Bill Moyers Interviews Simon Johnson and James Kwak!

Michael Lewis Interview On Fresh Air With Terri Gross

Listen to Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker, and now his new book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. Fantastic interview. 

For more, go to the link.


Interesting links to read.
the market, commodities, oil, Greece, Euro
A beautiful Storycorp story
Peter Schiff Youtube
Market Oracle Report
Karl Denninger piece on ZIRP Trap


The Great American Bank Robbery-MUST READ!
The Great Inflation Cover-Up
How Taxes and the Consumer Price Index Weights Hide Inflation
A Mortgage On-Line Calculator
Interest Scams and How to Avoid Them: Mortgages


Wall Street's Power Grab. This article has to be one of the best every written on this subject!
book review: 'Shadow Elite': Do You Know Whose Agenda You're Being Sold?
2010 is going to get tough
Robert Solow on the Global Economic Crisis--video and text

It Was A Banner Year For Goldman Sachs-The Nation’s Leading Predator

As the economic armada is sinking with billowing smoke in the Sea of Financial Crisis, the U.S.S. Goldman Sachs raises a banner across its deck, announcing “Mission Accomplished”, Lord Lloyd Blankfein proclaims, “There’s no crisis that can’t be won!” During the state dinner aboard ship, during Lord Blankfein gives the opening address. He begins with a humbling first sentence stunning all of the oligarchs enjoying their elegant luncheon. He says, “A scam is a terrible thing to waste!” The crowd roars in applause, and a toast is made to Charles Ponzi, the first known grand Ponzi conartists of 1919.

That is correct. There is no crisis that cannot be scammed. While the neo-cons in the Grotesquely Oligarchist Psychopathetic Repugnicon Party are all saying that mortgage holders, in spite of being underwater with their mortgages, should not walk away from them. They must adhere to their obligations. WTF! are they talking about? As far as I can tell, Lord Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, AIG, and the rest of the financial crime syndicate thieves were about to sink in the Sea of Financial Crisis if they weren’t given TARP, TALF, PPIP, Fed Fund Drive-Through Windows (‘Can I have a Happy Meal with that, please?), and more totaling $23 trillion supplied by the taxpayers; yet, the homeowners, who were ripped off of $12T in household wealth, and found their mortgages underwater because of the financial crime syndicate thieves violated their ‘honor’ as American businessmen and sold junk mortgage derivative bonds to suckers who thought these low-grade securities were AAA, when really they were worth nothing; and then, knowing that these tranched bad mortgages mixed in with a few token good mortgages would likely go up in smoke, bought AIG’s credit default swaps to secure their foreshadowed losses. Nostradamus not required. In addition, they all knew they were Too Big To Fail and the government would step in with financial winches to hoist them all back up again.

But the small fry homeowners left out to dry with underwater mortgages are supposed to stand tall and keep on paying. What garbage.

Now, President Peacock Obama, who spent a year displaying his fancy feathers for the world to see as he strutted, while globetrotting, smiling for the cameras, while giving articulate speeches, has now decided to show he is more than just pretty feathers. He has told the voters that it was his “commitment [is] to recover every single dime the American people are owed.” Funny, funny Mr. President!! Where are the teeth behind this meek appeal? How will you actually do this? And, will you cower away when the banking predators come for your throat?

Your plan appears to be one that will place a tax levy on the biggest financial institutions in order to recoup losses from the TARP bailout program, which would amount to $90B over ten years. Now, being the math wizard that I am, that comes to just $9B per year. Goldman Sachs’ 2009 profit came to a whopping $50B, with $20B passed out in bonuses. Happy New Year big shots. Now, I would say President Obama has convinced himself that he believes he is sure talking tough. Unfortunately, he is only doing his new kabuki theater routine. It is just for show. He wants to try and look like he is all about the little guy. While stumping in Massachusetts for the Democrat who eventually lost to a neo-con Republican opposed to health care reform as viewed through the Democratic keyhole, he kept talking about the little guy and gal. Those hurting. Those suffering. Those who have lost so much while the bankstas took it all home with them. What a kabuki dance if I ever saw one. Wave the magic wand, Mr. President, and chocolates will come raining down on everyone, as George W. Bush believed when he entered Iraq for the first time.

Let us review the scam artistry that Goldman Sachs and the others engaged in. Brooksley Born, a member of the Financial Crisis Commission hearing panel, and the former head of the Commodity Futures Trade Commission, under Clinton, who, in 1998, publicly warned Alan Greenspan and Jamie Dimon, chairman of JPMorgan Chase, that there was a derivatives tsunami gathering a huge amount of destructive energy as it approached our own shores. They laughed at her, told her to go away and take some cookies on her way out. During these current hearings she reminded the four leading banksta syndicate operators testifying before her (GS, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and BoA that they were chairmen of firms that they were responsible for about $230 TRILLION worth of trade in over-the-counter derivatives, much of which were still unmonitored!!! Holy heck! And the cons are worried about underwater mortgages and the working stiff getting health care at a reasonable price without cancellation?

Over time, the Federal Reserve worked its monetary magic by over-leveraging taxpayer wealth, via the treasury by increasing US debt by 4000%-from less than $3B to over $12T, with much of it going onto the balance sheets and into the pockets of the US corporate oligarchs, the financial banking thieves, and private equity funds, as well as the incredibly predatory industrial war machine.

After the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Federal Reserve and the laissez-faire, “free-market” (HA,HA) capitalists worked their black magic, their Voodoo Economics, by pressing legislators to erode the rules and regulations that were put into place following the economic collapse of the 1930s. As the government oversight was erased, the economic and financial predators began sucking from Lady Liberty’s breast to drain as much taxpayer wealth as was possible, revving up into a full force gale beginning in 2000. It appears that after one year of President Obama’s leadership, none of the erased rules and regulations had been restored, along with what we should have learned from past lessons.

We now have begun to see behind the Shadow Banking curtain thanks to the hosts on MSNBC, and others, such as Matt Taibbi’s work published in the Rolling Stone magazine, exactly how Goldman Sachs engaged in fraud against their clients, the American people, and AIG. Also, we are seeing a conspiracy to cover-up the fraud committed by the likes of Hank-the Paulie-Paulson, Monster Man of the Year—Bennie the Beard Bernanke, Lordie Lordie Blankfein, and Timmie-daG-Geithner, all of whom should be indicted using RICO. Where is the Justice Department? Where is the call for a Grand Jury investigation?

Back in 2008, when Timmie the G was President of the New York Fed and his chairman was Steve Friedman, who also had been a Goldman Sachs chairman, too, began mopping up AIG’s garbage mortgage bonds that they were insuring for Goldman Sachs to the tune of $14B at 100 cents on the dollar, since GS rejected a 40 cents on the dollar offer. Now tell me if this was not a conspiracy to protect the balance sheet of the top financial crime syndicate boss—Lord Blankfein!

Not only did GS get full value for their derivative contracts insured by AIG, but Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia did as well. They all got reimbursed by the taxpayer to the tune of $27.1B. Socialize the losses and privatize the gains!

It appears that under Bush, Hank Paulson and the others plotted to kill Goldman Sachs’ competition and leave only GS on the top of the investment banksta dog pile, since Goldman had its field marshal generals embedded in the government protecting their interests.

Lehman Brothers was brought down in 2007, and Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley were decapitated. While this planned demolition was going on, and long before, Goldman Sachs was selling garbage mortgage backed securities to suckers believing in the financial market’s Golden Egg, when actually it was rotten inside, while the wizards inside GS were selling off their garbage to AIG and buying swap insurance to guarantee their losses. They all knew, since Hank Paulson, a veteran GS chairman, then acting as Bush’s Treasury secretary, and Robert Rubin close to his side, as well as Bernanke, and Geithner, would rescue any of their losses when, and not if, it got there. There was no such thing as risk management. What it meant was take all the risk you want, Uncle Sam is there to help! Didn’t Reagan hate that phrase? Bush didn’t listen!

In 2006 and on into 2007, GS sold somewhere around $39B of their mortgage junk, and used their ‘honorable’ status as that of “upstanding” investment bankers and sold around $17B more mortgage junk securities for their clients, yet those good, law biding American business bankers never told the suckers who ended up buying those garbage bonds that they were making bets on the side just in case those mortgage bonds went south because the never-ending boom in housing price values might actually come tumbling down.

