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Racketeering 101: Bailed Out Banks Threaten Systemic Collapse If Fed Discloses Information
And so the guns come out blazing. The Clearing House Association, another name for all the banks that were bailed out over the past year with the generous contributions from all of you, dear taxpayers, are now threatening with another instance of complete systemic collapse if Bloomberg's lawsuit is allowed to proceed unchallenged, let alone if any of the "Audit The Fed" measures are actually implemented.
As a reminder, The Clearing House Association consists of ABN Amro, Bank Of America, The Bank Of New York, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank and Wells Fargo.
In a declaration filed in the Bloomberg Case (08-CV-9595, Southern District of New York), the banks demonstrate no shame in attempting to perpetuate the status quo with regard to the Federal Reserve and demand that the wool over the eyes of the general population remain firmly planted in perpetuity.
The Clearing House submits this declaration because the Court's Order threatens to impair the ability of our members to access emergency funds through the New York Fed's Discount Window without suffering the severe competitive harm that public disclosure of their identity will cause.
Our members have accessed the New York Fed's Discount Window with the understanding that the Fed will not publicly disclose information about their borrowing, especially their identity. Industry experience, including very recent and searing experience, has shown that negative rumors about a bank's financial condition - even completely unfounded rumors - have caused competitive harm, including bank runs and failures.
Surely transparency would facilitate rumor-mongering to an unprecedented degree. After all rumors spread much easier when everyone knows the true financial condition of banks.
And here, in plain written Times New Roman, you see what racketeering by a major bank consortium looks like:
If the names of our member banks who borrow emergency funds are publicly disclosed, the likelihood that a borrowing bank's customers, counterparties and other market participants will draw a negative inference is great. Public speculation that a financial institution is experiencing liquidity shortfalls - which would be a natural inference from having tapped emergency funds - has caused bank customers to withdraw deposits, counterparties to make collateral calls and lenders to accelerate loan repayment or refuse to make new loans. When an institution's customers flee and its credit dries up the institution may suffer severe capital and liquidity strains leaving it in a weakened competitive position.
Pardon me if I am a broken record here, but would rumors not spread much less if there was more transparency, if investors and other financial intermediaries were fully aware of the conditions of their counterparties, if banks did not have to cover their billions in reserve losses by pretending they are viable and essentially being constant wards of the state?
The Banks' racketeering has gone on for far too long.
And yet, it does not stop: the conclusion from the banks' letter:
In sum, our experience differs from the factual conclusions the Court appears to have reached about the nature of competition in the banking industry:
- The competitive harm to institutions that are publicized as needing emergency funding is not "speculative," but demonstrated by the recent multiple failures of financial institutions whenever information about their funding difficulty has been disclosed.
- The disclosure does not involve mere "embarassing publicity" but information that could result in the immediate demise of an institution.
- The disclosure would not merely "stigmatize [ ]"the institution or make it "look [ ] weak," but goes to its very viability.
- The disclosure of accessing emergency funding is not an "inherent risk" of market participation, but an extraordinary risk in extraordinary circumstances.
- Competitors can use the disclosure to advertise or publicize that they are financial stronger because they don't need emergency funding.
In a nutshell - the banks want their complete opacity cake and eat it too, or else, the racket goes, the transparency that will somehow promote massive rumor mongering will again destroy capitalism. In the meantime, the Ken Lewises of the world can continue touting how stable their businesses are based on optimistic future projections, while implicitly, they continue to survive merely thanks to the cash granted them by you, taxpayers.
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Bank holiday coming soon.
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/gronvall/gronvall082809.html
Same game plan as great depression with bit of twist and maybe some brutality if they can talk the armies into doing it.
Take your money out tomorrow.
Spread the word.
Transparency, or *we* will collapse you.
23 trillion in open backstops and implied support for the USA financial system equates to $75,200.00 for every man, woman, child in the country. Now add the stimulus, the unemployment benefits, our two wars, the public and private (but unfunded) pensions, universal health care, and interest accruing continually on this debt. Add also the existing $11 trillion in official, and recognized debt of the federal government. Then consider the indebtedness of the states, cities, boroughs together with the inordinate leverage of corporate America.
The USA is absolutely bankrupt and QE is necessary as we cannot even keep up the interest payments of all our debt.
The defaults are only being temporarily mitigated by the Federal backstops, but this crush of debt will in short order push through that demanding more. So much more that the demand cannot be met.
Currency collapse, financial epic fail on that day.
We are at the end of the road as we can no longer feed the exponential function which is the grim reaper. It's vertical now.
Best quote from Norman R. Nelson's letter:
"Banks are different from other businesses."
Let me count the ways........
Wow. 300+ comments in alittle over 6 hours. Must of touched a nerve.
It's a bit odd, but the readership of "Racketeering 101" was up around 14,000 this afternoon, and the next time I looked it was down in the 100s and has since climbed back to 6000, in a very short while. The other "most populars" also shed a few thousand earlier. Perhaps there's something I don't know... (?) Just curious, of course. I like this method of featuring a major story of the day: it allows time for more comment.
