When the public finally figures out just how much they've been screwed by the banking system, in collusion with the Government, there's going to be a violent revolution - a friend of mine last night
The $40 billion settlement deal the Government struck with the big banks over foreclosure fraud is not exactly what Obama is promoting it to be. In fact, it turns out that $30 billion of it will actually be paid for by the taxpayers. Did everyone see that particular detail being discussed in any of the U.S. media? Here's the Truth as reported by The Financial Times (London):
However, a clause in the provisional agreement – which has not been made public – allows the banks to count future loan modifications made under a 2009 foreclosure-prevention initiative towards their restructuring obligations for the new settlement, according to people familiar with the matter. The existing $30bn initiative, the home affordable modification programme, or Hamp, provides taxpayer funds as an incentive to banks, third party investors and troubled borrowers to arrange loan modifications.Here's the link, which might require a quick registration in order to read the whole article: LINK
Under the HAMP program, another Obama taxpayer funded beaut, the banks reduce dead-beat mortgages by $30 billion and get reimbursed by the Taxpayers. The real cost of the "punishment" Obama doled out to the banks for foreclosure fraud is $10 billion. Nice huh?
Is this what all you Obama supporters voted for? Direct subsidy of dead-beat homeowners and big banks using your money? And all the while Obama flashing his grin, reading from the teleprompter and telling us how much he punished the banks on behalf of the public.
The country is being hijacked right in front of anyone who's actually paying attention. Most of the public is conveniently distracted by things like Whitney Houston or American Idol concerns. But once they've figured out that the Rule Of Law is destroyed, we'll hopefully decide to turn to our 2nd Amendment remedies.
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/sp_en_6.gif)
Doesn't surprise me. I'd feel like less of an American if I wasn't being bamboozled by the gov on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI yearn for it.
ReplyDeleteLOL on both. Sounds like Stockholm Syndrome setting in...
ReplyDeleteStorms a Comin....
ReplyDeletehttp://soundcloud.com/kraaksmaak/the-storm
Uh, has been hijacked would be a better phrase. Appreciate all the great posts.
ReplyDeleteLibor Manipulation: Another Black Eye for UBS
ReplyDeleteUBS again appears to be at the heart of a banking scandal, this time for rigging a benchmark interest rate
For Switzerland’s largest bank, the hits just keep coming. After years of being whacked with millions of dollars of fines for all sorts of infractions, UBS now appears to be at the center of the financial world’s latest scandal: an alleged conspiracy by traders and brokers to rig the price of derivatives around the world by manipulating a key interest rate.
The Wall Street Journal reports that UBS has admitted to Canadian regulators that between 2007 and 2010, some of its traders and cash brokers conspired to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, also known as Libor. This is the rate that banks use to lend to each other, and it is essentially the backbone of half the world’s fixed-income market, because it’s also used to calculate the price of trillions of dollars of floating-rate securities every day, from car loans to corporate bonds and derivatives.
By allegedly conspiring to set Libor rates, traders and cash brokers appear to have been able to profit off of derivatives linked to it. Bloomberg News reports that UBS recently suspended a number of senior executives and traders in conjunction with the investigation.
Traders wishing to manipulate Libor could in theory phone up a member of the panel prior to 11 a.m. and tell him what rate to propose, which is essentially what’s alleged. According to reports of court documents filed by Canadian regulators, traders at UBS, communicating with traders at other banks using e-mail and instant messaging, colluded on whether they wanted Libor to be set high or low on any given day. They would then pass that desire off to their bank’s representative on the Libor panel.
The whole thing raises major issues with the supposed “Chinese walls” that are supposed to divide investment banks’ traders from employees who make interest rate submissions on behalf of the bank. Bloomberg News recently reported that in some cases, these people actually sat close to each other.
http://www.businessweek.com/finance/libor-manipulation-another-black-eye-for-ubs-02172012.html
Singapore to exempt gold, other precious metals from 7% tax
ReplyDeleteThe move brings Singapore's tax treatment of investment-grade gold and other precious metals in line with the practices of countries such as Australia and Switzerland.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -
Singapore will exempt investment-grade gold and other precious metals from a seven percent goods and services tax to spur the development of gold trading, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Friday.
