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Senate Panel Wants To Decide Bernanke's Fate On December 17, As Volcker Blasts Fin Innovation, Demands Return To Glass Steagal
79% of America's population (those who know who the Fed Chairman is, and unanimously want him never to step into the hallways of the Marriner Eccles building ever again) has 10 more days of hope, before a Senate panel votes against the broad desires of more than two thirds of America's population, and votes for Bernanke's renomination, thus setting off on a course of virtually guaranteed financial catastrophe. Dow Jones reports: "A U.S. Senate panel will vote Dec. 17 on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's nomination to serve a second term as head of the central bank, the Senate Banking Committee said Tuesday."
The vote will come two weeks after Bernanke faced an occasionally hostile
reception from some members of the Banking panel, which is chaired by Sen.
Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.). Even Dodd, who said he supports Bernanke's
reappointment, was critical of the central bank's record as a financial
regulator and said changes need to be made at the Fed.
"I worry that over the years loading up the Federal Reserve with too many
piecemeal responsibilities has left important duties without proper
attention," Dodd said.
Other lawmakers were more blunt with their criticism.
"I will do everything I can to stop your nomination and drag out this
process as long as I can," said Sen. Jim Bunning (R, Ky.) a long-time Fed
critic.
Bernanke's current term as chairman expires at the end of January, and
lawmakers such as Bunning and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) have said the
would place a "hold" on his nomination. A "hold" is a common tool used by
senators to delay a floor vote, but it cannot be used indefinitely.
All this is occurring as the one true Fed Chairman who somehow managed to escape from the puppet strings of Wall Street, Paul Volcker, earlier blasted financial innovcation and finance executives, all the while continuing to express his support for a return to Glass Steagal:
At The Wall Street Journal’s Future of
Finance Initiative he tossed a few broadsides at a group of financial
executives and policy makers. The group had gathered to come up with suggested reforms that would
help prevent a future financial calamity. Mr. Volcker’s verdict: “Your
response I can only say, is inadequate. You have not come anywhere
close.”
More amusing commentary from the former Fed chairman:
“I wish somebody would give me some shred of evidence linking financial innovation with a benefit to the economy.”
Mr. Volcker’s favorite financial innovation of the past 25 years? The ATM. “It really helps people, it’s useful.”
In addition, he railed against financial system compensation plans and said it had grown too large.
His idea of reform? A return of something like Glass-Steagall.
Commercial banks should be tightly regulated as well as protected.
Trading, speculation and financial innovation should live outside those
companies so that if they fail, they fail.
While many resist this idea, Mr. Volcker had few doubts. “I’m not
alone in this and I think I’m probably going to win in the end.”
Needless to say, as a truly unconflicted and inflation experienced Fed chairman, Volcker's opinion should have infinitely more sway than that of the thoroughly discredited current selection of monetary policy dilettantes.
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Please keep pressing Mr. Volcker.
You certainly are not alone.
Folks, time to start writing to your Senators again to remind them to throw Bernanke out.
Paul "Balls of Steel" Volcker. A true American Hero.
no doubt.
Only if you accept the notions that we "need" a central bank and that central bankers are smarter or better qualified than a genuinely free market to decide the cost of money. If you don't accept those notions, as I don't, then Volcker is just another Wall Street stooge.
I agree. We don't need the central bank clowns. A currency board would suffice. Just peg the dollar to gold and make sure the greenback doesn't stray beyond 5% above or below the price of gold.
Anyway, I don't think Volcker was a genius. He raised interest rates into the stratosphere to protect the dollar when all he had to do was reduce the base money supply and work with Congress to cut payroll taxes.
Unemployment was so severe during Volcker's tenure that I'd have to say that he did much more harm than good.
Don't forget too that Volcker also perpetuated the too-big-to-fail policy by insisting on the bailout of Continental Illinois. the FDIC was going to let them fail, but Volcker pushed for a bailout (this according to Bill Seidman). A bad precedent was set, one we have been paying for ever since.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. It's always good to see historical parallels.
Agree. If people would just mention the phrase "Obama's war on the middle class" repeatedly in the press, on blogs, on You Tube, whatever; it would put some pressure on O and his coat tails for the mid terms.
