TENAC, THE ELECTION & CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS

YES WE CAN ACT AGAINST THE BIG BANKS EFFECTIVELY, BY VOTER POWER AND VOICE

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Written by Jim McGrath Friday, 22 January 2010 14:16

OH YES, WE CAN! AS THE PEOPLE, AS THE ELECTORATE, WE CAN FORCE CHANGE AND THE BANKS BACK TO SANITY BY OUR CITIZEN POWER!

It was done before. FDR's New Deal regulated the powerful bankiing interests successfully, until deregulation decades was accomplished, decades later. During all that period of strong regulation, we had no depressions, only recessions.  There was no entire collapse of the system (until now) because that is what happens when we allow bankers and brokers do anything with our money.  All behavior is regulated in order to protect the public from harm, from the food industry to drugs and automobiles.  Why should we make business an exception?  Sceptics say they doubt regulation will help, but it having been done before proves it can be done -- and iIt's high time! Now if these wily legislators, Democrat or Republican, or anyone, dare not to make this legislation tight as a drum, and refuse to close up all foreseeable loopholes (already banks have found them and are preparing to exploit them, read it loud and clear on The Business Insider at http://www.businessinsider.com/big-banks-have-already-figured-out-the-loophole-in-obamas-new-rules-2010-1 )

..Then they will hear from us, the electorate, and whoever is up for election will go down to defeat. We will not tolerate it as our savings, pensions and mortgages tank. We will take it out on their hides, for we will keep watch (we must all) to see who is selling out the entire people and economic system for cash, contributions, or favors now or later as corporate hires. And publicize it. And sound the alarm far and wide.  More than moving our money, we will move these legislators to retirement.

SOME BAILOUT: JP Morgan Uses Bailout Funds to Invest in More Financial Failures, Taxpayers Left Holding the Bag

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Written by Jim McGrath Tuesday, 16 February 2010 13:51

As the Reuters article below shows, we have given taxpayer money and assistance -- even at the outset of the crisis when Treasury put together the Bear Stearns deal -- to save these institutions in order to prevent a crisis, so our economy can recover and so these recipients of this largesse can speed our financial health. But au contraire, and even beyond the outrage of bonuses, the big banks have used government help to acquire additional investment failures, buying assets at vastly inflated prices, in the great tradition recently established by the mergers and acquisition craze -- deals based on vast overleveraging and inflated values, all for profit -- now with government help. And the more inflated the values, the bigger the profit.  What does big business care about what it does with your tax dollars as long as it makes a profit?  This marvelous beginning to our current bank dependency on subsidies is well illustrated by JP Morgan's recently reported move (again, below).  Can't the big banks do anything based on a sober analysis of real assets and valuations, as opposed to punchbowl practice??

 FED SEES PAPER LOSS ON BEAR PORTFOLIO: REPORT

Mon Feb 15, 9:19 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has seen paper losses on real estate assets it acquired when it helped JPMorgan Chase & Co buy Bear Stearns, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The paper losses at a vehicle called Maiden Lane, which holds the assets, are due in part to debt used to finance large buyouts, including those of Hilton Hotels and Extended Stay, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.

The FT said losses are concentrated in Maiden Lane's commercial real estate assets, which had been marked down to $4 billion as of September.They had a face value of $8.4 billion, with an estimated worth of $7.7 billion, when the Fed got them, it said.

Maiden Lane was formed in the second quarter of 2008, with about $28.8 billion from the New York Federal Reserve and about $1.15 billion from JPMorgan. The portfolio had an estimated value as of March 14, 2008, of about $30 billion.

JPMorgan and the Fed were not immediately available.  (Reporting by Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Richard Chang)

AGAIN, NEED WE REMIND ALL THAT:  WALL STREET + BIG BANK USA = CRIME BUT NO PUNISHMENT!

U.S. economic and fiscal meltdowns are right here - all around us - Wall Street + Big Bank USA.  Here are the pirates responsible.  Big Bank USA says NO to loans for the American people but YES to "mega-buck" bonuses for themselves!  Big Bank USA has been subsidized  by U.S. "bailout" funds, but  Big Bank USA has "bailed out" on economic recovery and the American people.  Goldman Sachs executives are getting so much gold -- man, their sacks "runneth over."  

ENOUGH ALREADY!
"LESS BAIL, MORE JAIL"

WE SAY GIVE IT BACK!

The Bizarro World of Wall Street: Goldman Refuses Shareholder Request to Examine Executive Overcompensation! AIG Employees Furious at Efforts to Reduce Pay!

