Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Audit the Fed Reaches Crucial Benchmark
Ron Paul
"Washington, D.C. - Congressman Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, has reached and surpassed the level of 218 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, which means it is now cosponsored by a majority of the members."
Audit the Federal Reserve
Campaign for Liberty
Ron Paul
"Washington, D.C. - Congressman Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, has reached and surpassed the level of 218 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, which means it is now cosponsored by a majority of the members."
Audit the Federal Reserve
Campaign for Liberty
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Starve the Beasts - Start the Revolution
Anecdotal Economics
". . the Systemically Important Too Big To Fail (SITBTF) institutions completely have captured our flag, our capital, our political parties, our "democracy" and our very lives, we as regular, hard-working, country-loving J6Ps have only this one remedy remaining, as all others woefully have failed.
We have only one option remaining to fix this ourselves, to starve the beasts, and it is, simply:
Stop Doing Business With Them.
If you are banking with a SITBTF bank, start by closing your checking account. Move it to a smaller community bank which offers the same features such as bill payment services, payroll depsosit, automatic debits and the like. Close your savings accounts, your CDs, your money market deposit accounts and move them to one or more community banks, and introduce yourself to an actual banker and branch manager (it will be handy someday to personally know someone).
Stop the madness - starve the beasts. If we don't, WE are part of the problem and we deserve what we are getting and what is happening, now and in the future, because it WILL happen again if we let it."
Anecdotal Economics
". . the Systemically Important Too Big To Fail (SITBTF) institutions completely have captured our flag, our capital, our political parties, our "democracy" and our very lives, we as regular, hard-working, country-loving J6Ps have only this one remedy remaining, as all others woefully have failed.
We have only one option remaining to fix this ourselves, to starve the beasts, and it is, simply:
Stop Doing Business With Them.
If you are banking with a SITBTF bank, start by closing your checking account. Move it to a smaller community bank which offers the same features such as bill payment services, payroll depsosit, automatic debits and the like. Close your savings accounts, your CDs, your money market deposit accounts and move them to one or more community banks, and introduce yourself to an actual banker and branch manager (it will be handy someday to personally know someone).
Stop the madness - starve the beasts. If we don't, WE are part of the problem and we deserve what we are getting and what is happening, now and in the future, because it WILL happen again if we let it."
Dollar Stops being Russia's basic reserve currency
Pravda
"The dollar has thus lost the status of the basic reserve currency for the Russian Central Bank, the annual report, which the bank provided to the State Duma, said. In accordance with the report, about 47.5 percent of the currency assets of the Russian Central Bank were based on the euro, whereas the dollar-based assets made up 41.5 percent as of the beginning of the current year."
Pravda
"The dollar has thus lost the status of the basic reserve currency for the Russian Central Bank, the annual report, which the bank provided to the State Duma, said. In accordance with the report, about 47.5 percent of the currency assets of the Russian Central Bank were based on the euro, whereas the dollar-based assets made up 41.5 percent as of the beginning of the current year."
Evidence of Government Manipulation of the Stock Market
Video (Fox Business News)
“Something strange happened during the last 7 or 8 weeks. Doreen you probably can concur on this -- there was a power underneath the market that kept holding it up and trading the futures. I watch the futures every day and every tick, and a tremendous amount of volume came in a several points during the last few weeks, when the market was just about ready to break, and it shot right up again. Usually toward the end of the day – it happened a week ago Friday, at 7 minutes to 4 o’clock, almost 100,000 S&P futures contracts were traded, and then in the last 5 minutes, up to 4 o’clock, another 100,000 contracts were traded, and lifted the Dow from being down 18 to up over 44 or 50 points in 7 minutes. That is 10 to 20 billion dollars to be able to move the market in such a way. Who has that kind of money to move this market?"
-Dan Shaffer, President of Shaffer Asset Management
Video (Fox Business News)
“Something strange happened during the last 7 or 8 weeks. Doreen you probably can concur on this -- there was a power underneath the market that kept holding it up and trading the futures. I watch the futures every day and every tick, and a tremendous amount of volume came in a several points during the last few weeks, when the market was just about ready to break, and it shot right up again. Usually toward the end of the day – it happened a week ago Friday, at 7 minutes to 4 o’clock, almost 100,000 S&P futures contracts were traded, and then in the last 5 minutes, up to 4 o’clock, another 100,000 contracts were traded, and lifted the Dow from being down 18 to up over 44 or 50 points in 7 minutes. That is 10 to 20 billion dollars to be able to move the market in such a way. Who has that kind of money to move this market?"
-Dan Shaffer, President of Shaffer Asset Management
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Shocking insights into the mind of a naked short seller
Deep Capture Blog
Insider Selling Jumps to Highest Level Since 2007
Bloomberg
"They should know more than outsiders would, so you could take it as a signal that there is something wrong if they’re selling,” said Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC’s wealth management unit
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Cox, the SEC and the future of derivatives regulation
Dealscape
"Neither Cox or the SEC has ever put out a warning about the dangers of derivatives. .
The CFTC, with the exception of Brooksly Born's famous attempt at regulating derivatives in the late '90s, which was swatted down by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and friends, has always been extremely industry friendly. The Fed, which does have an expertise in clearinghouses and complex instruments, was, however, under Greenspan, the center of resistance to derivatives regulation. ."
