Archive for the Banks and Banking System Category

Globalizing The Bail In (July 8, 2013)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Kleptocracy on July 8, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A       “So we won’t force all the taxpayers to bail out the banks, but we will force some taxpayers to bail out the banks they had the misfortune to trust.  Those who put their faith in the bank will be betrayed in a planned and premeditated policy.”

B       “It is all the rage on the global stage now and will create quite a rage when it is actually implemented.”

A       Unless it is implemented slowly as a bank fails there and a bank fails here.  There was no public outrage over the losses at MF Global, yet there are many small investors sitting around a dinette table worrying about how there are going to pay the bills.”

. . .

B       “Will any e-mail surface crafted by a sentient human being who questioned the insanity and absurdity and ultimate futility of the policy.”

A      “An e-mail in some personnel file justifying a firing may surface in a wrongful discharge law suit.  A suit that is doomed if it is before a Republican Federal Judge.”

. . .

[See http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jun/27/eu-agrees-banks-bail-in-deal.]

[See the “e-ssay” at Bailouts: Out; Bail Ins: In; Slowly Boilin’ The Frog (April 15, 2013).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“The fact that it led to a complete collapse of the international economic system is what they call an ‘unintended consequence’ in masters of public policy programs.  So it is not our fault.  We are sorry that we cannot say we are sorry.”

Bailouts: Out; Bail Ins: In; Slowly Boilin’ The Frog (April 15, 2013)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Kleptocracy, Law on April 15, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

CD1      “Makes you wonder what we get for today’s tax payment.  The Dodd-Frank legislation states that we the taxpayers will not bail out banks and other connected businesses again for failed derivatives and the like.  So the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve (Fed) admit they cannot do their jobs and force the individual depositor to bail out the banks and other connected businesses.”

CD2      “At least now they claim that they will not take our tax dollars directly but will take our money indirectly.  Banks in America still exist to provide taxpayers with regular opportunities to bail them out.  And to pay huge and undeserved bonuses.  And on occasion to finance an upstart organic neighborhood grocery stand.”

CD1      “While individual states serve as laboratories for social and economic experiments, other countries provide insight into responses to social and economic problems.  The response in Cyprus to the banking crisis that afflicts every country today is revealing.  Instead of the taxpayers bailing out the bank, the banksters took deposits from individual depositors to cover shortfalls.  A ‘bail in’ rather than a ‘bailout’ is the way they brand it.”

CD2      “That has been the official policy in the United States and England since December 10, 2012.  The FDIC may promise to insure deposits up to $250,000, but that promise may be repudiated or supplanted or modified by the FDIC’s new formal and promulgated confiscatory policy.  They title their marching orders ‘Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.’  The Federal Reserve joined in the task and in effect issued a joint press release stating:  ‘Your Deposits Are No Longer Insured.  Get Your Money Out Of Banks Now.’  Taxpayers cannot say that the government did not properly warn them.”

CD1      “The only event that really threatens the banking system is a literal run on the banks.  News broadcasts will have a field day interviewing those in line if they stay in line and the outraged ‘man on the street’ demanding his deposit.  However, by privately stealing funds from the public, there is no single public event to steel public attention and ire.”

CD2      “Failing banks were always taken over by a receiver and the small depositors recompensed by the FDIC.  However, if a bank fails today, the derivatives that doomed and continue to doom the economy are afforded super-priority status.  Ordinary depositors are booted to the back of the line.”

CD1      “Or the ordinary depositor is kicked completely out of the creditor’s queue and given worthless stock in the failed bank.  Four months have passed without an uncompensated failure.  A fortnight will pass and perhaps another four years without incident, but this banking fraud cannot go on forever.” 

. . .

CD1      “The insurance on up to $250,000 in deposits ostensibly provided by the FDIC has exacerbated the ‘moral hazard’ by disconnecting the individual investor from the process.  Individuals do not even make a cursory inquiry into the viability of a financial institution.”

CD2      “Should the depositor be obligated to do so or should the banking system be regulated and monitored by the government.  The answer is that the banks are inadequately regulated and monitored by the government, so by default it is ‘depositor beware.’”

CD1      “If depositors were rational as rationality is defined by economists and in the face of near zero transactions costs, they would transfer their funds to a credit union.  The National Credit Union Association (NCUA) has not joined the ‘bail in’ scheme publicly at this time.”

