OBAMA: SERVANT OF THE 1%
Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth
The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year.
The report found that the growth of global inequality has accelerated sharply since the 2008 financial crisis, as the values of financial assets have soared while wages have stagnated and declined.
IMF report: No end to economic breakdown
8 April 2014
Almost six
years after the eruption of the global financial crisis, the International
Monetary Fund has effectively ruled out any return to the economic growth rates
that preceded September 2008.
OBAMANOMICS AT WORK - HOW
BANKSTER-OWNED BARACK
OBAMA ORCHESTRATED THE BIGGEST
TRANSFER OF WEALTH FROM THE
AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS TO HIS
CRONIES AND THEN PROMISED ILLEGALS
OPEN BORDERS, BIT BY BIT BY BIT
AMNESTY, NO E-VERIFY AND NO LEGAL
NEED APPLY TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED
AND PROFITS SOARING FOR HIS
CRONIES... and Hillary is just behind him
promising Obama's banksters the best is yet to
come!
NO ONE HAS WORKED HARDER FOR CRONY
CRIMINAL BANKSTER THAN BARACK OBAMA… JAMIE DIMON IS ONE OF OBAMA’S BIGGEST
CONTRIBUTORS!
Why aren’t the Wall Street criminals prosecuted?
By Barry Grey
7 January 2014
In May 2012, only days after JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie
Dimon revealed that his bank had lost billions of dollars in speculative bets,
President Barack Obama publicly defended the multi-millionaire CEO, calling him
“one of the smartest bankers we’ve got.” What Obama did not mention is that
Dimon is a criminal.
JPMorgan is not the exception; it is the rule. Virtually every major
bank that operates on Wall Street has settled charges of fraud and criminality
on a staggering scale. In 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations released a 630-page report on the financial crash of 2008
documenting what the committee chairman called “a financial snake pit rife with
greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing.”
These multiple crimes by serial lawbreakers have had very real and very
destructive consequences. The entire world has been plunged into an economic
slump that has already lasted more than five years and shows no signs of
abating. Tens of millions of families have lost their homes as a result of
predatory mortgages pushed by JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks.
Obama’s “recovery” and the social crisis in America … the recovery that NEVER was!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/08/america-under-obamas-crony-capitalism.html
even now Obama and the Democrat
party are conspiring to hand millions more jobs to illegals and billions more
in welfare to LA RAZA and their bankster paymasters!
THE RISE OF BARACK OBAMA and the FALL of
AMERICA
AMERICA
HOW A SOCIOPATH CONNED A NATION CALLING IT “HOPE &
CHANGE” AND THEN BECAME GEORGE BUSH’S THIRD & FORTH TERMS ON STEROIDS.
BANKS
and GEITHNER ….He was the banksters' HOPE & NO CHANGE man in the white
house!
CRONY CAPITALISM: HOW
OBAMA AND HIS CRONY BANKSTERS LOOTED AMERICA – It’s a work still in progress!
As he puts it, “We did save the economy, but we
lost the country doing it.” Geithner adds, “Conventional wisdom still holds
that we abandoned Main Street to protect Wall Street.”
THE OBAM MELTDOWN is here:
OBAMANnomics: HOW HIS CRONY BANKSTERS LOOTED AMERICAN AND
WERE PAID MASSIVE BONUSES FOR DOING SO!
…….
there was a reason why the banksters invested so many bribes in BARACK OBAMA
even before his first term!
No bank or executive has been criminally charged in relation to
these crimes.
It is
impossible to fully calculate the human suffering that has resulted from these
crimes. Since 2003, a typical US household has lost 36 percent of its wealth,
while the poorest quarter of households have lost 68 percent of their wealth
during the same period.
HOW BARACK OBAMA HELPED WALL
STREET LOOT
AMERICA AND HANDED
MILLIONS OF JOBS OVER TO VOTING
ILLEGALS:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-barack-obama-destroyed-america-for.html
CRONY OBAMANOMICS – HOW OBAMA SQUANDERED AMERICA FOR HIS LOOTING WALL STREET BANKSTERS!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-reality-of-obamas-crony-capitalism.html
$3.39T Quantitative Explosion: Fed Owns More
Treasuries and MBSs Than Publicly Held Debt Amassed From Washington Through Clinton.
The bank bailout and the
Forbes 400
8 October 2014
Six years ago this
past Friday, the US Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of
2008, which established the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, the
first of the bank bailouts. It was followed by a series of Federal Reserve and Treasury
programs that allocated some $7 trillion in free loans to the financial system.
The day after the
passage of TARP, October 4, 2008, the World Socialist Web Site offered
the following analysis:
“The [Bush] administration has invoked the
worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in
an attempt to terrorize the American people into accepting
the greatest transfer of public resources to the financial elite
in history…[The bailout] will facilitate an ever-greater
concentration of wealth that can only produce a drastic
deterioration of living conditions and the undermining of
basic democratic rights.”
worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in
an attempt to terrorize the American people into accepting
the greatest transfer of public resources to the financial elite
in history…[The bailout] will facilitate an ever-greater
concentration of wealth that can only produce a drastic
deterioration of living conditions and the undermining of
basic democratic rights.”
Six years later, not
a word of this assessment needs to be revised, except for changing the future
tense to the past.
The outcome of the
past six years of government policy can
be seen in the figures released last week by the business
magazine Forbes, ranking the 400 wealthiest Americans. The
report revealed that since 2009, the 400 richest people in the
US have nearly doubled their net worth, to a shocking $2.9
trillion. This is nearly a fifth of the total value of all the goods
and services produced in the United States in an entire year.
be seen in the figures released last week by the business
magazine Forbes, ranking the 400 wealthiest Americans. The
report revealed that since 2009, the 400 richest people in the
US have nearly doubled their net worth, to a shocking $2.9
trillion. This is nearly a fifth of the total value of all the goods
and services produced in the United States in an entire year.
The accumulation of
this vast wealth takes place under
conditions not of general prosperity, but rather of an
economic stagnation and falling living standards for the
majority of the population. Since 2010, the median
household income in the US has fallen by five percent.
conditions not of general prosperity, but rather of an
economic stagnation and falling living standards for the
majority of the population. Since 2010, the median
household income in the US has fallen by five percent.
This outcome is the
intended result of the entire policy of the ruling class since the economic
crash. From the beginning, the ruling class’s response, initiated under Bush
and vastly expanded under Obama, was characterized by two interrelated aspects:
the provision of unlimited funds to prop up the financial system—and with it
the wealth of the financial oligarchy—to be paid for through sweeping attacks
on social programs and the living standards of the working class.
Earlier this year,
Timothy Geithner, the former Treasury
Secretary who now heads a private equity firm, published his
memoir, which makes clear that every single substantial
policy question related to the financial crisis was decided
solely from the standpoint of maximizing the most predatory
profit interests of Wall Street.
Secretary who now heads a private equity firm, published his
memoir, which makes clear that every single substantial
policy question related to the financial crisis was decided
solely from the standpoint of maximizing the most predatory
profit interests of Wall Street.
According to
Geithner, by September 2008 it became clear to the Bush administration and the
Federal Reserve that every major US financial institution was insolvent, and
would go bankrupt without government intervention. Under these circumstances,
the Federal Reserve and Treasury allowed Lehman Brothers to collapse, a move
that had the effect, to use a phrase recalled by Geithner, of “shock[ing] the
political world into taking the crisis seriously.”
Following the
collapse of Lehman, the Federal Reserve and Bush administration crafted TARP,
which, amid broad popular opposition, was initially voted down in the House of
Representatives before passing amid a lobbying campaign by the presidential
candidates of both parties (Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain).
After coming to
office, the Obama administration has carried
out a set of clear policies: the banks would get rescued, but
their executives would remain in place, there would be no
criminal prosecutions despite clear evidence of illegal
activities, no “haircuts” for bank creditors and no meaningful
restraints on executive pay.
out a set of clear policies: the banks would get rescued, but
their executives would remain in place, there would be no
criminal prosecutions despite clear evidence of illegal
activities, no “haircuts” for bank creditors and no meaningful
restraints on executive pay.
The Obama
administration's actions in the aftermath of the 2008 crash were dictated by
the same considerations as the bank bailout. In his own memoir, Neil Barofsky,
the former inspector-general for TARP, noted that the Obama administration’s
mortgage modification program, touted by the White House as a means to help
homeowners avoid foreclosure, was in fact nothing more than “an aid to the
banks, keeping the full flush of foreclosures from hitting the financial system
all at the same time.”
Which brings us back
to the Forbes 400. Beyond the total mass of wealth that the rich now control,
the most salient fact revealed in the report is the manner in which this wealth
has been, to use the word loosely, “earned.” As the magazine began its report,
“Thanks
to a buoyant stock market, the richest people
in the US just keep getting richer.” A “buoyant stock market”—that is, through speculation on an historically unprecedented scale, aided and abetted by the government and the Federal Reserve.
to a buoyant stock market, the richest people
in the US just keep getting richer.” A “buoyant stock market”—that is, through speculation on an historically unprecedented scale, aided and abetted by the government and the Federal Reserve.
Finance is
increasingly dominant among America’s wealthy. While the finance and real
estate sectors made up about 4.4 percent of the first Forbes 400 in 1982, they
now make up 21 percent. Beyond those who derive their wealth immediately from
the financial sector, the fortunes of billionaires in other sectors of the
economy is increasingly based on share values. For example, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg, currently 11th
on the list with a net worth of $34.1 billion, had his wealth
increase seventeen-fold from 2009 as a result of Facebook’s
speculative initial public offering.
on the list with a net worth of $34.1 billion, had his wealth
increase seventeen-fold from 2009 as a result of Facebook’s
speculative initial public offering.
What is revealed in
these figures is that the very processes that erupted in 2008 are continuing.
The crash was itself rooted in the protracted crisis of American capitalism,
characterized by the growth of financial parasitism proportionately with the
decline of manufacturing and productive activity. Yet six years later, the big
banks are bigger than ever, and even more dependent on speculation on Wall
Street.
To resolve a problem,
it is necessary to understand its cause.
Yet the cause of all the great problems facing the working
class, in the United States and internationally—soaring social
inequality, the destruction of democratic rights, unending
war that threatens to engulf the entire planet—is rooted
fundamentally in the stranglehold of finance capital over all
aspects of society.
Yet the cause of all the great problems facing the working
class, in the United States and internationally—soaring social
inequality, the destruction of democratic rights, unending
war that threatens to engulf the entire planet—is rooted
fundamentally in the stranglehold of finance capital over all
aspects of society.