In late 2006, McClatchy News reported that Goldman Sachs spokesman, Michael DuVally said that the firm decided, at that time, to reduce its mortgage risks by selling off subprime mortgage-related securities as well as to purchase credit-default swaps which were used to hedge against a serious downturn in the US housing market. This all came about because in December 2006, after “10 straight days of losses” in Goldman’s mortgage business, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar called a meeting of key Goldman personnel.  (1.Economiccollapseblog.com, How Goldman Sachs Made Tens of Billions From The Economic Collapse of America In Four Easy Steps)

It seemed that Goldman Sachs was not going to let their Wall Street casino gambles become losses no matter what they had to do. This is how a crime syndicate operates. And, they are it!

“The New York Times recently wrote: A handful of investors and Wall Street traders, however, anticipated the crisis. In 2006, Wall Street had introduced a new index, called the ABX, which became a way to invest in the direction of mortgage securities. The index allowed traders to bet on or against pools of mortgages with different risk characteristics just as stock indexes enable traders to change the firm’s overall stance on the mortgage market, from positive to negative, though it did not disclose that publicly. Goldman used this new index [to their advantage].

Along with all of this, Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC, has been all over Timmie Geithner to reveal the secret deals and emails that went on between the NY Fed, when he was its president, and AIG, as well as everyone else involved in keeping their secret from their clients, and the SEC, the deal that brought Goldman Sachs, via AIG, a 100 cent reimbursement for their toxic mortgage backed securities that were insured (CDS) through AIG. Geithner has decided that the documents will remain secret until 2018. So much for President Obama’s transparency pledge to America.

These bets would only make money for Goldman Sachs if the U.S. housing market declined.” (See reference 1.)

It sure was a banner year for the King of FOP (Financial Obfuscating Predator), Mr. Lordie Lordie Lloyd Blankfein, but it was the nation that took the hit instead.

Thanks for reading, jerry

 http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

Here is the Colbert Report speaking about honor bound! It is great!

God's Will Was In The Sachs

Wait. I am confused. Is it God Man Sachs? Is it Lord Blankfein? Is it a Fine Blank God Man In The Sach?

It is so hard to follow these days! We have Lloyd Blankfein, a key player in the financial-banking crime syndicate wanting all of us to believe that he believes in God, and that he is following God’s Plan. Lloyd Blankfein, the guy who has told us that his company, Goldman Sachs, really did not need to be bailed out to the tune of $12 billion by Little Boy Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chair, Ben Bernanke under the TARP give-away program.

No. No. He was just drinking from the public trough for humanitarian reasons. His colleagues and derivatives alchemists needed raises and bonuses, so if the Congress was giving out bail out candy favors called TARP (Toxic Asset Relief Program), then Blankfein was in line with his party bag.

It was in Blankfein’s theocratic master plan to be allowed to transform from a investment corporation into a bank company so he could be allowed to receive government handouts when he really did not need them.

It was God’s Will to have Blankfein attending the infamous March, 2004 secret meeting of the five investment crime family bosses with Bennie-The Beard—Bernanke, Timmie-The G—Geithner, Hank—The Paulie—Paulson to likely discuss knocking off Bear Stearns. It has all been denied that this was the intent. When asked about this secret meeting that would affect the entire economic fabric of the country, and which was kept from the President of the United States, Geithner, acting at the time as the New York Federal Reserve chairman said, ‘It was business-as-usual.’ It was just business. Just business. Ahh. Geithner channeling Tony Soprano.

So what was behind the Bear Hunt? It was rumored that in Blankfein’s theocratic master plan he had more than likely decided to attack da’ Bear by using a powerful killing tool---Naked Short-Selling. Many called it a counterfeiting scheme, such as Matt Taibbi, in his article titled “Wall Street’s Naked Swindle” (10-14-09).

Mr. Taibbi explains, “What naked short-sellers do is sell large quantities of stock they don’t actually have, flooding the market with ‘phantom’ shares that depress a company’s share price by making the shares less scarce and therefore less valuable.”

To paraphrase Mr. Taibbi, a giant number of undelivered shares over the course of a week (3-12-08) amounted to one of the most blatant cases of stock manipulation in Wall Street history. “There is not a doubt in my mind, not a single doubt” that naked short-selling helped destroy Bear, says Ken Kaufman, a Democrat from Delaware, who had introduced legislation to curb such financial fraud.”

The article went on to further describe the scam that goes along with naked short-selling tactics.

“Thanks to the media-fueled rumors and the mounting anxiety over the company’s ability to make its payments, Bear’s share price plummeted seven percent on March 13, [2008] to $57. It still had a ways to go for the mysterious short-seller to make a profit on his bet against the firm, but it was headed in the right direction. [There was this mysterious short-seller out to manipulate the stock price who knew what was going on inside Bear.] But then, early on the morning of Friday, March 14th, Bear’s CEO, Alan Schwartz, struck a deal with the Fed and JPMorgan to provide an emergency loan to keep the company’s doors open.” The stock price rallied to $62, but it was all pipedream. The hunt of da’ Bear was closing in. The Bear was cornered and the trigger was cocked. Here is how Mr. Taibbi describes it:

“The rally was proved short-lived—Bear ended the day [Friday] at $30—but it suggested that all was not lost. Then a strange thing happened. As Bear understood it, the emergency credit line that the Fed had arranged was originally supposed to last for 28 days. But that Friday, despite the rally, Geithner and then-Treasury secretary Hank Paulson—the former head of Goldman Sachs, one of the firms rumored to be shorting Bear—had a sudden change of heart. When the market closed for the weekend, Paulson called Schwartz and told him that the rescue timeline had to be accelerated. Paulson wouldn’t stay up another night worrying about Bear Stearns, he reportedly told Schwartz, Bear had until Sunday night to find a buyer or it could go fuck itself.” And, we all know how that story ended. It was God’s Will!

Goldman Sachs has reaped billions of dollars by engaging in short-selling.

Here is another intriguing part of Taibbi’s swindle story:

“A paper presented at the American Bankruptcy Institute earlier this year report[ed] that up to a third of all notes for mortgage-backed securities may have been “misplaced or lost”—meaning they’re backed by IOUs instead of actual mortgages.”

“How about bond? Naked short-selling of stocks is nothing compared to what goes on in the bond market, says Susan Trimbath, the former Depository Trust Company staffer. [She was one of the first people to notice that there was a scam brewing around naked short-selling.] Indeed, the practice of selling bonds without delivering them is so rampant it has even infected the market of U.S. Treasury notes. That’s right—Wall Street has actually been brazen enough to counterfeit the debt of the United States’ government right under the eyes of regulators, in the middle of a historic series of government bailouts! In fact, the amount of failed trades in Treasury bonds—the equivalent of “phantom” stocks—has doubled since 2007. In a single week last July, some $250 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds were sold and not delivered.”

“The counterfeit nature of our economy is troubling enough, given that financial power is concentrated in the hands of a few key players---300 white guys in Manhattan---as a former high-placed executive [put] it.”

We all know that Lloyd, or is it Lord Blankfein is part of that cabal. But remember, he is doing God’s Work!

Here are more of Lord Blankfein’s theocratic marching orders from you-know-who.

Phillip Davis wrote on Seekingalpha.com, a piece called “The Global Oil Scam”, 11-11-09, that Lord Blankfein’s Goldman Sachs was engaged in, with others, an oil scam the size of 50—Bernie Madoff swindles. $2.5 trillion in size.

Here it is. “Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BP, Total, Shell, Deutche Bank, and Societe Generale founded the International Continental Exchange (ICE) in 2000. ICE is an online commodities and futures marketplace. It is outside the US and operates free from the constraints of US laws. The exchange was set up to facilitate “dark pool” trading in the commodities markets. Billions of dollars are being placed on oil futures contracts at the ICE, and the beauty of this scam is that they NEVER take delivery, per se. They just ratchet up the price with leveraged speculation using your TARP money. This year alone they ratcheted up the global cost of oil from $40 to $80 per barrel.”

There is more. “You can chart the damage done by Goldman Sachs and their gang of thieves by looking at commodity pricing pre and post ICE. Before ICE, commodities followed a more or less normal growth path that matched global GDP, and was always limited to price appreciation by the fact that, ultimately, someone had to take delivery of a physical commodity at a set price.