CD2     “A depositor who is rational as defined by economists realizes that interest rates are near zero and thus the benefit of leaving money in a bank is near zero unless the money is safe.  The potential costs are far more than zero and thus the depositor should transfer the money to a safe location such as a safe located in the basement.”      

. . .

CD1      “They say that if a frog in a pot of water is brought to a slow boil, it will not know or respond to what is happening, but if the frog is thrown in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out.”

CD2      “MF Global is forgotten.  They are slowly turning up the heat without response.”

CD1      “At least the frog reacts.  I’m tired of ‘bailing out’ and now ‘bailing in’ banks and am bailing on banks.”

. . .

[Peruse the government scheme titled “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions” at http://www.fdic.gov/about/srac/2012/gsifi.pdf and the similar policy in New Zealand at http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finstab/banking/4430900.html.]

[Reflect on the discussion in http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/national-planning-cyprus-style-solution-greens/5/150410, http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/ and http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/winner-takes-all-the-super-priority-status-of-derivatives/.]

[See the “e-ssays” titled Money “In The Bank” Or “Under The Mattress” (October 8, 2012) and Boycott Big Banks – Vote Your Dollars (November 21, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I am not so much concerned with the return ON my money as I am with the return OF my money.  Attributed to a number of wits.

“An efficient path for returning the sound operations of the G-SIFI [Globally Active, Systemically Important Financial Institution] to the private sector would be provided by exchanging or converting a sufficient amount of the unsecured debt from the original creditors of the failed company [meaning the individual depositors who were previously assured their deposits are insured] into equity [meaning worthless stock].  In the U.S., the new equity would become capital in one or more newly formed operating entities.”  Page 3 at Paragraph 13 of the publication “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.”

Your Deposits Are No Longer Insured.  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Get Your Money Out Of Banks Now.  Federal Reserve

The most condign resolution is to attach the salaries and retirement payments to the employees and retirees of the Fed, the FDIC, the SEC, the OCC, the CFTC, the DoJ, the BoE, the BoA, AIG, GS, S&C, C&B and others to fund any bank shortfalls.  And Congress, the President and the Supreme Court.  Problem resolved. 

“Open Bank Resolution”  “Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name.”

If banksters were branded terrorists, would there be prosecutions?

42

All Gave Some ; Some Gave All (April 1, 2013)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Gay Politics, Iraq, Society, Vietnam, Writing on April 1, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “It expresses a universal and timeless truth.  It is a precisely balanced six-word memoir.  It is a pleasant and pleasing palindrome.  It is the perfect poem.  It is It.”

. . .

1          “No joke.”

2          “No, joke.”

1          “No joke.”

. . .

[See the article at http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html dated today.  No joke.  See also http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/the-treason-of-the-intellectuals/.]

April – National Poetry Month

Bumper stickers of the week:

There are no unwounded soldiers.

Show or tell?  Show, don’t tell.

Get it right, Write it right.

Cure writer’s block – Exercise, listen, think; Exercise, listen, think – Writer’s block cured.

Character is fate; Fates shape character.

Republicans like GLBA; Democrats like LGBT.

Addiction is too consuming; Destitution is too constricting; Dissolution is too confining; Might as well live.  (With a nod to Dorothy Parker).

Holding The Raters Accountable? (February 11, 2013)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Drones, First Amendment, Judges, Kleptocracy, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty, Rating Agencies on February 11, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

NNN     “So the government is going after the rating agency Standard & Poor’s for its grossly inflated ratings of toxic mortgage securities.”

OOO    “It is a start, yet they were among the bit players in the grand fraud.  Madoff made off with millions from connected characters who were not willing to let him off.  Corzine still has enough stroke as a former Senator to avoid prosecution.  The banksters and the brigands and the big players at the core got away with it and are getting away with it and no one in power does anything about it.”

. . .

NNN     “Some bonehead judges have looked for an excuse to let them off and resorted to the First Amendment.”

OOO    “The First Amendment is a limitation on government restrictions on speech not a source of individual rights, so a person does not have ‘First Amendment rights.’  The government did not restrict or regulate Standard & Poor’s speech in any way.  Standard & Poor’s is seeking to avoid prosecution for what it said not for what the government would not allow it to say.  That ends the First Amendment inquiry.”

NNN     “When S & P spoke, they lied and intended others to rely on the lies; they are culpable.  The government must start somewhere.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled Rating The Rating Agencies And The Courts That Should Berate Them: FFF (May 3, 2010) and other “e-ssays” under the Category titled “Rating Agencies.”]

