Posts Tagged bailouts
JP Morgan Apologizes for Saying What They Think, So You Don’t Think About What They Said
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, economy, financial industry on May 5th, 2010
YOU CAN’T UNRING THE BELL . . .
A top executive and economic analyst at mega-bank JP Morgan Chase trashed U.S. senators in a company memo to the bank’s clients - stating that they showed “an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics” regarding the Goldman Sachs hearings, and said “it’s time for the grownups to step in” regarding financial reform.
Interesting . . .
These same banks showed an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics when coming to the taxpayers for bailouts; which suggests that it’s time for the grownups to step in, and teach them a lesson about what happens when you demonstrate an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics – you lose the privilege to have such a powerful influence over OUR economy.
The grownups need to make TBTF (Too Big To Fail) = TSTM (Too Small To Matter) – break up these childish Big Banks.
P.S. After a spokesperson for JP Morgan Chase issued an apology for the memorandum – stating that it “does not reflect the views of our firm” – you could here the collective chant from JP Morgan headquarters as they covered their ears . . . “THE BELLS, THE BELLS, THE BELLS.”
Republicans Suddenly “Get Religion” On Financial Reform?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Congress, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Republicans, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, White House, financial industry on April 26th, 2010
Several weeks ago Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John Cornyn, leader of the National Republican Senatorial Committee – a principle Republican campaign fund-raising organization – flew to New York City to meet with Wall Street. Looming on the “dark horizon” was another long and bitter battle with President Obama and the Democrats over the proposed financial reform bill. It was safe to assume that Republicans would drag this one out like they did health care reform so as to impact the coming Fall mid-term elections.
True to form, McConnell and Cornyn made their pitch to the money-changers sitting in the temple – which was 25 Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers. The two powerful Senators made it very clear that in order for the Republicans to have any chance to take back control of the Senate and the House, they would need Wall Street’s assistance. As one anonymous Wall Street executive in attendance so eloquently put it, “There was no arm twisting, but they did say that we should feel uncomfortable living in any country where one party has unfettered ability to pass anything [legislation] . . . President Obama dreams up.”
I hope I don’t have to spell out what the Republicans quid pro quo was? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ . . . and lots of it.
So upon the Senator’s return to Washington, McConnell immediately announces that the Republicans are united in their oppostion to the Democrats’ financial reform bill, and they will utilize every procedural move to block the proposed regulatory-laden legislation because it will risk future tax-payer bailouts. That was just two weeks ago.
Fast forward one week, with one big freakin’ revelation about Goldman Sachs’ “gaming the system” to the $1 Billion detriment of several of their institutional clients, as well as proposals for much stronger derivatives regulation coming out of another Senate committee – and the Republicans are caught in a trap that they set for themselves.
Yet, in spite of the fact that the Republicans suddenly reversed course and were quickly backing away from supporting their Wall Street financiers, appearing more conciliatory towards President Obama and the Democrats than they have in more than 14 months, Mitch McConnell would have you believe that he has the Democrats on the ropes.
McConnell seems to think he should get credit for forcing the Democrats to negotiate. Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and author of the pending legislation, responded to McConnell’s baseless bragging, saying this:
“That is like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise.”
YEP!
UPDATE: Now after two days of filbustering and holding up floor debate on financial reform, McConnell got those Democrats to negotiate again – or was it get the voters to forget about the GOP’s siding with Wall Street by November?
Obama Does Not Begrudge Wall Street Terrorists’ Robbing the National Treasury to make a Profit?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on February 10th, 2010
President Obama – you cannot be serious?!?
These Titans of Socialist Capitalism take the money we bailed them out with – including “rigging” the system with the help of Paulson and Geithner so that AIG’s TARP money was re-directed to them – go on to make an enormous profit by trading with that money (which was not the purpose of the bailouts), and you call them savvy businessmen?
Now almost a year ago to the day, you gave the following remarks at the White House:
“This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”
So are they failures? Or savvy businessmen? Or both?
This author recently pondered your failure to immediately regulate and reign-in Wall Street after your election when they were still on the ropes. Here is the bottom line: They screwed up, then they screwed us, and then you screwed up?