The task of freeing
society from the grip of the financial parasites is an existential question for
mankind. This task can only be accomplished one way: through the building of a
mass political movement of the international working class to expropriate the
banks and major corporations, hold the financial criminals to account for their
crimes, and reorganize society in the interest of social need, not private
profit.
Andre Damon
THE GRUESOME REALITY OF THE JOBS CRISIS: No
legal need
apply!!!!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/10/will-amnesty-for-millions-keep-wages.html
“While the economy added an
estimated 248,000 jobs and the official unemployment rate fell from 6.1 to 5.9
percent, these headline figures hide a more fundamental reality. Six years
after the financial collapse of 2008, the labor market remains stagnant and an
increasing portion of the population has simply given up hope of ever finding
work.”
BARACK
OBAMA: Servant of the 1%, Mexico and the MEXICAN
FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA,
which operates out of the Obama
white house.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/amnesty-hoax-to-keep-wages-depressed.html
That
President Obama would lawlessly bring in more cheap labor at the request of
corporate interests at a time when tens of millions of Americans are unemployed speaks volumes….
BILLIONAIRE BILL GATES: Number One enemy of the American
worker.
He didn’t get rich paying legals a living wage to a LEGAL!!!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
ONE IN FIVE (LEGALS) STILL HAVE NO WORK
AFTER THE
RECESSION – Good time to hand
40 million looting Mexicans
even more of our jobs???
OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY ARE WORKING ON
JUST
THAT!
1%TOP SUPER TOP -
SOARING RICHES FOR THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS
THE 1%
DEMAND THE FINAL SOLUTION TO THE
AMERICAN MIDDLE –CLASS and IMPOSITION OF
THE
DEATH PENALTY.
IT’S ONLY OBAMANOMICS AT WORK
INVESTORS.com
LA RAZA ABOVE THE LAW – CONSULATES
LOOTING
Democrat
politicians partner with Mexico and the Mexican Fascist Party of LA RAZA “The
Race” to loot America and then send the tax bills to the American middle-class
whose jobs LA RAZA owns.
Hillary
Clinton’s promise to illegals (AND THE 1%): more Mexifornias.
The
staggering cost of Mexico’s looting of America
RASMUSSEN POLL: Hillary Clinton is
a bad clone of Barack Obama owned by the same bankster paymasters as Obama
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/rasmussen-obama-and-hillary-friends-or.html
THE LOOTING OF DETROIT: A case study on the methods the 1% use to loot
America.
Your city, job and your pension next on the line for the slaughter!
With colossal impertinence, the Mexican
government attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry for sending National Guard troops to
guard our Southern border, saying that Mexico "deeply rejects and condemns
the deployment." The Mexicans accused Perry of taking this action to
advance his political ambitions.
As Obama's Wall Street cronies continue to
loot and Obama hands the American middle class the tax bills for their economic
crimes:
“A sea
change is unfolding in the US and world economy that portends a catastrophe of
dimensions not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.” It warned that
for the working class, the financial meltdown meant “rapid growth of
unemployment, poverty, homelessness and social misery,” while “many of those
who precipitated this economic disaster… will profit handsomely from the debris
they have left behind.”
LA RAZA SUPREMACIST MARK ZUCKERBERG WANTS OPEN
BORDERS….
except for his!
Today, Sen. Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) blasted pro-amnesty billionaires whose fondness for open
borders ends at the doors of their "gated compounds and fenced-off
communities," noting how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought other four
houses surrounding his own just because he wanted "a little privacy."
ZUCKERBERG:
AMERICA’S GREEDY LITTLE LA RAZA SUPREMACIST HISPANDERING RUNTJOB!
his
one man war against the AMERICAN worker!
Today, Sen. Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) blasted pro-amnesty billionaires whose fondness for open
borders ends at the doors of their "gated compounds and fenced-off
communities," noting how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought other four
houses surrounding his own just because he wanted "a little privacy."
BILL GATES FIRES EMPLOYEES AND THEN
DEMANDS AMNESTY TO KEEP THE MEX HORDES JUMPING OUR BORDERS!
ZUCKERBERG
tech says no to hiring AMERICANS
OPEN BORDERS AND
ENDLESS HORDES OF IMMIGRANTS POURING IN IS ONLY ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED
To
cite just one example, if there is a shortage of U.S. engineers, are 1.5
million Americans with engineering degrees either unemployed or working in
other fields? In all too many cases, U.S. tech companies prefer foreign workers
on temporary visas because they are cheaper and more exploitable than Americans.
The Employment
Situation of Immigrants and Natives in the Second Quarter of 2013
That
President Obama would lawlessly bring in more cheap labor at the request of
corporate interests at a time when tens of millions of
Americans are unemployed speaks volumes.
INCOME
PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA AND HIS WALL STREET CRONIES
collapse of household income in the US… STILL BILLIONS IN
WELFARE HANDED TO ILLEGALS… they already get our jobs and are voting for more!
INCOME PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA… most jobs go to
illegals.
AS HIS CRONY BANKSTERS CONTINUE TO
LOOT, INCOMES PLUMMET FOR AMERICANS (LEGALS).
GOOD TIME FOR AMNESTY FOR MILLIONS
OF LOOTING MEXICANS?
MORE HERE:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/and-still-democrat-party-wants-millions.html
“The yearly income of a typical US household dropped by a
massive 12 percent, or $6,400, in the six years between 2007 and 2013. This is
just one of the findings of the 2013 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer
Finances released Thursday, which documents a sharp decline in working class
living standards and a further concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich
and the super-rich.”
THE
OBAMA devastation of America (wall street's poster boy for corruption)
THE SPEEDING TRAIN WRECK TO DESTRUCTION: BARACK OBAMA'S CRONY
CAPITALISM, WALL STREET'S UNFETTERED LOOTING AND THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF
THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. . .. one man's utter destruction of
America!
ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER RAGES ON UNDER THE GREAT HISPANDERER OBAMA!
Labor Day 2014
Temp labor at record levels in US
By Andre Damon
2 September 2014
The Obama administration marked Labor Day 2014 with demagogic speeches by President Obama in Milwaukee and Vice President Joseph Biden in Detroit—speeches that were notable mainly for the brazenness of their dishonesty and cynicism.
Obama and Biden postured as partisans of what they referred to as the “middle class,” even as a number of reports emerged documenting the devastating decline in conditions for the working class under the current administration.
WAGES
PLUMMET… and millions more illegals are arriving soon!
Low-wage males’ wages declined by an astonishing 31.2
percent, with mid-wage male workers seeing a 16 percent drop, the study found.
Workers without a high school diploma suffered a 46.3 percent fall in wages,
while workers with only a high school diploma lost 32.1 percent, and those
holding a bachelor’s degree lost 4 percent. VIVA LA RAZA SUPREMACY? DEMS SABOTAGE
E-VERIFY NATIONWIDE!
BANK of AMERICA fines THE
OBAMA SWEETHEART DEAL FOR ONE OF AMERICA'S BIGGEST CRIMINAL BANKS
BANKSTER-OWNED OBAMA KEEPS
PROMISE TO CRIMINAL BANKSTERS… tax payers pay their fines, no bankster goes to
prison and their looting only soars unfettered!
BIG PHARMATOP
BIG PHARMA loves Obama’s CRONY CAPITALISM and is
investing in democrat politicians big time… BUT NOT AS BIG AS BIG BANKSTERS
DID!
“Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.,
delivered crucial support to the 2009 package of healthcare subsidies,
mandates, and regulations known as Obamacare. Back then, the drug industry
pledged to help any Democratic senators endangered by their support
of the bill. They seem to be still delivering today.”
The Obama Assault on
Americans (Legals)
BIG PHARMA DELIGHTS IN
SOARING RATES… illegals still get “free” gringo-paid medical. All they have to
do is wave their Mexican flags in our faces!
OBAMA’S AMERICA: Soaring poverty for Legals, looting by crony banksters and
a massive welfare state for illegals!
THE OBAMA, PELOSI, REID, FEINSTEIN, BOXER bit by bit amnesty conspiracy…
IT’S WORKING!
By Mark Krikorian
“A number of Alice in Wonderland euphemisms for such executive amnesties
have been concocted over the years, including Deferred Action, Extended
Voluntary Departure, Deferred Enforced Departure, and Parole in Place. What
they have in common is that they were made up out of whole cloth by the
executive as ways of LETTING ILLEGAL ALIENS STAY.”
“Childhood Arrivals (DACA). So far more than half a
million illegal immigrants
claiming to have arrived here before age 16 have been legalized by the
president’s unilateral riff on the Dream Act”.
Obama has been “quite
aggressive and he’s been creative in looking for every possible avenue to take
matters into his own hands,” Woolley added.
Sage
Foundation: Wealth "Inequality" Will
Continue to Worsen
Sage Foundation: Wealth "Inequality" Will Continue to Worsen
Written by Bob Adelmann
In another so-called research study about wealth inequality, the liberal
think-tank Sage Foundation said in June that while the super-rich have fully
recovered from the Great Recession, the vast majority of Americans have not.
Specifically their report shows that median household net worth “was $32,000 lower in 2013 than it was
10 years earlier,” a decline of 36 percent. It concluded:
These wealth losses, however, were not distributed equally.… Wealth
inequality increased significantly from 2003 through 2013; by some metrics
inequality roughly doubled.
(SEE LINK TO BLOG BELOW)
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/08/america-under-obamas-crony-capitalism.html
CRONY CAPITALISM at work
Obama’s “recovery” and the social crisis in America … the recovery that
NEVER was!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/08/america-under-obamas-crony-capitalism.html
Obama’s “recovery” and the social crisis in America … the recovery that
NEVER was!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/08/america-under-obamas-crony-capitalism.html
Sage Foundation: Wealth "Inequality" Will Continue to Worsen.
Wealth inequality increased significantly from 2003 through 2013; by some
metrics inequality roughly doubled.
WAGES PLUMMET UNDER OBAMA as the rich get richer.
wages and amnesty…. It’s all about keeping wages depressed and passing
along the real cost of all that “cheap” Mexican labor to the American middle
class!
THE OBAMA DEPRESSION
WALL STREET-OWNED BARACK OBAMA’S ASSAULT on the
AMERICAN WORKER as he builds the LA RAZA Mexican welfare state .
AMERICA…. NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!!!
JOBS – THE REALITY THEY DON’T WANT US TO KNOW… only illegals get them!
amnesty would add 100 million more illegals… they’re climbing our borders
now for it!