I probably got here late, but the key behind the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and all the rest of this nonsense was to cover up the fact that banking is a ponzi scheme. Those that believe banking is about capitalism don't understand its construction or its origin. The Fed was brought in to cover up the insolvency of the system and the FDIC to relieve the worry of bank runs. We just went through a year that was basically about Citi being insolvent, while the story on the street was that banks were afraid to lend to each other. Banks meant Citi. The deposits are the only insurance for the FDIC and thus there isn't any insurance. The Fed was created to cover up insolvency and now wants to be sure its purpose isn't destroyed.
Check this out. fed president saying fed has no right to interfere with pricing assets/stopping bubbles, etc. TYLER< please expose this BS! they're propping up the whole system and prices and to hear this talk makes me puke!
2nd UPDATE: Fed's Bullard: Monetary Policy Exit Seen In 2010 Last update: 8/27/2009 6:53:23 PM (Adds additional details.) By Michael S. Derby Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Dow Jones)--The Federal Reserve will need to exit its current monetary policy stance next year, although it will take significantly better data before short-term rates can be raised, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Thursday. "Monetary policy is still very accommodative and the [Federal Open Market Committee] intends to keep the fed funds target near zero for an extended period," Bullard said. But "as we head to 2010, the Fed will shift its focus to implementing an exit strategy in order to avoid any potential inflation threats to the economy," the official said. Bullard said the Fed's main objective in the current year has been to help the U.S. avoid the sort of deflationary spiral that ensnared Japan in the 1990s. But with that fate largely avoided, he said the Fed will need to think about some combination of allowing emergency lending programs to expire, moving short-term interest rates higher, and selling assets bought over the course of the crisis. The official said he supported maintaining the zero interest rates for an extended period. Ending emergency lending programs will be relatively straightforward, and "exiting the asset purchase program may have to rely on selling assets as appropriate," Bullard said. When it comes to the lifting of interest rates, "we have to get a lot better data on the economy" before that action can be contemplated, Bullard said. "It will be a while" before rates go up, he added. He went on to say he defined the extended period rates will be on hold is "beyond the period where a simple rule of thumb should tell you you need to raise interest rates." More broadly, with asset market purchases set to drive the Fed's balance sheet to $2.5 trillion by year's end, Bullard noted "we are not exiting right now" even as some types of emergency lending programs and asset buying efforts are being used less or are winding down. Bullard said it's possible the Fed could wind down its purchases of mortgage securities in a fashion similar to its Treasury buying program, although he added no decisions have been made on that front. He said it was also possible the Fed could buy less than the $1.25 trillion in mortgages its announced, although he said whatever the final tally is would nevertheless be close to the initially stated goal. The official isn't currently a voting member of the interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, but he will be next year. His comments came from a combination of a press release that included quotes from his remarks, along with comments made during a speech given before the College of Business at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock on Thursday. Bullard's remarks arrived at a time of rising optimism that the U.S. economy is emerging from the worst recession of the post-war period. His comments on the economy follow those of other Fed officials who have by and large expressed confidence that modest growth will return over the second half of the year. Hopes for this outcome got a boost Thursday when the government reported a revision to the second-quarter gross domestic product, showing a better than expected 1% drop. "Recent data suggest the economy is stabilizing, and there should be positive economic growth in the second half of 2009," Bullard said. He added that he believes the recession will officially end this year. Bullard noted that when it comes to price pressures, at least those measured by overall inflation indexes, "there is actual deflation in the U.S." even though core measures have been more stable. The deflationary moves are "okay for now, but to have that settle into the economy...That could be damaging for the economy," and it must be countered. The official expects moderating losses in hiring and continued weakness for that sector. That said, labor markets are "bottoming out" and "there does seem to be some turnaround" in hiring. He said he was hopeful that over the second half, hiring will "at least get back to zero or some positive job growth." Bullard also said housing appears to have stabilized amid improving conditions in financial markets. He said economic uncertainty had been a big weight on the housing sector and as times improve, reduced anxiety should help drive sales and prices up from depressed levels. Bullard was also upbeat about economic performance in U.S. major trading partners, which he said was showing "more positive signs." In other comments, Bullard said even with the U.S.'s troubled fiscal position he doesn't believe the nation's top tier credit rating is at threat of downgrade. Bullard also said he isn't worried the central bank is facing any big losses that could result from its owning a vast array of private market assets. He called any problem "manageable." Bullard also cautioned those who believe the Fed has the power to do something about asset bubbles that they may well be wrong. Because the pain of the rupture of the housing market bubble has been so profound, there has been a reevaluation both within and without the Fed as to what the central bank can do to prevent similar trouble in the future. Fed officials once argued that they were in no position to second guess market participants on pricing decisions. They also believe that dealing with a bubble via monetary policy would cause too much collateral damage. But that thinking has been changing. Officials like San Francisco Fed president Janet Yellen have argued the Fed may well be able to use rate policy and other tools to deflate bubble before they cause broader pain. Bullard said "I'd be very cautious about that kind of talk. I think it's a bit reckless." He said "every bubble has an upside and a downside" and that it is unrealistic to think the Fed should be in the business of smoothing out every sort of economic turbulence. -By Michael S. Derby, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2214; michael.derby@dowjones.com
What do you think he's been doing? Tyler has been busy.