ICE threw that concept out the window and turned commodity trading into a speculative casino game where pricing was notional, and contracts could be sold by people who never produced a thing, to people who didn’t need the things that [had] not [been] produced. And, in just 5 years after commencing operations, Goldman Sachs and their partners managed to TRIPLE the price of commodities.”

Here is Lloyd Blankfein’s theocratic motivation. “Goldman Sachs Commodity Index funds accounted for $60 billion out of $100 billion of all formula-managed funds in 2007 and investors in the GSCI lost 15% in 2006, while Goldman had a record year. John Dizard, of the Financial Times, call[ed] this process “date rape” by Goldman Sachs…”

Mr. Phillips stated, “It is not surprising that a commodity scam would be the cornerstone of Goldman’s Sachs’ strategy.” “Before ICE, the average American family spent 7% of their income on food and fuel. Last year, that number topped 20%. That is 13% of the incomes of every man, woman and child in the United States of America, over $1T EVERY SINGLE YEAR, stolen through market manipulation.”

It is very clear to this writer, and no doubt to many others, that when Lloyd Blankfein says he is doing God’s Work, his theocratic master plan is to rip-off the American people, and United States government. His plan is to engage in fraud as a high ranking member of the financial-investment banking crime syndicate. It does not matter where in the world his evil ways are being manufactured, he always comes back to find a nice long straw to stick into the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing trough, supplied with taxpayer dollars, to suck out zero percent cash in order to perform his work for the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord!

Thanks for reading, jerry

PS:  Thank you Spectre Of Deflation, a great friend of the blogspot, for the great refresher regarding Goldman Sachs. Last year, 2008, Goldman Sachs received a gift from the heavens, or maybe it was just from the IRS and the US tax code. They were able to drop their tax burden down to 1% because of losses. How many of you folks working hard everyday were able to drop YOUR tax burdens? Not only has Goldman Sachs been receiving bailouts, and Federal Reserve Financial Happy Meals, but they don't have to pay taxes either!!! (Read the entire Bloomberg article in the comments below.)

President Obama and the “Dons” of Wall Street

President Obama ran a campaign that appears to have been based upon a platform of delusional ideologies. He thought he was the "somebody" that was spoken about in the speeches, back in the 1970s, advocating Black Power--"I am somebody!" He told us he was that somebody who could bring change to America. He told the voters that he was the person who could fulfill the empty pots with hopes and dreams that would grow into something worth being proud of once again.

Instead, he entered the presidency backwards; his back to the people who elected him, while facing the kleptocrats and oligarchs that ushered him into the Oval Office with their checkbooks.

President Obama has done nothing for the economy but erode it. He continues to bring along worker bees groomed by the corrupt queens running the financial and corporate super-hives. They continue to empower those entities that have destroyed the economy.

Obama has only a few more chips available stashed in the bottom of his pocket to lay down on the economic recovery crap table, which appears to have been spent while his stack rapidly dwindled within the last 7 months. One of the few chips left hidden in his satchel is for the public option health care program. If lost, the people lose and Obama has damaged his credibility. He may have nothing else to offer. The incompetent and self-destructive GOP are fully aware of Obama's weaknesses and his inability to wield his power because he has allowed his wayward ship to take on way too much toxic- Goldman Sachs-water, as well as his inability to steer his shipmates who make up the cowardly Democratic congress. Even his Blue DogShit Coalition has gone traitor on him by supporting the smoke and mirrors idea of health care coops, which in the long run, would not bring down customer premium or drug costs.

The toxic Talibanistas inside the Republican Party are calling the public option Obama’s Waterloo. Excuse me, but have not these Republicans been engaged in a war against working Americans for the last 30 years? Have they not had the best government health care programs money can buy, while many in America go without or have paid for inadequate healthcare plans with their hard earned stagnant and dwindling wages? Who do they think they are, anyway? These greedy congresspersons have taken in millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the health care insurance industry. They do not help their constituents with smart legislation, but only take from them greasing their palms along the way as they meet and greet their highly paid corporate lobbyists, many of whom went through the government’s revolving door: corporate-to-government-back-to-corporate, and back through the revolving door over and over again. The GOP gathered up their toxic steam under Little Boy Bush but, eventually, began to gag from their own poison when the Democrats took over as a majority party.

The war against working Americans has been funded through a crime syndicate. Crime syndicates, over time, can become institutions. The Mafia crime syndicate has become an institution in Italy, and elsewhere. The Russian crime syndicate, too, has become an institution basically running the Russian economic system and occupying government positions. The Afghanistan poppy crop has been ruled over by a drug crime syndicate spreading its finished product, heroin, all over the world, and, as a result, supplying themselves with dangerous weapons. So, why would anyone believe there could be stability in Afghanistan? Or, Pakistan for that matter.

Crime syndicates can become institutions, and that has occurred especially under the administrations of the GOP, and accepted by the Democrats, along the way with only a few demonstrating resistance. The nation’s largest financial banking and investment institutions have evolved into an economic crime syndicate.

As with drug crime family syndicates, they operate covertly and in secret. This same secrecy is how the “too big to fail” financial institutions have become filthy rich and extremely powerful and influential. They gained super secrecy when Republican Senator Phil Gramm championed the law that allowed these financial-investment banking institutions to perform complicated and fraudulent derivative sales from inside secret “shadow banking” facilities. The law that made it illegal to regulate or supervise these transactions was the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 1999 (CFMA), passed under Clinton and fully throttled by Little Boy Bush. A loud outcry of opposition was heard by Brooksley Born, who, at the time, was the Commodity Future Trading Commission Chair between 1996-1999, but was push aside.

Larry Summers, who worked for Robert Rubin as his undersecretary of the Treasury and later, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, and then, became Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton, and has since become President Obama’s Director of the White House’s National Economic Council, was also on the staff of Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors. For all those years, he did not believe in regulation and supported the sea change the CFMA of 1999 ushered in.

Now, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, testified before Congress proclaiming that any congressional action that would lead to the auditing of the Federal Reserve would amount to a take over of the Fed by Congress! I guess he forgot that it was Congress that passed the law that created the Federal Reserve in the first place. He went on to shout out in his quiet demeanor that such an action would be destructive to the economy if they were able to get inside the Federal Reserve’s books and shine a light upon their blanket of crimes, secrets and shenanigans.

For President Obama to even consider out loud making Bernanke the super-regulator of the financial industry further indicates where our commander-in-chief has positioned himself in relation to the financial crime syndicate. It would be like giving a private assassin the keys to the nation’s super computing network.

Tim Geithner was given the key position inside the Obama administration after being fully embedded within the financial crime syndicate. He is now the Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner, while working as Chair of the New York Federal Reserve under Little Boy Bush, Hank Paulson (former Secretary of the Treasury under Little Boy Bush), and Bernanke were instrumental in the secretive backroom deal that pressed JPMorgan Chase into purchasing Bear Stearns. Here are the people super connected to the financial banking institutions working secretly inside the government, away from the scrutiny of Congress using government funds to arrange a sweetheart bank buyout deal in order to save Bear Stearns from bankruptcy, while giving taxpayer monies to JPMorgan Chase in order to actually do the buyout. If this isn’t a Nanny Super Rich Welfare State, then what is?

At the time of this deal, Tim Geithner was the chairman of the New York Federal Reserve. He was supposed to be regulating these New York financial institutions, but failed to do so. He was present at this backroom deal, along with Jamie Dixon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who just so happened to be on the board of the New York Federal Reserve. Could JPMorgan Chase been chosen for this deal because of his relationship with the Federal Reserve board, Geithner and others inside the government? This was totally an inside deal using taxpayer monies, all done in secret, on a weekend, with no one in Congress knowing what was going down.

The whole illusion that there is a free market was thrown out the window, as well as a possible illegal action. This is like the president of a college, such as Yale or Harvard, being asked by a major benefactor who gives the college any amount of money when asked, to “award” a degree to his son or daughter without them ever attending a single class. The deal goes down and all the records are forged to show that the privileged kid got a bought and paid for degree. A fraud is a fraud.

This all sounds like an episode of Tony Soprano trying to make a deal with another local crime family syndicate using the Godfather-Don Corleone as the “mediator”.