WORST JOB MARKET IN 40 YEARS… and
getting worse!
NAFTA BORDERS and BILLIONAIRES
AMNESTY: America’s death warrant
THE CONSPIRACY to DESTROY AMERICA’S BORDERS… Obama
and his Wall Street banksters
“This nation no longer is a democratic
republic...rather it has become a tool of the super-rich members of the above mentioned elite who
preselect our presidents based on their cooperation and complicity with the
elite’s ultimate goals. Obama has, in their opinion done superbly carrying out
the plans well laid out for him by his backers.”
BILLIONAIRES partner with
MEXICO, OBAMA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to assault the AMERICAN WORKER….
Amnesty, it’s all about keeping wages depressed and passing along the real cost
of all that “cheap” mex labor to the American middle class.
OPEN BORDERS AND
ENDLESS HORDES OF IMMIGRANTS POURING IN IS ONLY ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED
To
cite just one example, if there is a shortage of U.S. engineers, are 1.5
million Americans with engineering degrees either unemployed or working in
other fields? In all too many cases, U.S. tech companies prefer foreign workers
on temporary visas because they are cheaper and more exploitable than
Americans.
UNDER OBAMA, TWO-THIRDS
OF JOBS GO TO HIS PARTY BASE OF ILLEGALS!
“At
the hearing, Dr. Rakesh Kochar, Associate Director for Research at the Pew
Hispanic Center, testified that in the year following the official end of the
recession (June 2009), foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs while
native-born workers lost an additional 1.2 million jobs.”
"We
have a situation where the job market — the bottom fell out, yet we kept legal
immigration relatively high without even a national debate," he said.
"As a consequence, a lot of the job growth has been going to
immigrants."
Mr.
Obama did take action this year to grant many illegal immigrants up to 30 years
of age a tentative legal status that prevents them from being deported and
authorizes them to work in the United States.
Some
Republicans in Congress have criticized Mr. Obama's policy, saying it violates
his powers and will mean more competition for scarce jobs.
WE KNOW WHAT OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS HAVE DONE TO
THE AMERICAN ECONOMY… but will Obama’s amnesty hoax to legalize mexico’s looting
and destroy the GOP, also destroy the DEMOCRAT PARTY?
HE’S WORKING ON IT…
CRONY
CAPITALISM and WEALTH INEQUALITY in AMERICA
How Barack
Obama destroyed the American middle class and built Mexico’s LA RAZA welfare
state in America.
OBAMANOMICS
FROM
THE HOPE & CHANGE & LOOTING” BY CRONIES CLOWN
THE
ENTIRE REASON BORDERS ARE SABOTAGED IS TO INVITE ENDLESS HORDES OF ILLEGALS
INTO OUR COUNTRY TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED. THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS GETS THE
TAX BILLS FOR THEIR LOOTING, WELFARE, ANCHOR BABIES AND CRIME TIDAL WAVE!
The US ruling elite has reached a historical dead end. It
staggers from crisis to crisis, trying to put out fires with gasoline. This
pragmatic, shortsighted and parasitic approach to the crisis of the US economy
is expressive of the basic physiognomy of the financial elite. This is a social
layer that has amassed its wealth not through productive activity, but through
the looting of society: raiding pension funds, slashing wages, shutting down
industrial facilities and laying off workers.
SEN. TED CRUZ LAMBAST OBAMA’S
SABOTAGE of AMERICAN BORDERS and the Obama bit by bit by bit by millions more
illegals AMNESTY!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/07/sen-ted-cruz-condems-obamas-bit-by-bit.html
Although the crisis has prompted a
new flurry of legislative activity, Obama's unilateral actions may prove far
more significant. According to National Journal, Obama recently gave “quiet
credence” to a plan from a left-wing activist group to grant unilateral amnesty
to as many as 6 million illegal aliens currently residing in the U.S.
Big Banks Face Another Round of U.S. Charges
The Justice Department is preparing a fresh round of attacks on the world’s biggest banks, again questioning Wall Street’s role in a broad array of financial markets.
With evidence mounting that a number of foreign and American banks colluded to alter the price of foreign currencies, the largest and least regulated financial market, prosecutors are aiming to file charges against at least one bank by the end of the year, according to interviews with lawyers briefed on the matter. Ultimately, several banks are expected to plead guilty.
Interviews with more than a dozen lawyers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations open a window onto previously undisclosed aspects of an investigation that is unnerving Wall Street and the defense bar. While cases stemming from the financial crisis were aimed at institutions, prosecutors are planning to eventually indict individual bank employees over currency manipulation, using their instant messages as incriminating evidence.
The charges will most likely focus on traders and their bosses rather than chief executives. As a result, critics of the Justice Department might view the cases as little more than an exercise in public relations, a final push to shape the legacy of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who was blamed for a lack of criminal cases against Wall Street executives.
Yet the breadth of the suspected wrongdoing in the currency inquiry — Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and UBS are among the dozen or so banks under investigation — might distinguish it from the piecemeal nature of the crisis-era investigations.
And prosecutors are testing a new negotiating tactic, two lawyers said, using the currency investigation as a cudgel to potentially reopen other cases. Arguing that the misconduct would violate earlier settlements involving interest rate manipulation, prosecutors have threatened to impose new penalties in the interest rate cases.
Those interest rate cases, which have already led to settlements with five banks and laid the groundwork for the currency investigation, are experiencing something of a resurgence. For one thing, prosecutors are preparing additional charges against at least one trader suspected of manipulating the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark that underpins the cost of
Some banks also remain under investigation. In the last major rate-rigging case against a bank, prosecutors are discussing the possibility of forcing Deutsche Bank or one of its subsidiaries to plead guilty to manipulating Libor, the lawyers said. The lawyers added that the German bank’s New York branch faces a separate action from Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York State’s banking regulator, who until now has sat out the Libor settlements.
A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank said the bank was “cooperating in the various regulatory investigations and conducting its own ongoing review into the interbank offered rates matters,” adding that “no current or former member of the management board had any inappropriate involvement.”
The Justice Department’s focus on financial misdeeds comes at a time of transition; top prosecutors are leaving its criminal division, which is handling the benchmark investigations along with the antitrust division. And for Mr. Holder, entering his final weeks at the Justice Department, the cases offer a last opportunity to address public and political complaints that prosecutors have gone soft on Wall Street.
He has sought to swing the tide through a series of recent cases: record fines against JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and guilty pleas from Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas.
The public lust for charges is at odds with the view on Wall Street, where bankers and lawyers report fatigue with what seems like unrelenting investigations. With each inquiry, the fines have multiplied, stretching to nearly $17 billion for Bank of America.
And the scrutiny could drag on for years. The Justice Department, lawyers said, has widened its focus to include a criminal investigation into banks that set an important benchmark for interest rate derivatives, a previously unreported development that coincides with international regulators’ proposing overhauls to the rate-setting process.
The flurry of activity strikes at the heart of Wall Street’s role in setting benchmarks across the globe. The investigations suggest that banks, seeking to benefit their own trades, have compromised the sanctity of rates like Libor and the “4 p.m. London fix” for currencies, which investors use to value their positions.
As the currency investigation gains momentum, it is unclear which bank will settle first or which will plead guilty. As was the case in the Libor investigation, lawyers said, UBS was accepted into the antitrust division’s leniency program in exchange for its cooperation, though it still faces an action from the criminal division. Several banks, including at least one American bank, are expected to plead guilty.
Prosecutors have explained publicly that banks would earn credit for exposing their misbehaving employees or face charges for protecting them. Already, banks have fired or suspended about 30 employees linked to the currency investigation, although no one has been accused of wrongdoing.
While prosecutors are aiming to bring at least one currency case this year, the heavy workload could delay action until early next year. The pace also could stall as prosecutors seek to coordinate with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Mr. Lawsky and federal banking regulators.
In Britain, however, regulators are nearing a settlement with several banks in the currency case. The Financial Conduct Authority of Britain met last month with six banks — Citigroup, JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC — to discuss the contours of a collective settlement that it plans to announce this fall.
Those banks are not necessarily the most culpable, but rather the ones most willing to reach a settlement. While American prosecutors have not ruled out joining a global settlement, lawyers said, such a move appears unlikely.
Altogether, the British regulator could collect fines that total up to $3.3 billion, people briefed on that settlement said. Of the six banks, one person said, the size of Citigroup’s payout is expected to fall in the middle.
Banks are eager to put the case behind them as they prepare to submit their capital plans to the Federal Reserve. Under the Fed’s rules, the banks must set aside enough cash to cover a potential settlement, which can become an expensive guessing game without clarity from prosecutors.
At Deutsche Bank, facing both Libor and currency investigations, there is growing momentum to resolve at least one of them. In the Libor case, prosecutors have begun to coordinate with the bank’s American regulators, including Mr. Lawsky, about the fallout from a potential guilty plea for the bank or one of its subsidiaries, lawyers said. That planning reflects a desire to criminally punish the bank without imperiling its ability to operate in the United States.
At their core, the investigations into Libor and currency trading center on suspicions that banks manipulated the benchmarks for their own gain. In Libor, a measure of how much banks charge one another for loans, several banks submitted false rates to benefit their trading positions.
The foreign exchange inquiry has pointed to a more complex scheme to fix currency prices and game the market. Authorities suspect that banks, using information gleaned from their clients, collaborated to flood the market with orders just seconds before the so-called 4 p.m. fix, which serves as the benchmark for foreign exchange rates. The aim in part, authorities suspect, was to drive up the price of, say, euros before selling them to clients at an inflated price.
Traders at competing banks met in private chat rooms. Some traders became so cozy that they earned the nickname “the cartel” and “the bandits club.”
A.I.G. Bailout, Revisionists’ Version
Of course it was, on both counts. It was supposed to be.
Somehow, Maurice R. Greenberg, A.I.G.’s former chief executive and a large shareholder through his firm Starr International, has spun a ludicrous tale in open court in Washington that the bailout of the insurer was unfair to its investors.
What is more worrying, this lawsuit increasingly appears to be gaining support from a phalanx of Wall Street financiers and commentators, who have managed to use the case to rewrite history so that A.I.G. can be viewed as a sympathetic casualty of the crisis and one that was mistreated by the big bad government, which sought more onerous terms from A.I.G. than it did from many of the banks that also received bailouts.