Do you see the problem here, Mr. President. The cognitive dissonance regarding your words and deeds towards Wall Street is deeply disturbing to those who supported you in 2008, especially when you had the perfect combination of opportunity, power, and the political capital to reign in these financial terrorists right after you took an oath to protect the American people. You did nothing, and now it is too late. Was it intentional? Or are you being obtuse?
When political rhetoric collides with inaction, people become dismayed. Maybe the young voters who are stepping to the sidelines are correct?
Disillusionment is too mild a word for such a betrayal if it was just the “same old wine in a brand new bottle“, President Obama.
“Meet the new Boss . . . Same as the Old Boss . . .We Won’t Get Fooled Again!”
Shame on us for ever having the audacity to hope? I hope not.
OK, President Obama, “Where’s The Beef”?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Wall Street, economy on February 6th, 2010
You are making all of this noise about refocusing TARP (bailout) funds towards small business.
President Obama, this blog noted that you said the same thing 100 days ago . . . read it right here.
So Where’s The Beef?
All Proposed U.S. Budget Deficit Reduction Plans Are “Nothing Burgers”
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Budget Deficit, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on January 24th, 2010
“Nothing Burger“: Two pieces of bread slapped together with nothing in between. Usually eaten when you have nothing in the house except bread or are too lazy to spend 2 minutes making a decent sandwich.
- definition in the The Urban Dictionary
This is utter laughable.
Senator Gregg Judd (R-New Hampshire), the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, claims the Democrats are not serious about cutting the deficit. He first offered a plan co-sponsored by Democratic Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D – North Dakota), that would require Congress to establish a bi-partisan commission to study deficit reduction recommendations, and if a fixed number of its members could agree on specific budget cuts, Congress would then be compelled to vote on those measures before the 2010 mid-term elections this Fall.
President Obama and the Democrats endorsed a similar deficit-reduction plan, but without the requirement of a mandatory vote in the Senate on the issue. Senator Gregg then criticized the Democrats, calling their plan a “nothing burger“, insinuating that they were not serious about deficit reduction. And the Republicans are?
Senator Gregg, you need a little lesson in transparency.
First, there is serious doubt about whether you can even get the support of your own party on this issue – both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (D – Ohio) stated they will not back the plan because the Republicans are philosophically opposed to tax increases. In other words, Republicans tacit acknowledge that deficit cutting would likely involve raising taxes, and they would rather let the country go bankrupt before they would make it pay its own way – now that is fiscal responsibility at its finest.
Second, that nasty little chart just below indicates that the real explosion in the government debt started in 1981 – after Ronald Reagan took office and the Neo-Conservative movement began. The largest deficit increases (as a percentage of the previous deficit) occurred from 2003 to 2006, not ironically when President Bush and the Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress. Moreover, that does not even account for the estimated $600 Billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that we borrowed from China through 2007, – projected to increase to $1.6 Trillion before Obama took office - and which was “kept off the books” by the Bush Administration, Enron style.
Ouch!
Third, no Washington politician is ever going to be serious about fiscal responsibility, regardless of which party they belong to – it just does not make political sense if you are an incumbent running for re-election. Besides, Senator Gregg, proposing mandatory deficit reduction is easy when you are being disingenuous about the political realities of the issue.
One final word on that lesson about transparency, Senator Gregg: While serving as the Senate Republican’s lead negotiator and author of the TARP program (Wall Street bailouts) in the Fall of 2008, you recommended that Bank of America receive $45 Billion from the TARP funds – at a time when you owned millions of dollars in Bank of America stock. After your Bank of America stock recovered rather nicely this past year, you are now proposing that the TARP fund be terminated so as to not create a “piggy bank” for politicians.
And you have the audacity to criticize the Democrats, Senator Gregg?
Obama Meeting With Fat Cat Bankers Elicits Call for Guaranteed Loans?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Credit Card Industry, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, financial industry on December 16th, 2009
So President Obama chides the bankers on CBS’s 60 Minutes Sunday night, referring to them as “fat cats”. On Monday morning he meets with them – at least the ones who showed up – to tell them they need to step-up their lending. What was their response?
