It's true and I hope to write more details about this. They formed a "lobbying group" trying to convince the American people that the only way to save the "economy" is to cut those hard earned social security and Medicare benefits.
We get idiots emailing us often, trying to get lobbyist materials on this site and worse. Of course they never make it on, but it goes to show how these lobbyists are pounding the digital bits and airwaves with their spin.
Working on a piece detailing out these "activities" and disgusting the financial press even lets these people on the airwaves. Kings' court, not real press.
On Bloomberg last night, who was there talking about the "fiscal cliff" and how the US should resolve the issue? Why none other than CEOs from Blackrock and Honeywell and others. Let's get this straight, CEOs from defense contractors and banks are telling us and politicians that are supposed to represent us (the 99%) how to resolve the issue? That's actually funny.
Of course Honeywell's CEO wasn't talking about how massive defense spending in Iraq and Afghanistan largely got us into this mess. And Blackrock's CEO wasn't talking about how taxpayer bailouts of banks and the complete destruction of financial regulation (e.g., Glass-Steagall, derivatives, etc.) helped destroy the soundness of the global financial markets, and of course, our own financial house. No, when Trish Regan (and her former or current boss Mike Bloomberg behind the scenes) wants to hear answers, the answer that gets you a seat at the table literally is "cut entitlements." Of course, those "entitlements" were paid for from everyone's paycheck, but of course now the elites demand they be cut before they can be collected. Grandma Millie just needs to suck it up so that Blackrock can make billions more (or lose billions, either way) for creating nothing tangible. And of course those CEOs that helped destroy or send our jobs overseas so that we now can't find gainful employment in our own country never blame themselves or the other people at the table. They created the mess, we bailed them out, and now they still attend the "by invitation only" meetings with our politicians and meetings in front of TV cameras and demand that we sacrifice, sacrifice, and sacrifice some more. We're done sacrificing, we didn't do anything wrong. We followed the rules, got our degrees and skills, and put in our time at any number of jobs across every sector across the globe. These folks think they are in any position to lecture us on how to act or what to do? Who are these windbags that created this nightmare to make any demands on us?
Normally we don't cover events outside finance, labor and the economy. Yet we see tragedy almost daily and economic rampage very often turns into violent rampages. Moore's documentary covers tragedy in Flint, where Welfare to Work bussed poor people to work at food stands at a rich area Mall, 50 miles away for wages that could not pay rent. These people have children and to get support, they had to take jobs which would never allow them to dig themselves out and be away from their children most of the time.
Generally a huge percentage of single mothers are in poverty, facing similar conditions and these children grow up.
Drug cartels alone are responsible for more death than Iraq per year, so this is really disgusting. This article hit right as these announcement were made, but since that publication time a host of people have written their outrage, including Senator Merkeley.
Or course he's quick to sell out workers via "immigration" agenda, in particular STEM, so once again our classic rhetoric of outage.
If Average Joe or Jane is rumored to be under investigation for anything, civil or criminal, inside or outside an office or factory floor, he or she can expect suspension and/or dismissal ASAP. Of course they are still subject to the civil or criminal penalties outside the workplace as well. They are utterly destroyed, even if the allegations are completely unfounded. These big banksters (and corporations in general) never fear anything. No matter what they do, they never get suspended or punished. And personal responsibility within boardroom walls? Ha ha ha, what's that? Even when they admit guilt, it means nothing. If it all goes wrong, they just pass on fees and fines on to customers and clients aka "Muppets" (thank you Goldman Sucks for enriching the English language as only you can do). Whether it's bribery, money laundering, destruction of evidence, etc., they are above the law. They are the law. Whether it's banks, pharmaceuticals, defense, or any other sector, if you are big enough, the rules and laws simply don't apply. And you can get megarich and step on the masses laughing all the way to your compound. How's that for democracy?
Bernanke mentioned multiple times labor participation rates and how it is not all retirees and other claims. They are not just looking at the official unemployment rate, but a host of labor figures, which is nice and the huge reason every month I go into excruciating detail on the employment statistics.
I sincerely doubt this but out of Bernanke's mouth it is like he is reading this site. I'm not kidding for we amplified the waste of American talent, how data points are real people and much of his rhetoric, for years now.
If you listen to the press conference Bernanke mentions a host of things that validate our analysis, and are spot on.
QE is not affecting inflation and why we dig into such detail on CPI. I just commented that global demand trumps QE on commodities.