President Obama cannot seem to get enough financial crime syndicate worker bees to join his team. His most recent “ranch hand” is a Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman, Robert Hormats, picked to be the State Department’s undersecretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, if confirmed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be pleased because now she has a Goldman Sachs financial insider to do her economic crime syndicate bidding directly with foreign nation states and countries. This is the way it works! The investment banking institutions get government positions whereby they can move legitimately within foreign countries, in this case through the State Department, arranging government deals giving the investment banking crime bosses full knowledge, as well as access, to what is going on.

This is like Tony Soprano having an insider inside the government telling him when a shipment of semi-automatic weapons will be dropped off at the dock, and that there will be a 10 minute window when there will be no one around protecting the shipment.

To further legitimize the fact that the investment banking financial crime syndicate really exists and I am not just exaggerating this fact, we have the special inspector general, Neil Barofsky, for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) concerned that the U.S. taxpayers will be liable for as much as $23.7 trillion stacked up by Geithner and Bernanke ready to be handed out like burgers at the Carhops drive through windows. He is also looking into 35 criminal and civil investigations.

Just as we had Al Capone, and other gangsters run roughshod and terrorize our streets and citizens, we now have something similar terrorizing our economic system, which had been sanctioned by the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. It appears that the bank robbers now occupy the bank! Geithner, Bernanke and the “Dons” of Wall Street are controlling the financial banking institutions and have now broken into the Treasury, without resistance from President Obama, or Congress, and have taken over all the office suites.

Mr. Barofsky has decided to open 35 criminal and civil investigations related to the fraud, misconduct, corruption, cover-ups, and lies perpetuated by those operating from within the financial-banking crime syndicate institutions.

Even the Republicans inside the House Oversight Committee now know that Geithner’s Treasury is engaged in secrecy and has pulled the cover over any type of transparency whenever asked by the senior inspector general of the TARP, as well as Congress to turn over documents that might expose wrongdoing.

To add insult to injury upon the taxpayers who funded these bailouts, Geithner has allowed the investment banks that sold "warrants", or common stock, to the Treasury in exchange for bailout funds, to buy them back for a fraction of what they are worth. The taxpayers did not even get back the principal investment. Geithner allowed these thieving banks to buy back their common stock warrants for less than what we bought them for! Sweet deal. We do them a favor and rescue their incompetent butts, and in exchange Geithner does not even ask for the principal back, let alone some interest to boot. This is further proof showing how Geithner is continuously favoring these "Dons" of Wall Street instead of the American people he is working for.

Here are the facts. The State Street warrants, which were worth $92 million at fair market value, were bought back for only $60 million. BBandT warrants had a fair market value of $114 million, but were bought back for $67 million. And then there is U.S. Bancorp. They bought back their warrants for $139 million, when the paper was worth $260 million.

The U.S. taxpayers cannot even get their loans paid back. They have to take less. As the Treasury sees their revenues decline as a result of the economic collapse, and they have to borrow more and more money from China, they won't even ask for the loans to be paid back in full? President Obama should be ashamed of himself for allowing the taxpayers to get fleeced.

There can be no economic recovery of this nation when we have such criminal activity operating within the White House, Federal Reserve, and the investment-banking Wall Street institutions. The paper economy is no substitute for the real manufacturing economy. Until this is dramatically changed and the criminals prosecuted, there will be no recovery, but only stagnation, or even further erosion of it.

Thanks for reading, jerry

President Obama Has Been Swarmed By The Huge Financial Beehives

I heard a story from a gas company technician about a massive hive of bees that swarmed him. He was standing still when he saw a queen bee leave what he assumed was a meadow hive leading a giant swarm of bees numbering in the thousands. He said it was a huge black cloud of bees that weaved all around as it approached him. The giant swarm came toward him, encircled him, and then, led by the queen, took off into the distance.

This is what has been happening to the average person in the United States. Since Reagan, the financial beehives have been building their worker bee populations in order to go out upon the planet seeking grains of pollen. The pollen consists of the people’s financial wealth.

We have seen a Goldman Sachs beehive, as well as a CITI hive, a BoA hive, and the list goes on. Instead of just a localized, unassuming tree hanging hive, they built fortress hives. The chair queens not only had worker bees, but operative bees that trained the busy little worker drones in the process of finding grains of pollen from the most barren and questionable sources, as well as from the common and plentiful sources.

The worker bees were shown that pollen could be discovered in the open market fields where there could be found a plethora of blooming wealth of flowering capital sources ready for the picking. And, there was nothing to stand in their way.

The worker bees also found usable flowering capital under many rocks and stones, of which they overturned to pluck for the taking.

The chair queens created a syndicate. They would meet together in secret plotting and developing ways to take the pollen grains and brew securitized and “derivativized” nectar formulas to feed all the worker bees motivating them to gather up more and more pollen grains. They were even encouraged to keep a portion of the nectar brew to sell or use for themselves.

The leader of all the land, which had been picked by the leading chair queens, began getting supplied with all the nectar he could get away with. This would ensure the control by the chair queens over the pollen gathering processes. This man was President Obama. The leading and most powerful chair queen was one who ran the Goldman Sachs hive. This chair queen told President Obama that he would be bringing key GS hive operators into his command and control center. The list of key operator bees was numerous. They were instrumental in training operators that swarmed the congress of the land, as well as many other agencies, facilities, and companies.

The goal of all these operators was to make sure that even the pollen stored inside the Treasury of Pollen would end up in the various hives, but mostly in the deep storage module vaults of the GS hive, AIG hive and the CITI hive.

The danger that occurred was that President Obama had placed in charge of the people’s Treasury of Pollen a key GS hive operator. This operator, a high level worker bee, had a fellow pollen-syndicate operator in charge of the Federal Reserve of Pollen Grains. He devised a technique that took a grain of pollen and repeatedly split it into numerous grains diluting the original value of that grain but which still could be made into nectar, although watered down in many respects. Therefore, it no longer had the same potency and “nutritional value” when used requiring more to supply the typical daily requirements of nectar.

The people, who worked hard to plant the seeds, toiled the land using their bodies and minds to cultivate the plants and crops that provided the blossoms and flowers, and ultimately, the seeds that produced the pollen, which the worker bees took at will. There were no rules or regulations set upon the worker bees because if the people’s representatives did not play the game the way the chair queens wanted it played, then they would be attacked by the swarm with repeated stings removing them as an adversary to their greed-based objectives.

After decades of the people laboring over their fields of flowering plants and crops, the worker bees took so much pollen so quickly that the plants could not pollinate each other because the pollen was not being used to propagate the land with new and improved crops and plants, but to steal the pollen to produce nectar inside the hives. In other words, the chair queens and operators wanted all the pollen grains for themselves.

This resulted in fewer crops and plants to find pollen grains. The hives had to lay-off worker bees, and the field hands no longer were able to grow as many crops and plants for the purpose of producing seeds for the following planting season. The overall economy of the land fell into collapse. In the past, the people had lots of fruits, flowers, beans, nuts, seeds, and grains to keep the economy thriving. It thrived too much and the nectar brew began to overheat. The process of splitting the pollen grains to produce the diluted “nectarized” securities and derivative formulas ended up causing a great fire from an unregulated fermentation process destroying all that had been stored and saved.

The frightened chair queens ended up going to the Federal Reserve of Pollen Grains and President Obama’s key chair queen operative inside the Treasury of Pollen demanding they turn over all their stored grains to them, otherwise the hives will self-destruct and disappear leaving only the small beehives hanging throughout the fields, valleys, mountains and villages. The chair queens painted a bleak and grim future if they were not in control of the pollen grains.

The disappearance of the giant hives would have been good in the long run because the local people would have a more sustainable relationship with the bees, the crops and plants. The chair queens were afraid of this occurring removing them from the wealth-gathering process of stealing pollen grains from the people.

The sustainable scenario did not happen. The chair queens won out because President Obama favored them over the needs and survival of the people. What would be needed is for President Obama to authorize his command center to go out and use a potent and effective, as well as long lasting, bug defogger on all the massive hives that had caused the collapse in the first place!

The sequel has yet to be made. Stay tuned.

thanks for reading, jerry

A BRIC Thrown To President Obama

President Obama had a dream, but when he woke up he found a BRIC had been thrown through the White House window! (See the past opinion piece posting.)