The change brings Singapore's tax treatment of investment-grade gold and other precious metals in line with the practices of other developed countries such as Australia and Switzerland, he said.
http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=145623&sn=Detail&pid=34
Self-Serving Accounting
ReplyDeleteConsulting firm Chang & Adams found that proposed standards for lease
accounting will result in an increase in total reported debt
liabilities of $1.5 trillion; increased costs of $10.2 billion
annually; job losses of over 190,000; and a lowered GDP of $27.5
billion annually.
$1.5 trillion is a hell of a lot of money to suddenly appear on the
balance sheet of these lessors, for that reason alone I expect that
the new rules will be watered down. No one wants to see another $1.5T
of debt exposed those days. From the C&A report:
Essentially, the standards will require tenants to place leases on
their balance sheets—an enormous line item that consists of anything
from office, business and farm machinery to, yes, real estate.
Note:
FATF has provided an estimate of the global illegal activity. They
think it could be as high as 5% of total GDP.
Ahhh. 5% means $3 Trillion in the $60T global economy. For the USA, 5%
of GDP comes to $750 Billion. That's a hell of lot of criminal
activity.
If FATF were able to achieve their objective of eliminating this
activity, it would bring about a global depression greater than that
seen in the 30s. Go figure.
These results are consistent will all the other monthly reports from the FFB since Obama took office. The Administration is conducting a back-door stimulus and an interventionist industrial policy. It’s financing this with off-federal-balance-sheet-financing, in lieu of funds appropriated by Congress.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/dis-and-dat-0?
They should do a similar study with gold/silver....
ReplyDeleteStudy links ultrafast machine trading with risk of crash
February 19, 2012
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the United States, ultrafast trading in financial markets between 2006 and 2011 was the underlying factor for over 18,000 extreme price changes, according to a new study. Neil Johnson, a professor in the physics department of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, one of the authors of the study, thinks that a buildup of such "fractures" can destabilize the market. This study, “Financial Black Swans Driven by Ultrafast Machine Ecology” was submitted to arXiv earlier this month, suggesting the link between extreme-change fractures and market crashes.
The speed in which the rises and falls occur might last no longer than half a second, unapparent to any human who is tracking prices. Johnson says if you blink you miss it. Flash events may happen in milliseconds and have nothing to do with a company’s real value.
The speed in which ultrafast events happen is of concern as human oversight becomes impossible if trades are taking place faster than humans can react. Machine trading today carries computerized trading algorithms that make automated trades in milliseconds and make some experts uncomfortable, in the fear that out-of-control algorithms can cause a crash.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-links-ultrafast-machine.html
The ECB Has Opened Pandora’s Box
ReplyDeleteThe ECB, on its own and without judicial or parliamentary review, has swapped their Greek debt for new Greek debt that is not subject to any “collective action clause.” They did this unilaterally and without the consent of any other sovereign debt bond owners of Greek debt. They did this without objection of any nation in Europe. They have retroactively changed the indenture, the contract made by Greece with all of the buyers of their bonds, when the debt was issued. There is no speculation involved in these statements, there is no longer any guesswork on what might be; the ECB swapped their bonds for new Greek bonds with the assent of the Greek government and it is now a done deal.
The incredibly grim reality now is that any European and all European sovereign debt can have their indentures changed by the ECB when it is to their advantage. It is the “collective action clause” today but tomorrow it could be the maturity or the coupon or any other terms and conditions in an indenture. It is Greece today but tomorrow it could be France or Portugal or Italy. The “Rule of Law” has been abrogated and tossed aside in the name of political contrivance.