Even the writer Noam Scheiber, whom I have long read with admiration, contended in a recent Op-Ed article in The New York Times that “as asinine as the Starr suit may be in legal terms, it may end up serving a constructive purpose.” His rationale? “Ever since the details of the A.I.G. rescue entered the popular consciousness, everyone from members of Congress to financial commentators to Occupy Wall Street protesters and Tea Party activists have fulminated against the ‘backdoor bailout’ of Goldman et al. By fully litigating the issue, the Starr trial may finally help heal this festering wound.”
While the A.I.G. rescue has long been described as a “backdoor bailout of Wall Street,” there was actually nothing backdoor about it. As I’ve written before, the bailout of A.I.G. should be called a “front-door bailout.”
The government sought to save A.I.G. for only one reason: because it was “systemically important,” which is not-so-hard-to-decipher code for a company whose failure would have had a ripple effect on large swaths of the industry — in this case, dozens of banks. To pretend that the rescue of A.I.G. was anything but an effort to make sure the rest of the industry didn’t go under is to misunderstand history. The entire point of the A.I.G. bailout was to bail out Wall Street and reinstall confidence in the system so that it didn’t collapse under even more uncertainty.
The government never sought to couch A.I.G.’s lifeline as a way to push money into the hands of Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and the dozens of other banks around the world that were the beneficiaries. That idea was never going to win a popularity contest. But that was the effect of the assistance to A.I.G. And that was the point.
Which brings us back to Mr. Greenberg’s case, being heard in Washington in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Mr. Greenberg, who sued on behalf of fellow shareholders and seeks more than $40 billion from the government, does not dispute that A.I.G. needed $192 billion to survive the financial crisis. It instead challenges the onerous nature of the rescue.
On Monday, his lawyer, David Boies, hammered Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former Treasury secretary, about why A.I.G.’s shareholders were nearly wiped out when the government took what eventually became a 92 percent stake in the firm and put the interest rate on the loans at a high 14 percent. The onerous terms were unlike the deals made for so many other institutions receiving bailouts in 2008, including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America.
Paulson Testifies That ‘Punitive’ A.I.G. Terms Were Also Necessary
Including hard terms for A.I.G. was politically necessary to getting the TARP program going, but Henry M. Paulson Jr. said he did support the bailout package and its terms.
In his complaint, Mr. Greenberg asserts that the terms amounted to a violation of the Fifth Amendment. “This is the only time in history when the government has taken without just compensation and/or illegally exacted the assets and equity of a company and its shareholders in connection with a loan, let alone a fully secured loan bearing an extortionate interest rate,” the suit says.
On questioning, Mr. Paulson didn’t beat around the bush. “It was important that the terms be harsh because I take moral hazard seriously,” he said, confirming that the deal was structured so as to be punitive to A.I.G. shareholders. “When companies fail, shareholders bear the losses,” he said, “It’s just the way our system is supposed to work.”
Mr. Paulson was also quick to acknowledge, that A.I.G. “certainly was a scapegoat for Wall Street and all the bad practices that people were angry about.”
Lest anyone forget, A.I.G. stupidly insured big banks on large swaths of bad mortgage deals via credit-default swaps.
So why was the government so tough on A.I.G. and so easy on the banks that bought the soured mortgage bundles in the first place?
In truth, because the government thought that such a deal wouldn’t destabilize A.I.G. — and a tougher deal for banks might undermine confidence in the financial system in the markets.
That’s the same reason the government didn’t push harder for A.I.G.’s counterparties — i.e. the banks — to take “haircuts,” or less than the money they were owed on the insured payouts. The government worried it would only make people more nervous about the strength of the banking system, undermining the confidence it was trying to sow.
On A.I.G., the government turned out to be right. The deal worked. And rather than turn into a financial albatross for taxpayers, we got our money back — with more than $22 billion in profit.
You can argue about whether the government could have done better. It certainly could have. You can argue about the government officials’ thinking about how to tackle the crisis, how they approached the bailout. And you could debate their methods.
But the problem with the financial crisis, ultimately, isn’t that we are still in search of answers. The problem is that so many people don’t like the answers.
A.I.G. Trial Puts Geithner, and His Book, on Hot Seat
There were moments on Tuesday when Timothy F. Geithner, the former Treasury secretary, may have thought he was still on his book tour.
So often did parts of his book, “Stress Test,” come up during Mr. Geithner’s testimony at the trial of a lawsuit against the government over its bailout of the American International Group, that at one point Justice Department lawyers suggested the entire book should be submitted as evidence. And it was.
David Boies, the lawyer for Maurice R. Greenberg, the former A.I.G. chief executive, who has sued the government for $40 billion claiming the Federal Reserve shortchanged shareholders in 2008pulled out copies to give to the Justice Department’s lawyers and Mr. Geithner. Mr. Geithner sat on the stand with a half-amused, half-nervous look.
Mr. Boies and his team had their own prop, too: The television displays in the courtroom shone with a black-and-white image of the cover, complete with a sticker that read “Autographed.”
The hardcover handouts prompted the presiding judge, Judge Thomas C. Wheeler of the United States Court of Claims, to interject dryly: “Do you have a copy for court, or should I visit Barnes & Noble?”
But while the scene of Mr. Geithner sitting in the witness box frequently holding a copy of his own book, paging through with the help of some stylish reading glasses, struck some in the courtroom as a bit farcical, the strategy by Mr. Greenberg’s legal team was carefully orchestrated.
Mr. Greenberg’s side believes that much of what Mr. Geithner has said in his book — and which he consequently cannot dispute during the trial without hurting his own credibility — helps the shareholders’ case, according to people briefed on the legal strategy. Mr. Greenberg’s lawyers also obtained transcripts of the unpublished interviews the former Treasury secretary gave to people assisting him with putting together “Stress Test.”
The transcripts were frequently referenced, as Mr. Geithner was peppered with questions about his role in the A.I.G. bailout in 2008. Mr. Geithner was then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — arguably the most important player in the financial crisis after the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke. (Mr. Bernanke is scheduled to take the stand on Thursday.)
Under questioning from Mr. Boies, Mr. Geithner said the aftershocks from the collapse of Lehman Brothers were “very much on my mind” during those critical days in September 2008, and that the subsequent failure of A.I.G. would have been “catastrophic” for the economy, possibly “even more damaging” than Lehman.
While Mr. Geithner mostly concurred with his previous statements, he also struggled at times to explain his own words — seemingly boxed in by judgments he uttered as part of his book.
At one point, Mr. Boies zeroed in on the idea of whether some banks that were “insolvent” were given more lenient loan terms than A.I.G. (The plaintiffs argue that A.I.G. at the time was solvent, but suffering from a liquidity crisis; the government disagrees.) Using one of Mr. Geithner’s unpublished book interviews, he raised the subject of Citigroup and Bank of America, two banks that received bailouts in the crisis.
“Certainly Citi and B. of A. were insolvent,” Mr. Geithner had said during the book interview.
The two men then engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth over the definition of “insolvent.”
During more than six hours of testimony, Mr. Geithner’s was not the only book introduced. The other volume was the secretive compilation of the Federal Reserve’s legal powers, known internally at the central bank as the “Doomsday Book,” which has never been made public.
When Mr. Boies moved to introduce two of the editions of the book into evidence, the New York Fed’s own lawyer, John Kiernan, sprang up from the gallery to chime in: The Fed wanted the “Doomsday Book” kept strictly under seal.
Judge Wheeler determined he would let the editions into evidence under a temporary seal, until a hearing to determine whether they should stay that way. Mr. Boies did not appear to mind if most of the contents remained secret, as long as he could ask Mr. Geithner certain questions that related to the Fed’s texts.
Mr. Geithner testified on Tuesday that while he had seen the “Doomsday Book” while president of the New York Fed, he felt some of what had been done in the past — dating to the Great Depression in the 1930s — was not necessarily what was needed to solve the 2008 crisis.
“We were operating outside of the boundaries of established precedent,” Mr. Geithner said.
As the trial continues, the civil case, which will be decided by the judge, may rest on whether he believes that the Fed acted within its authority under the Federal Reserve Act in imposing certain terms on A.I.G.’s loan, or if it stepped over the legal line.
Mr. Geithner, whose testimony will continue on Wednesday, at one point summed up what he believed was the biggest problem with federal regulations leading up to the financial crisis: that it occurred outside the traditional banking system at places like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the investment banks, and of course, A.I.G.
“It was a failure of the country to put in place a system to constrain risk-taking,” Mr. Geithner said. “Risk migrated to places where constraints did not exist.”
Maurice R. Greenberg, A.I.G.’s former chief and a large shareholder, has spun a ludicrous tale in court that the bailout of the insurer was unfair to its investors.
WILL OBAMA
BANKRUPT AMERICA? It’s looking good that he will!
THE LOOMING
GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: OBAMAnomics at work!
BUT HIS CRONY
BANKSTERS ARE SWIMMING IN PROFITS!
BARACK OBAMA:
The Sociopath that conned us with “hope and change” but became George Bush’s
third and fourth terms.
They Destroyed Our
Country
“They
knew Obama was an unqualified crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was
a train wreck waiting to happen; yet they made him president, to the great
injury of America and the world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an
egomaniac, and a liar; yet they made him king, doing great harm to our republic
(perhaps irreparable.)”
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
'Incompetent' and 'liar' among most frequently used words to
describe the president: Pew Research Center
THE AMNESTY HOAX – LEGALIZATION OF MEXICO’S LOOTING, GUARANTEE OF OPEN
BORDERS and NO E-VERIFY and CONTINUED NON-ENFORCEMENT!
Hillary
bellies up to Obama’s banksters – She reeks of the smell of BRIBES and BAILOUTS
AFTER 8 YEARS OF
BANKSTER LOOTING UNDER OBAMA, CAN WE AFFORD ANOTHER BANKSTER-OPERATED
WHITE HOUSE?
This
week she’ll speak at an Ameriprise Financial conference in Boston. She’s also
been booked or given paid speeches at events sponsored by Fidelity, KKR and
Co., the Carlyle Groups and Goldman Sachs.
HILLARY & BILLARY… getting filthy rich serving the filthy rich… And what have they done for America again??? Ah, er…. I forget!
THE
OBAMA YEARS – THE GOLDEN AGE OF BANKSTER LOOTING AND BANKSTER WELFARE…
INCEST!
The case of bankster-owned Barack Obama and crony Jamie Dimon of JP MORGAN…
their looting continues!
OBAMA’S
CRONY BANKSTERS PARTY UP AND STILL GIVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE MIDDLE FINGER
'Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people
in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment
crisis.'