The People’s Republic of China is ramping up the rhetoric. It is calling out the dangers of the world’s reliance on a “single sovereign-sovereign currency”. The danger lies in the “concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis”. Now, if this does not sound like “Reaganistic” Cold War Battle Cries, I don’t know what does!

Instead of the “menace” being the “Red Menace”, ie. Communism, it has become the United States via the dollar. (Read “Wary of Dollar, China Wants Super-Sovereign Currency”, Informationclearinghouse.net; Xin and Buckley, 6-26-09.)

The People’s Bank of China is inferring the U.S. dollar is becoming not only an international concern, and a risky global currency, but also the Boogieman’s currency for all to watch under a global microscope by the planet’s new CSI (‘Currency Scrutinizing Investigators’) forensic headquarters—The International Monetary Fund (IMF).

There is new pressure on the IMF, as they become the organizational body, to perform Timmy Geitheresque Currency Stress Testing on the dollar, as well as other currencies being considered for reserve currency status.

They might ask such questions as, will the dollar hold up under increased financial loads, such as further bankruptcies, to include credit card and commercial loans, further un-underemployment pressures, higher federal indebtedness, expansion of poverty figures, additional military expenditures and entanglements, decreasing private investments, increased personal savings (currently, it reached 6.9% of disposable personal income, and will likely reach 10% in the future), and more.

The sited authors stated “In an essay last March, [China’s central bank’s governor,] Zhou [Xiaochuan] caused a stir by suggesting that the Special Drawing Rights, the IMF’s unit of account, could eventually displace the dollar as the principal reserve currency.” OUCH!

It appears that China’s central bank’s governor, the equivalent of Federal Reserve bank governor Ben Bernanke, has pushed aside the Federal Reserve’s head honcho, and others, as he grabbles his way to the top of the heap in order to claim King of the Hill banker status. The blustery talk of Mr. “X” puts fear into the Dow Jones and forces the U.S. executive branch to go on the defensive. Bernanke ends up looking weaker and weaker on the domestic front, as well as the incompetent head of ‘Banksta Incorporated’ who has placed the U.S. economy into its dangerous tailspin causing a national security disaster.

Mr. “X”, China’s “Dragon Master”, appears to have come out showing he might be able to reduce Beanie Benny Bernanke into a naked pile of carved up flesh shavings. 

China’s Mr. “X” wrote an essay in March referencing a PBOC 670 page report recommending the use of the IMF’s SDR (Special Drawing Rights) currency as the principal reserve currency. The report Mr. “X” referenced said, “ to avoid intrinsic shortcomings in using a sovereign currency as a reserve currency, we need to create an international reserve currency that is divorced from sovereign states and can maintain a stable value over the long term”, as sited in the Xin and Buckley article. Again, these two authors bring more forward.

It seems that China has taken a lesson from the Little Boy Bush Presidential Playbook. In the chapter named Mind Control, and under the subchapter---Make Them Afraid, the Chinese government has raised the “Red Flag” that the “U.S. fiscal and monetary stimulus will generate inflation and drive down the dollar, handing Beijing big losses on its vast portfolio of U.S. bonds”, as was reported by Chinese officials.

The PBOC report, as sited by the mentioned authors, laid claim that much blame can be placed at the feet of poor regulation and supervision. “[There has been] inadequate [attention] paid to the risks.”

Once again, Mr. “X” slaps at “Bada Bing” Bernanke and Timmy “the Titanic” Geithner’s hands, as well as the others culpable as governmental incompetents who are using government positions to serve their financial crime syndicate masters, and accomplices in the theft of America’s wealth for the purpose of derivative gambling via the securities crap tables in order to make the top 10% extremely rich at the expense of everyone else, while bringing the nation to a Code Red National Security Risk level. Where is Tommy “the Tank” Ridge when you need him to dispense the duct tape and sheet plastic.

Team Obama is hoping none of these changes will happen very quickly, but if the U.S. economy continues to erode, falter, and sputter as seen with June’s unemployment figures, there is much for concern. Team Obama thinks it has time on its side because there maybe trouble brewing inside China’s Emerald City. Experts are saying that China maybe creating its own economic/financial bubble, the likes we saw break in 2007.

China is buying up huge amounts of commodities inflating the prices. This is a worry. Chinese lenders are handing out cheap yuan to commodity speculators, while those in the “real” economy are having a hard time getting access to cash.

Team Obama might be waiting to see if such a meltdown occurs inside China, which might defuse the alterations to the dollar as the reserve currency.

China has spent $4T yuan on its stimulus. Bank lending for the purpose of issuing credit has reached $6T yuan since December. “Much of this lending has not been used to support tangible projects but, instead, has been channeled into asset markets”, written by Mr. Andy Xie in his piece titled “Fear the Dark Side of China’s Lending Surge” (found on Bomlat.blogspot.com). Mr. Xie wrote further “The current surge in commodity prices, for example, is being fueled by China’s demand for speculative inventory. Damage to the domestic economy is already significant. If lending doesn’t cool soon, this speculative force will transfer even more Chinese cash overseas and trigger long-term stagflation.”

I believe we have seen this all before. Is China close to what we have already been experiencing with our economy? The flight of cash and investment, as well as the financial economy taking favor over the real economy is all too familiar to the U.S.

The People’s Bank of China’s vice-governor, Su Ning estimated more that $6T yuan of credit lines would be given to investors for the first half of the year. The economy expanded by 6.1% in the first three months, and is expected to grow by 7.0% from April to June.

China has seen significant outflows of capital exiting safe investments, such as money market funds into riskier credit and equity funds, such as emerging market funds.

Found on Bomlat.blogspot.com, Mr. John Lee was sited in his piece “Gloss Cannot Hide Rot in China’s Growth Story”, “Most Western commentators focus on the spectacular success of China’s export sector and the emergence of China as the world’s factory. But the greater contributor to Chinese growth is actually domestically funded fixed investment, which constituted over 50 percent of gross domestic product last year and more than 40 percent of that year’s growth.” “[B]ank loans drawn from citizen deposits funneled into state-controlled banks—constitute around 80 percent of all investment activity in the country.”

WOW!!! Does this sound familiar?

“Despite impressive GDP growth, about 400 million Chinese people have seen their net incomes stagnant or decline over the past decade. The income of the poorest 10% has been declining by 2.4% every year since the beginning of the century.”

Bloomberg News wrote this on 6-25-09: “hidden debt in China’s corporate sector is higher than revealed by official bank-loan data, since 44 percent of corporate capital expenditures in 2008 was financed by money whose source is literally unknowable.” This was the case with U.S. mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps. The origin of those bonds was literally unknowable, too.

If this actually happens, and the U.S. economy picks up, then Team Obama will look good. But, if China is able to maintain a positive GDP, and avoid an economic meltdown by building its nation from within--domestically, then Team Obama will likely be permanently damaged for the rest of their one-trick pony show presidential term.

How can the United States have a ‘jobless recovery’, which is what the flap jawin’ media is hacking about? The stimulus package will save many government jobs, such as those employed by colleges, universities, junior colleges, and those inside government offices, but where will that lead? From where will the nation’s productivity evolve? How will it increase exports, reduce foreign oil, improve the consumer markets, such as the sales of the New GM? Is Team Obama seeing the purchase of a New GM automobile the end goal? 

What is now being written is that through increased personal saving, the consumer spending frenzy, which was extraordinary, will return to what will be seen as more normal. Yet, what will be normal will require a significant shrinkage in the consumer marketplace, such as fewer retail jobs and the entire supply chain that gets product on the shelf. There will be shrinkage in commercial real estate, and manufacturing, as well.

It sure appears that the shrinkage is not over. I suspect there is much more to come. Now, who will blink first: China or the United States? Will BRIC succeed or fail?

Henry Kissinger said that Obama is playing a game of chess. Those who will continue to suffer are those in the middle and lower classes as their pieces get knocked off the board. Yet, it is clear that the biggest financial banking syndicate: Goldman Sachs and CITI will be standing right behind President Obama pointing out the moves.