Now on housing prices, the theory "should be" buying up MBSes causes mortgage rates to drop like a stone, but of course, the Banksters are raking it in and this deserves it's own analysis post.
Banks don't make money on "printing money", they make money by borrowing at zero percent and they playing their derivatives games on that borrowed "free" money and other methods.
QE doesn't have any effect on unemployment, see the link in the article.
I don't agree the unemployment rate is 20%+. I'd say it's more around 18%, which is outrageous.
The real power of what the Fed just did was to put the focus on labor, on the unemployment rate. Now, every time politicians and pundits talk about what the Fed is up to, they must mention the jobs crisis. That's the power.
The first step for the Fed and the rest of the folks in charge of destroying our country is to admit that unemployment is nowhere near the official rate. Seriously, what are they claiming, 7.8%, 7.9%? Funny, few jobs being added/posted, few of those real jobs (most are recruiting asses, companies doing their best to post ads so they get 20,000 applicants, reject all, then get visa applicants for 1/4 pay, etc.). I know shadowstats may have detractors as to exact numbers, but everyone can agree the real unemployment rate is 20%+! That's almost 3X the rate the Fed and the rest are using. And of course with more people simply dropping off the map, running out of unemployment benefits, eligibility being cut down in weeks, and tens of millions never eligible in the first place (e.g., contractors, temp workers, etc.) the stats are completely useless and becoming increasingly laughable. When everyone's out of work for long enough, the Fed can claim 0% unemployment. Farce.
As for this QE to infinity, it just benefits primary dealers who get their cut of Fed money/our money because they are the only ones with a seat at the table. Here's a list of primary dealers:
Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency; BMO Capital Markets Corp.; BNP Paribas Securities Corp.; Barclays Capital Inc.; Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC; Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.; Goldman, Sachs & Co.;
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.; Jefferies & Company, Inc.; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC; Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated; Mizuho Securities USA Inc.; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC; Nomura Securities International, Inc.; RBC Capital Markets, LLC; RBS Securities Inc.; SG Americas Securities, LLC;
and UBS Securities LLC.
Great, so while the Fed inflates money and thereby punishes people who rely on fixed incomes (like the elderly and unemployed) and creates more money sloshing around the global economy (which will inevitably inflate commodities despite recent drops), it helps out everyone's favorite banksters because the Fed is controlled and owned by banksters. That list is a who's who of fraud and international crime and corruption.
QE 3, 4 . . . +1 gives newly printed cash to Canadian banks? Scottish banks? Japanese banks? Swiss banks? French banks? German banks? Yes, they are primary dealers. Tax evading banks? Yes, check that list. Banks that launder money for drug cartels and terrorists? Yes, they are on the list. Banks that fix LIBOR rates? Yes, Barclays is on the list along with other price fixers. Commodities fixers? Yes, Goldman and JP Morgan. Foreclosure fraud and bribery? Yes.
All of these banks make money because they get a cut of every single bill printed up and sent out. It's a great gig if you can get it, demand more money, Bernanke and the Fed follow orders, and then take what you want. They can siphon off whatever they want. And what they don't take outright they play with in derivative bets, commodities bets, etc. The Fed can pay all the lip service it wants about unemployment. If it cared, it would admit the unemployment rate used by the govt. is a farce. Secondly, admit that its actions only help banksters and hurt the average citizen around the globe. Third, admit that the only way unemployment comes down is if the US, like China, Japan, Korea, etc. focuses on strict immigration laws, preventing outsourcing, and ensuring its own citizens are fully employed before it does anything else that compromises national security or the security and welfare of its own citizens.
If QE1, 2, 3, or whatever had any correlation or causal relationship whatsoever to a drop in unemployment, we have yet to see it. Maybe by the time QE5 or 6 rolls around no one will be counted as unemployed so the Fed and govt. can claim success. But given the inability of QE3 to even create a wealth effect by boosting stocks for more than 1 day, it's obvious Ben can't do anything useful other than help out fellow bank servants/future private bank partners.
There is a lot of chatter on how the Fed adopted the Evans criteria which I guess they read somewhere else.
Charles Evans is the Chicago Fed bank Pres. and he gave a speech, link here about the Fed should base decisions on hard economic thresholds.
I think that's all good, and am thrilled unemployment is made front and center now, yet the reality is, the Fed just doesn't have the real tools in many ways to affect employment, not like Congress does and they are busying making sure we have continued unemployment.
The Federal Reserve can strongly influence inflation as history proves by the money supply and interest rates.