Jon Stewart interviewed Alan Greenspan on The Daily Show in October of 2007. From current events and this report it appears nothing has changed, the Fed’s easy credit favors stock market operators and the investment bankers at the expense of savers and will continue to do so until the end of time—or until the Feb is abolished. Here is a portion of that transcript:
Stewart: When you say “Open Market,” I always wonder... Why do we have a Fed? Wouldn’t the market take care of interest rates and all that? Why do we have someone adjusting rates if we are a free market society?
Greenspan: We didn’t need a central bank when we were on the Gold Standard . . . [Conspiracy theorists note- the Fed was created 20 years BEFORE we decoupled from the Gold Std] . . . people would buy and sell gold and the markets would do what the Fed does now. . . but by the 1930s most everybody in the world decided that the Gold Standard was strangling the economy and universally the Gold Standard was abandoned...you need somebody out there or some mechanism to determine how much money is out there because the amount of money in an economy relates to the amount of inflation...
Stewart: So we’re not a free market then - there is an invisible...a “benevolent” hand that touches us...
Greenspan: Absolutely, you are quite correct. To the extent that there is a central bank governing the amount of money in the system, that is not a Free Market, and most people call it regulation.
Stewart: When you lower interest rates, it drives money to stocks and lowers the return people get on savings.
Greenspan: Yes, indeed.
Stewart: So they’ve made a choice - “We would like to favor those who invest in the stock market and not those who [save]”...
Greenspan: That’s the way it comes out, but that’s not the way we think about it.
Stewart: Explain that to me. It seems to me that we favor investment, but we don’t favor work. The vast majority of people work, they pay payroll taxes, and they use banks. And then there’s this whole other world of hedge funds and short betting... y’know, it seems like craps. And they keep saying, “No no no, don’t worry about it, it’s Free Market, that’s why we live in much bigger houses.” But it really is, it’s the Fed, or some other thing, no?
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/10/alan-greenspan-.html
America’s economy is nearing that stage described by Ludwig von Mises, IMO, where without a pricing mechanism, the delicate balance between consumers and producers will be destroyed. And I consider part of that pricing mechanism to be a currency that maintains a stable measure of value. Says Rep. Ron Paul, “A central planning bureaucrat cannot be a substitute for the law of supply and demand.”
If a nation assaults its savers, it destroys its equilibrium for supply and demand. The interest rate is merely the special name for the price of loaned capital. It is a price like any other. For the Fed to destroy that price mechanism by printing its own capital out of thin air disproportionately to goods and services is counterfeiting.
Said Henry Hazlitt, “If no effort is made to tamper with money rates through inflationary governmental policies, increased savings create their own demand by lowering interest rates in a natural manner…if capital is set aside and saved, it will absorb itself and pay for itself.”
“A fiat monetary system,” says Rep. Paul, “ allows power and influence to fall into the hands of those who control the creation of money, and to those who get to use the money or credit early in its circulation. The insidious and eventual cost falls on unidentified victims who are usually oblivious to the cause of their plight. This system of ‘legalized plunder’ (though not constitutional) allows one group to benefit at the expense of another. An actual transfer of wealth goes from the poor and the middle class to those in privileged financial positions.”
That was interesting... thanks for posting that... Jon Stewart is my favorite...
Why should the FED fear an audit? There is nothing to fear but fear itself -- unless that bailout money went to certain banks where bonuses were greater than actual earnings. Hmmm? When the American people see what the FED has really been doing, there will be something real to fear. Oh now I see where they are coming from...
RICO anyone?
Anerican Banks called easy money machines.
From a good source working the bank books.
Easiest way to make big money,hear is the Kosher way.
For new bank approval,the FDIC requires capital of $51 million. Here is what takes place. A deal is struke, a lender loans $51 million to the applicant at 20% and receives 3 times that in a loan when the bank status approved--$153 million at 5%/year. Bank can loan 10 times the capital it holds,The seed money collecting 20% covers the $153 million and extra % left over for celebrations.
no joke,that seed money has actually happened and worse.that same bank is asking for another $100 million(from another big player) for capital ,under the same conditions because the FDIC is on their back.
It is a mess-lot of people will be hurt--soon :^/
So to defeat the clearinghouse banks, all we have to do is organize a boycott?
Letter from Me to World:
Okay, everybody. Support your local economy, instead of Wall Street Barons. Withdraw your money tomorrow and deposit it into your local non-profit credit union.
Tough F-ING Shit! --- then LET IT COLLAPSE. It's better than the RAGE fueling to the point of RIOTS. Which is exactly about where my patience with the whole asinine economic debacle is at.