Thanks for reading, jerry

The Swine Flu Began With Goldman Sachs And Has Infected The Entire Nation

The Royal Scam occurring at Treasury cannot help to draw up anger within the average American, if they are paying attention. Most are not paying attention. We have now been privy to the fact that the CEO and Chairman of JPMorgan, Jamie Dixon, is a psychopathetic conartist. He has decided to blame everyone and everything for the economic collapse but the actual real reason for the meltdown of the economy has to do with banksta greed by keeping mortgage rates dirt cheap, worker’s wages stagnant or near stagnant, keeping lending rates low, and encouraging borrowing for whatever the heart desires with teaser financial bank credit card rates, zero percent transfer rates, low home equity loan rates, no regulator rules, paying off the SEC to look the other way regarding securities violations, and installing banksters into the Treasury’s money supply system.
Mr. Dixon felt it was his duty to blame the war in Iraq, an enormous U.S. trade deficit, greedy individuals seeking higher profits, short selling, high energy prices, irrational pressures on corporations, money managers, and hedge fundies seeking more profits. He did admit that depressed interest rates was a factor in the creation of the housing bubble, yet he did not take one grain of responsibility for being a part of it. Very psychopathetic.

This week the largest financial banks published their earnings data. What we heard from the television Bobbleheads that blow out their optimistic steamy vapors clouding the truth, which they called information, was “Oh boy, look at Citi’s, as well as the other’s bank earnings. Better than expected!” Geewow!! Their better than expected earnings were based on “no-expectation” earnings projections, so anything better than flat was good. But remember, they received taxpayer dollars to improve their balance sheets, so the taxpayers pumped up these delusional earnings statistics.

At the same time, TimmyG unveiled some of the information regarding his stress testing circus act. His procedure is to reveal if the banks can hold up under irregular economic pressures and if they need taxpayer cash to stay alive. Instead of telling the zombie banks that they have a certain amount of time to find their own capital sources before being taken over by the FDIC, Geithner stated that any bank that showed a weak stress test will be pumped up with more cash by him-by us; no big deal? It is time to stuff the pig. Does this bring on the Pandemic Infection? Darn! The Pandemic Infection actually originated in the United States by the diseased banking industry. Their version of Swine Flu spread quickly throughout the world. The infection seems unstoppable. The richest Americans have gotten some of the financial serum to prevent their own widespread infection.
So, what does this do for the working American? NOTHING! This is not about people but the bankster economic ruling class. Goldman Sachs appears to be the master-thief and oligarch running the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Goldman Sachs has installed their own people into the control of our monetary system. Hank Paulson was Bush’s Treasury Secretary and principal designer behind the financial extortion plan that forced Congress to authorize Treasury to hand over $700B in TARP cash to the masterminds running the Wall Street mega-banks. Congress was told by Paulson and Bush, as well as by a panicking John McCain after he had suspended his presidential bid, that the economic sky was falling upon the head of Chicken Little!! Without TARP funds the nation would fall into a depression. Goldman Sachs’ Neel Kashkari was asked to head the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program). Goldman Sachs’ Jon Corzine, governor of New Jersey rushed into to offer support. Goldman Sachs kept Robert Rubin on the payroll for 26 years before he was installed into the Clinton administration in order to begin the deregulation process, which was signed into law by the BoyBush. Robert Zoellick is Goldman Sachs’ presidential mole in the World Bank, and served in the neo-con administration of DaddyBush. Now we have Larry Summers, Obama’s senior economic advisor as he heads the National Economic Council. Also, we have Tim Geithner who did not work at Goldman Sachs but was trained by their propaganda school headmaster by Rubin and Summers. Goldman Sachs trained John Thain well enough to be CEO of Merrill Lynch before a discounted purchase was arranged by Paulson to Bank of America. Then Goldman Sachs trained Robert Steel who heads Wachovia Bank. This defines Goldman Sachs and their deeply seated control of the United States of America’s financial system.

Since 1986, our financial sector grew from a modest 19% of corporate profits, to a current level of 41% of corporate profits. This has been a strong incentive for Goldman Sachs and the others to make sure Treasury and the Federal Reserve act on their behalf at every turn. Remember, Hank-the Paulie-Paulson made $38 million his last year as CEO as the leader of the oligarchy financial bank—Goldman Sachs. According to Paul Farrell, “Jack Bauer Can’t Stop The ‘Goldman Conspiracy’” he wrote, “Then during the market meltdown six months ago the $700 million personal fortune he [Paulson] built at Goldman was threatened by Goldman’s huge $20 billion derivatives exposure at AIG. Suddenly, his responsibilities at Treasury merged with a strong self-interest in protecting his personal fortune. AIG was saved.” He went on to say…John Whitehead, former Goldman Sachs chairman, former chairman of the New York Fed, former Reagan deputy Secretary of State, warned America’s problems will take years, burn trillions, result in massive deficits, which is a “road to disaster”. Mr. Whitehead then said in Farrell’s piece, “I’ve always been a positive person and optimistic, but I don’t see a solution here.” Farrell concluded with, “He [Whitehead] did see a depression at the end of the road, once you can call “Depression 2.”

How has any of this helped the real economy and the 300-plus million Americans? It isn’t helping. But, it is making life worse for everyone, but those at the top of the economic tier. Michael Whitney wrote in his piece called “Housing Bust Comes Roaring Back, Worse Than Ever”, “that more than 2.1 million homes will be lost this year because borrowers can’t meet their loan payments, up from about 1.7 million in 2008.” In his piece, Rick Sharga V.P. of RealtyTrac, said “We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market.” If the banks decide to put those properties on the market all at once, there would be further depreciation and carnage in the housing market. Mr. Whitney said, “One thing is certain, 600,000 “disappeared” homes means that housing prices have a lot farther to fall and that an even larger segment of the banking system is insolvent.” The article went on to say, “Ten’s of thousands of foreclosures are only 1-5 months away from hitting that and will take foreclosure counts back to all-time highs. This will flood an already beaten-bloody real estate market with even more supply just in time for the Spring/Summer home selling season.” Whitney quoted Ruth Simon, “The Housing Crisis Is About to Take Center Stage Once Again, WSJ”. She said in his piece, “Another 20% carved off the aggregate value of US housing means another $4 trillion loss to homeowners. That means smaller retirement savings, less discretionary spending, and lower living standards. The next leg down in housing will be excruciating; every sector will feel pain. Obama’s $75 billion mortgage rescue plan is a mere pittance; it won’t reduce the principle on mortgages and it won’t stop the bleeding….The housing market is going under and it’s going to drag a good part of the broader economy along with it. Stocks, too.” These assessments sure don’t make the housing future look promising, nor does it make the economy appear to be stabilizing anytime soon.

“So far, the meltdown has wiped out more than $11 trillion of household wealth, ignited soaring unemployment, and pushed millions of people from their homes.” Whitney included Newsweek, “Don’t Buy The Chirpy Forecasts”, “If the United States follows the norm of recent crises, as it has until now, output may take four years to return to its pre-crisis level. Unemployment will continue to rise for three more years, reaching 11-12% in 2011.”

What we now hear is General Motors will layoff more workers and idle around 19 plants. That means their total goal of 47,000 layoffs will likely be realized. For every one autoworker layoff, a ripple effect of a loss of 10 other jobs is felt. With idle plants throughout the summer, and massive layoffs, small business closures, bankruptcies, business downsizing affecting the economy, the summer will be painful for many families. This will affect the tourism and entertainment industries. A deeper recession will likely be realized.

Congress and President Obama are all up in arms over the rip-off by credit card companies as they gouge the card users with higher fees, and interest rates. What is upsetting is that any reforms and pressures placed upon these financial corporate thieves will take over a year to be implemented, yet Team Obama and Congress sure acted fast to stuff the pockets of the largest financial American banking cartel operators. It only took days for hundreds of billions of dollars to hit their balance sheets. Wow!!! They sure act fast to serve the financial needs of the banking predators, but they move at a snails pace to help working America, who are the only ones that can improve the economic conditions.

Can they be that stupid and inept to not understand that unless working Americans psychologically feel that their economic livelihoods are stable, their retirement is back on track, their children have an opportunity to be financial independent, and their jobs are once again stable, there will be no economic recovery? I don’t believe they are either stupid or inept. Our top level government officials have chosen to serve those corporate kleptocrats, those bankstas, those corporate insurgents who are controlling and manipulating those operating inside the government that control the money.