Some of those in attendance said the government should “cut the red tape” in lending requirements for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.
WTF?
We just gave these guys trillions of dollars interest-free in March of this year to lend back to Americans in order to prop up the economy. Then they hoard the money, investing it in everything from bonds (very conservative returns), to credit card holders (then turned around and raised interest rates to all-time highs), to high-risk derivatives – you know, those insane and arcane financial instruments that broke the casino the last go around. Thereafter, they paid themselves handsome bonuses for their genius (listen, give me a boatload of $$$ interest free and I can make a profit on it investing in high-grade bonds – the “spread” of 2% interest is a no-brainer; let’s see, 2% of $35 Billion – wow, nice freakin’ bonus, Lance; you are such a genius).
Now when pressed to lend the money, they have the audacity to suggest that the government-backed SBA loans are the way to go about fixing this mess. Let’s see. I will loan the money you just gave me interest free to small businesses. You guarantee 80% of the loan. I get the borrower to pledge his business as an asset to back up the remaining 20%, of course, making sure that the appraised fire-sale value of the “hard assets” – real estate, equipment, etc, far exceeds the other 20% of the total loan. Even if the deal goes South, the government pays me 80% of the money back (which they gave to me interest free, anyway), and I sell the business for 20 cents on the dollar and recover the other 20%.
What a deal! I take NO risk, and get all of the rewards. Isn’t Capitalism great?
Mr. President. Wake up!!! These guys are sandbagging us. Good will has left the building. The last remnants of Capitalism are gone, buried along side Adam Smith, who is rolling over in his grave as I speak.
P.S. For those not familiar with Adam Smith, he was the author of Wealth of Nations – the book written in 1776 where he first forwarded the economic theory of Capitalism.
Credit Card Issuers Game Now Patently Transparent
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, Wall Street on December 11th, 2009
The brazenness of the largest American bankers is now so patently transparent that it is arguably criminal. Yet, when you own the local sheriff and prosecutor, it’s a sure bet there will never be any charges filed.
In a previous post I called out J.P. Morgan Chase’s commercial banking subsidiary for raising interest rates on their credit card holders in an effort to squeeze extraordinary profits out of their customers ahead of the reform coming out of Congress.
Now other banks are following suit and working at a frenzied pace in order to raise rates and fees to unheard of levels before the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act becomes law. These are the very banks that we bailed out – and now they have the audacity to screw us. Compounding the problem was the U.S. Senate’s refusal to accelerate the effective date of the reform measures from February 22, 2010 to December 1, 2009, defying the U.S. House of Representatives’ attempt to stop these financial terrorists from exploiting us.
Ever wonder what is in it for the Senators? If you watched PBS ’s Frontline on November 23, 2009, called The Card Game, the banking consultants, lobbyists, and their shameless political minions are interviewed for this remarkable story and it’s exploration of the banking industry’s credit card business. There are numerous instances of individuals defending their practices of charging outrageous rates of interest on a “loan” – I mean the kind of rates that would make a loan shark shudder.
What is most surprising is how craftily the politicians dance around the notion that giving these financial terrorists another couple of months to screw as many credit card holders as possible in order to maximize their profits for years to come will be long forgotten in the next election cycle. Let’s face some simple facts. The enormous amount of money these politicians receive from the financial industry in the form of campaign contributions - both Democrats and Republicans collectively took in almost $500 Million from the financial industry in the 2008 election cycle – goes virtually unnoticed by the general public.
Moreover, their political consultants know that in spite of their transparent complicity in allowing the credit card industry more time to run up interests rates prior to the new law going into effect, most of the politicians’ constituents will not even likely know about this transgression of monumental proportions. Furthermore, even if a very small minority of us do know – as is evidenced by this post – they are confident that this fact will be long forgotten in the endless cycle of the “politics of distraction” fomented by the partisan rancor that occurs every day and is then reported in the media.
They right . . . and we will re-elect the incumbant based on our fear of the other party’s candidate getting elected – whether it be Democrat or Republican. They rely on that fact – to our detriment. Both parties in the U.S. Senate.
And that’s how we continue to screw ourselves.