The Federal Reserve cannot force employers to start hiring people, this is under the purview of our crazy Congress, who is so busy trying to attack social safety nets, the last thing on their minds is enacting policy forcing employers to do just that, hire.
I don't want to forget QE, along with MBSes is a pure gift to Wall Street and makes commodities esp. increase, stocks increase. It's Wall Street's crack.
All of this said, I think tying Federal Reserve policies to the unemployment rate was a strong political statement. I get the impression if the Federal Reserve could force Congress and this administration to enact policies to get people hired and wages increased, they would.
This shows how pathetic this administration and Congress is for while the Fed just put the jobs crisis front and center is almost every press release they issue from now on, this Congress seems hell bent in making sure more jobs are lost on a host of fronts.
It's absolutely obscene, over and over again they enact corporate lobbyist wish list policies claiming they do x when they really do y and it's been proved repeatedly those policies do y, which usually involve hurting the U.S. middle class, labor, hiring, employment, income, retirement as well as the economy at large.
More, it seems the Federal Reserve charter should be somehow expanded to give them better tools for labor markets to get people hired. They have this as their purview without the toolkit. Seems odd, although that toolkit is primarily policies. Right now they have trickle upon tools, which clearly just feed the Wall Street beast and not main street.
I know it's popular to hate the Fed, esp. with the ballooning balance sheet but honestly, what they report these days does make them, by rhetoric, the smartest people in the room.
Just when you think the entire OWS died, Naked Capitalism has this story.
Occupy the SEC submitted an amicus brief in Gabelli v. SEC, a case before the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs are appealing a Second Circuit decision over the issue of the statute of limitations. The underlying charge is that Gabelli, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds LLC, and the chief operating officer, Bruce Alpert, engaged in fraudulent market-making.
This is actually encouraging and I feel negligent for I didn't know this work was going on.
Why would I submit an article to Zerohedge. We're our own site, we publish our own content and we are a news source. Why would I give away our articles to ZH? If people want to read our material, just type the URL into the address bar or subscribe to the many feeds.
Honestly, free market true believers are simply political. They restrict the definition of dependency to the reliance of a person or a class of people who receive direct government aid, or social security (to which they've paid, remember?). We're all dependent on government. Developers of arms can't exist without government. Developers of housing subdivisions require government to tax people for the sewers and roads they build, and usually pay private contractors to do it. Research universities get federal grants to create and design better medicine and technology. You can't say the multi-million dollar salaries of CEO are earned independently of government, especially in these days when pressure little is made by hand from found resources. This notion of dependency is simply specious.
Never happen here but it seems in the U.K. there were 3 arrests:
Former UBS and Citigroup banker and two others questioned as part of Serious Fraud Office investigation into Libor manipulation.
I'm not sure but I believe in the U.K. an arrest is different than the U.S. and it would be an actual charge that is the key, i.e. you can be arrested without the actual charge, don't quote me on that.
Why do the Fed, NY DA's Office, and DOJ get money. OFAC? Useless. Sounds like a payoff. We won't make our attorneys and investigators work past 3:30, and they can still keep their 4 day work weeks, but you have to pay us this amount. Basically, no one has to do any work and $ changes hands. No lessons learned and life goes on for criminals and phony enforcers.
Here's an idea - everyone involved, whether in the NY DA's Office, OFAC, the Fed, banking authorities in Albany and DC, all get to face Iranian-made IEDs for 1 year for $20,000. How about that? Maybe then they'll give more of a sh*t about fighting terror, if Iran actually is a terror sponsor, shouldn't everyone care just a little bit more? Standard Chartered, CEO, other officers, board, and AML + OFAC departments, everyone goes overseas to see why you really, really should care more about your crimes. HSBC, same thing. Go live in neighborhoods torn apart by narcoterrorism. Go visit widows and orphans of killed public officials and police and live in their houses for 1 year while you can talk about how important it is that fines only be paid for aiding narcoterrorists. OFAC and DOJ officials, enjoy your time in Burma/Myanmar talking to the Karen and other people that suffered slaughter and enslavement at the hands of a national govt. that you helped launder money for. Get down in the trenches, see what you help aid and abet. Be big boys, nothing to fear, because the real world deals with this crap daily and you aren't, and should never be, so far removed that you feel yourselves immune. Aid the crimes, deal with the consequences and victims. NY DA? Seriously? Bankster capital USA and they are chasing Occupy? Congrats, that's really sticking it to people for enjoying their 1st Amendment rights - how proud the DA must be. Well, at least the $ is more openly exchanging hands now from the banks to the enforcers with this settlement. So, with Goldman and JP Morgan and every other bank headquartered in NYC, still waiting for heads to roll. It's not a question of jurisdiction, it's not a question of laws broken (come on, Grand Larceny 1st Degree - 1000+ counts, Conspiracy, Bribery, etc.), it's a question of integrity and will. And that is lacking all around.