CRONY CAPITALISM: OBAMA PROTECTS JP MORGAN, THE BIGGEST
BANKSTER CRIMINALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, AND ONE OF OBAMA’S BIGGEST BANKSTER
DONORS!
Nearly five years after the greatest financial crash since
the Great Depression, triggered by rampant illegality and fraud on the part of
the major banks, not a single major institution or leading bank executive has
been indicted, let alone tried, convicted and jailed.
POVERTY
IN AMERICA
UNDER OBAMA IT IS SOARING POVERTY FOR AMERICANS BUT STILL
SOARING PROFITS FOR HIS BANKSTER DONORS!
THERE ARE MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS IN OUR JOBS AND BILLIONS IN
WELFARE HANDED OVER TO ILLEGALS SO THEY KEEP COMING AND KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED
FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE POLITICIANS’ PAYMASTERS!
BOOK
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).”
Obama now looting the American student while he hands
billions in DEM DREAM ACTS of WELFARE to illegals… his bankster cronies at JPMorgan
cleaning up on students also!
“But as the Federal Reserve attempts to lower borrowing
costs for everyone from households and small businesses to
large corporations and Wall Street banks, student borrowers
have not been able to benefit.”
CRONY
CAPITALISM – THE INCEST BETWEEN BARACK OBAMA AND JP MORGAN’S JAMIE DIMON
FOLLOWING
THE MONEY…. right into Obama’s pockets!
“I’m not
here to punish banks!” Barack Obama – State of the Looted Union Message.
OBAMA and
his bankster J P MORGAN LOOT AMERICA
It’s corporate welfare and regulatory
robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
In reality, the settlement falls far short of holding
JPMorgan accountable for its fraudulent sale of mortgage-backed assets, which
netted the bank tens of billions of dollars in profits while exacerbating the
sub-prime mortgage crash that led to over ten million foreclosures in the US
and a global economic downturn that thrust many millions more into unemployment
and poverty.
Rather than
Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while
claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare
and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
“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).”
BARACK OBAMA’S BANKSTER-BOUGHT REGIME of
CORRUPTION SERVING
CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS,
BILLIONAIRES, the 1% and LA RAZA ILLEGALS! …..the rest
of us get the tax bills for
their crimes and looting!
more here:
Rather than
Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all
while
claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory
robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
BARACK OBAMA
– JP MORGAN’S RENT BOY? OR SIMPLY A SERVANT OF WALL STREET’S BIGGEST CRIMINAL
BANKSTERS, ALL OF WHICH END UP WORKING IN THE CORRUPT OBAMA WHITE HOUSE!
PROBABLY THE ONLY TRUTH OBAMA EVER TOLD THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE WAS THAT HE WAS “NOT HERE TO PUNISH BANKS!”… NOPE, AND HE NEVER HAS.
THEIR CRIMES, LOOTING AND PROFITS HAVE SOARED UNDER OBAMA.
YOU WOULD NOT HAVE FOUND
OBAMA’S DOJ GOING AFTER OBAMA’S PALS AT JP MORGAN. HOLDER IS TOO BUSY
HISPANDERING FOR LA RAZA, SUING AMERICAN STATES AND SABOTAGING OUR LAWS AND
BORDERS SO THE OBAMANATION CAN BUILD HIS LA RAZA PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS.
“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).”
OBAMA’S OLD PALS J.P.MORGAN STILL FUCKING OVER CONSUMERS… IT’S LIKE OLD
TIMES FOR THE BANKSTERS!
Headline:
California lawsuit alleges illegal collection practices by JPMorgan Chase
THE
LONG HISTORY of BARACK OBAMA and HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS JP MORGAN… STILL
LOOTING AMERICA AND THE WORLD!
more at this link –
This is the unadulterated voice of finance capital
speaking. It should be recalled that JPMorgan is deeply implicated in the
speculative operations that have devastated the lives of hundreds of millions
of workers around the world. In March of this year, a US Senate committee
released a 300-page report documenting the criminal practices and fraud carried
out by JPMorgan, the largest bank in the US and the world’s biggest dealer in
derivatives. Despite the detailed revelations in the report, no action will be
taken against the bank’s CEO, Jamie who enjoys the personal confidence of the
US president.
NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO ORCHESTRATE AN
ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MORE THAN BARACK OBAMA and a PACK OF HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTERS!
… now expanded to pillaging of
AMERICAN STUDENTS
more at this link
ONLY OBAMA WOULD LEVEL YET ANOTHER
CON JOB ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, ON BEHALF OF HIS WALL STREET
PAYMASTERS, AND THEN TELL US IT IS FOR OUR OWN GOOD!
THE ONLY ONES THAT WILL EVER BENEFIT
FROM THIS FREAK OBAMA ARE ILLEGALS AND WALL STREET CRIMINALS!..... WELL, AND
MAYBE MUSLIM DICTATORS HE PUMPS BILLIONS INTO!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-obama-assault-on-americans-for-wall.html
YES, UNDER THE BANKSTER-OWNED PRESIDENT
OBAMA, LIFE IS GOOD
FOR HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER
DONORS. THEIR PROFITS and CRIMES ARE SOARING AND
SO
ARE FORECLOSURES.
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
“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).”
A CASE OF INCEST! OBAMA PARTNERS WITH WALL STREET’S BIGGEST
CRIMINAL BANKSTERS, MOST OF WHOM NOW WORK IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION!
CRONY CAPITALISM: OBAMA PROTECTS JP MORGAN, THE BIGGEST
BANKSTER CRIMINALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, AND ONE OF OBAMA’S BIGGEST BANKSTER
DONORS!
Nearly five years after the greatest financial crash since
the Great Depression, triggered by rampant illegality and fraud on the part of
the major banks, not a single major institution or leading bank executive has
been indicted, let alone tried, convicted and jailed.
The criminal charges are part of an attempt by the Obama
administration to create the appearance that it is cracking down on Wall Street
criminality, while it continues to shield top executives and allow banking
fraud and criminality to continue unabated.
“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 ($358,054).”
CRONY CAPITALISM: JP MORGAN’S RENT BOY, BARACK OBAMA HAS HELPED HIS
CRIMINAL BANKSTERS LOOT AMERICA BIG TIME!
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
…it’s probably all he’s ever done well in in his pathetic corrupt
political life!
…no
filthy politician in American history has taken more loot from looting
banksters than the WALKING CON JOB BARACK OBAMA… and not one bankster has gone
to prison! HOW’D THAT
HAPPEN?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?$?
“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).”
“Barack Obama's favorite
banker faces losses of $2 billion and
possibly more -- all because of the complex, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't trading
in exotic financial instruments that he has so ardently lobbied Congress not to
regulate.”
Is JPMorgan's Loss a Canary in a Coal Mine?
Posted: 05/16/2012 4:49 pm
That sound of
shattered glass you've been hearing is the iconic portrait of Jamie Dimon
splintering as it hits the floor of JPMorgan Chase. As the Good Book says,
"Pride goeth before a fall," and the sleek, silver-haired,
too-smart-for-his-own-good CEO of America's largest bank has been turning every
television show within reach into a confessional booth. Barack Obama's favorite
banker faces losses of $2 billion and
possibly more -- all because of the complex, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't
trading in exotic financial instruments that he has so ardently lobbied
Congress not to regulate.
Once again, doing
God's work -- that is, betting huge sums of money with depositor funds knowing
that you are too big to fail and can count on taxpayers riding to your rescue
if your avarice threatens to take the country down -- has lost some of its
luster. The jewels in Dimon's crown sparkle with a little less grandiosity than
a few days ago, when he ridiculed Paul Volcker's ideas for keeping Wall Street
honest as "infantile."
To find out more
about what this all means, I turned to Simon Johnson, once chief economist of
the International Monetary Fund and now a professor at MIT's Sloan School of
Management and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics. He and his colleague James Kwak founded the now-indispensable
website baselinescenario.com. They co-authored the bestselling book
13
Bankers and a most recent
book, White
House Burning, an account every
citizen should read to understand how the national deficit affects our future.
Bill Moyers: If Chase began to collapse because of
risky betting, would the government be forced to step in again?
Simon Johnson: Absolutely, Bill. JPMorgan Chase is
too big to fail. Hopefully in the future we can move away from this system, but
right now it is too big. It's about a $2.5 trillion dollar bank in terms of
total assets. That's roughly 20 percent of the U.S. economy, comparing their
assets to our GDP. That's huge. If that bank were to collapse -- I'm not saying
it will -- but if it were to collapse, it would be a shock to the economy
bigger than that of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and as a result, they
would be protected by the Federal Reserve. They are exactly what's known as too
big to fail.
Moyers: I was just looking at an interview I did with you in February of 2009,
soon after the collapse of 2008 and you said, and I'm quoting, "The signs
that I see... the body language, the words, the op-eds, the testimony, the way
these bankers are treated by certain congressional committees, it makes me feel
very worried. I have a feeling in my stomach that is what I had in other
countries, much poorer countries, countries that were headed into really
difficult economic situations. When there's a small group of people who got you
into a disaster and who are still powerful, you know you need to come in and
break that power and you can't. You're stuck." How do you feel about that
insight now?
Johnson: I'm still nervous, and I think that
the losses that JPMorgan reported -- that CEO Jamie Dimon reported -- and the
way in which they're presented, the fact that they're surprised by it and the
fact that they didn't know they were taking these kinds of risks, the fact that
they lost so much money in a relatively benign moment compared to what we've
seen in the past and what we're likely to see in the future -- all of this
suggests that we are absolutely on the path towards another financial crisis of
the same order of magnitude as the last one.
Moyers: Should Jamie Dimon resign? I ask that
because as you know and as we've discussed, Chase and other huge banks have
been using their enormous wealth for years to, in effect, buy off our
politicians and regulators. Chase just had to pay up almost three quarters of a billion
dollars in settlements and surrendered fees to settle one case alone, that of
bribery and corruption in Jefferson County, Alabama. It's also paid out
billions of dollars to settle other cases of perjury, forgery, fraud and sale
of unregistered securities. And these charges were for actions that took place
while Mr. Dimon was the CEO. Should he resign?
Johnson: I think, Bill, there should be an
independent investigation into how JPMorgan operates both with regard to these
losses and with regard to all of the problems that you just identified. This
investigation should be conducted separate from the board of directors.
Remember that the shareholders and the board of directors absolutely have an
incentive to keep JPMorgan Chase as a too-big-to-fail bank. But because it is
that kind of bank, its downside risk is taken by the Federal Reserve, by the
taxpayer, by the broader economy and all citizens. We need to have an
independent, detailed, specific investigation to establish who knew what when
and what kind of wrongdoing management was engaged in. On the basis of that,
we'll see what we'll see and who should have to resign.