It's not just Bernanke, however, its Bernanke, Summers, and Geithner. Nothing will change if only one is removed.
In case anyone has missed it, Sanders has posted a petition for all of the USA to sign at:
http://sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=5d1836fe-d883-42bc-af09-4e593a6cab76
After you sign it email it to everyone you know that wants him gone.
I have signed it and will encourage others elsewhere. Tks.
And take the opportunity to remind them about "Audit the Fed."
I've already written both.
http://seekingalpha.com/user/53773/comment/790068
"tentacular"
is the new vernacular
of our spectacular
decline
+1 for homoioteleuton
that's funny, I thought it rhymed
+1 for elocution
"His warnings continue to fall on ears enclosed by a tentacular vice grip."
tantacular : An elongated flexible unsegmented extension, as one of those surrounding the mouth or oral cavity of the squid, used for feeling, grasping, or locomotion.
While appropriate I think the author really meant "ears following a testicular vice grip".
Rahm probably conned Volcker to be an adviser for Obama so as to discourage Volcker from saying anything bad about the current FED or Obama Administration. Volcker has been subdued in his comments, but when he does decide to speak up, it is an unequivocal condemnation of current fiscal/monetary policy. Good for you! You will be remembered well in history, even though you were hated for doing the right thing in the 1980s. Just as Greenspan is loved today, he will be hated in the history books. Bernanke is certainly earning a spot right at Sir Alan's side.
Greenspan loved? I think he is as popular as Ben.
Paul Volcker for Federal Reserve Chairman.
No one for Federal Reserve Chairman. Close the shop, weld the doors shut, cut off the power, water and telcomm. Sell the building(s), or make them monuments to the gullibility of man.
Assuming that doesn't happen, Paul Volcker for Federal Reserve Chairman.
Here's one to scratch your head over: This morning Kudlow actually recommended Volcker to replace Massah Ben! How's that for guts? Gotta give ole Kudlow one thing, he at least put forth a replacement for Ben in addition to trashing him.
Kudlow should be replaced too.
BB should be replaced with Volcker
or gold, preferably.
Volcker is a Trilateralist -- associated with Henry Kissinger. This is part of the Hegelian dielectic. You have your team 'argue' about something which is now pointless (reinstate Glass Steagall or not), then move forward achieving a preordained consensus (give the Fed, and ultimately the IMF/BIS, more power).
Volcker became a member of the advisory board of Power Corporation in 1988 and is a friend to Canadian Paul G. Desmarais, Sr., a Privy Councillor and controlling shareholder of Power Corporation since 1968 (Desmarais and the Belgian Albert Frère jointly own about half of the major industries in France and Belgium, including Suez, Société Générale, Total, Imerys, and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert). Director of Prudential Insurance 1988-2000. Chairman of Wolfensohn & Co. in New York 1988-1996. North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission 1991-2001. Chairman of the newly created J. Rothschild, Wolfensohn & Company from March 1992 to 1995, Wolfensohn & Co.'s London-based joint venture. Visited Bilderberg in 1997. Attended meetings of the Ditchley Foundation and has chaired some of them. Advisor to the Japan Society and the International House. Member of the advisory board of Hollinger, together with Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle, and Zbigniew Brzezinski
That said, I would prefer anyone to Bernanke.
from trilateral.org
Paul Volcker, Chairman, President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board; former Chairman, Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., New York; Frederick H. Schultz Professor Emeritus, International Economic Policy, Princeton University; former Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Federal Reserve System; Honorary North American Chairman and former North American Chairman, The Trilateral Commission.
http://www.trilateral.org/MEMB.HTM
Trilateralists and Bildeburgers need to be jailed and tried in a mass trial similar to Nuremburg for crimes against the general welfare of the world.
Damn, Mr. Mayhem. You have some serious information at your finger tips.
While many resist this idea, Mr. Volcker had few doubts. “I’m not alone in this and I think I’m probably going to win in the end.”
Mr Volcker, while I admire your spunk, you're there as window dressing and you know it. But keep firing away. I'll help you reload. Now where did I put that grenade launcher?
If you are short RPGs, Rahm's Mossad buddies from Rahm's Israel Defense Force days can help you out.
If not try the FBIs Cointelpro Provocateur Program...