Dealscape
"Neither Cox or the SEC has ever put out a warning about the dangers of derivatives. .
The CFTC, with the exception of Brooksly Born's famous attempt at regulating derivatives in the late '90s, which was swatted down by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and friends, has always been extremely industry friendly. The Fed, which does have an expertise in clearinghouses and complex instruments, was, however, under Greenspan, the center of resistance to derivatives regulation. ."
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
William K. Black on Bill Moyers Journal
Video
The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout.
Video
The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Our Watchdogs and the Financial Scandal of the Century
Deep Capture
"The problem is that many hedge funds and brokers engage in illegal naked short selling – selling stock and other securities that they have not yet borrowed or purchased, and failing to deliver stock within the allotted 3 days. They do this to drive down stock prices and destroy public companies for profit.
Unemployment soars to 8.5 pct. ; 13 million jobless
Associated Press
Financial Rescue Nears GDP as Pledges Top $12.8 Trillion
Bloomberg
"The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
Deep Capture
"The problem is that many hedge funds and brokers engage in illegal naked short selling – selling stock and other securities that they have not yet borrowed or purchased, and failing to deliver stock within the allotted 3 days. They do this to drive down stock prices and destroy public companies for profit.
Emmy Award-winning journalist Gary Matsumoto reported on the Bloomberg newswire last week that naked short selling is one of Wall Street’s “darkest arts” and contributed to the demise of both Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. SEC data shows that an astounding 32.8 million shares of Lehman were sold and not delivered to buyers as of last September 11, days before the company declared bankruptcy.
The collapse of Lehman, of course, triggered the near-total implosion of our financial system.
How could this have been allowed to happen?
One answer lies within that black box – the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. The DTCC is a quasi-private, Wall Street owned and operated organization that is charged by Congress and the SEC with ensuring that securities trades are cleared and settled. As is evident from the cases of Lehman, Bear, and hundreds of other companies, however, the DTCC often fails to do its job.
In fact, it enables naked short selling to go unpunished. Rather than track individual trades to ensure that delivery occurs, the DTCC merely calculates a net total of sales and purchases at the end of each day. So we know how many shares of a given company fail to deliver each day, but the DTCC won’t tell us which hedge funds or brokers are responsible."Unemployment soars to 8.5 pct. ; 13 million jobless
Associated Press
Financial Rescue Nears GDP as Pledges Top $12.8 Trillion
Bloomberg
"The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008."
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Housing Bubble Explained
Who helped create the housing bubble?
The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the CrisisHuffington Post
The Fed Did Indeed Cause the Housing Bubble
Catherine Austin Fitts
Who set in motion the crash of the housing bubble?
Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 1)Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 2)
Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 3)
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
HIGH TREASON
U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs
Bloomberg
"The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more.
The $9.7 trillion in pledges would be enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world. It’s 13 times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve. "
Bloomberg
"The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more.
The $9.7 trillion in pledges would be enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world. It’s 13 times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve. "
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs
Associated Press
"Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.
Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Va.-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.
Like Goldman, Merrill got $10 billion from taxpayers on Oct. 28.
At Bank of New York Mellon Corp., chief executive Robert P. Kelly's stipend for financial planning services came to $66,748, on top of his $975,000 salary and $7.5 million bonus. His car and driver cost $178,879. Kelly also received $846,000 in relocation expenses, including help selling his home in Pittsburgh and purchasing one in Manhattan, the company said.
Goldman Sachs' tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. The firm told its shareholders this year that financial counseling and chauffeurs are important in giving executives more time to focus on their jobs.
JPMorgan Chase chairman James Dimon ran up a $211,182 private jet travel tab last year when his family lived in Chicago and he was commuting to New York. The company got $25 billion in bailout funds."
Associated Press
"Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.
Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Va.-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.
Like Goldman, Merrill got $10 billion from taxpayers on Oct. 28.
At Bank of New York Mellon Corp., chief executive Robert P. Kelly's stipend for financial planning services came to $66,748, on top of his $975,000 salary and $7.5 million bonus. His car and driver cost $178,879. Kelly also received $846,000 in relocation expenses, including help selling his home in Pittsburgh and purchasing one in Manhattan, the company said.
Goldman Sachs' tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. The firm told its shareholders this year that financial counseling and chauffeurs are important in giving executives more time to focus on their jobs.
JPMorgan Chase chairman James Dimon ran up a $211,182 private jet travel tab last year when his family lived in Chicago and he was commuting to New York. The company got $25 billion in bailout funds."
Friday, December 12, 2008
Jim Rogers calls most U.S. banks "bankrupt"
Reuters
" 'Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt,' said Rogers . . .
Reuters
" 'Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt,' said Rogers . . .
Now a specialist in commodities, Rogers said he has used the recent rally in the U.S. dollar as an opportunity to exit dollar-denominated assets.
While not saying how long the U.S. economic recession will last, he said conditions could ultimately mirror those of Japan in the 1990s. 'The way things are going, we're going to have a lost decade too, just like the 1970s,' he said. "
Time to shift our money to sound local banks that we can trust
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