rc whalen's blog

We prosecute Steve Cohen at SAC or Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon for insider trading, but meanwhile we name Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke "Man of the Year," even though he and other officials of the central bank are stealing billions from the pockets of every American this year in terms of inflation. Since the founding of the Fed, the dollar has lost 95% of its value in terms of consumer purchasing power. Think about that as you look into the faces of your children this holiday season. And be safe and well in 2010.

To us, the confirmation hearings last week before the Senate Banking Committee only reaffirm in our minds that Benjamin Shalom Bernanke does not deserve a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

"We would not be surprised to see more sovereign debtors make unilateral announcement of debt moratoriums and/or restructurings, perhaps including even oil rich Venezuela. We notice in that regard that Venezuela’s lider maximo, Hugo Chavez, is preparing to nationalize the few remaining private banks of that nation, usually a good indicator of an approaching sovereign debt default."

Late last week it was reported that Goldman made its first commitment to Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lending. For the uninitiated, this may seem like a good thing. Indeed, the papers pointed to the benefits of an additional $500 million in small business loans in today’s economy. But to those experienced in the industry, something more sinister may be afoot. Such commitments rarely mean anything, and are usually merely the publicly-visible component of a successful community organizer holdup scheme.

The battle over corruption inside the Fed and the control of our central bank by the big city banks had been going on for a century and more. That is why the scandal and criminality of the AIG bailout demand the attention of every American. Happy Thanksgiving, BTW

Reading through the Qs for this quarter, a picture starts to emerge of utter chaos when it comes to how banks are implementing -- or not -- the changes by the FASB to how organizations account for off balance sheet ("OBS") exposures. Let us take two examples:  Wells Fargo and PNC Financial.

Some 18 months ago, Verizon wired the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, for FiOS, the fiber optic service that supposedly includes telephony, Internet access and, yes, high-speed HD television. But despite the fact that the Village of Croton has been wired for fiber for more than a year, no TV. Indeed, it now appears that VZ may be thinking of dumping the TV offering entirely.