I hear you. A lot of what you are alluding to is so far from the public awareness that if you were to say "FBIs Cointelpro Provocateur Program" at a Xmas party, they would think you had a little too much to drink.
It's really sad how (IMHO deliberately and consciously) clueless the average Joe is.
So does this mean we get stock crashes and strong dollar policy until Dec 17th?
Yes, that is exactly what this means.
Yeah, I have some PM shopping to do, and since the smackdown will last through Dec 09 Crimex delivery period anyway, and since Bernanke will be voted on by the senate panel on the 17th, this means a full senate vote probably after the first of the year, so I have a schedule now. Logon over the holidays every so often and buy something. Thin markets are also proven opportunities for smackdowns, so we seem to have the confluence of many factors.
IMO, Ron Paul needs to hire a marketing "sound bite" team.
The sheeple don't even know who the Fed is.
However, if he were to sound bite his End the Fed message as something closer to the following:
"United States has OUTSOURCED its constitutional right to print and coin money. Taxpayers seem not to care."
He would get more of the sheeple to raise an eyebrow.
the ATM? ah ah ah
It is sad but I fear that Volcker , once a great mind , has gone cuckoo, crazy, loopy , bonkers. Perhaps its time for him to step aside and leave the serious thinking to new minds.
Goodbye, Paul
Strange thing to say, for a government official:
"We are here today to repeal Glass-Steagall because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom."
-Sen. Phil Gramm, November 12, 1999
Haha yeah precisely. Also Gramm and his wife Wendy were pretty deep into Enron from what I remember.
Welcome to the Enron economy!
Right. Wendy was actually on the board of directors.
Wendy worked for the CFTC. She ram-rodded a rule change though on a short vote that allowed Enron to trade energy derivatives. Shiela Bair was there as well, and she was the only one to vote against it. Wendy left the CFTC and was put on the board of Enron.
Phil and Wendy might have done as much damage to America as Bill and Shillary.
Phil Gramm's a genius-
only two complete matket meltdowns since 1999-
and if you invested then and let it ride- you would have made zero return in the last 10 years-
makes a interest bearing checking account look good
dig your acrimony and your avitar
Phil Gramm-- Phd in Cue Ball Economics.
Amen....
Volcker FOR CHAIRMAN
NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Momentum is building against Ben Bernanke!
Four U.S. Senators have now placed "holds" on Bernanke's re-appointment to the Federal Reserve.
The time is NOW for the public to send a strong message that we want an end to the culture of failure that has dominated our economic policies. Bernanke was appointed by Bush to chair the Fed in 2005.
During his four years in charge, he ignored all the warning signs of trouble in the financial markets and was the main architect of the Wall Street bailout.
http://www.anewwayforward.org/
Bernanke needs to be indicted.
BTW, I passed a h/t on a different thread concerning your Yahoo discussions in your most current weekly. Thanks for the fodder...
I agree, but for what? I would argue Treason. This man really is working against the People. Did you see his response on what to do about Social Security and Medicare? Now, I am against entitlement programs as much as anyone, but for him to bail out his banking buddies, then argue that social programs should be cut? Fucking scumball.
December 17th is the same day the ECB is due to meet with the pending sovereign debt crisis in Greece high on the agenda. Will we have another "crisis" for our intrepid senators to consider when voting on Bernanke's nomination? After all, who in their right mind would vote to inject even more uncertainty into global markets just as Europe faces its toughest test of its monetary union.. Or so goes the narrative being circulated.
Highlights at 11.
I've signed at least 20 petitions this year. Now I want to do something less cyber.
I will be sending Representative Ron Paul a Christmas card this year.
203 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(In my dreams... thousands and thousands of Christmas cards get delivered to Ron's office...like the courtroom scene in Miracle on 34th Street.)
Indict Bernanke. End the Fed.
oh man, this entire episode in our nation's history just sucks
Burnyankee is a handmaiden of disaster
all of these assholes need to go
unfortunately, soooooo much damage has been done that will be very difficult to repair. but it is clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that all of these scumbags who caused the problems need to be removed from their positions and even better, jailed.
Ummm, just for clarification... when the heck was Bernie going to officially request a hold and they take this to a vote?
