers the money
to pay interest and thus avoid default.
Tidy Up The Bailout
Boston Globe, United
States - 16 hours ago 011509
IF TAXPAYERS are spending billions to bail out
banks, they deserve to know how that money is used. US
Representative Barney Frank has introduced legislation ...
Fed won't reveal names of recipients of $2
trillion Andrew McLemore,
Published: Friday
December 12, 2008
The
Federal Reserve refused a request from
Bloomberg News to reveal the recipient of $2 trillion in
emergency loans paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
After Bloomberg filed an open records request through the
Freedom of Information Act, the fed answered by arguing that
it's allowed to withhold information, including memos and trade
secrets. (
Continue reading )
Congress:
Show us the money! Legislation
will force banks to tell what they did with $700 billion bailout
funds.
Where's the bank bailout money?
CNN International -
19 hours ago 122308
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Banks have launched public
relations campaigns to bring in customers and soothe nerves,
with ads offering "peace of mind" and other ...
Bailout: Feds don't know where money went?
Jackson Clarion
Ledger, MS - 16 hours ago 122308
The Associated Press, in a survey, found that
not only do most banks that have received the $750 billion say
they don't know how or if they have spent it, ...
Federal bailout: Fair to taxpayers?
Seattle Post
Intelligencer - 21 hours ago 122208
The Associated Press asked 21 banks
how they spent government funds and not one bank would
give specific answers. "We're choosing not to disclose that,"
...
What happens now that the Big 3
Auto Bailout is dead? Often, a look at our own history can shed
light on the future…
Let’s take a look back at the
turn of the last century, when Teddy Roosevelt tried — but
couldn’t quite convince Congress and taxpayers — to hand a
billion dollar bailout to the wagon and horse-drawn carriage
industry. ...
A Bailout For Detroit
Forbes -
121908
Christmas
comes early for GM and Chrysler with $13.4 billion in aid, but
many questions remain. The White House has given Detroit an
early Christmas present.
Makers of Electric Cars
Want Federal Money, Too
San Francisco Chronicle,
USA - 13 hours ago
Will the Bay Area's embryonic electric car industry get aced out
by Detroit in the accelerating quest for federal funds? San
Carlos' Tesla Motors is asking ...
Helen Thomas - It's A Depression
By HELEN THOMAS HEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Few prominent
economists will say it, but to me it looks and feels like we are
in another Great Depression or a reasonable facsimile.The
current meltdown is dubbed a "financial crisis." But a rose by
any other name would still inflict the same hardship and
suffering on most people and businesses.
The Worst Is Yet To Come
Anonymous Banker Weighs In On The Coming Credit
Card Debacle
By Joe Nocera
A few weeks ago, I published an e-mail message sent to me from
an executive who works in the banking industry — and had become
disgusted by what he sees all around him. This weekend, that
same banker sent me another e-mail message, which he has also
agree to let me publish. It’s another wake-up call. Too bad
nobody is listening.
Continue
Rep. Frank: Passable Auto Bailout Bill by Next Week
Washington Post - 58 minutes ago
Rep.
Barney Frank (D-Mass.) just wrapped up a five-and-a-half-hour(!)
hearing of his Financial Services committee, mulling over a
proposed $34 billion bailout of the struggling auto industry.
Automakers' fourth-and-long plea
CNNMoney.com -
52 minutes ago
Big Three CEOs on Capitol Hill for fourth time in two weeks as
they beg for 11th hour help to stave off bankruptcies. By Chris
Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior ...
Frank Sees ‘Disaster’ if Auto Industry Fails
New York Times, United
States - 1 hour ago
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON — The chief executives of the Big Three automakers
returned to Capitol Hill on Friday in an air of deepening
crisis, ...
Automakers renew plea
before Frank's panel
Boston Globe, United
States - 2 hours ago
Representative
Barney Frank of Massachusetts, opening day two of the second
round of hearings on automakers' appeal for federal aid,
highlighted today's new ...
Time running short on
auto deal
The Hill, DC -
1 hour ago
By Mike Soraghan
With congressional Democrats and Republicans unable to reach
agreement on an auto bailout Friday, further doubt is cast on
the Big Three’s ...
End the Fed, End Wall Street Bankster Rule, End
the Derivatives Depression
by Webster G. Tarpley / Global Research - 112308
The November 22 End the Fed
rallies raise a vital issue: it is past time to abolish
the unconstitutional, illegal, and failed institution
known as the Federal Reserve System, the privately owned
central bank which has been looting and wrecking the US
economy for almost a hundred years.
Death of the American Empire By Tanya Cariina Hsu / Global
Research - 102308 "Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties
than standing armies" (Thomas Jefferson)
America is dying. It is
self-destructing and bringing the rest of the world down with
it.
Often referred to as a sub-prime mortgage collapse, this
obfuscates the real reason.
How the Financial Crisis Was Built Into
the System
In 1910, seven men held a secret
meeting on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. It's
estimated that those seven men represented one-sixth of the
world's wealth. Six were Americans representing J.P. Morgan,
John D. Rockefeller, and the U.S. government. One was a European
representing the Rothschilds and Warburgs.
During
the national furor that erupted last year after
If you haven't seen
it, the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer interview from Thursday night was actually worth
the hype. You know there's something going on when the people weighing
positively for Stewart afterward range from TPM and James Fallows, who compares
Stewart to both Edward R. Murrow and