P.S. to the Banking Industry: I WILL NOT FORGET!!!
Maybe Rome (America) Really is Burning
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Economics, Ethics, Financial Crisis, Government, Legal & Justice, Morality, Politics, Uncategorized, crime on December 8th, 2009
Do you think that maybe America shall reap what what she has sown?
This is not some biblical or religious condemnation nor commentary. It is obvious that the country is at a watershed moment in it’s history, and it does not bode well for the future. A speech given by a Senior FBI Special Agent in Charge John Gillies in Boca Raton, Florida noted that the seeds of widespread corruption in this society were sown by failures in personal ethics and integrity, and he further insinuates that greed is the driving force.
Agent Gilles said that cheating and corruption in it’s multitude of forms, whether by law enforcement and public officials, wealthy tax cheaters, sports stars like Tiger Woods, or business “fraudsters”, only undermines the moral fabric of our society, and is “the number one criminal threat” in the United States.
It is reasonable to argue that this social paradigm shift has occurred in an atmosphere of unrelenting hubris that this country has displayed in attempting to force the rest of the world to kneel to it’s whims and philosophies – particularly the notion that the United States is the standard-bearer of economic and moral values that all other nations and societies should emulate.
Nonetheless, some will continue to blame the lack of conservative values and the influence of liberalism as the root cause of this condition. If that is the case, then can anyone provide a logical explanation for the dominance of Conservatism from 2001 through 2008, and the concomitant rise in these problems? Special Agent Gilles noted that there was a 25% rise in corruption and fraud during the past five years – and that the scale of these crimes was unprecedented. Remember: Bush and the Conservatives had virtual control of the political structure throughout that period, and had gutted the regulatory and legal systems of the means to uncover these crimes.
Just food for thought.
Do Wall Street Vampires Really Need H1N1 Vaccinations?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Health & Diet, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Tea Party, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on November 9th, 2009
It is a fair assumption that people without hearts and souls are immortal, and not subject to the vicissitudes of Mother Nature’s nasty flu viruses that she visits on us annually. So why does Wall Street get first crack at these vaccinations?
I guess women, children, and the elderly are dispensable in comparison. Now that is real evidence of rationing health care and Death Panels - - just not quite in the form that the Tea Baggers envisioned. And it only cost Wall Street $5 Billion in campaign contributions over the past decade to the Washington politicians in order to buy protection from their own malfeasance, and the random cruelty of Mother Nature.
As well as unjustifiably obscene bonuses, to wit.
What a bargain.
Small Business Finally Gets the Attention It Deserves
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaigns, Capitalism, Congress, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on October 22nd, 2009
The sector of our economy that is treated like a step-child in comparison to Big Business is finally getting it’s just due. Small businesses in America generate over 65% of the jobs in an economy that has recently been hit with an unemployment rate of 10%. President Obama announced today that the bailout will be “refocused” on this segment of the U.S. economy.
One question Mr. President? What took you so long? Guess Tim Geithner and Larry Summers first had to take care of their old buddies at Goldman Sachs, et. al., just like Henry Paulson and Alan Greenspan did with the Bush Administration during the global economic collapse these greedy animals created. Meanwhile, the real heroes of the American economy who are still in business keep on shoveling coal down in the engine room, while those businesses that could not go on quietly close their doors in the vacuum of unavailable lending capital being horded by the rapacious bankers.
Makes one wonder how many of those unemployed people Goldman Sachs is going to hire after announcing this week its record-breaking $16 Billion employee compensation package for the first nine months of 2009? It is a safe bet that any money the Mammoth Financial Institutions are going to “put back into the economy” is going straight into the campaign coffers of the Democrats and Republicans who are currently sitting on the House and Senate sub-committees that will protect them from proposed regulatory legislation.
You can take that bet straight to the bank – just don’t deposit your winnings, because they will piss it all away.
Too bad we cannot “refocus” that money towards small businesses in America. The impact of even that ”modest” amount of capital directed towards a few thousand struggling small business would truly have a stimulative impact on our economy, and specifically abate the rising unemployment in this country.
But, remember.
“It’s all about Wall Street, Stupid.”