Yes indeed---momentum IS building against Bernanke, and his merry band of dillitantes. If 79% of the public wants him out, those damn politicians better take heed. They need to hear from us. Volker is an idiot too. He raised rates to 21% overnight in the early '80's and unemployment soared. Dont get me started on that maggot, Phil Gramm(pa). Cant we find some young blood? I mean, these fossils needed to be put out to pasture eons ago. On second thought, if scumbags like Geithner, Kashkari, and Blythe Masters are representative of the next generation---oh sh*t! Are we in trouble!
Agree Hammer, but there are plenty of decent people running for office in 2010. Getting Schiff and Rand Paul into the Senate would be a great start, for example. At the House level, there are plenty of decent candidates. Now is the time to act before the primaries start and the party machines start placing their chosen candidates.
Chistmas card to Ron Paul, for sure! Great idea--thanks for the address.
We should all remember that Volcker is the King of Usury in the United States. He presided over the de-industrialization of the USA with his 22%+ rates. Financial people here should remember that the rate of returns on legitimate business activities is something like 5%-10% profits. If the rate of usury approaches these levels savings and investment is ruined, and firms can only continue by asset stripping their plant and equipment. Anything above 10% and productive enterprises start to die. The only kinds of activities that can survive usury at above 10% are things like drug dealing, pornography, prostitution, gambling and financial speculation. Ruinous usury by Paul Adolph Volcker is one of the main reasons the economy looks like it does today.
"the only kinds of activities that can survive usury at above 10% are things like drug dealing, pornography, prostitution, gambling and financial speculation"
i.e., a proper Service Economy
And if we still have International House of Pancakes, I think we can make a go of it.
Personally, I didn't like it when Volcker came in and ruined the spread on my loansharking business. I mean, I used to kneecap deadbeats who couldn't cover 20% vig, and then this guy comes in all Frankenstein-like and sticks it even worse to the A-rateds. Almost had to go legit.
These idiots (The Fed,Treasury,Wall Street) were warned over 10 yrs ago by Brooksley Born and chose to ignore her and shut her down and take away any power she had. Its on Frontline (PBS show) very enlightning worth watching.
I miss Paul Volcker.
Granted, the ATM was introduced more than 25 years ago, but as the man said in "Animal House," forget it, he's rolling.
dr. ulysses crockett, jr., J.D. Boalt Hall School of Law U.C. Berkeley; LL.M. (Taxation) Columbia University Law School, '86 Visiting Scholar Hoover Institute Leland Stanford Junior University (Federal Tax Structure Treasury Department Proposal under direction of Distinguished Professor Joseph Pechman), Dean Instruction Carlton R. Inniss, III Oakland Alameda County CA Community Law School, Emeryville, CA echojurist@yahoo.com, http://blogigo.com/echojurist; see Ulysses S. Crockett, Jr., 'Federal Taxation of Interest On Indebtedness In Corporate Acquisitions: A Congressional Response In Merger Tax Reform', 10 Indiana Law Review 419 (1976) says: 1) In Fed We Do Not Trust: Bernanke's War Against U.S. Taxpayer bank bailout creditors. In serious a serious act of intentional or negligent omission, David Wessel, Wall Street Journal "economics" reporter in his recent 2009 book, 'In Fed We Trust: Bernanke's War', Wessel fails to comment on John F. Kennedy's June 1963 issuance of Executive Order 11110 which mandates the U.S. government own the Central Bank and issue its own currency despite strong opposition by the Board of Governors of the Rothschild shareholder dominated privately-owned "Federal" Reserve System. Kennedy was murdered six months later.