The sorry truth is that we have done Zero regarding bank leverage and bad assets.Until that happens and the Politicos exhibit some degree, a vague resemblance of cahoonies we as a nation are screwed.
Look we have Mr. Pink (Bernanke) and Mr. Blue ( Geithner) --who is Harvey Keitel? (not the Prez for sure)
Let the financial structure fail! Then it's open season on the bastards.
Not going to post? I'll try again later. Great work on the site "tyler" ;) ;). Master stroke on concept and production. Say hi to the boys for me at the next wine & sctoch fest. They love your work, as I'm sure you know.
New Jim Willie article is out
US Bank Enemies At The Gates
http://financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/willie/2009/0827.html
and it's a really scary read too.
Now that’s a lead!!:
While all manner of attention remains transfixed inside the United States on a remedy and recovery of its bank sector, once again Americans make dangerous assumptions. They tend to assume that the US Federal Reserve near 0% interest rates, Quantitative Easing (aka exploding Printing Pre$$ output), endless liquidity facilities (e.g. TALF), TARP funds (aka Wall Street slush fund), Stress Tests (rigged), bank stock sales (aided by FASB accounting fraud), bank carry trades (exploiting low short-term & higher long-term rates), and the passage of time can revive the US banking industry. They tend domestically to overlook the gradually worsening insolvency condition. Banks are bracing for a new wave of commercial mortgage losses, of prime Option ARMortgage losses, and credit card losses. The delinquency rate of prime Option ARMs is now higher than subprime home loans!!
Harken back to the summer 2007 when the hack USFed Chairman Bernanke called the bank crisis merely a subprime problem with upper limit potential for $200 billion in bank losses, and no risk of spilling over to the real USEconomy, and surely not the cause of any recession. Hack Bernanke has understood next to nothing in advance, all forecasts hopelessly wrong, but is a great manager of the Printing Pre$$ Operation. So he is loved. This hack now is due for reappointment to USFed Chairman post, his past failure the qualifications for future service. The same is true of Treasury Secy Geithner, whose failure at the New York Fed was his qualification for current service. Such is the nature of the great financial syndicate. The approval of Bernanke is sure to cause a major rift with the Chinese credit masters. Their wishes and warnings have been ignored. Their vengeance is next...
The reality (not a joke) is that they are trying to cobble together 2000 different $1 billion deals to secure hard assets in exchange for USTreasury Bonds, enough to dump their $2000 billion US$-based hoard at risk. They are acquiring stakes in foreign mining firms, stakes in mining projects, and entire properties.
TIMELINE-Major China resources deals so far this yearhttp://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idAFSP49424620090828?rpc=44
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d3f0692-9334-11de-b146-00144feabdc0.html
forget about takeing your money out of the FIs because their in trouble
they will either make you blow your cash or take it legally
this news item came in under the radar ... MUST READ
The money quote:
"At the Riksbank, which now has a deposit rate of minus 0.25 per cent, the most vocal advocate of the policy is deputy governor Lars Svensson, a world-renowned expert on monetary policy theory and a close associate of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, since they worked together at Princeton University."
NO! NO! NO!
Stop the world, I want to get off.
Bankers watch as Sweden goes negative:For a world first, the announcement came with remarkably little fanfare.
The Swedish Riksbank entered uncharted territory when it became the world’s first central bank to introduce negative interest rates on bank deposits.
Perhaps everyone reading this should call Norman R. Nelson, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, at (212) 612-9205. Let them know what you think of their filing/actions. Seriously, call them during business hours and express yourself.
You may visit them at:
The Clearing House
450 West 33rd Street
New York, NY, 10001
water board
the federal reserve board of goveners ...
don't stop till we get some answers ..
I think ZH should have that on a Tshirt:
Waterboard the Fed Governors
Hahahahha
They are simply describing the action they would take if they thought one of their competitors were weak. They'd pounce on them like a rabid dog. They have no morality and expect no morality.
Yes of course transparency would be welcomed first with a run on all insolvent institutions. I'm sure several "too big to fail" banks would go down. And from those ashes new ones would be born. And the economy would truly experience green shoots as investors and savers would know where they can go and who they can trust.
Lack of transparency only protects the status quo and enfeebles all the the well connected.
Ok look! http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=20090827...
No rats to be smelt there, then.
I would say that everything is going according to plan.
Now that is scary
Tyler Durden, have you ever owned any stock? Do you think you can demand the list of all the company's customers simply by owning the stock? If your answer is yes, grow up and get yourself educated with the basics. If your answer is no, then stop this populist nonsense!
This disclosure benefits no one but the news agency who lives on information, such as bloomberg. If you disagree, can you give a CONCRETE example of how people like you can benefit from knowing it?
scared much?
I think those of us who care to know don't do so for immediate gain, but rather in our capacity as citizens and as victims of the banks' titanic shenanigans. And as citizens, we have the right to know.
-AnonymousZero
Ooooh... can I own stock in the Federal Reserve?
No?
Even though my taxes are indirectly supporting their monetizing efforts?