[The charges against Standard & Poor’s are discussed at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/opinion/standard-poors-stands-accused.html?_r=0.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

FFF:       Rating Agencies

The Dow At 14 K. Again. (February 4, 2013)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Economics, Federal Reserve, Housing, Inflation, Stock Market on February 4, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C          “Back above 14,000 again.”

D          “Happy daze are here again.  I guess.  14,000 is better than 7,000, but how much better and for how long and for whom and for what reasons are anyone’s guess.”

C          “Beaucoup dollar electrons are given to those who already have beaucoup dollar electrons.  There are no other places to plug in the dollar electrons, so the stock markets are the default investment.”

D          “And money market funds and certificates of deposit are paying .0000001 percent which is crippling current retirees.”

C          “And those who know that the stock market is rigged and instead seek a safe refuge have no remunerative alternative.”

. . .

C          “Real estate continues to fool everyone.  The value of commercial properties is likely to slide as brick and mortar businesses board up their doors and windows.”

D          “The banks cannot mark to the actual market value their vast portfolios of repossessed and returned houses and underperforming loans.  Their collective insolvency would be manifest.  A collective lie undergirds the system.”

C          “Housing starts may be up but only at the upper end of the housing market.”

D          “With these low interest rates, a 30 year note is very appealing and may be prudent and prescient for the right person.  The homeowners who can manage to hold jobs and fund and feed a mortgage with a low interest rate may find that they have a bird’s nest on the ground.”

C          “When inflation takes off.”

D          “Yup.”

. . .

C          “One arm of the government – the Federal Reserve – is funding and fueling the other arms of the government with bogus electronic chits.”

D          “The way I see it, one arm of the bankers – the Federal Reserve – is funding and fueling the bankers and fooling and defrauding the body politic.”

C          “Anything that cannot go on forever.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled The Dow Jones (the Murdoch ?) Hits 14 K In A Hollow Economy (July 23, 2007) and “Fiat Stock”: Taking Stock Of The Stock Market (May 16, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Shouldn’t it be Obsessive-Compulsive Order?

Anything that cannot go on forever will not go on forever.

December 24 (December 24, 2012)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Consumerism, Federal Reserve, Pogo Plight, Spending, Taxation on December 24, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

TV        “You need a new car, you really smell bad and need to do something about it, you really, really need to sport an expensive watch and you really, really, really need to acquire expensive jewelry for the woman in your life or you are a total loser.”

. . .

LTR

Dear Billy,

I would like a regular 9 to 5 gig, a change of threads, a new straight razor and a short vacation.

Your friend,

Santa

P.S. – I’ve been nice.

P.P.S. – I don’t need a new ride, any cologne or a chronometer.  Ms. C. does not need any jewelry.  She says ‘hello.’  

. . .

[See the FBI documents that reveal secret nationwide monitoring of the Occupy Wall Street effort at http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html.]

[See the research paper by the Congressional Research Service titled “Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945” at http://graphics8.nytimes.com/news/business/0915taxesandeconomy.pdf.]

[See the “e-ssays” titled “Consume, Don’t Invest? (Nov. 9, 2009)” and Boxing Day (December 26, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Can I pay my Visa bill with my MasterCard?

Today is the 99 year anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve – a semi-quasi-proto-government-like being – not understood by 99.999999999 % of Americans.  To his (and our) credit, Bernanke is sharing the assumptions and strategy more transparently and considering the unemployment level because Congress directed the Federal Reserve to consider the unemployment level in its decision making.  To his (and our) detriment, he is subsidizing Wall Street with vast amounts of free money and saddling ‘Main Street’ with debt and creating unhealthy conditions for the economy in the intermediate term.

The LIBOR / LieBOR / LieMore (July 23, 2012)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Economics, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty on July 23, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1          “Scandal in the financial and banking arenas has become so common place that it is now more akin to daily car crashes rather than to the occasional and always well-publicized plane crash.  Who cares any longer.”

C2          “We as a society have become so inured to scandal that scandal is now the norm.”

C1          “No one at the top in economics or politics or law is not corrupt.”

C2          “And derivatives are now estimated to increase about a gazillion dollars a day.”

C1          “Be patient.  Give it a little more time.  You won’t be disappointed.  Rome did not collapse in a day, but we may be able to set a new Olympic record.” 