The Roman Empire, British Empire, and now this. History repeats itself not because we don't know history, but rather it's because the people in charge don't give a crap, they loot and destroy as much as possible while letting the Goths and Vandals in while blaming their own citizens for all that's wrong - now that's "patriotism" for you.
France used to send financial criminals to Devil's Island, simply tortuous. America doesn't send anyone to jail and if they find that lone individual, it's minimum security with free cable.
The entire drug trade globally is in the trillions. Ever notice how we can talking points which limit alternatives to say two bad ideas, such as the budget deficit? Can't force pharmaceutical companies to charge the same as other industrialized nations, on no, must cut benefits.
Nice spin on some bad math. 60% of bullies are men, see here. The statistics show if a woman is a bully, she will take out her aggression more often on another woman instead of a male, but males bully women.
Look to Italy and Colombia for examples. Those countries had companies and thousands upon thousands of people working directly for criminal organizations. They also had thousands upon thousands of compromised individuals in the government in law enforcement and every other sector. Yet the governments wanted to change the system so they went against those implicated. Nothing and no one is ever TOO BIG TO JAIL. That's what RICO was created for - organizational prosecutions. And RICO doesn't just cover civil penalties - it imposed imprisonment and forfeiture. So the creators of the law knew exactly what they wanted, they wanted to make it easier to investigate cases against entire organizations, gather evidence, and make it easier to prove the cases. That's what RICO is for. And it is not just for the "traditional organized crime," as its history and use have proven time and time again.
Small organizations and small professional shops are prosecuted all the time. Whether its accountants, lawyer, truck driving companies, etc., if an organization has a few or more members laundering money for terrorists or traffickers, or compromising investigations, or running drugs or weapons for them, they will be prosecuted and shut down. There is nothing so inherently difficult about investigating and prosecuting large organizations. In fact, it is much easier. Read federal conspiracy laws. Federal laws make investigation and prosecution incredibly easy compared to state laws. Think of how many emails are sent regarding every single action, how many people approve every action, how many people collect paychecks for their action, and the records everyone keeps. All of this is evidence of who approved something, why they did, how, and the benefits reaped. The paper trails are pure evidentiary gold. And if there are too many people to prosecute (but given the lack of prosecution by the feds, they should be working for their paychecks), do what people do in every jurisdiction. Arrest and prosecute as many as possible so you deter the rest. These are simple concepts that apply to every other criminal, so there's really nothing new here despite their pleadings on Bloomberg and Fox. It's been done 10,000,000 times before, banksters and corporate criminals are nothing special, just in their current treatment.
Don't fall into "I didn't know my subcontractor was going to let people work in unsafe conditions" meme. Talk about willful blindness. "Gosh, Officer, I was told to drive this car across from a warehouse in Juarez directly into El Paso to another warehouse. I never met the people before, they paid me $50,000 to do it, told me to never look in the trunk, and to run away from the car if you asked me to pop the trunk. Drugs? You found drugs?! I never knew, can't blame me." Yeah, that's how unslick the corporate boards and officers and top people are. If they are big enough to take full responsibility for their massive unwarranted paychecks and bonuses and get bailed out by us, then they are big enough to take the blame when their corporations commit crimes here and abroad. That kind of responsibility even little children understand, so the pass for corporate honchos will not do. There's no picking and choosing responsibility - it's a package deal.
And the prisons that are packed are woefully empty of big corporate criminals. In fact, Madoff is kickin' it in a joke camp. Medium and max federal prisons are notably empty of big banksters and their ilk. But I'm all for change, change is good for our country and needed to help restore faith in our system and the idea that everyone is equal before the law.
at least by men. I love the intent of this so-called 'analysis' trying to breakdown that women are bullied more. From the article -
38% of bullies are women. women target other women 80% of the time. So 30.4% of bullying is woman on woman. Women overall are targets 57% of the time (or is it 58, the article used both numbers. I assumed rounding). 58-30.4 = 27.6. 62% of bullies are men. 27.6/62 = 44.5% Male bullies are less likely to target women than men. They target men 55% of the time and women 45% of the time.