Still no? They won't let me buy even ONE share... because member banks exclusively maintain ownership?
You mean I can't even own stock in all the member banks? No??? Well, Sheesh!
Then, yeah, I want to know where the money is going and what collateral has been given. If Citigroup is getting $80b in loans backed by $80b in assumed value of retail CRE properties with 40% vacancy rates-- I want to conclude that the Fed is running a sham operation and bring that to my Congressional rep's attention, because eventually absorbing that loss adds to the fiscal deficit, via higher taxes... a lower dollar... or both.
Then perhaps Congress, in their infinite wisdom, can conclude the same thing and act. If not, it's their loss in the next election.
What does this have to do with the companies? This has to do with the Federal Reserve, the institution that is responsible for controlling our currency. You know, those dollar bills you have in your wallet, that you are forced into accepting for all debts, private and public, and therefore exist by the force of LAW?
I'd say that anyone who holds dollars can benefit by knowing, since every dollar the Federal Reserve creates dilutes the dollar in your pocket.
If the Fed was printing dollars and handing them out on the street we would have a right to know. If the Fed was printing dollars and using them as wallpaper we would have a right to know. if the Fed was printing dollars and burying them in the ground we would have a right to know. This has very little to do with the companies, and everything to do with the Fed.
Anon 51140
Have you ever had a dick? Do you think you can make us believe that your NOT a pole smoker simply by having a penis? If your answer is yes, stop dry-popping every asshole you see and get yourself educated with the basics of being a pinko commi homosexual? If the answer is no, then reveal yourself for who you really are, a scared Kool-Aid drinking CNBC puppet.
It is our damn money we want to know where it is. It is time for pussies like you to suck up the pain and quit paying it forward to the next generation. Never mind, keep polishing that knob!!!!
Obama is Mr. Irrelevant, I choose this term as this is the moniker given to the last draft pick for the NFL as the chance of the last pick making a team is one and none, similar to the Change We Can Believe in mantra Obama sold us on in becoming another ineffective president along the lines of Woodrow Wilson. Nothing has changed, The Fed, with it's subsidiary banks run the country, period, and Bernankie is the employee of the banks. Get the picture?
As a non-financial guy, I am amazed at just how inept the financial system is in this country unless you are in the Big Club (G. Carlin, rest his soul). If tech ran this way, there would be no Internet, no computers and maybe no fire. Simply unreal. Zero Hedge is terrific. Learning a great deal from the no BS approach ZH takes in uncovering the actions of the trolls who own this country.
The Clearing House Association pleads with the court to allow the banks to continue hiding their financial condition, including possible insolvency, from depositors, creditors, counter-parties, the public, and Congress. Why the bankers panic?
Is it because bankers have been prudent and sober custodians of customers deposits?
Is it because bankers took only prudent risks with other peoples money and pension savings?
Is it because bankers exercised due diligence in originating and securitizing mortgages?
Is it because bankers have adhered to principles of sound accounting, transparency and disclosure?
No, it is because bankers are irresponsible sots who have been reckless with other people's money and pension savings.
No, it is because bankers have committed gross negligence, fraud, Ponzi schemes, money laundering, and extortion.
No, it is because the bankers have taken the U.S. to the brink of a financial apocalypse.
No, it is because bankers fear that FOIA disclosures will provide evidence that would lead to indictments of the bankers for committing the greatest financial crimes in U.S. history.
Banks, of all institutions, should have the highest standards of accounting, disclosure, and transparency. Instead, these banks want the court to sanction the secrecy and cover-up that allows gross negligence, fraud, and fraudulent misrepresentations to flourish. This is like the Mafia Commission asking a court to sanction the secrecy and cover-up of Mafia "bust out" fraud because otherwise the mob won't be able to continue the swindle creditors.
The Judge has smoked out an open admission of systematic racketeering. The bankers panic of 2009 has laid the groundwork for further investigation and prosecution, including Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) prosecutions. In addition to long prison sentences, RICO allows confiscations of the hundreds of billions in illegal "profits" from the criminal enterprises of the Wall Street Mafia.
It is called the "survival instinct" and "self-preservation". The banks know the only way they will survive is by earning their way out of this mess, which generally means having Bernanke screw savers by offering them no interest, while charging as much as possible to borrowers. It also means nickle and diming their customers on fees.
It will probably take 1.5 - 2 year before most of the banks can out-earn their losses, meaning expect no transparency until at least 2011, if not later.
Going to take alot longer than that. The off balance sheet real estate losses that have to be taken come hell or high water will be monsterous.
IMO, tom a taxpayer, you have nailed it--forget the run on banks, it's jail time and lynching they're trying to prevent happening
To the entire gang at ZH. I just want to say that you are doing something so special and so important here...that perhaps...it may be hard for you to grasp how vital you're contribution is. I can't put into words my appreciation for what you all do.
Oh hell...I'm getting all misty eyed. You fuckers are wonderful.
And if you ever stop doing what you do...I'm gonna go long on AIG and the Shawshank shower raping I'll take will be on your conscience.
So there!