Moyers: Dimon is also on the board of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which, as everyone knows is supposed to
regulate JPMorgan. What in the world are bankers doing on the Fed board,
regulating themselves?
Johnson: This is a terrible situation, Bill. It
goes back to the origins, the political compromise at the very beginning of the
Federal Reserve system about a hundred years ago. The bankers were very
powerful back then, also, and they got a Federal Reserve system in which they
had a lot of representation. Some of that has eroded over time because of
previous abuses, but you're absolutely right, the prominent bankers, including
most notably, Jamie Dimon, are members of the board of the New York Federal
Reserve, a key element in the Federal Reserve system. And he should, under
these circumstances, absolutely step down from that role. It's completely inappropriate
to have such a big bank represented in this fashion. The New York Fed claims
there's no impropriety, there's no wrong doing and he doesn't involve himself
in supervision and so on and so forth. Perhaps, but why does Mr. Dimon, a very
busy man, take time out of his day to be on the board of the New York fed? He
is getting something from this. It's a trade, just like everything else on Wall
Street.
Moyers: He dismissed criticism of his dual
role yesterday by downplaying the role of the Fed board. He said it's more like an "advisory group
than anything else." I had to check my hearing aid to see if I'd heard
that correctly.
Johnson: Well, I think he is advising them on
lots of things. He also, of course, meets with some regularity with top
Treasury officials, and some reports say that he meets with President Obama
with some regularity. The political access and connections of Mr. Dimon are
second to none. One of his senior executives was until recently chief of staff
in the White House, if you can believe that. I really think this has gone far
enough. Under these kinds of circumstances with this amount of loss of control
over risk management, what we need to have is Mr. Dimon step down from the New
York Federal Reserve Board.
Moyers: He told shareholders at their annual
meeting Tuesday -- they were meeting in Tampa, Florida -- that these were "self-inflicted mistakes"
that "should never have happened." Does that seem reasonable to you?
Johnson: Well, it's all very odd, Bill, and
I've talked to as many experts as I can find who are at all informed about what
JPMorgan was doing and how they were doing it and nobody really understands the
true picture. That's why we need an independent investigation to establish --
was this an isolated incident or, more likely, the breakdown of a system of
controlling and managing risks. Keep in mind that JPMorgan is widely regarded
to be the best in the business at risk management, as it is called on Wall
Street. And if they can't do this in a relatively benign moment when things are
not so very bad around the world, what is going to happen to them and to other
banks when something really dramatic happens, for example, in Europe in the
eurozone?
Moyers: Some of his supporters are claiming
that only the bank has lost on this and that there's absolutely no chance that
the loss could have threatened the stability of the banking system as happened
in 2008. What do you say again to that?
Johnson: I say this is the canary in the coal
mine. This tells you that something is fundamentally wrong with the way banks
measure, manage and control their risks. They don't have enough equity funding
in their business. They like to have a little bit of equity and a lot of debt.
They get paid based on return on equity, unadjusted for risk. If things go well,
they get the upside. If things go badly, the downside is someone else's
problem. And that someone else is you and me, Bill. It goes to the Federal
Reserve, but not only, it goes to the Treasury, it goes to the debt.
The Congressional
Budget Office estimates that the increase in debt relative to GDP due to the
last crisis will end up being 50 percent of GDP, call that $7
trillion dollars, $7.5 trillion dollars in today's money. That's extraordinary.
It's an enormous shock to our fiscal accounts and to our ability to pay
pensions and keep the healthcare system running in the future. For what? What
did we get from that? Absolutely nothing. The bankers got some billions in
extra pay, we get trillions in extra debt. It's unfair, it's inefficient, it's
unconscionable, and it needs to stop.
Moyers: Wasn't part of the risk that Dimon
took with taxpayer guaranteed deposits? I mean, if I had money at JPMorgan
Chase, wouldn't some of my money have been used to take this risk?
Johnson: Again, we don't know the exact
details, but news reports do suggest that yes, they were gambling with federally
insured deposits, which just really puts the icing on the cake here.
Moyers: Do we know yet what is Dimon's
culpability? Is it conceivable to you that a risk this big would have been
incurred without his approval?
Johnson: It seems very strange and quite a
stretch. And he did tell investors, when he reported on first quarter earnings
in April, that he was aware of the situation, aware of the trade -- he called it a "tempest in a teacup,"
and, therefore, not something to worry about.
Moyers: He's been Wall Street's point man in
their campaign against tighter regulation of derivatives and proprietary
trading. Were derivatives at the heart of this gamble?
Johnson: Yes, according to reliable reports,
this was a so-called "hedging" strategy that turned out to be no more
than a gamble, but the people involved perhaps didn't understand that or maybe
they understood it and covered it up. It was absolutely about a bet on
extremely complex derivatives and the interesting question is who failed to
understand exactly what they were getting into. And how did Jamie Dimon, who
has a reputation that he burnishes more than anybody else for being the number
one expert risk manager in the world -- how did he miss this one?
Moyers:I've been reading a lot of stories
today about members of the House, Republicans in particular, saying this
doesn't change their opinion at all that we've got to still diminish regulation.
What do you think about that?
Johnson: I think that it is a recipe for
disaster. Look, deregulating or not regulating during the boom is exactly how
you get into bailouts in the bust. The goal should be to make all the banks
small enough and simple enough to fail. End the government subsidies here. And
when I talk to people on the intellectual right, Bill, they get this, as do
people on the intellectual left. The problem is, the political right largely
doesn't want to go there because of the donations. I'm afraid some people, not
all, but some people on the political left don't want to go there either.
Moyers: The Washington Post reported
that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into
JPMorgan's trading loss. Have you spotted -- and I know this is sensitive --
but have you spotted anything in the story so far that suggests the possibility
of criminality? Dodd-Frank is not in existence yet, so where would any
possibility of criminality come from?
Johnson: Well Dodd-Frank is in existence but
the rules have not been written and therefore not implemented. So yes, it is
hard to violate those rules in their current state. And many of those rules, by
the way, violation would be a civil penalty, not a criminal penalty. If you
violate a securities law -- if you've mislead investors, if there was material
adverse information that was not disclosed in an appropriate and timely manner
-- that's a very serious offence traditionally.
I have to say that
the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have not
been very good at enforcing securities law in recent years, including and
specifically since the financial crisis. I am skeptical that this will change.
But if they have an investigation that reveals all of the details of what
happened and how it happened, that would be extremely informative and show us,
I believe, that the risk management approach and attitudes on Wall Street are
deeply flawed and leading us towards a big crisis.
Moyers: So what are people to do, Simon? What
can people do now in response to this?
Johnson: Well, I think you have to look for
politicians who are proposing solutions, and look on the right and on the left.
I see Elizabeth Warren, running for the Senate in Massachusetts, who is saying
we should bring back Glass-Steagall to separate commercial banking from
investment banking. I see Tom Hoenig, who is not a politician, he's a
regulator, he's the former president of the Kansas City Fed, and he's now one
of the top two people at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the FDIC.
He is saying that big banks should no longer have trading desks. That's the
same sort of idea that Elizabeth Warren is expressing. We need a lot more
people to focus on this and to make this an issue for the elections.
And I would say in
this context, Bill, it's very important not to be distracted. I understand for
example, Speaker Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of
Representatives, is proposing to have another conflict over the debt ceiling in
the near future. This is the politics of distraction. This is refusing to recognize
that a huge part of our fiscal problems today and in the future are due to
these risks within the financial system that are allowed because the people
running the biggest banks hand out massive campaign contributions across the
political spectrum.
Moyers: Are you saying that this financial
crisis, so-called, is at heart a political crisis?
Johnson: Yes, exactly. I think that a few
people, particularly in and around the financial system, have become too
powerful. They were allowed to take a lot of risk, and they did massive damage
to the economy -- more than eight million jobs lost. We're still struggling to
get back anywhere close to employment levels where we were before 2008. And
they've done massive damage to the budget. This damage to the budget is long
lasting; it undermines the budget when we need it to be stronger because the
society is aging. We need to support Social Security and support Medicare on a
fair basis. We need to restore and rebuild revenue, revenue that was absolutely
devastated by the financial crisis. People need to understand the link between
what the banks did and the budget. And too many people fail to do that.
"Oh, it's too complicated. I don't want to understand the details, I don't
want to spend time with it." That's a mistake, a very big mistake. You're
playing into the hands of a few powerful people in the society who want private
benefit and social loss.
Watch Moyers &
Company weekly on public television. See more web-only features like this
at BillMoyers.com
*
Why hasn’t Obama been impeached?
His violations of our borders laws, inducing illegals to vote, sabotage of jobs
for Americans, connections to criminal banksters…. WHAT DOES IT TAKE?
NO WORKS IN THE CORRUPT OBAMA WHITE HOUSE THAT IS NOT
CONNECTED TO THE BANKSTERS THAT OWN OBAMA, OR THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA
RAZA!
THE REASON OBAMA BROUGHT IN DALEY WAS BECAUSE WAS FROM
JPMORGAN, AND AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS.
For much of Obama’s tenure, Jamie Dimon was known as the
White House’s “favorite banker.” According to White House logs, Dimon visited
the White House at least 18 times, often to talk to his former subordinate at
JPMorgan, William Daley, who had been named White House chief of staff by Obama
after the Democratic rout in the 2010 elections.
OBAMA PROMISED HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS NO
PRISON TIME AND NO REAL REGULATION. DID HE DELIVER?
The JPMorgan scandal also throws into
relief the government’s failure to prosecute those responsible for the 2008
financial meltdown. Despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and criminality
uncovered by two federal investigations last year, those responsible have been
shielded from prosecution.
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).
The
JPMorgan debacle
15
May 2012
The economic and
political fallout from JPMorgan Chase’s sudden announcement last Thursday night
that it lost more than $2 billion from speculative bets on credit derivatives
continued to grow on Monday. The biggest US bank announced the forced
retirement of Ina Drew, who headed up the bank’s London-based Chief Investment
Office, which placed huge bets on the creditworthiness of a collection of US
corporations. Other top executives and traders are expected to be sacked or
demoted.
The bank’s shares
fell another 3.2 percent, bringing its two-day market capitalization loss to
nearly $19 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported that JPMorgan was
prepared for a total loss of more than $4 billion over the next year from its
soured stake in credit default swaps—the same investment vehicle that played a
central role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the government bailout of
insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in September of 2008.