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Written by Jim McGrath Thursday, 04 March 2010 17:12

That the banks are laws unto themselves and exist for the top execs shines through more than ever in the recent Goldman board of directors refusal to grant sharelholders' requests to investigate overcompensation for executives.  A reasonable request in light of the fact they are only surviving due to government largesse. Any normal firm would have gone out of business, and their feeling of entitlement with them.  For the full story, see  http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-wont-investigate-executive-pay-2010-3

Worse, they are angry over any efforts to curtail their pay. (See Such "Transcripts Reveal Anger of AIG Employees Toward Politicians, Public," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030303764.html  

Such hubris is probably unimaginable beyond the narrow, insular confines of New York and Washington, but lives it does, in the firms and hearts of those who control this nation financially.  We feel that they should be lose their jobs, broken up and their salaries and bonuses recouped for their victims and we invite all to join us to push for this antitrust, free-market drive.

THEIR BONUSES COME FROM GOVERNMENT BAILOUT MONEY REALLY FOR THEIR FAILURES!  GIVE IT BACK!

Veteran Wall Streeter Says No Change Since 1998, They Made Things Much Worse and Reap Great Pay and Bonuses for It! Break Them Up, It is Too Just Not to Fail

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Written by Jim McGrath Friday, 05 March 2010 16:05

The Huffington Post reports that things are just as bad as they have always been on Wall Street and getting worse.  Instead of reining in the big banks and toxic practices that have caused the greatest financial crisis since the Depression, Wall Street continues to practice, promote and worsen this voodoo investing, at great cost to us all.  The fact that bonuses for the big banks have been allowed, after they have caused the crisis, and in some cases increased,  is emblematic of our national ills.  While the people are waking up to the "beyond laissez-faire, but aidez les banques to succeed at all costs" philosophy, are turning against it, and demanding solutions, our national leaders are stymied by the GOP filibusterers and like minded mush peddlers, aided greatly by lobbyists clogging up any progress with wads of cash, promises of future employment and perks the average wage earner could only dream of. 

THE POLITICIANS (AND REGULATORS CATERING TO THEM) LET THIS CONTINUE, APPROVE BONUSES TO ENCOURAGE IT, AND TELL US THAT THEY MUST CUT EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN CALIFORNIA AND FORESEE PENSION PROBLEMS ALL OVER.  It used to be said with pride, "Only in America!" or "Only in New York!"  Boy, you said it! Now those words ring with irony and bristle our backs when we think of what our nation has done to reward the banks who practice Ponzi schemes, who took our money and ran, and who devised financial instruments spread around the globe so complex and intricately, they cannot be traced adequately and thereby safely wind them down, without fear of financial implosion.  NOW THAT'S INNOVATION! WHAT A JOB THEY DID! ON US! But we say, GIVE IT BACK! GIVE THE BONUSES BACK, CLAWBACK THEIR SALARIES, divide the ill-gotten gains among their victims, such as the unemployed, pensioners and the scammed, and let them fail by breaking them up so they can receive the reward everyone but they receive for poor or fraudulent business practices: too just not to fail!

While the GOP and some Democrats would never do anything to empower government or heaven forbid, create another "bureaucracy" (Tell us, who has the power to stand up to big corporations, besides the government? There is no other viable policeman, as we have seen from the necessary trust busting of Teddy Roosevelt to his cousin's providing a bulwark against business extremes in the form of the SEC, CFTC, FCC, NATSB, and the like.)  While the conservative Reagan Revolution would continue to let this madness go unrestrained, progressive are waking up; Senator Reed recently vowed to bring the consumer protection agency to the floor; so far, 35 senators have come out in support of voting for a public option; Rep. Frank called placing the consumer protection agency in the Fed a joke (for the Fed, unknown to many, is not a federal government agency, but a private board, run by bankers for bankers).  Elizabeth Warren is telling it straight, noting it is time for an effective consumer protection agency, and for a strong fight, for teeth and blood on the floor.  HOW LONG WILL WE LET THIS GO ON? (HuffPost describes the sorry state of affairs for us all AND the solutions he recommends at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/wall-street-vet-involved_n_486636.html

IT IS TIME FOR PROGRESSIVES TO STAND UP, VOTE FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION, VOTE FOR A STRONG CONSUMER FINANCIAL AGENCY, STRONG AND EFFECTIVE REGULATION, AND MAKE THE BIG INTERESTS TAKE THE MEDICINE OF FAIR TAXATION AND THE REMOVAL OF THEIR ANTITRUST EXEMPTIONS THAT ALLOW THEM TO OPERATE AS CORPORATION USA.

We need to take steps to ensure that these banks are broken up safely, their derivatives sold openly and that "too big to fail" will never happen again. We have demonstrated down on Wall Street against these ills and are planning future demonstrations in the future.  Will Congress and the President act before a second leg down, another crash or worse, strikes?  We fear it may be too late. Stay tuned, we will post on when and where future demonstrations will take place, projected to be in solidarity with organized labor, the Catholic Workers, and other progressive, far-seeing organizations.  WE NEED TO MAKE OUR VOICE HEARD OR BE OVERRUN.