Could it really be? That the big financials are effectually confessing to insolvency - confessing without realizing they're confessing? (Yes I think so.) Well how dumb is that! Please. We all know that they've receiving gov't loans to prop them up for nearly a year now. So now all of a sudden upon clear disclosure people are gonna point the finger at one, or a few of them, to the benefit of the rest? Nah. People are gonna just be madder at ALL of them and regret the need to stash their money with any of 'em. They slipped on the banana peels they threw carelessy on their office floors. Tough shit.
WE NEED THIS TRANSPARENCY.
-AnonymousZero
America you deserve it. Go to sleep and have good dreams.
You had been stolen for more than 100 years and didn't do nothing like good souls.
This is the land of freedom and democracy only when its acceptable.
Audit the FED is not acceptable so go to sleep and have good dreams.
What you are going to do? Cry?
Do not try to understand the real world. Go to sleep. Now!
America you deserve it. Go to sleep and have good dreams.
You had been stolen for more than 100 years and didn't do nothing like good souls.
This is the land of freedom and democracy only when its acceptable.
Audit the FED is not acceptable so go to sleep and have good dreams.
What you are going to do? Cry?
Do not try to understand the real world. Go to sleep. Now!
America you deserve it. Go to sleep and have good dreams.
You had been stolen for more than 100 years and didn't do nothing like good souls.
This is the land of freedom and democracy only when its acceptable.
Audit the FED is not acceptable so go to sleep and have good dreams.
What you are going to do? Cry?
Do not try to understand the real world. Go to sleep. Now!
THIS IS SO FUNNY.
Billionaire jewish Bloomberg wants to get to the meat of the matter huh. Oh really. Do you honestly believe an inside man like Bloomberg is really going to reveal something naughty on his billionaire friends??
Are you people fools? I had to ask since this does not pass the smell test.
Here's some facts for you.
In the business community, however, the idea of a Bloomberg third term is popular. At charity balls and on golf courses, executives like the financier Steven Rattner, the developer Jerry I. Speyer and the media mogul Rupert Murdoch have encouraged him to seek a third term.
In the climax to a choreographed campaign, Mayor Bloomberg will officially announce this week his intention to trample the term-limits law that voters twice approved at the ballot box.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_third_term_may...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/nyregion/01bloomberg.html
Mayor Bloomberg Defends Obama Before Jewish Voters
http://wcbstv.com/politics/bloomberg.mayor.bloomberg.2.752967.html
I guess you have to be a billionaire to get any kind of attention from a judge for FOIA. Yeah...a citizen group wouldn't be able to do it...right?
You guys don't need to worry, because the same rich fucks that have been fucking you up the ass, are now telling you they'll do it again and this time it will feel even better. LOL....
Yeah Bloomberg will fix everything. he's on a mission from God. He's been endowed, enlightened and empowered on the backs of americans and their stupidity.
Hang in there ZH buddy, he'll be sure to take of you too.
I don’t know that Bloomberg is actually on a "mission from God." According to David Gold of Goldtalk “52 percent of Jews do NOT believe in God” with “only 16 percent saying they go to synagogue once a month or more.” So…
If you read Bloomberg’s Wikipedia bio, which currently has a lock on it tagged, “Editing of this article by new or unregistered users is currently disabled until December 28, 2009 to prevent Biographies of living persons violations,” Michael Rubens Bloomberg could be America’s modern poster child for the Horatio Alger award in his rise from a “humble” background to the “eighth-richest American” on the Forbes 400 list for 2008.
His net worth of US $16 billion also makes him “the richest resident of New York City, ahead of David H. Koch. Bloomberg is the founder and 88% owner of Bloomberg L.P., a financial software services company.”
Nor has Bloomberg ever seen a political party he didn’t like.
“A lifelong Democrat before seeking elective office, Bloomberg switched his registration in 2001 and ran for mayor as a Republican, winning the election that year and a second term in 2005. He was frequently mentioned as a possible independent candidate for the 2008 presidential election and fueled that speculation when he left the Republican Party in June 2007 to become an independent.”
In the fall of 2008, Bloomberg successfully campaigned to amend New York City's term limits law, in order to allow him to run for a third term in 2009,” and received approval from the New York City Council to extend “the term limit for elected officials to three consecutive four-year terms.”
Truly, Bloombergs is an Horatio Alger prototype on fast track: Says Wiki,
“Michael Bloomberg was born to a Jewish family of Russian and Polish descent at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston on February 14, 1942. His father, William Henry Bloomberg, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on January 19, 1906, was the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, a Russian Jewish immigrant and a real estate agent. His mother, Charlotte Bloomberg (nee Rubens), born January 2, 1909 in New Jersey, was the daughter of a Russian immigrant and a New Jersey-born mother… His younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, is Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol.
