Barney Frank

A systematic plan to create the illusion of stability and provide no-risk profits to the mega-Wall Street banks was implemented in early 2009 and continues today. The plan was developed by Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and the CEOs of the criminal Wall Street banking syndicate. The plan has been enabled by the FASB, SEC, IRS, FDIC and corrupt politicians in Washington D.C. This master plan has funneled hundreds of billions from taxpayers to the banks that created the greatest financial collapse in world history. The authorities had a choice. This country has bankruptcy laws. The criminally negligent Wall Street banks could have been liquidated in an orderly bankruptcy. Their good assets could have been sold off to banks that did not take their extreme greed based risks. Bond holders and stockholders would have been wiped out. Today, we would have a balanced banking system, with no Too Big To Fail institutions. Instead, the years of placing their cronies within governmental agencies and buying off politicians paid big dividends for Wall Street. Their return on investment has been fantastic.

Barney Frank quizzing Ben Bernanke has got to be the funniest thing one can see today. So here is your chance to laugh. While not expected to say much if anything of note, using the same testimony as yesterday, Bernanke may engage in a few Freudian slips before the Frank, who has already asked the key question - should the Fed engage in more bond buying in light of the oil price spike. Don't expect a response. From C-Span: "Today, the House
Financial Services Committee can expect to hear more of the same from
 Bernanke as he appears before lawmakers for the second time this week.
They will likely question the Fed Chief on what the Central Bank is
doing to jolt the economy into increased recovery. Committee members
will also want to continue yesterday's line of questioning on how the
Fed is reacting to oil prices that have been going up up up in the wake
of unrest in the Mideast and North Africa."

A significant extension to my 3 minute Q&A on CNBC's Fast Money show yesterday that, in my opinion, provides irrefutable evidence that commercial real estate is about to enter a cyclical bear market. Then again, what do I know...

The market rallied on Friday as Hosni Mubarak abdicated his manipulatedly elected throne, walked out of the country like...

Regulatory Capture now appears to be accepted policy procedure as FASB bends over and gives up on even asking financial entities to report accurate market values, leaving only those who spend their lives in spreadsheets and arcane nomenclature capable of discerning trash from treasure. I guess it best that way. The truth has this proclivity to hurt people's feelings, not to mention certain ill gotten gains...

Everything is connected

The administration's support for Bernanke's "weak dollar" policy is evident in the way that Obama keeps reiterating his promise to double exports in 5 years. This simply can't be done without ripping the dollar to shreds, which appears to be Obama's intention.

The person who is almost singlehandedly responsible for the complete disaster that are today's bankrupt GSEs, somehow succeeds in making America hate him even more, when he notes that the global response of condemnation to the Fed's actions, and the subsequent enjoinder by Republicans who wish nothing less than to save the dollar, instead of allowing hyperinflation to deal with the consequences of the idiotic actions by the MA congressman, is "extreme hypocrisy." How this excuse for a representative (of anything more than a few well-rounded bankers) gets any air time is beyond us. Until then, we will make sure the collective blood pressure of our readership remains elevated thanks to such unprecedented examples of the supreme corruption in D.C. as Barney Frank. And unrelated, but even more disturbing, is Frank's statement that he doesn't mind that there haven't been prosecutions of financial crisis players. Don't worry Barney, prosecutions will come... Luckily these will happen once your immunity lapses.

I think we have created a Banksta thrashing Monsta...;-)

Possibly the most incendiary moment of yesterday's fraudclosure hearing in which Bank of America and JP Morgan representatives saw no evil and heard no evil, even as Chris Dodd wanted it over so he can buy no evil with the years of accumulated lobby booty from said banks after his long overdue reign of corruption finally ends, was when the CEO of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, Bruce Marks, realized he has had enough of the endless lies and goes postal at the appropriately named JPM henchman David Lowman, CEO of Chase Home Lending. After Lowman says that "Chase strongly prefers to work with borrowers to reach a solution that lets them keep their homes" Lowman flips out. Watch the hilarious results here. This video is merely a harbinger of what happens when pent up anger at banker lies overflows. Luckily, this time everything ended peacefully, and to the banks' credit, the voice was promptly silenced. Next time, it won't be so easy...

This comes along...

In an interview with Dow Jones, William White, who previously was an economic adviser to the Bank of International Settlements, and prior to that spent 22 years at the Bank of Canada, warned that the "massive infusion of credit" accompanying the sudden and dramatic ramp up in the printing of new money as a policy response to all problems, both within the developed and developing worlds, is now "manifesting itself in the sharp rise of asset prices in large developing economies, which could potentially become another bubble that will burst with disastrous consequences for the global economy." He added that the global economy is in a 'particularly dangerous' position that can only be corrected if the currencies of developing countries strengthen relative  to those of developed countries, according to William White, one of the few policy makers to correctly predict the onset of the financial crisis. Of course for that to happen, the much fabled decoupling needs to finally manifest itself, and for Jim O'Neill to be finally proven right. Of course, that won't happen. Which is why we ask, the next time there is a systemic wipe out, in addition to naturally eliminating the Fed, can the terms BRIC, N-11, and all other such ridiculous acronyms, please be banned from usage in perpetuity?

• Banks: U.S. Solicitor General Blocked Fed Appeal to Supreme Court (WSJ)
• Barney Frank fights for survival (Reuters): three words: Vote. Him. Out
• As expected, Wells Fargo lied: bank erred in thousands of foreclosures (AP)
• Desperation time: Banks `Want to Sit Down' With States to Discuss Foreclosures (Bloomberg)
• For foreclosure processors hired by mortgage lenders, speed equaled money (WaPo)
• Anglo Irish bondholders seek to block offer (Reuters)
• In Spain, Homes Are Taken but Debt Stays (NYT)
• Stocks Rise or Sink on QE2's Expected Size (Barrons)
• Here comes Chinese HFT: China Wrests Supercomputer Title From U.S. (NYT)
• China Needs To "Say No" On Rare Earths (Reuters)

SigTarp Neil Barofsky has just released the most scathing critique of all the idiots in the administration, with a particular soft spot for Tim Geithner. If after all this disclosure Geithner does not resign, well, America truly will have the Treasury Secretary, not to mention administration, it deserves.

Some rather scary predictions out of Paul Farrell today: "It’s inevitable: Wall Street banks control the Federal Reserve system,
it’s their personal piggy bank. They’ve already done so much damage, yet
have more control than ever.Warning: That’s a set-up. They will eventually destroy capitalism,
democracy, and the dollar’s global reserve-currency status. They will
self-destruct before 2035 … maybe as early as 2012 … most likely by
2020. Last week we cheered the Tea Party for starting the countdown to the
Second American Revolution. Our timeline is crucial to understanding the
historic implications of Taleb’s prediction that the Fed is dying, that
it’s only a matter of time before a revolution triggers class warfare
forcing America to dump capitalism, eliminate our corrupt system of
lobbying, come up with a new workable form of government, and create a
new economy without a banking system ruled by Wall Street." And just like in the Hangover, where the guy is funny because he's fat, Farrell is scary cause he is spot on correct.