It's true and I hope to write more details about this. They formed a "lobbying group" trying to convince the American people that the only way to save the "economy" is to cut those hard earned social security and Medicare benefits.
We get idiots emailing us often, trying to get lobbyist materials on this site and worse. Of course they never make it on, but it goes to show how these lobbyists are pounding the digital bits and airwaves with their spin.
Working on a piece detailing out these "activities" and disgusting the financial press even lets these people on the airwaves. Kings' court, not real press.
On Bloomberg last night, who was there talking about the "fiscal cliff" and how the US should resolve the issue? Why none other than CEOs from Blackrock and Honeywell and others. Let's get this straight, CEOs from defense contractors and banks are telling us and politicians that are supposed to represent us (the 99%) how to resolve the issue? That's actually funny.
Of course Honeywell's CEO wasn't talking about how massive defense spending in Iraq and Afghanistan largely got us into this mess. And Blackrock's CEO wasn't talking about how taxpayer bailouts of banks and the complete destruction of financial regulation (e.g., Glass-Steagall, derivatives, etc.) helped destroy the soundness of the global financial markets, and of course, our own financial house. No, when Trish Regan (and her former or current boss Mike Bloomberg behind the scenes) wants to hear answers, the answer that gets you a seat at the table literally is "cut entitlements." Of course, those "entitlements" were paid for from everyone's paycheck, but of course now the elites demand they be cut before they can be collected. Grandma Millie just needs to suck it up so that Blackrock can make billions more (or lose billions, either way) for creating nothing tangible. And of course those CEOs that helped destroy or send our jobs overseas so that we now can't find gainful employment in our own country never blame themselves or the other people at the table. They created the mess, we bailed them out, and now they still attend the "by invitation only" meetings with our politicians and meetings in front of TV cameras and demand that we sacrifice, sacrifice, and sacrifice some more. We're done sacrificing, we didn't do anything wrong. We followed the rules, got our degrees and skills, and put in our time at any number of jobs across every sector across the globe. These folks think they are in any position to lecture us on how to act or what to do? Who are these windbags that created this nightmare to make any demands on us?
Normally we don't cover events outside finance, labor and the economy. Yet we see tragedy almost daily and economic rampage very often turns into violent rampages. Moore's documentary covers tragedy in Flint, where Welfare to Work bussed poor people to work at food stands at a rich area Mall, 50 miles away for wages that could not pay rent. These people have children and to get support, they had to take jobs which would never allow them to dig themselves out and be away from their children most of the time.
Generally a huge percentage of single mothers are in poverty, facing similar conditions and these children grow up.
Drug cartels alone are responsible for more death than Iraq per year, so this is really disgusting. This article hit right as these announcement were made, but since that publication time a host of people have written their outrage, including Senator Merkeley.
Or course he's quick to sell out workers via "immigration" agenda, in particular STEM, so once again our classic rhetoric of outage.
If Average Joe or Jane is rumored to be under investigation for anything, civil or criminal, inside or outside an office or factory floor, he or she can expect suspension and/or dismissal ASAP. Of course they are still subject to the civil or criminal penalties outside the workplace as well. They are utterly destroyed, even if the allegations are completely unfounded. These big banksters (and corporations in general) never fear anything. No matter what they do, they never get suspended or punished. And personal responsibility within boardroom walls? Ha ha ha, what's that? Even when they admit guilt, it means nothing. If it all goes wrong, they just pass on fees and fines on to customers and clients aka "Muppets" (thank you Goldman Sucks for enriching the English language as only you can do). Whether it's bribery, money laundering, destruction of evidence, etc., they are above the law. They are the law. Whether it's banks, pharmaceuticals, defense, or any other sector, if you are big enough, the rules and laws simply don't apply. And you can get megarich and step on the masses laughing all the way to your compound. How's that for democracy?
Bernanke mentioned multiple times labor participation rates and how it is not all retirees and other claims. They are not just looking at the official unemployment rate, but a host of labor figures, which is nice and the huge reason every month I go into excruciating detail on the employment statistics.
I sincerely doubt this but out of Bernanke's mouth it is like he is reading this site. I'm not kidding for we amplified the waste of American talent, how data points are real people and much of his rhetoric, for years now.
If you listen to the press conference Bernanke mentions a host of things that validate our analysis, and are spot on.
QE is not affecting inflation and why we dig into such detail on CPI. I just commented that global demand trumps QE on commodities.