“In March 2009, Forbes reported Michael Bloomberg's wealth as $16 billion, meaning he was one of the most successful billionaires in the United States during the recession… Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the WORLD's billionaires in only two years (March 2007 - March 2009)…
Business Career
“Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. In 1981, he was fired from Salomon Brothers and was given a $10 million severance package. Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 22 of the company's Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. The company was renamed Bloomberg L.P. in 1986. By 1987, it had installed 5,000 terminals. Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched. As of 2009, the company had more than 250,000 terminals worldwide. His company also has a radio network, which currently has its flagship station as 1130 WBBR-AM in New York City. He left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York. He was replaced as CEO by Lex Fenwick. The company is now led by president Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg.”
According to Wiki, “He maintains a public listing in the New York City phone directory…[and] owns additional homes in Britain and in the tax haven British territory of Bermuda.”
Bloomberg’s prowess has earned him honoraries from Fordham University, Tufts University, Columbia University, the Yale School of Management, and the University of Pennsylvania. Temple Shalom was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.
Success at last, Bloomberg’s “two daughters, Emma and Georgina, were featured on Born Rich, a documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy.” Bloomberg, divorced, currently is “romantically linked with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg
I guess you have to be a billionaire to get any kind of attention from a judge for FOIA. Yeah...a citizen group wouldn't be able to do it...right?
You guys don't need to worry, because the same rich fucks that have been fucking you up the ass, are now telling you they'll do it again and this time it will feel even better. LOL....
Yeah Bloomberg will fix everything. he's on a mission from God. He's been endowed, enlightened and empowered on the backs of americans and their stupidity.
Hang in there ZH buddy, he'll be sure to take of you too.
Has anyone ever stopped to think about EXACTLY what the purpose of ratings agencies are? I mean the way you shrink an economy and cause a depression is through calling in loans and refusing to make new loans. This leaves rating agencies as a unique tool to all this. When people or institutions are downgraded it affects both their capital requirements and thier abilities to get new loans. It's a wonderful system for cutting off and shrinking.
With so many companies using fantasy accounting procedures I wonder if that fraud doesn't tag and support survivability. If a company is willing to lie steal and cheat enough it is considered part of the system and the downgrade, destroy, gobble up cycle only targets honest companies.
HUGE point Hephaseus!!! We live in Gotham City!
now you know why BH owns moodys...
Blast from the past. Have a nice day.
http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2146292
Liberty is coming if you are ready
On June 29, 2009 the Supreme Court slapped down an attempt by The Clearing House Association to avoid disclosure (Cuomo vs The Clearing House Association). The Clearing House Association (and its federal "regulator" Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)) pleaded for the Supreme Court to enjoin an information request by the NY Attorney General who was seeking non-public information to enforce state fair-lending laws.
The Clearing House Association and the OCC claimed that the Comptroller’s regulation promulgated under the National Bank Act (NBA) prohibits that form of state law enforcement against national banks. The Supreme Court ruled that the Comptroller’s regulation purporting to pre-empt state law enforcement is not a reasonable interpretation of the National Bank Act.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/08-453.pdf
http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2146290
My how things change are you guys ready?
#5 Made me laugh. I am thinking if people knew how unhealthy banks were borrowing money (to pump up their stock), they would be really really unhappy and want to put their money in a good bank. So Norman Nelson is another person whom people should remember as being another smart mouthed, pie eating, banking tool.
The list could be published tomorrow and all these crap banks stocks would go straight through the roof. The Fed will get some of its criminal friends to just keep buying the stocks, buying SPY, or shorting SKF.
Sorry to be a complete prig, but the phrase is "X wants to eat their cake and have it", not the other way around. The whole point is that it's an absolutely absurd thing to want to have happen... ...like to avoid this transparency!
All this makes paying college tuition when you earn in Euro
Let's let it all unravel....bring this beast down. We will rebuild something better than this cancerous, pustule of a financial system........
Cmon Y'all Americans are a bunch of pu$$ies. Why sit in this comment section - acting all smart and $hit when you should get off of you a$$es and DO SOMETHING- the more you sit here bitching about this the longer and harder it will be to stop this madness- Just like the two wars- BASED on lies, so therefore all you Americans are supporting the WAR CRIMES comitted. So, please all remember- when the next act of violence happens- you can only blame yourself.
I would like to call a NATIONAL WEEK long strike. NO work- No shopping. DONT pay TAXES-- Lets really do something that will stop this-
Enough talk and more walk- lets go TODAY-- your kids and your grandkids need the adults to wake up- get off the couch-turn off the TV- put the beer down -- NOW lets FIGHT
National Tea Party -- Sept 12th -- Washington DC -- be there. Not a perfect group, but sending the signal we really don't want more government at every turn, in every crevice of our lives, spending money we nor our children will ever be able to pay back.
this crisis, like in 1929, was created due to an absence of regulation in the market, not to its presence. This insanity didn't start in highly regulated Europe and spread to the United States. This was a U.S. deregulation created monster.
The ability of the Right to lie themselves to sleep snuggling copies of Atlas Shrugged and Capitalism and Freedom, in the face of all evidence, is amazing.
I'm in, but I refuse to put down my beer!
I'm in, but I refuse to put down my beer!