No “Rule of Law,” no judicial appeal and a fait accompli whenever desired. This is, in terrifying fact, exactly what the European Central Bank has done and if we no longer know what we are buying and if the terms and conditions of an investment can be altered retroactively at will without the consent of bond holders and to the advantage of the ECB then either we should not buy these credits, as in Atlas shrugged, or yields should be in the mid-range of junk bonds because European sovereign bond indentures now are worth no more than the paper on which they are printed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ecb-has-opened-pandora%E2%80%99s-box
SEC Surrender Continues With Bear Bankers Deal: William D. Cohan
ReplyDeleteThis outcome is beyond outrageous. In its complaint, the SEC flat-out stated that Cioffi and Tannin mislead their investors: “Particularly during the first five months of 2007, as the funds suffered increasing losses to the value of their portfolios and faced growing margin calls and redemptions … senior portfolio manager Cioffi and portfolio manager Tannin deceived their own investors, as well as the funds’ institutional counterparties, by fraudulently concealing from them the full extent of the funds’ deepening troubles.”
One of the ways Cioffi and Tannin did this was by displaying, graphically, on the monthly account statements the percentage of the funds invested in subprime mortgages. For instance, according to an investor’s statement from March 2007, the amount of the funds invested in subprime mortgages was stated clearly as 6 percent. But when the funds blew up, Bear Stearns created internal “talking points” memos for how to deal with investor complaints. A memo from June 2007 pointed out that one of the questions deemed likely to be asked was: “I thought the fund was diversified, and now it turns out it seems to have had a fair amount of exposure to the subprime mortgage market. What exactly was the exposure?” The answer: “60 percent.”
In other words, Cioffi and Tannin told their investors the funds were diversified -- and raised billions of dollars based on that representation -- but in reality they were highly concentrated in subprime mortgages. And now, thanks to the SEC’s settlement, the two men may never even be held remotely accountable.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/sec-surrender-goes-on-with-bear-fund-deal-commentary-by-william-d-cohan.html
Tell A Lie Big Enough, Loud Enough And Long Enough And The Sheeple Will Believe
ReplyDeleteFor those scoring at home (an old American idiom used to describe fans numerically tracking the progress of the baseball game at home), the Iranian oil bourse begins trading oil in currencies other than the dollar on March 20th. Perhaps this develop provides new meaning to the old saying/forecast to “beware the Ides of March.”
http://edegrootinsights.blogspot.com/2012/02/tell-lie-big-enough-loud-enough-and.html
UBS Turning Whistleblower in Libor Probe Pressures Rivals
ReplyDelete“This is a quaint, insider club which is clearly not fit for the 21st century,” said Richard Werner, a finance professor at the University of Southampton, England. “There is no independent verification of the interest rates reported by the banks which is a big problem. This affects the whole economy: mortgages, derivatives contracts across the world.”
First Disclosure
By making the first disclosure to regulators, the Zurich- based lender will make it harder for competitors including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C) to claim similar protection. UBS’s competitors could face higher penalties for not coming forward earlier, Francis said.
Brian Marchiony, a London-based JPMorgan spokesman, and Jeffrey French, a spokesman for Citigroup in London, declined to comment on the investigations.
The damages, if the probes establish liability, “could be enormous, depending on how they’re defined,” said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. “It will be a mess evaluating damages given all the derivatives contracts and swaps tied to these rates. This won’t be resolved anytime soon.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-21/ubs-turning-whistleblower-in-libor-probe-pressures-rivals.html
Is Obama Getting Serious About Bank Fraud?
ReplyDeleteBill Black: Are Pres. Obama's new measures effective or window dressing?
And the third win in the win-win-win is democracy, because if you allow systemically dangerous banks, what they do first is hold hostage the national economy. They say, you do anything to me and the entire economy comes down. And, of course, (b) they have so many resources that neither party is willing to take them on. And we've run a real-world test, right? We had a global disaster, a global, worldwide—nearly worldwide recession. In the United States alone the household sector lost $11 trillion. And we still have nobody in either party seriously willing to take on and shrink the banks.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/is-obama-getting-serious-about-bank.html
How Goldman Sachs helped mask Greece's debt
ReplyDelete20 February 2012
Eurozone finance ministers are holding talks in Brussels aimed at securing a second vital bailout for Greece. France's Finance Minister Francois Baroin has said all the elements are in place for a deal.