Now on housing prices, the theory "should be" buying up MBSes causes mortgage rates to drop like a stone, but of course, the Banksters are raking it in and this deserves it's own analysis post.
Banks don't make money on "printing money", they make money by borrowing at zero percent and they playing their derivatives games on that borrowed "free" money and other methods.
QE doesn't have any effect on unemployment, see the link in the article.
I don't agree the unemployment rate is 20%+. I'd say it's more around 18%, which is outrageous.
The real power of what the Fed just did was to put the focus on labor, on the unemployment rate. Now, every time politicians and pundits talk about what the Fed is up to, they must mention the jobs crisis. That's the power.
The first step for the Fed and the rest of the folks in charge of destroying our country is to admit that unemployment is nowhere near the official rate. Seriously, what are they claiming, 7.8%, 7.9%? Funny, few jobs being added/posted, few of those real jobs (most are recruiting asses, companies doing their best to post ads so they get 20,000 applicants, reject all, then get visa applicants for 1/4 pay, etc.). I know shadowstats may have detractors as to exact numbers, but everyone can agree the real unemployment rate is 20%+! That's almost 3X the rate the Fed and the rest are using. And of course with more people simply dropping off the map, running out of unemployment benefits, eligibility being cut down in weeks, and tens of millions never eligible in the first place (e.g., contractors, temp workers, etc.) the stats are completely useless and becoming increasingly laughable. When everyone's out of work for long enough, the Fed can claim 0% unemployment. Farce.
As for this QE to infinity, it just benefits primary dealers who get their cut of Fed money/our money because they are the only ones with a seat at the table. Here's a list of primary dealers:
Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency; BMO Capital Markets Corp.; BNP Paribas Securities Corp.; Barclays Capital Inc.; Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC; Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.; Goldman, Sachs & Co.;
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.; Jefferies & Company, Inc.; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC; Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated; Mizuho Securities USA Inc.; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC; Nomura Securities International, Inc.; RBC Capital Markets, LLC; RBS Securities Inc.; SG Americas Securities, LLC;
and UBS Securities LLC.
Great, so while the Fed inflates money and thereby punishes people who rely on fixed incomes (like the elderly and unemployed) and creates more money sloshing around the global economy (which will inevitably inflate commodities despite recent drops), it helps out everyone's favorite banksters because the Fed is controlled and owned by banksters. That list is a who's who of fraud and international crime and corruption.
QE 3, 4 . . . +1 gives newly printed cash to Canadian banks? Scottish banks? Japanese banks? Swiss banks? French banks? German banks? Yes, they are primary dealers. Tax evading banks? Yes, check that list. Banks that launder money for drug cartels and terrorists? Yes, they are on the list. Banks that fix LIBOR rates? Yes, Barclays is on the list along with other price fixers. Commodities fixers? Yes, Goldman and JP Morgan. Foreclosure fraud and bribery? Yes.
All of these banks make money because they get a cut of every single bill printed up and sent out. It's a great gig if you can get it, demand more money, Bernanke and the Fed follow orders, and then take what you want. They can siphon off whatever they want. And what they don't take outright they play with in derivative bets, commodities bets, etc. The Fed can pay all the lip service it wants about unemployment. If it cared, it would admit the unemployment rate used by the govt. is a farce. Secondly, admit that its actions only help banksters and hurt the average citizen around the globe. Third, admit that the only way unemployment comes down is if the US, like China, Japan, Korea, etc. focuses on strict immigration laws, preventing outsourcing, and ensuring its own citizens are fully employed before it does anything else that compromises national security or the security and welfare of its own citizens.
If QE1, 2, 3, or whatever had any correlation or causal relationship whatsoever to a drop in unemployment, we have yet to see it. Maybe by the time QE5 or 6 rolls around no one will be counted as unemployed so the Fed and govt. can claim success. But given the inability of QE3 to even create a wealth effect by boosting stocks for more than 1 day, it's obvious Ben can't do anything useful other than help out fellow bank servants/future private bank partners.
There is a lot of chatter on how the Fed adopted the Evans criteria which I guess they read somewhere else.
Charles Evans is the Chicago Fed bank Pres. and he gave a speech, link here about the Fed should base decisions on hard economic thresholds.
I think that's all good, and am thrilled unemployment is made front and center now, yet the reality is, the Fed just doesn't have the real tools in many ways to affect employment, not like Congress does and they are busying making sure we have continued unemployment.
The Federal Reserve can strongly influence inflation as history proves by the money supply and interest rates.