It is clear that the Treasury will be finding fewer tax dollars coming in because working Americans have much less to be taxed on. This same problem will trickle down to state and local tax collectors. Revenues will be down and all taxing bodies will be having to tighten up their declining budgets, which means more layoff, or Pink Slips, leading to more unemployed and less tax revenues, less spending, more shop closures, leading to empty shopping malls and strips, and commercial foreclosures and bankruptcies, while Obama allows his Economic Team to serve the master crime syndicate leader—Goldman Sachs and sidekick Citigroup.

The only way Team Obama will bring about “Change That We Can Believe In” is if hundreds of thousands of protesters decided to ‘March On Washington’ demanding that this economic recovery start at the bottom and work its way up, instead of the other way around.

thanks for reading, jerry

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The Team Obama Rip-off-The Financial Stability Plan

The rip-off seems to be continuing. The only real decision that occurred at the G-20 summit was that the top 5 representatives formed a new Doo-wop singing group—

The Great Dee-Fleck-Tors. All kidding aside, the big news was the passing of the G-20 economic hat that filled up with a modest $1 trillion that will go to crumbling, struggling and barely developing countries. No doubt, that money will go to make sure that those countries don’t default on their debt payment loans that the IMF is hungrily waiting for. That was not what we heard from President Obama. He framed it so we are to believe that the money is for more economic purposes, but I doubt it very much.

Back here at home, Professor Michael Hudson (How the Scam Works, Counterpunch.org) made it perfectly clear how the new Financial Stability Plan to subsidize the sale of “legacy assets”, ie, toxic mortgage debt, will be ripping us off. He explained that if a bank says that their package of collateralized debt obligations (CDO) is worth to them $10 million, it is likely they have overstated that fact. In late 2007, a recent Fitch rating agency study discovered that most of these junk mortgage debts are riddled with financial fraud, and the bank’s $10M package is likely only worth $2M. Isn’t this reassuring since the taxpayers are hoofing up 85% of the costs. Now, if another bank, hedge fund or equity fund decides to pony up $3M, then the scam becomes enhanced. The more money offered for the debt, the more TimmyG puts in, so why not make it a cool $5M. What we got now is the Treasury, with its 85% contribution, laying down $4,250,000. All the “investor” has to fork up is an easy $750,000—its 15% share. The legacy asset seller, B of A, or Goldman Sachs, or JPM, for example, which might even be hiding behind their own sacrificial equity fund they set up to buy the toxic debt which they might later fold up into bankruptcy disposing of the debt altogether, now gets $4,250,000 for its junk mortgage bond that was really only worth $2M! What a way to recapitalize an insolvent and bankrupt banking system! The $2T used for this Ponzi scheme is debt created into bond securities, none of which the private sector wants to touch, from credit cards, commercial loans, student loans, auto loans, and such through the Public-Private Partnership Investment Program (PIPP).

This is like taking the dead body (toxic mortgage debt), stuffing it into a sack (transferring this debt onto the bankster's shell company's balance sheet), allowing the bankster to steal the contents inside the wallet and then deposit the amount into their re-capitalized bank account (taking Geithner's 85% taxpayer contribution for over inflated toxic mortgage debt). Now they dump the body (the transferred toxic mortgage debt) encased in cement booties into the Hudson River allowing the shell company with the toxic mortgage debt as its only holding, to go bankrupt erasing the debt, while the bankster ends up making out like the bandit he has been allowed to be. All done with the White House's golden seal of approval given by Geithner, Summers,  Bernanke and Obama. If this isn't the Royal Scam of century, I don't know what is! The banking emperors get their toxic debt incinerated through bankruptcy, and they end up with a big reward, ie, Geithner paying them two to three times what that toxic mortgage debt was worth at taxpayer's expense. Walla! Now the zombie banks have nothing to write down on their balance sheets. They have been magically re-capitalized by the Treasury and Fed. And no one is the wiser, but you and me. PIPP, PIPP Hurray!

A missing piece for the banks to get the Accounts-keeping Seal of Approval for jacking up the market value of the toxic debt that is really barely worth anything is to get the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to rewrite the financial accounting rules allowing the mega-empire-banks, 5 in total, to decide for themselves what the value of the toxic mortgage debt is worth to them. These new rules and guidelines give the bankstas a veil of fabricated legitimacy of which they needed to drape upon the value of their toxic mortgage debt. This would allow Geithner to go forward with his inflated and subsidized offers to the banks with the cover needed from the quasi-governmental agency--FASB. We don't need no stinkin' mark-to-market rules! We are the crime bosses of Wall Street! Step aside. WE make the rules around here, mista! Mista Obama, we are comin' through. Geithner, get your checkbook out and ready! These magical rules were back dated to cover the last few weeks to make sure all bases are covered.

Now, what is worth-less, is now worth-more. A lot more! You have to admit it is a beautifully designed Royal Scam. All bases covered. The banks can now get their worthless debt valued at gleefully inflated amounts thanks to new FASB rule changes. The banks can set up their own shell equity funds to sell, ie. transfer, the toxic mortgage debt onto a new balance sheet, at a 15% cost. The banks, in return, get to receive from Treasury a subsidized purchase price (at 85%)  for the toxic mortgage debt, now valued 2 to 3 times its actual mark-to-market value. Now the banks have no toxic paper on their balance sheets thanks to all of us, China, and the Fairy God Mother. This is what is referred to as a "Clusterf**k"! The plot against Caesar Americus by Brutus Geithnerslut and Da' Boys has finally arrived. 

Here is another kicker. F. William Engdahl wrote in Geithner’s Dirty Little Secret, that there are only 5 mega-banks that hold “96% of all US bank derivatives positions in terms of nominal values, and an eye-popping 81% of the total net credit risk exposure in event of default”, as was reported by the Federal Office of Comptroller of the Currency, in its Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activity. JPMorgan holds $88 trillion in derivatives. Bank of America holds $38 trillion; Citi holds $32 trillion; Goldman-Sachs holds $30 trillion; Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank holds $5 trillion. And, out of Britain, HSBC USA holds $3.7 trillion.

Mr. Engdahl called this a banker’s coup d’etat. The $180B bailout to AIG went to rescuing the 5 mega-banks, since they were AIG’s biggest counterparty clients.

Tim Geithner says, “We need better, smarter, tougher regulations”, so TimmyG, why hasn’t the Glass-Steagall Act been reactivated? Why hasn’t the Commodity Futures Modernization Act 2000 been trashed? Yet, TimmyG is still blowing his rusty horn and wanting to bring in better, smarter and tougher regulations. Let’s hear ya play another tune for us because this one is down right bad. What is amazing is that Timmy, when he was chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, reporting to Bada Bing Ben Bernanke, was supposed to enact regulatory rules, but he says that was not his role. Yet, according to his job description, he was to act as a banking regulator. Watch William K. Black, a former regulator and economist say so to Bill Moyers.

Dr. Dean Baker, economist, wrote in “Geithner’s Plan Will Tax Main Street to Make Wall Street Richer”, “Oh, by the way, some people will get very rich off the Geithner plan. Some hedge and equity fund managers could make hundreds of millions or even billions off the Geithner plan. And, under current law, they will pay a lower tax rate on this money than a schoolteacher or firefighter. Are you sold yet?”

Michael Whitney quoted the economist Jeffrey Sachs in “Geithner Hog Wild”, “Geithner and Summers have now announced their plan to raid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Federal Reserve to subsidize investors to buy toxic assets from the banks at inflated prices. If carried out, the result will be a massive transfer of wealth—of perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars—to bank shareholders from the taxpayers (who will absorb losses at the FDIC and FED)…”

It sure seems to me that the Geithner plan is like allowing gangstas who have terrorized the village store owners by breaking windows and knocking down doors, as well as looting the cash registers while stuffing their pockets with merchandise as they run out the door, to then be given government neighborhood block grants to open up their shops in the places where the former businesses had been established. And then, tell the villagers they will be spending their money in the gangsta’s new shops. This is the kind of nation we seem to be living in from my perspective.

TimmyG now wants Congress to grant him full regulatory power so he can decide which institutions need to be shut down because they maybe dangerously too large of a risk to go own without HIS form of regulation. So now, we have place Brutus (Tim Geithner) as Caesar’s (Obama and US) bodyguard. Or, you might say that now that the three little pigs have hired on the wolf to do their housecleaning.