In an interview on
NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon sought to
present the loss as an innocent mistake, resulting from “errors, sloppiness and
bad judgment.” Only a month ago, Dimon, who has led the public campaign by Wall
Street against even the mildest restrictions on speculative banking practices,
dismissed warnings over the massive bets being made by his Chief Investment
Office as “a complete tempest in a teapot.”
The scale of the loss
and the denials that preceded it raise the likelihood that banking rules and
laws against investor fraud and deception were breached.
President Obama, however, rushed to the
defense of JPMorgan and Dimon, declaring on a daytime television talk show
Monday that JPMorgan was “one of the best managed banks there is” and Dimon was
“one of the smartest bankers we got.”
At the same time he cited the bank’s loss as a vindication of the Dodd-Frank
financial regulatory bill that he signed into law in July of 2010. “This is why
we passed Wall Street reform,” he said.
In fact, the JPMorgan debacle
demonstrates that nearly four years after the Wall Street crash nothing has changed
for the financial aristocracy. No measures have been taken to rein in the
banks, which received trillions of dollars in government handouts, guarantees
and cheap loans. The same forms of speculation and outright swindling that led
to the financial meltdown and the worst economic crisis since the Great
Depression continue unabated.
The big banks, such as JPMorgan, have
increased their stranglehold over the US economy. They have recorded bumper
profits by withholding credit from consumers and small businesses, keeping
unemployment high, while speculating on credit default swaps and other exotic
financial instruments that drain resources from the real economy. On this
basis, bank executives and traders, including those at bailed-out institutions,
have continued to rake in eight-figure compensation packages. Last year, Ina
Drew made $14 million, and Jamie Dimon took in $26 million.
The Dodd-Frank law trumpeted by Obama
is a fraud, an attempt to give the appearance of financial reform while
enabling the banks to continue their parasitic and criminal activities. A case in point is the so-called
Volcker Rule, named after the former chairman of the Federal Reserve and
economic adviser to the Obama White House, Paul Volcker.
The rule,
incorporated into the Dodd-Frank Act and supposedly one of its most daring
provisions, ostensibly bars proprietary trading—speculation by a bank on its
own account—by commercial banks whose consumer deposits are guaranteed by the
federal government. The idea is to prevent government-insured banks from
speculating with depositors’ money.
But the regulation as
drafted by federal regulators—under pressure from the Federal Reserve and
Obama’s treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, as well as the banks—would
actually allow the type of speculative bet made by JPMorgan in the guise of a
“hedge” to offset risk in the bank’s overall investment portfolio.
The Volcker Rule,
whose precise form is yet to be announced, will do nothing to halt speculation
by government-backed banks using small depositors’ money.
The JPMorgan scandal also throws into
relief the government’s failure to prosecute those responsible for the 2008
financial meltdown. Despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and criminality
uncovered by two federal investigations last year, those responsible have been
shielded from prosecution.
When Iowa Senator
Charles Grassley submitted a letter to the Justice Department earlier this year
asking how many bank executives had been prosecuted in response to the
financial crisis, the Justice Department replied it did not know because it was
not keeping a list.
According to a study
by Syracuse University, however, federal financial fraud prosecutions have
fallen to 20-year lows under the Obama administration, and are down 39 percent
since 2003. Under Obama, the number of financial fraud cases has fallen to
one-third the level of the Clinton administration.
These facts
demonstrate the de facto dictatorship exercised by the financial aristocracy
over the entire political system and both major parties. The Obama
administration, in particular, is an instrument of the most powerful financial
institutions. It has focused its efforts on protecting and increasing the
wealth of the privileged elite while utilizing the crisis to permanently slash
the wages and living standards of the working class.
For much of Obama’s tenure, Jamie Dimon
was known as the White House’s “favorite banker.” According to White House
logs, Dimon visited the White House at least 18 times, often to talk to his
former subordinate at JPMorgan, William Daley, who had been named White House
chief of staff by Obama after the Democratic rout in the 2010 elections.
The incestuous and
corrupt relations between Wall Street, the Obama administration and the entire
political system underscore the necessity for the working class to build its
own mass socialist movement to fight for its interests in opposition to the
ruling elite.
The bankers
responsible for the financial crisis, including Dimon and his co-conspirators,
must be held criminally liable for their lawlessness and held accountable for
the social suffering that has resulted from their actions. The ill-gotten
trillions accumulated by the banks must be expropriated, with full protection
for small depositors and small businesses, and used to provide decent jobs,
housing, health care and education for all.
There is no way to
rein in the banks and end their socially destructive activities within the
framework of the capitalist system. The only way to stop the fraud and
parasitism that go on every day on Wall Street is to nationalize the banks and
run them as democratically controlled public utilities.
Andre Damon and Barry
Grey
FACT: JP MORGAN IS ONE OF BANKSTER-BOUGHT OBAMA’S BIGGEST
PAYMASTERS! HE’S PROMISED THEM NO PRISON TIME AND NO REAL REGULATION.
THERE IS A REASON WHY THE BANKSTERS INVESTED HEAVILY IN
OBAMA’S CORRUPT 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).
Obama: JPMorgan Is 'One of the
Best-Managed Banks'
By Mary Bruce | ABC
OTUS News – 2 hrs 31 mins ago
Obama:
JPMorgan Is 'One of the …
Lou
Rocco / ABC News
Just
hours after a top JPMorgan Chase executive retired in the wake of a
stunning $2 billion trading loss, President Obama
told the hosts of ABC's "The View" that the bank's risky bets
exemplified the need for Wall Street reform.
"JPMorgan is one of the best managed banks there
is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of
the smartest bankers we got and they still lost $2 billion and counting,"
the president said. "We don't know all the details. It's going to be
investigated, but this is why we passed Wall Street
reform."
The
full interview airs on "The View"
Tuesday on ABC at 11 a.m. ET
While
a powerhouse like JPMorgan might be able to weather an error that the bank's
own CEO called "egregious," the president questioned what might
happen to smaller institutions in similar situations.
"This
is one of the best managed banks. You could have a bank that isn't as strong,
isn't as profitable managing those same bets and we might have had to step
in," he said. "That's why Wall Street reform is so important."
While
touting his efforts to rein in the Wall Street behavior that led to the massive
taxpayer bailout of the banks following the financial crisis, he noted his
administration is still fighting for tough reform.
Pivoting
to November, the president said Wall Street reform is one of the many critical areas
where he and his Republican challenger, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney,
have a different vision for the future.
The
president's full interview airs Tuesday on "The View." Tune into
"World News with Diane Sawyer" tonight for more.
*
Nicole Gelinas
It’s Not About Jamie Dimon
We should look to markets, not men, to govern the economy.
14 May 2012
It’s Not About Jamie Dimon
We should look to markets, not men, to govern the economy.
14 May 2012
On
Meet
the Press
yesterday, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon epitomized what’s wrong with
America’s approach to the financial crisis. The American media and political
elite remain obsessed with personalities, looking for heroes and villains
instead of focusing on what we really need: the dispassionate rule of law that
would allow free markets to flourish. Meet the Press is for politicians,
and Dimon performed like a model one. He spoke in short sentences and
apologized directly: “I was dead wrong,” he offered, for having made a
“terrible, egregious mistake.” Specifically, last Thursday, JPMorgan announced
a $2
billion trading loss
on a derivatives bet.
Theoretically,
anyway, such a loss should be a matter between the bank and investors, not TV
fodder. Yet Dimon’s business—too-big-to-fail
banking—is
no ordinary business. Washington’s willingness to subsidize failure means that
Dimon’s job is as much political risk management as financial risk management. Because JPMorgan depends on Uncle Sam’s backing, one of
Dimon’s key constituencies is politicians and government regulators. And one way to charm regulators—and
the voters who elect the politicians—is through a killer interview.
In
October 2008, the Bush administration, not normally a fan of government
expropriation, forced
nine big banks,
including Dimon’s, to accept $125 billion in TARP money. The banks were deemed
so important that they had to take the money to protect them against failure,
whether they wanted it or not. Since then, the banks
and the government have stayed bound together. President Obama’s Dodd-Frank
financial reform law, enacted two summers ago, has tied the two sides closer
still.
The problems that led to the financial crisis, remember, included investors’
perception—honed over two decades of smaller-scale bailouts—that big banks were
too big to fail. Dodd-Frank has given such banks an official title:
“systemically important financial institutions.”
Another
problem that led to the financial crisis was that, over the years, politicians
and regulators determined that banks had become so good at risk management that
they no longer needed to abide by consistent rules—fixed limits on borrowing,
for example, so that banks could fail without leaving behind so much unpaid
debt that they endangered the economy. Instead, banks could largely do what
their executives wanted, as long as regulators believed, on a case-by-case
basis, that they knew what they were doing.
In
the aftermath of the JPMorgan mess, politicians and reporters have been
invoking the Dodd-Frank law’s “Volcker Rule.” Named after Paul Volcker, the
Federal Reserve chairman from the Carter and Reagan eras, the rule prohibits
banks whose customers benefit from taxpayer-backed deposit insurance from
engaging in “proprietary trading,” or speculation. But the Volcker Rule isn’t a
rule at all: it prohibits behavior that has no set definition. Twenty-two
months after Dodd-Frank became law, regulators have delayed
enforcing the rule
because they still cannot figure out what proprietary trading really is.
Consider how JPMorgan lost all that money: creating derivatives that let it
sell billions of dollars’ worth of protection against the risk that some
corporate securities would default. That sure doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Banks, because they’re lenders, are already at risk if people and companies
default in droves.
But
does selling such synthetic “insurance” constitute proprietary trading?
Michigan Senator Carl Levin, who helped draft the Volcker Rule language, says
it does. Bank officials have argued that such behavior is hedging, which would
be okay under Dodd-Frank.
Real
rules could govern Wall Street, but politicians must give regulators the
backing to create and enforce them. Rather than worry about the Volcker Rule,
politicians and reporters should be focusing on derivatives rules. One reason
that Washington had to bail out the financial system four years ago was that
financial firms such as AIG had taken on virtually infinite risk through the
derivatives markets. Through derivatives, AIG could “sell” protection against
other companies’ defaults with almost no cash down. Lo and behold, that’s what
JPMorgan Chase was doing, too. Regulators should demand that traders—whether
big banks or tiny hedge funds—put a set amount of cash down behind such bets,
curtailing the amount of potential unpaid debt in the financial system.