Nick Dunbar, author of The Devil's Derivatives, revealed how the country turned to investment bank Goldman Sachs for help getting around the deficit rules.
In his report for Newsnight, some of those who did the deal, talk publicly for the first time.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17108367
I agree ti should happen...the public outrage...but it won't because even before this latest settlement (of many I'm sure) all it takes is a basic understanding of 7th grade math to see what has transpired over the last 30 years.. AS long as the gas keeps being pumped (nevermind the price) and the credit cards still work then no one gives a shit generally speaking. The system is not going to go "mad Max" because you don't spend a hundred years asserting control to let it go "poof" one day.
ReplyDeleteManaging the rate of decay is what it's all about.....and what the system is bent on controlling...after-all it's about all they have left.
BTW the Libor issue is just laughable....it's a survey...always has been. You think they want to truthfully tell how $350 trillion of crap gets priced with basically this exchange:
ReplyDelete"How much did you lend?
"What rate did you take"
That is the extent of LIBOR...nothing empirical about it...never will be either.
The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom
ReplyDeleteTop-down, international regulation is antithetical to the Net, which has flourished under its current governance model.
Any attempts to expand intergovernmental powers over the Internet—no matter how incremental or seemingly innocuous—should be turned back. Modernization and reform can be constructive, but not if the end result is a new global bureaucracy that departs from the multi-stakeholder model. Enlightened nations should draw a line in the sand against new regulations while welcoming reform that could include a nonregulatory role for the ITU.
Pro-regulation forces are, thus far, much more energized and organized than those who favor the multi-stakeholder approach. Regulation proponents only need to secure a simple majority of the 193 member states to codify their radical and counterproductive agenda. Unlike the U.N. Security Council, no country can wield a veto in ITU proceedings. With this in mind, some estimate that approximately 90 countries could be supporting intergovernmental Net regulation—a mere seven short of a majority.
While precious time ticks away, the U.S. has not named a leader for the treaty negotiation. We must awake from our slumber and engage before it is too late. Not only do these developments have the potential to affect the daily lives of all Americans, they also threaten freedom and prosperity across the globe.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577229074023195322.html
A Conversation with Peter Thiel Francis Fukuyama talks with the renowned entrepreneur.
ReplyDeleteFrancis Fukuyama: I’d like to begin by asking you about a point you made about there being certain liberal and conservative blind spots about America. What did you mean by that?
Peter Thiel: On the surface, one of the debates we have is that people on the Left, especially the Occupy Wall Street movement, focus on income and wealth inequality issues—the 99 percent versus the 1 percent. It’s evident that both forms of inequality have escalated at a very high rate. Probably from 1973 to today, they have gone up faster than they did in the 19th century. The rapid rise in inequality has been an issue that the Right has not been willing to engage. It tends either to say it’s not true or that it doesn’t matter. That’s a very strange blind spot. Obviously if you extrapolate an exponential function it can go a lot further. We’re now at an extreme comparable to 1913 or 1928; on a worldwide basis we’ve probably surpassed the 1913 highs and are closer to 1789 levels.
In the history of the modern world, inequality has only been ended through communist revolution, war or deflationary economic collapse. It’s a disturbing question which of these three is going to happen today, or if there’s a fourth way out.
http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1187
Does anyone have a pulse?
ReplyDeleteWhy Inequality Matters: The Housing Crisis, The Justice System & Capitalism
By Bruce Judson
February 20th, 2012
Extreme economic inequality is among the most destructive forces in a society. As inequality grows, it undermines the effective functioning of the economy, the basic tenets of capitalism, and the foundations of democracy.
Unfortunately, the housing crisis and now the housing settlement increasingly look like an example of how this mechanism works.
One of the central characteristics of highly unequal societies is that two sets of laws develop: One set for the rich and powerful and one set for everyone else. The more unequal societies become, the more easily they accept the unacceptable, and with each unrebuked violation, the powerful actors at the top of the society gain an ever greater sense of entitlement and an ever greater sense that the laws that govern everyone else don’t apply to them. As a result, their behavior becomes increasingly egregious.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-inequality-matters-saving.html