2. Brooksley Born, 1960 Stanford Law School graduate & former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sought to regulate Credit Default Swaps and Hedge Fund Derivative securities. In a luncheon with Alan Greenspan, Brooksley Born was told by Greenspan that he did not believe there was such a thing as "securities fraud" and demurred, along with Lawrence Summers, Robert Rubin, Henry Merrit Paulson and Timothy Geithner, that the regulatory authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should be expanded. Within months after the Greenspan conversation, Brooksley Born was forced to vacate her position as head of CFTC. Born recounts these facts in a 2009 article in Stannford University Magazine and stands by the Greenspan statements. Wall Street Journal reporter David Wessel intentionally or negligently omited citation of the Born-Greenspan meeting but not the negative published statements made by Lawrence Summers, Henry Merrit Paulson and Robert Rubin, to witm "...Brooksley Born was too difficult to get along with. The taxpaying public is now learning who Timothy Geithner gets along with, as demonstrated by Geithner's phone logs acquired through a Freedom of Information Act suit, October 2008. These phone logs reveal that Geithner is in daily telephone communication with all major bank-finance executives while simultneously refusing to return calls from members of congressional bank-finance committees or from U.S. taxpayers. Notwithstanding President Obama's mother worket as an assistant to Timothy Geithner's father, Peter Geithner in Hawaii when Peter Geithner was a principle employed by the
Ford Foundation, enquiring minds seek to determine for whom Geithner perceives is Geithner's employer./ Rule of law advocates, injured shareholders and banking bailout U.S. taxpayer creditors shall now letthe 2009 holiday securities fraud litigation commence against criminal securities fraud violators, including Benjamin Shalom Bernanke,k Lawrence Summers, Henry Merrit Paulson, Charles Christopher Cox, Robert Rubin, Martin nFeldstein, as individua violators of SEC Rule 10-b-5 which prohiibits trading in securities with insider knowledge not available to the public; Simlar suits against bailout recipients Goldman-Sachs, J.P.Morgan Chase,, Citicorp,, Bank America-Merril Lynch,, Board of Governors "Federal" Reserve (suit already commenced 2008 by Bloomberg, L.P. in New York Federal Court Southern District), Lehman Brothers, American International Group (AIG) - for opener. Parenthetically, Timiothy Geithner's October 2009 congressional testimony is pregnant with potential Obstruction of Justice charges resulting from Geithner's statement under oath that Geithner had no knowledge of the multi-billion dllar bank bailout recpients' billions of dollars in executive bonus contracts, many such contracts being executed while Geithner was head of New York Federal Reserve Bank , which to this day holds trillions of dollars worth of unacccounted for gold in the basement vaults of the New York Federal Reserve Bank with access by clerks without appropriate security checks. The source of much of ths gold was stolen from Japan after occupation at the close of World War II and from East Asia, Afghanistan, South American CIA directed cocaine-heroin unlawful trafickking and bank money laundering-such information a matter of congressional documented public record.
3. Students of securities fraud are reminded martin Feldstein still sits on the Board of taxpayer bailout recipient American International Group (AIG) and was the doctoral thesis advisor for Alan Greenspan at New York University, such thesis having been withdrawn for public scrutiny, an unprecedented procedure by an otherwise fine university. Baron's Magazine was successful in acquiring a copy of the thesis which consists primarily of collected articles previously written by Greenspan. Baron's Busines Magazine acquired a copy of the Greenspan doctoral thesis and has made it available. Ironiically, Alan Greenspan testified 2009 before Senator Waxman's committee and conceded i the recently published Greenspan book 'Age of Turbulence' that his (Greenspan's) policy of low interest rates and deregulation of financial markets was ill-advised and proved to be a direct cause of the 2008 collapse of the U.S. and world financial markets. On the contrary, Wessel publicly states in response to an audience question in October 2009 speech to the San Francisco, CA Commonwealth Club, that the October 2008 financial collapse was not caused by or resulted, in, in whole or in part, from the Lawrence Summers-Charles Christopher Cox-Timothy Geithner-Robert Rubin-Henry Merrit Paulson-Phil Gramm-Benjamin Shalom Bernanke-William Jefferson Clinton-led 1988-89 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which separated securities speculative trading activities by depository banks from the risky unregulated non-transparent securities trading by investment banks and hedge fund speculators. Students of Banking Finance Entity Regulation Structure are invited to follow on-going securities litigation at the Stanford University Securities Class Action Clearing House. Info: jcarlos@stanford.edu. See also 200 pg text by Ulysses S. Crockett, Jr. 'Federal Bank-Finance Regulation Structure 1992-2009: Cases, Statutes, Commentary'
(Transverse Group, Emeryville, CA) available by email order echojurist@yahoo.com. Quod Erad Demostradum. Concerned taxpayers are asked to follow and support the present House and Senated Banking -Finance Regulation Reform Legislation now being considered.