Dr. Baker went on to say, “The core problem is that many of the largest banks are bankrupt. They are currently concealing this bankruptcy by listing assets on their books at prices that are far above their market value. In principle, they can do this for a long time, unless the government forces them to write-down the value of these assets. As long as the banks are bankrupt, they will not make new loans, limiting the ability of many businesses to get capitalized.”

So, what would be the incentive for these government subsidized mega-banks to risk the “gifts” Geithner has given them through Treasury and Federal Reserve hand-outs in the form of TARP, TALF, and Federal Fund Window exchanges during a time when the economy is shrinking, unemployment figures show we may see 700-800,000 unemployed per month as the year progresses (1 in 4 or nearly 14 million unemployed: a 25 year high now at 8.5%; average full-time work week hours are down to 33.2 per week- a record low, over 5 million jobs lost; 2.4% jobs lost over the last 4 months; 1 in 4 people have been looking for work over the last 6 months).

What appears clearer and clearer is that the Obama presidency’s prime players are not willing to upset or disrupt the function, structure, or process within the financial sector, but they are very willing to increase the lines outside the nation’s unemployment offices and continue to hurt the American working people as they sacrifice in order to stay solvent without one penny of a bonus, or an increase in their expense accounts, or when finding themselves on the street not having the opportunity to land upon a cushy Golden Parachute.

Once the stimulus begins to circulate through the paychecks of working America, we will be able to assess if there will be a noticeable impact in spending. I believe out of the $900B stimulus there will only be around $200B filtering through the hands of workers spreading out throughout the entire country. This is so small in comparison to the $12 trillion (pledged, promised, and portioned) that has been leveraged on behalf of only a handful of mega-banks through this Trickle Down economic policy in hopes that this economy will begin borrowing in the face of a shrinking and unstable consumer market. Does any of this make a speck of sense?

There has been no tough talk to the bankstas. The Obama Team has not said that if you don’t write down your mortgage debt at the mark-to-market price, and raise private capital within a 30-day time, then you will otherwise have to go into receivership. If taken over, then the government would handle the write-downs of the toxic assets (debt) and own the assets.

Had they done what Dr. Dean Baker suggested, which was for the bondholders to be guaranteed full protection if their bankstas unwound in 30-days, but if the process were to take longer, dragging it out, then the bondholders would be less protected. How brilliant!! So, why isn’t Dr. Baker our Treasury Secretary? Oh, I forgot, he is not a Trojan Horse for Wall Street. That appears to be a requirement for joining Team Obama.

The contrast between the breakneck speed that was used to bailout Bear Stearns, in March 2008, that took only a weekend, or the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, or the initial bailout of AIG, or the impressive speed that was engineered when Washington Mutual was placed into the hands of JPMorgan-Chase, or the 5 insolvent mega-banks that Washington found new capital to bathe them with, or the overnight firing of Mr. Goodwrench Wagoner over at GM, so demonstrates that Team Obama has put finance before labor, as they diminish, lessen, reduce the interests of labor, and the nation’s need for labor and manufacturing in order to rescue the country from further collapse and give favor to what is called the “real” economy over the “monopoly-financial-capitalist” economy.

thanks for reading, jerry

The Hank Paulson Failure

I cannot say this is a conspiracy, but it reads like one. The long term plan appears to have been to kill American labor in favor of a new, more esoteric economy called finance. Finance,the rich man's clean way to make money, without getting one's hands dirty or putting up a cent of one's own cash, was put onto the racetrack by Alan Greenspan after Ronald Reagan gave it his head nod.

Greenspan's plan was to create unfettered free trade, and an unregulated world-wide free market full of leveraged derivative sales. He and his investment banker clones were giddy knowing that they could create huge piles of wealth just by taking debt, without ever having to hold a fraction of real capital. "Leverage me out!" "How far can we magnify a single dollar using these debt instruments", said Humpty Dumpty's investment banker?

Now, here we are with a Congressional $700 billion bail-out, with $150 billion in John McCain-Make-Mine- Tenderloin! Pork. I thought he hated pork? In that bill, the little guy and gal will have their life savings bank deposits FDIC insured. Doesn't that give you piece-of-mind?, until you find out you might have to wait 10 years to get your insurance check! Yes, the FDIC can take 10 years to settle your claim. Just how long can you wait? It might be better off under your mattress. At least, you can get at it when you need it. 

Can we trust the very people who created this financial meltdown to also oversee the implementation of the Paulson bail-out? That is what is happening. Paulson has assigned his pal from Goldman Sachs, Neel Kashkari (or is it cash n' carry) as his point-man to manage the flow of authorized congressional bail-out dollars as the financial institutions line up for their share. Also, another one of Paulson's thieves, Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman Sachs, was present at, what can be now called the International Treasury Heist Planning Meeting, which took place at the New York Federal Reserve Bank where a strategy conference on the implications of an AIG failure was laid out for the Bush Crime Family and their Bosses to "understand".

I love it when McCain says to Obama, "You just don't understand." That is correct, John Boy. He doesn't understand because Obama is not part of the Bush Crime Family like you are! It is a segregated club; don't you know? Only Republicons are let in. They're the only ones stupid enough to drink the Jim Jones Kool-Aid over and over again. Yet, brain-dead bobble-heads like McCain and the Gangstas are the only fools who would listen to a guy with an approval rating of 25% and falling. 

 

If AIG went bankrupt, Goldman Sachs would likely lose $20 billion. "We can't have that; 

can we, Paulie?", said "da Family" to Hank Paulson. This is why Paulson needs to be summoned to talk in front of a Grand Jury regarding his actions and his conflict-of-interests.

Paulson is roller skating on ice. Not just any ice, but thin ice, at best. He just cannot seem to get anywhere with any skill or accuracy. He gets the bail-out of $700 billion that he wanted so the world's central banks, especially China, which holds $400 billion in toxic derivative debt, can dump it on the U.S. taxpayer in exchange for freshly color laser printed dollars, in order to get re-capitalized. But on Tuesday, he switched gears and began to bail-out the Commercial Paper debt market so very short term commercial borrowing could continue. Just tell me who will borrow? Bush-brain tells us that auto dealers need to borrow to put new cars on their lots. Who is brave enough to buy a new car right now, unless they have enough expendable cash to part with? I guess, paying down one's house debt is not always a personal priority. Adding a new car loan takes precedence. This seems to be a time to reduce one's debt burden. Not increase it. Our president went on to tell us we need more McDonald's restaurants and they need some bail-out cash to build them. HUH? Did he mean that there aren't enough of them already during what appears to be an economic downturn? Rollin', rollin', rollin', that cash stream ain't but swollen, keep those bucks a movin', Rawhide.

Paulie, there is only $700 billion in your piggy bank. So, focus! Has he captured the golden egg laying goose yet?

Paul Craig Roberts (Counterpunch.org; "Can a Bailout Succeed") asked how does he stretch out $700 billion to cover $2.3 trillion in mortgage-backed securities held by "20 of the nation's largest financial institutions?" How will "the Paulie" do it? Mr. Roberts went on to state that the $2.3 trillion does not even include mortgages that were transformed into more complex derivatives, such as collateralized debt obligations, and then into, and more than likely, credit default swaps. WOW! That would be quite the clown trick. "Watch me pull a few trillion out of my hat. Presto!"

The stock market cannot seem to get any legs to hop and remain into positive territory without the Plunge Protection Team pitching money into the market, in spite of an investment bank and commercial paper debt bail-out. Why? Don't they trust the Goldman Sachs bagman? The sky IS falling Chicken Little and the world markets are getting hailed on.

Mike Whitney (Counterpunch.org; "Still on the Edge of the Abyss"; 10-6-08) quoted Henry Liu in his article "Liquidity Boom and Looming Crisis", in the Asia Times, "Unlike real physical assets, virtual financial mirages that arise out of thin air can evaporate again into thin air without warning. As inflation picks up, the liquidity boom and asset inflation will draw to a close, leaving a hollowed economy devoid of substance...A global financial crisis is inevitable." 

Main Street translates that into " The ride, it ain't over. We're on the way down, so hold onto your hat, Joe!"

Thanks for reading, Jerry