. . .

[See http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/libor-was-a-criminal-conspiracy-from-the-start.html.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

 Another day, another gazillion in derivatives.

“A gazillion in derivatives here, a gazillion in derivatives there, and pretty soon you’re talking real economic devastation.”        

Eu-rope Is Mal-rope (May 7, 2012)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Debt/Deficits, Entitlements, Europe, Foreign Policy on May 7, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “Putin is put in, Sarkozy is put out.  The Dutch government is dissolved.  The Greeks have had it with not having it.  The Germans have had it with having to pay for others to have it.  The Spanish have no realistic recovery plan to have it all or even to have it half.”

2          “The have-nots and even the haves have had it.  The community described as ‘Socialist Europe’ is now moving to the right.  Restrictive immigration policies are always a harbinger of hate on the horizon.”

1          “Generosity emerges when individuals meet their needs and have adequate resources to share with others.  With diminishing resources and declining opportunities, Europeans with resources are protecting their piece of the crumbling pie.”

2          “After World War I, the victors imposed unworkable reparations on the Germans that were doomed to fail and set the stage for another war.  After World War II, the victors implemented the workable ‘Marshal Plan’ that destined the economies to succeed and set the stage for an exceptional peace.  The magnanimous approach was and is considered prudent, progressive, productive and profitable.  Today, the Germans have reverted to the World War I model in a doomed effort to end the financial war raging in Europe.”    

1          “After World War II, the Germans and the Japanese learned that it is easier to take by investment than by invasion, but that lesson is being lost.  Today, a nation’s debt is really little more than a default deferred.  The Europeans need to hit the ’ctr-alt-del’ button and build a better economy.”

2          “For some time, it has been just a matter of time.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Eu-rope is Mal-rope . . . and on the ropes

Those who know the ropes realize that Eu-rope is on the ropes and at the end of their rope because they gave themselves too much rope and are now trying to rope in their excesses in a way that may only hang them all.  They are at the bitter end and are getting bitter.

Make work not war

A nation’s debt is really little more than a default deferred

In Heaven, the mechanics are German, the police are British, the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian and the entire place is organized and run by the Swiss.  In Hell, the police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss and the entire place is organized and run by the Italians.  In Purgatory, the debtors are Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, Icelandic, Italian . . . . and the entire place is disorganized and run by the ECB, IMF, FRD and GS.

The Swiss are adequate lovers . . . really

Proposition H8 And The Enduring Appeal Of Fear And Hate (February 13, 2012)

Posted in Abortion, Antitrust, Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Congress, Constitution, Courts, Crime/Punishment, Gay Politics, Judges, Less Government Regulation Series, Miscegenation, Supreme Court on February 13, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “In the early 1960s, a constitutional law textbook included a lengthy chapter collecting pivotal decisions challenging Jim Crow laws.  A library in this state, a grammar school in that state, a swimming pool in this state, a drinking fountain in that state.  The campaign was undertaken one institution, one jurisdiction, one decision at a time.  There were successes; there were failures; there were more successes than failures.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA) changed the ground rules.  These outdated cases are of interest to historians today; they are moot asides for lawyers.  The whole chapter was expunged and a new chapter unfolded to detail the legal dispute du jour.”

J          “The unfolding chapter is reading like the old one.  America is gasping its way through the same spasms regarding gay marriages and gay rights.  The long-run outcome is clear, but the path is rocky.  Gay marriages and gay rights will be the norm and the law in thirty years.”

K          “Gay rights are the civil rights issue of this generation.  Instead of passing laws to protect civil rights such as the CRA, however, Congress passes unconstitutional screeds such as the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DoMA).  Perverse group, the gang that legislates congress.”

J          “In thirty years, the kids will dismiss the dispute as ‘weird’ or ‘bizarre’ or whatever the patois is at the time.  Until then, prejudice, hate and fear drives the fight.  The Ninth Circuit decision is another step in the long slog.  And now the outcome likely turns on Kennedy.  Someone observed that Kennedy observed that his gay clerks were . . . human.  He decided that they should be treated that way.”