ZeroHedge should file a amicus curiae on this case.
http://www.safehaven.com/article-14320.htm
Worth reading P Kasriel on this topic.
His plea for account of the Fed,information too dangerous to be divulged.
Not too difficult to conclude the banking system is shaky.
If not we, somebody needs to know who the hell's working the window, how much money we're making and how much shit is being turned in. Damn It! We're working below zero here! We need accounting we can believe in!
Much of this is traced to the Fed and Goldman Sacks. In my opinion, "Tyler Durden" is really a GS double agent. The game being played here is that of musical chairs. The winner, Goldman Sacks.
What's needed is a complete rethink of our political and economic system, from central currency to banking to corporate privileges to the size of government monopolies and taxes.
From my perspective, this latest scam is yet another power grab by the central control corruptokrats and their pay masters, the international corporate mafia. These guys are nothing but merchants of expropriation and devastation. Neither do I buy their partisan theater.
Kleptocracy, fake elections, systemic corruption, central currency, banking fraud, debt peonage, high taxes, extractive theft, environmental terrorism, jackboot corporate imperialism, brazen militarism, etc., these are all spokes on the wheels of the great fascist neo-feudal neo-Roman imperial wagon. And it’s all bad news.
America in denial !!
I like the part about
"the maintenance of public confidence"
As if the lack of transparency helps public confidence.
Perhaps by "public" they mean a very narrow definition.
This whole discussion, though potent & worthy, is completely irrelevent at the end of the day. Excessive, pervasive, growing debts & default rates; high unemployment; flat wages; continued credit contraction; etc. will ultimately destroy the foundation of our financial system, which are the thousands of local & regional banks, credit unions, etc. The writing is already on the wall; everything here is just added grafitti.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this but if what they presented as an argument and posted in this story is true... The Clearing House submits this declaration because the Court's Order threatens to impair the ability of our members to access emergency funds through the New York Fed's Discount Window without suffering the severe competitive harm that public disclosure of their identity will cause.
And... Our members have accessed the New York Fed's Discount Window with the understanding that the Fed will not publicly disclose information about their borrowing, especially their identity.
Isn't this public admission of accepting the money no longer an argument to keep it private as they themselves have disclosed the fact? How do you argue your point to not release the data by releasing the date to prove your point?
I need a few Long Island Ice Tea's to figure this out...
Good question asked right here by Anon # 51649
It's the amount of Discount Window usage that they are probably bothered about disclosing. Some of them have probably taken up camp outside it, others getting regular packages in the mail, others never using it but pretending they needed it.
They want it all, there's no question of that anymore.
http://tinyurl.com/PrepareForit
Peace, -ken
Last year, we had the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch was forced into a shotgun marriage with Bank of America. All of these firms had the same basic problems, a lack of trust among their investors, because of their exposure to risky investments that derailed (namely subprime mortgages and CDO's related to subprimes). With all that exposure on their books, along with all of the rumors flying around, no one wanted to do business with any of these firms.
In my opinion, the fundamentals of this crisis haven't changed that much from the time that Bear Stearns disappeared. The only difference is that because of the secrecy regarding TARP and its beneficiaries, the toxic assets on the remaining banks remain under the radar.
Nothing has changed. The Fed just played a "Shell Game" to make things look better than they really are.
That's my take on it anyway, for what it's worth.
Make sure you cutup all your Citibank credit cards - go with ANYONE else. Do not do business with them or any of the other big scammers.
If, when the results come out, the media immediately highlight the banks that are solvent, then you could see a sizable move of capital to the strong banks. Yes, those that should fail will, but the strong ones would survive and thrive.(This is under the assumption that a few solvent banks exist..that may put me out on a limb) If we were a capitalist country that would happen. Instead, the focus will be on the negative, everyone will panic, we will have and bank holiday. After that, who knows? But, remember, "Never let a good crisis go to waste!"
Hum. If I understand correctly, the banks are borrowing emergency funds, because special events have caused them to experience extreme liquidity shortfalls. They are worried that their reputation will be severely hurt if this was made public.
Weren't the stress tests supposed to demonstrate to the public that this kind of situation was very unlikely to happen?
And if the banks are in such dire situation...why are they borrowing money while paying out massive bonuses?
And why are they leading the market rally and why is this "recovery"? Seems to me they're still in intensive Fedcare.
Sure whe may already know who the banks are but what we dont know is how much money they are borrowing!!!
I'm sorry, but if your reasoning is that, basically, a rumor from a hede fund manager who sends a couple of text messages to his buddies about the solvency of a bank, can bring down that very bank.........we need a new structure for how banks operate. This is ridiculous.
THIS WHOLE DAMM THING(THE ECONOMY) HAS BEEN RUN BY THESE BASTARDS TIME TO BRING IT DOWN>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>FUCK EM
Exemptions to the Scope of GAO Audits
The Government Accounting Office does not have complete access to all aspects of the Federal Reserve System. The law excludes the following areas from GAO inspections (31 USCA §714):
(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to items.
Seems like a lot doesn't get audited
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