World Socialist Web Site
Government of, by, and for the banks
25 May 2013
Five
years since the 2008 financial meltdown, the speculation and fraud that caused
the crash are back in full force in the United States. Flush with the $85
billion in cash printed up and handed to the banks every month by the Federal
Reserve, business at the Wall Street casino is booming. Stock values are at
record levels and so are bank profits, amidst declining wages and mass poverty.
Under
these conditions, the banks have been pushing to rip up even the very modest
restrictions on financial speculation, while broadening the scope of government
bailout laws. The aim is simple: to give banks the maximum ability to speculate
without constraint, while getting the maximum possible government assistance if
and when the bubble collapses.
So close is the bankers’
grip on the reins of government that, no longer content to let their
bought-and-paid-for politicians write laws, the banks have taken to doing the
work themselves.
This was the case with a
bill that passed the House Financial Services Committee this month, HR 992,
which significantly expands the number of financial institutions eligible for
coverage by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The bill, which
passed with majority support by both Democrats and Republicans, amends an
earlier law that prevented financial institutions that trade swaps—a set of
dangerous and largely unregulated derivatives—from coverage by the FDIC.
The New
York Times reported Friday that, according to emails the newspaper
examined, 70 out of the bill’s 85 lines were based on the recommendations of
Citigroup, one of the largest US banks. Two paragraphs were inserted nearly
word-for-word from an email written to lawmakers by the bank.
The bill restricts
provisions in the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,
signed on July 21, 2010. This law was largely a publicity measure by the Obama
administration, made to appear as a crackdown on financial speculation while in
reality allowing the banks to go on with business as usual.
Instead of creating
regulations, the Dodd-Frank bill merely mandated that a series of regulations
be implemented at some point in the future by regulators. Nearly three years
after the bill’s passage, the vast majority of these regulations have not been
implemented.
Out of 135 bank regulatory
rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank bill, only 40 have been put into effect. The
act’s much-vaunted mandate for the creation of a “Volcker rule,” preventing
deposit-taking institutions from carrying out financial speculation, remains a
dead letter.
Moreover, many of the
provisions of the Dodd-Frank bill, toothless as they were, are being scaled
back by subsequent acts of Congress, such as HR 992, described above.
Even those regulations that
have been implemented have been even further weakened by regulators to comply
with the demands of the banks. Last week, the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission voted to implement regulations on derivatives—speculative financial
products based on other asset values—that were significantly weakened from
those that were proposed under Dodd-Frank.
The Commission had
initially proposed that the purchasers of derivatives be required to contact
five banks when seeking to set the price of a contract. Under the new law,
purchasers are only required to contact two banks, further tightening the
monopoly of a handful of institutions that dominate the largely unregulated
multitrillion-dollar derivatives market.
The bill likewise
originally proposed that derivatives be traded on electronic exchanges similar
to stock markets, so that buyers would have a better understanding of prices
across the market, making price gouging by issuers more difficult. But the
final rules allow for much of derivatives trading to take place over the phone,
making it nearly impossible to regulate.
“I’m
not here to punish banks!” Barack Obama – State of the Union – NOW MOST OF
THESE CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WORK IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRAITON NOW!
Despite a mountain of
evidence—including a voluminous 2011 report by the Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations—that the 2008 financial crash was directly
linked to rampant lawbreaking by Wall Street, not a single executive at a
major bank has been criminally prosecuted, much less gone to jail.
The Wall Street giants
emerged from the financial crisis larger and more powerful than ever, and, as
shown by government inquiries into JPMorgan’s $6 billion trading loss last
year, their activities are just as speculative and parasitic as before the
crash.
These factors, combined
with the vast amounts of money being pumped into the financial markets by
central banks make a new financial crash all but inevitable.
Throughout all this, the
role of the government has been to cover up and facilitate the banks’ crimes,
seeking to create the appearance of regulation, while allowing Wall Street to
operate with impunity.
The main nexus between the
banks and government is the Obama administration itself, which, with every new
appointment, becomes ever more a government of, by, and for the financial oligarchy.
NOW MOST
OF THESE CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WORK IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRAITON NOW!
In
January Obama appointed as treasury secretary Jacob Lew, who earned millions of
dollars as the chief operating officer of Citigroup’s Alternative Investments
unit, which made bets against the housing market as it collapsed.
NOW MOST
OF THESE CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WORK IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRAITON NOW!
This month Obama appointed
Penny Pritzker, a hotel heiress and private equity firm operator, as commerce
secretary. With a net worth of $1.85 billion, Pritzker is the wealthiest person
in US history to serve in the president’s cabinet.
These developments
demonstrate the impossibility of reining in the financial criminals within the
confines of the present political system. The government and both parties serve
as little more than errand boys for the bankers, who exercise a dictatorship over
political life in the United States.
Andre Damon
OBAMANOMICS: BANK
PROFITS and CRIMES SOAR UNDER OBAMA… so do foreclosures!
FORECLOSED ON AMERICA: HOW BARACK OBAMA and HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTERS
LOOTED A NATION AND THEN PROFITEERED OFF THEIR CRIMES
Sen. Feinstein's Husband Cashes In on
Crisis Ethical? Ethnics never enter into a deal Feinstein is pushing in
Congress! FEINSTEIN IS A MAJOR OBAMA DONOR. SHE MAKES SIGNIFICATN
"CONTRIBUTIONS" TO DEMS ALL OVER THE NATION SO THEY KEEP THEIR MOUTH
SHUT ABOUT HER LOOTING OFF ELECTED OFFICE.
On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms, the Washington Times reported on Tuesday.
Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct federal dollars.
TWO OF
FEINSTEIN’S BIGGEST DONORS ARE CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WELLS FARGO and BANK of
AMERICA. SHE FRONTS FOR THESE BANKS IN THE SENATE LIKE SHE DOES RED CHINA! BOTH
BANKS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST FOR THE FORECLOSURE DEBACLE THEY ARE NOW PROFITEERING
FROM.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/04/feinsteins-looting-are-housing.html
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/sen-feinsteins-husband-cashes-crisis/#ixzz28BwHuQMm
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/sen-feinsteins-husband-cashes-crisis/#ixzz28BwHuQMm
*
OBAMAnomics: Soaring Profits for Wall
Street, Soaring Crimes of Bankster Donors, Soaring Foreclosures and Soaring
Unemployment for Americans (Legals)…. STILL CALLING IT “CHANGE”???
OBAMA, THE BANKSTER OWNED LA RAZA
DEM
“The response of the
administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even before coming to
power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the bailouts, which he
subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration dominated by the
interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser Lawrence Summers
and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
*
CRONY CAPITALISM…
predicated on keeping wages depressed to third world levels for his billionaire
donors!
Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and
Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses…and
Muslim Dictators
OBAMA’S
HAREM OF CORRUPT BANKSTERS… DO A GOOGLE FOR HOW MANY ENDED UP WORKING IN HIS
ADMINISTRATION.
“Records show that four out of
Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants -
Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and
Citigroup ($358,054).”
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