Regulators should also require that traders execute such transactions on open
clearinghouses and exchanges—so that markets can determine which bets are going
well and which aren’t, and clearinghouses can demand more money from traders to
cover their losses. Such rules empower market signals, not regulatory micromanagement,
to control risk. If such rules were in place, it’s unlikely Dimon would have
visited the White House 18
times in three years,
as he would have had no way to manipulate a restriction that, after all,
applied to everyone.
The
best way to stop bailouts is to limit borrowing and demand transparency. When
markets know that financial firms have put a cash cushion behind their bets—and
where the risk behind such bets lies—they’re unlikely to pull their money out
of the financial system en masse, necessitating a government rescue. The
Volcker Rule, by contrast, adds no such protection against future taxpayer
rescues; all it does is unleash regulators to debate, in private, the
definitions of risk.
Dodd-Frank
gave regulators the authority to impose real rules on derivatives, and the
regulators have done
so. But
lobbyists demanded and secured exceptions, which could eventually prove the
rule. With such loophole-ridden reform, America has hardly set a good example
for Europe, which lags even further behind in enacting derivatives rules. In
fact, JPMorgan Chase may have executed the derivatives deals from London
because the bank perceived London as a looser environment. Moving this activity
around the world so that financiers can play inconsistent rules against one
another does nothing to help the struggling Western economies.
The
media and the politicians, however, would rather discuss people than arcane
issues like financial rules. Look at how politely—almost obsequiously—NBC’s
David Gregory treated Dimon. Gregory asked Dimon: “Here you are, Jamie Dimon,
you’ve got a sterling reputation. . . . How does a guy like you make this
mistake? If this happened at JPMorgan Chase . . . what about all the other
banks out there? If somebody else made a mistake like this, would we be again
talking about too big to fail and taxpayer bailouts?” Then, when asking
delicate questions about potential criminal liability, Gregory unconsciously
switched from “you” to “the bank.” Lowly regulators will hardly be more willing
to take on Dimon and his colleagues.
Focusing
on one man represents bailout thinking. Policymakers continue to be distracted
from the rules needed to protect the economy from the consequences—including
corporate failure—of the bad decisions that individuals can make. Nearly four
years after the financial crisis began, Washington seems to have learned almost
nothing.
NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY HAS TAKEN MORE LOOT FROM
CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS THAN OBAMA. HE PROMISED HIS BANKSTERS NO CRIMINAL
PROSECUTION, AND NO REAL REGULATION.
PROFITS FOR BANKSTERS HAVE SOARED UNDER OBAMA, JUST
AS FORECLOSURES HAVE. DURING HIS FIRST 2 YEARS THE BANKSTERS MADE MORE LOOT
THAN ALL 8 UNDER BUSH!
WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?
*
"In general,
these are professional prognosticators," said Ritsch. "And they may
be putting their money on the person they predict will win, not the candidate
they hope will win."
Shaping up to be the most corrupt
administration in American history:
administration in American history:
- Obama’s team:
Not the “best of the Washington insiders,” as the liberal media style
them, but rather, a dysfunctional and dangerous conglomerate of
business-as-usual cronies and hacks
- In the first two
weeks alone of his infant administration, Obama had made no fewer than 17
exceptions to his “no-lobbyist” rule
- Why the fact
that the massive infusion of union dues into his campaign treasury didn’t
trouble him in the least reveals Obama’s credibility as a reformer
- The lack of
unprecedented pace of withdrawals and botched appointments -- and how
getting through the confirmation process was no guarantee of ethical
cleanliness or competence, even as Obama’s cheerleaders were glorifying
the Greatest Transition in World History
- Inconsistency:
How Obama, erstwhile critic of the campaign finance practice known as
“bundling,” happily accepted more than $350,000 in bundled contributions
from billionaire hedge-fund managers
- How Obama broke
his transparency pledge with the very first bill he signed into law --
helping make hostility to transparency is a running thread through Obama’s
cabinet
- Michelle Obama:
Beneath the cultured pearls, sleeveless designer dresses, and eyelashes
applied by her full-time makeup artist, is a hardball Chicago politico
- Joe Biden: It’s
not just that he lies, it’s that he lies so well that you think he really
believes the stuff he makes up
- Treasury
Secretary Geithner: His ineptness and epic blundering -- including how he
nearly caused the collapse of the dollar in international trade with a
single remark
- The appalling
story of Technology Czar Vivek Kundra, the convicted shoplifter in charge
of the entire federal government’s information security infrastructure
- Obama’s “Porker
of the Month” Transportation Secretary, Roy LaHood: An earmark-addicted
influence peddler born and raised on the politics of pay-to-play
- SEIU:
Responsible for installing a cabal of hand-chosen officers who exploited
their cash-infused fiefdoms for personal gain and presided over rigged
elections -- in the process, becoming all that they had professed to stand
against as representatives of the downtrodden worker
- How Obama lied
on his “Fight the Smears” campaign website when he claimed that he “never
organized with ACORN”
- ACORN: How the
profound threat the group poses is not merely ideological or economic --
it’s electoral
- ACORN’s own
internal review of shady money transfers among its web of affiliates: How
it underscores concerns that conservatives have long raised about the
organization
- Liar, liar,
pantsuit on fire: How Hillary Clinton has already trampled upon her
promise not to let her husband’s financial dealings sway her decisions as
Secretary of State
- How even a few
principled progressives are finally beginning to question the cult of
Obama -- even as Obama sycophants in the mainstream media continue to
celebrate his “hipness” and “swagga”
*
GET THIS BOOK!
*
Obamanomics:
How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends,
Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P
CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making
You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs
up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you
wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism
to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate
welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
Congressman
Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.”
And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics
is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the
Obama years.”
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows
up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit
exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam.
Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger,
somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book
names the names—and it will make your blood boil.
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers.
Investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:
* The
Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with drug companies spell
corporate profits and more government control
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as the federal government
swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts
deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create make-work government jobs,
this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils
down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and
those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will
make your blood boil.
*
Praise for Obamanomics
Praise for Obamanomics
“The
notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of
progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by
day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is conservative
muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is exploiting the big
business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it to entrepreneurs,
taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide to the Obama
years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
“‘Every
time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute
observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama
administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s
populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone
who wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
“Every
libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large
corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to
read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions
of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul
—Congressman Ron Paul
“It’s
understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But
as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more
sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing
everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual,
which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
*
·
Hardcover: 256 pages
·
Publisher: Regnery Press (November 30,
2009)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 1596986123
·
ISBN-13: 978-1596986121
ARE AMAZED AT HOW UTTERLY BRAZEN THESE CORPORATE OWNED
POLITICIANS ARE?
GET THIS BOOK!
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats,
Crooks, and Cronies
by Michelle Malkin
Editorial Reviews
In her shocking new book, Malkin digs deep into the records
of President Obama's staff, revealing corrupt dealings, questionable pasts, and
abuses of power throughout his administration.
From the Inside Flap
The era of hope and change is dead....and it only took six
months in office to kill it.
Never has an administration taken office with more inflated
expectations of turning Washington around. Never have a media-anointed American
Idol and his entourage fallen so fast and hard. In her latest investigative
tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Malkin delivers a
powerful, damning, and comprehensive indictment of the culture of corruption
that surrounds Team Obama's brazen tax evaders, Wall Street cronies, petty
crooks, slum lords, and business-as-usual influence peddlers. In Culture of
Corruption, Malkin reveals:
* Why nepotism beneficiaries First Lady Michelle Obama and
Vice President Joe Biden are Team Obama's biggest liberal hypocrites--bashing
the corporate world and influence-peddling industries from which they and their
relatives have benefited mightily
* What secrets the ethics-deficient members of Obama's
cabinet--including Hillary Clinton--are trying to hide
* Why the Obama White House has more power-hungry,
unaccountable "czars" than any other administration
* How Team Obama's first one hundred days of appointments
became a litany of embarrassments as would-be appointee after would-be
appointee was exposed as a tax cheat or had to withdraw for other reasons
* How Obama's old ACORN and union cronies have squandered
millions of taxpayer dollars and dues money to enrich themselves and expand
their power
* How Obama's Wall Street money men and corporate lobbyists
are ruining the economy and helping their friends In Culture of Corruption,
Michelle Malkin lays bare the Obama administration's seamy underside that the
liberal media would rather keep hidden.
• Publisher:
Regnery Publishing (July 27, 2009)
• Language:
English
• ISBN-10:
1596981091
• ISBN-13:
978-1596981096
THE FORBES 400 ARE LOOTING AMERICA FOR EVERY
DROP OF BLOOD THEY HAVE NOT ALREADY STOLEN!
The Rise of bankster-owned Barack Obama and the final
looting of the American middle-class.
.. and Hillary Clinton has vowed to banksters that the best
is yet to come!
JEFF BEZOS: THE DROOLING HOG AMAZON LET LOOSE
LIKE
THE CLINTONS, THE BUSH CRIME
FAMILY, and the OBAMANATION,
FEINSTEIN LOVES THE
SMELL OF MONEY
OFF ELECTED OFFICE.
"Some ethics analysts question whether Mrs.
Feinstein ran afoul of the latter provision, creating the appearance that she
was rewarding the agency that had just hired her husband's firm."
Richard C. Blum and Dianne Feinstein: The
Power Couple of California LOOTING
AMERICA FROM TOP TO BOTTOM!
"They remain at the pinnacle of power today, he as a billionaire financier, speculator, real estate executive and deal maker; she as the senior Senator (California's highest federal official), from the largest and most powerful state in the United States. They exemplify power as it is now wielded in the higher circles of the class system of the U.S. today, and illustrate well the dismal results of this system. This system is best characterized as a plutocratic kleptocracy, completely lacking in authentic democracy, operated by and for corporate racketeers, in short, a dictatorship of big capital, the top 1% of wealth holders, which makes up a ruling class."
UNIONS PARTNER WITH OBAMA AND WALL STREET TO
ASSAULT THE AMERICAN WORKER WITH AMNESTY
AND OPEN BORDERS… It’s all about keeping wages depressed
For their part, US trade unions such as the United Auto Workers have functioned as junior partners in the impoverishment and exploitation of the working class, suppressing any opposition to the attack on living standards.
In this corporate America has enjoyed the full backing of the Obama administration and both big business parties, which have slashed food stamps and long-term unemployment benefits. The White House, which orchestrated the slashing of wages in the auto industry restructuring of 2009, has made the lowering of living standards for US workers the centerpiece of its so-called revival of American manufacturing.