The Federal Reserve cannot force employers to start hiring people, this is under the purview of our crazy Congress, who is so busy trying to attack social safety nets, the last thing on their minds is enacting policy forcing employers to do just that, hire.
I don't want to forget QE, along with MBSes is a pure gift to Wall Street and makes commodities esp. increase, stocks increase. It's Wall Street's crack.
All of this said, I think tying Federal Reserve policies to the unemployment rate was a strong political statement. I get the impression if the Federal Reserve could force Congress and this administration to enact policies to get people hired and wages increased, they would.
This shows how pathetic this administration and Congress is for while the Fed just put the jobs crisis front and center is almost every press release they issue from now on, this Congress seems hell bent in making sure more jobs are lost on a host of fronts.
It's absolutely obscene, over and over again they enact corporate lobbyist wish list policies claiming they do x when they really do y and it's been proved repeatedly those policies do y, which usually involve hurting the U.S. middle class, labor, hiring, employment, income, retirement as well as the economy at large.
More, it seems the Federal Reserve charter should be somehow expanded to give them better tools for labor markets to get people hired. They have this as their purview without the toolkit. Seems odd, although that toolkit is primarily policies. Right now they have trickle upon tools, which clearly just feed the Wall Street beast and not main street.
I know it's popular to hate the Fed, esp. with the ballooning balance sheet but honestly, what they report these days does make them, by rhetoric, the smartest people in the room.
The Fed only controls interest rates.
It does not control unemployment or inflation.
Japan's Central Bank has been 'easing' for two decades, yet Japan has deflation and decline.
Time to kick Milt Friedman's monetarism to the curb, and embrace Post-Keynesian models, instead.
Just when you think the entire OWS died, Naked Capitalism has this story.
This is actually encouraging and I feel negligent for I didn't know this work was going on.
Why would I submit an article to Zerohedge. We're our own site, we publish our own content and we are a news source. Why would I give away our articles to ZH? If people want to read our material, just type the URL into the address bar or subscribe to the many feeds.
Honestly, free market true believers are simply political. They restrict the definition of dependency to the reliance of a person or a class of people who receive direct government aid, or social security (to which they've paid, remember?). We're all dependent on government. Developers of arms can't exist without government. Developers of housing subdivisions require government to tax people for the sewers and roads they build, and usually pay private contractors to do it. Research universities get federal grants to create and design better medicine and technology. You can't say the multi-million dollar salaries of CEO are earned independently of government, especially in these days when pressure little is made by hand from found resources. This notion of dependency is simply specious.
Robert Oak,
I think that this article is excellent. Suggest that you submit it to ZeroHedge.com, which may decide to post it on the ZH front page.
-- Paul D. Bain
Never happen here but it seems in the U.K. there were 3 arrests:
I'm not sure but I believe in the U.K. an arrest is different than the U.S. and it would be an actual charge that is the key, i.e. you can be arrested without the actual charge, don't quote me on that.
Why do the Fed, NY DA's Office, and DOJ get money. OFAC? Useless. Sounds like a payoff. We won't make our attorneys and investigators work past 3:30, and they can still keep their 4 day work weeks, but you have to pay us this amount. Basically, no one has to do any work and $ changes hands. No lessons learned and life goes on for criminals and phony enforcers.
Here's an idea - everyone involved, whether in the NY DA's Office, OFAC, the Fed, banking authorities in Albany and DC, all get to face Iranian-made IEDs for 1 year for $20,000. How about that? Maybe then they'll give more of a sh*t about fighting terror, if Iran actually is a terror sponsor, shouldn't everyone care just a little bit more? Standard Chartered, CEO, other officers, board, and AML + OFAC departments, everyone goes overseas to see why you really, really should care more about your crimes. HSBC, same thing. Go live in neighborhoods torn apart by narcoterrorism. Go visit widows and orphans of killed public officials and police and live in their houses for 1 year while you can talk about how important it is that fines only be paid for aiding narcoterrorists. OFAC and DOJ officials, enjoy your time in Burma/Myanmar talking to the Karen and other people that suffered slaughter and enslavement at the hands of a national govt. that you helped launder money for. Get down in the trenches, see what you help aid and abet. Be big boys, nothing to fear, because the real world deals with this crap daily and you aren't, and should never be, so far removed that you feel yourselves immune. Aid the crimes, deal with the consequences and victims. NY DA? Seriously? Bankster capital USA and they are chasing Occupy? Congrats, that's really sticking it to people for enjoying their 1st Amendment rights - how proud the DA must be. Well, at least the $ is more openly exchanging hands now from the banks to the enforcers with this settlement. So, with Goldman and JP Morgan and every other bank headquartered in NYC, still waiting for heads to roll. It's not a question of jurisdiction, it's not a question of laws broken (come on, Grand Larceny 1st Degree - 1000+ counts, Conspiracy, Bribery, etc.), it's a question of integrity and will. And that is lacking all around.