K          “In Lawrence v. Texas.  Contrast the development of the law regarding gay rights with the development of the law involving abortion.  Last month marked thirty-nine years since the Supreme Court addressed abortion in Roe v. Wade.  Curious circumstances and decision.  The matter was decided not by the Warren Court but by the Burger Court.  Warren retired to go bass fishing or something in 1969.  The seven vote majority opinion was written by a Republican-appointed Justice (Blackmun) and was joined by three Nixon appointees (Burger, Powell, Blackmun), two Eisenhower (Stewart, Brennan), one FDR (Douglas), and one LBJ (Marshall) appointees.  Even with no Democratic-appointed justices at all, Roe would have become the law of the land solely on the votes of Republican-appointed justices.”

J          “Even with a clear precedent, challenges to abortion will still be caroming around the courts in thirty years.  Gay rights will be resolved.”

K          “We would all be better off if the government got out of the bedroom.”

. . .

[See the Ninth Circuit decision in Perry v. Brown at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/02/07/1016696com.pdf.]

[See the “e-ssay” titled Less Government Regulation Series: Love and Marriage (May 19, 2008).]

[See the “e-ssay” titled Fire Your Attorney General (November 7, 2011) and review http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/mortgage-settlement-as-attorney-general-sellout-deal-is-not-done-and-final-version-guaranteed-to-be-worse-than-advertised.html.  The bankers murdered the body politic (and economic) with malice aforethought and all we could offer them is an overdue book fine.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation of ‘marriage,’ which symbolizes state legitimization and societal recognition of their committed relationships.  Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.  The Constitution simply does not allow for ‘laws of this sort.’”

Let freedom ring; let love rule

Good to have loved and lost; better to have loved and won

Happy Valentine’s Day

The Kids (At The Fed) Are Not Alright (January 30, 2012)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Federal Reserve, Greenspan, Kleptocracy, Prison/Criminology, Society on January 30, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They sound like a bunch of seventh graders snapping their towels in the locker room and squealing at each other.”

J          “Seems that the model of adult life as ‘high school writ large’ has degenerated into ‘junior high school writ large.’”

K          “Civilization may be on the retrograde as our society slides into collapse.  Our national destiny may be heading toward a state of ‘kindergarten writ large.’  Too many of our politicians have problems ‘playing well with others.’  At least at the Fed, the clowns were all playing ‘Ring Around The Rosie’ with each other while disregarding the decline outside.”

J          “The Fed should be required to release transcripts every year rather than after five years.  What is transpiring and conspiring is too important to wait.”

K          “Years ago, the notion of ‘Groupthink’ was trendy.  The idea is that a group may be more concerned about maintaining harmony that developing a realistic perception of the situation they confront.  You wonder if even one of the Fed economists was writing internal e-mails warning of what was obvious to anyone who looked outside.”

J          “And got together after work with a friend over a beer and despaired about the situation.”

. . .

K          “Grab a sheet of paper and jot down the names of three individuals, trained as economists or not, who have a clue about what is going on in the economy.”

J          “. . .  How about two?”

K          “Two will do.”

J          “. . .  I am working on it.  . . .  How about one?”

K          “One is a start.”

J          “. . .  Can I have until tomorrow?”

K          “Take your time.  Larry Summers’ statement about women in scientific disciplines may be 180 degrees from the truth.”

J          “Summers is reliable because he is reliably wrong especially about the ‘dismal science.’”

K          “The only individuals who have a clue in our society about our economic circumstances are women – Brooksley Born, Sheila Bair, Elizabeth Warren, Yves Smith, Nicole Foss, Gretchen Morgenson, Terry Gross, Christine Lagarde, etc.”

J          “That is because women care.  When you think about it, the forte of our fellow males is starting wars and filling prisons.  When you get right down to it, the males who start the wars should fill our prisons.”

K          “Talent is a mix of a tutored and sage intellect, personal and intellectual integrity, and good old-fashioned courage.  America simply does not have talent at the top.  The élite is not élite.  And the current feeder system of universities, foundations and fellowships is designed to ferret out the same charlatans and promote them into positions of power in America.”

. . .

[See the article and comments in “The Washington Post” discussing the delusions at the Federal Reserve Bank six years ago at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/greenspan-image-tarnished-by-newly-released-documents/2012/01/12/gIQAvh0mtP_story.html.]

[See the “Frontline” program titled “The Warning” discussing the shenanigans of Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and their ilk and the courage of Brooksley Born at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/.]

[See the “e-ssay” uploaded exactly six years ago to the minute titled “Greenspan’s Legacy – Apres moi, Le Meltdown (January 30, 2006).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The nerds won, but not the smart or courageous ones.

What clothes is the Emperor not wearing today?

Plus ca change . . .