The Roman Empire, British Empire, and now this. History repeats itself not because we don't know history, but rather it's because the people in charge don't give a crap, they loot and destroy as much as possible while letting the Goths and Vandals in while blaming their own citizens for all that's wrong - now that's "patriotism" for you.
France used to send financial criminals to Devil's Island, simply tortuous. America doesn't send anyone to jail and if they find that lone individual, it's minimum security with free cable.
The entire drug trade globally is in the trillions. Ever notice how we can talking points which limit alternatives to say two bad ideas, such as the budget deficit? Can't force pharmaceutical companies to charge the same as other industrialized nations, on no, must cut benefits.
Nice spin on some bad math. 60% of bullies are men, see here. The statistics show if a woman is a bully, she will take out her aggression more often on another woman instead of a male, but males bully women.
Look to Italy and Colombia for examples. Those countries had companies and thousands upon thousands of people working directly for criminal organizations. They also had thousands upon thousands of compromised individuals in the government in law enforcement and every other sector. Yet the governments wanted to change the system so they went against those implicated. Nothing and no one is ever TOO BIG TO JAIL. That's what RICO was created for - organizational prosecutions. And RICO doesn't just cover civil penalties - it imposed imprisonment and forfeiture. So the creators of the law knew exactly what they wanted, they wanted to make it easier to investigate cases against entire organizations, gather evidence, and make it easier to prove the cases. That's what RICO is for. And it is not just for the "traditional organized crime," as its history and use have proven time and time again.
Small organizations and small professional shops are prosecuted all the time. Whether its accountants, lawyer, truck driving companies, etc., if an organization has a few or more members laundering money for terrorists or traffickers, or compromising investigations, or running drugs or weapons for them, they will be prosecuted and shut down. There is nothing so inherently difficult about investigating and prosecuting large organizations. In fact, it is much easier. Read federal conspiracy laws. Federal laws make investigation and prosecution incredibly easy compared to state laws. Think of how many emails are sent regarding every single action, how many people approve every action, how many people collect paychecks for their action, and the records everyone keeps. All of this is evidence of who approved something, why they did, how, and the benefits reaped. The paper trails are pure evidentiary gold. And if there are too many people to prosecute (but given the lack of prosecution by the feds, they should be working for their paychecks), do what people do in every jurisdiction. Arrest and prosecute as many as possible so you deter the rest. These are simple concepts that apply to every other criminal, so there's really nothing new here despite their pleadings on Bloomberg and Fox. It's been done 10,000,000 times before, banksters and corporate criminals are nothing special, just in their current treatment.
Don't fall into "I didn't know my subcontractor was going to let people work in unsafe conditions" meme. Talk about willful blindness. "Gosh, Officer, I was told to drive this car across from a warehouse in Juarez directly into El Paso to another warehouse. I never met the people before, they paid me $50,000 to do it, told me to never look in the trunk, and to run away from the car if you asked me to pop the trunk. Drugs? You found drugs?! I never knew, can't blame me." Yeah, that's how unslick the corporate boards and officers and top people are. If they are big enough to take full responsibility for their massive unwarranted paychecks and bonuses and get bailed out by us, then they are big enough to take the blame when their corporations commit crimes here and abroad. That kind of responsibility even little children understand, so the pass for corporate honchos will not do. There's no picking and choosing responsibility - it's a package deal.
And the prisons that are packed are woefully empty of big corporate criminals. In fact, Madoff is kickin' it in a joke camp. Medium and max federal prisons are notably empty of big banksters and their ilk. But I'm all for change, change is good for our country and needed to help restore faith in our system and the idea that everyone is equal before the law.
at least by men. I love the intent of this so-called 'analysis' trying to breakdown that women are bullied more. From the article -
38% of bullies are women. women target other women 80% of the time. So 30.4% of bullying is woman on woman. Women overall are targets 57% of the time (or is it 58, the article used both numbers. I assumed rounding). 58-30.4 = 27.6. 62% of bullies are men. 27.6/62 = 44.5% Male bullies are less likely to target women than men. They target men 55% of the time and women 45% of the time.
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