Regulation Is Not Socialism; Regulation Is Sanity.
The Unbridled, Unregulated Greed Fraud and Manipulation Within America’s Financial Institutions Must Be Reigned In From The Run Amuck Anarchy That Exists Today! Those screaming “Socialism” are howling in the wilderness because there is no way that new regulatory powers and vehicles of regulation will be avoided. It is real clear that the perfect Wall Street wet dream is spending every cent necessary to bail out every screwed up financial component in the system and simply returning to business as usual without re/new regulation, open book investigations and criminal prosecutions. It ain’t gonna happen that way folks!
This disaster is worse, when the whole truth is known, than the Great Depression, and the only saving grace is that experience and the rapid pace at which things are moving to stem the bleeding. Let’s hope it works, quickly. To those who want to scream “Socialism and Dictatorship”; go right ahead, because doing nothing and blaming everyone that comes to mind and wordsmithing every intended naysayer fear-invoking analogy that your little perverted right wing brains can come up with or remember from the verbal lint of talk/bitch radio won’t do any good. There is a problem and it will be solved. You may not like the resolution, but then I don’t much like the elevator to hell you support.
Geithner Presents New Regulatory Plan for Wall Street
In recent days, conservative media figures have characterized Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's proposal for Congress to pass legislation allowing the federal government to take over failing nonbank financial institutions as, in the words of Fox News' Sean Hannity, "the single biggest power grab and move toward socialism in the history of the country." Other media sources have uncritically cited such conservative claims, including House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-OH) charge that Geithner's proposal constitutes "an unprecedented grab of power."
But in the budget blueprint that House Republicans, including Boehner, released on March 26, they proposed "a process to address insolvent institutions that stops throwing good money after bad into failing institutions and places insolvent ones into temporary receivership." The Republicans' proposal raises the question of whether the media, which have reported extensively on the charge that Geithner is engaging in a "power grab" by asking Congress for this authority, will note that the same House Republican caucus that made the charge is now proposing to give the federal government similar authority.
In nearly 1,000 words, a CNN.com article on the Republican proposal does not note this. Despite quoting Boehner's criticism of the president's budget as "completely irresponsible," the article does not mention that the proposal Boehner is pushing includes a plan for federal authority that he previously denounced.
In prepared remarks for his March 24 testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Geithner stated: "The Administration proposes legislation to give the U.S. government the same basic set of tools for addressing financial distress at non-banks as it has in the bank context," including the ability for the government to act "as a conservator or receiver":
As we have seen with AIG, distress at large, interconnected, non-depository financial institutions can pose systemic risks just as distress at banks can. The Administration proposes legislation to give the U.S. government the same basic set of tools for addressing financial distress at non-banks as it has in the bank context.
The proposed resolution authority would allow the government to provide financial assistance to make loans to an institution, purchase its obligations or assets, assume or guarantee its liabilities, and purchase an equity interest.
The U.S. government as a conservator or receiver would have additional powers to sell or transfer the assets or liabilities of the institution in question, renegotiate or repudiate the institution's contracts (including with its employees), and prevent certain financial contracts with the institution from being terminated on account of the conservatorship or receivership.
This proposed legislation would fill a significant void in the current financial services regulatory structure with respect to non- bank financial institutions. Implementation would be modeled on the resolution authority that the FDIC has under current law with respect to banks.
Before taking any emergency action, the Treasury Secretary would need to determine that resolution authority is necessary upon the positive recommendations of the Federal Reserve Board and the appropriate federal regulatory agency.
Likewise, the House Republican budget blueprint -- signed by Boehner -- states that "our plan supports a process to address insolvent institutions that stops throwing good money after bad into failing institutions and places insolvent ones into temporary receivership":
Republicans believe the best antidote for market turmoil is certainty and economic growth. We oppose the trend toward national ownership and control of financial institutions. The government's interventions to date have generated market uncertainty and an aversion to private lending and investment. The government's strategy needs to minimize government interference in the management of companies and provide a clear exit strategy.
The Republican budget ends this failed bailout strategy by refusing to assume additional spending for bailouts. In addition, our plan supports a process to address insolvent institutions that stops throwing good money after bad into failing institutions and places insolvent ones into temporary receivership.
Our plan would first perform a thorough stress test to determine whether a financial institution is healthy, troubled, or insolvent. For troubled firms, some portion of the firm's toxic assets would be insured, but such insurance would be self-financed by the industry itself in the form of premiums. For insolvent firms, either the FDIC or a Resolution Trust Corporation-type entity would restructure these firms in receivership by selling off their assets and liabilities, reappointing private management, while protecting depositors -- a process that builds off of Washington Mutual's arranged sale last year.
Well is seems that the Brits are on the page…
U.K. regulator urges global regulation shake-up
Report recommends tougher capital rules, closer oversight of non-banks
Brain-Dead Economic Reporting: If Wall Street Approves of Obama's Plan, It Must Be a Winner!
By Brad Reed, AlterNet
The corporate media's coverage of the administration's bank rescue plan comforts the comfortable. Read more I just need to remind you that they are not going like the reregulation initiatives, but even they know it is inevitable and they want money, either thrown at them or from their games, so they’ll suck it up sooner or later.
The Real AIG Scandal: How the Game Is Rigged at Wall Street's Casino
By Lucy Komisar, AlterNet
Congress has deftly avoided the real story of AIG's collapse, which will make a few million in bonuses seem like peanuts. Read more OH, do read more!
This Crisis Is Way Bigger Than Dead Banks and Wall Street Bailouts
By James Galbraith, Washington Monthly
Why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than anyone has so far admitted. Read more
What Would the Man Who Got Us Out of the Last Depression Do About Wall Street's Greed?
By Chuck Collins, Sam Pizzigati, AlterNet
What would FDR do if he were around to see AIG's bonus bozos spit in the face of the American taxpayer? Read more
YES, YES, YES…the only problem is that Washington likes to fix things and hold no one accountable because the finger prints always lead back to the halls of Congress.
Moral Decay Swirls Around Banking Bailout: Time for a Criminal Investigation
By Robert Scheer, Truthdig
Those who stole billions in 401(k)s of innocent victims were rewarded handsomely, rarely needing to break the laws their lobbyists purchased. Read more
Rachel Maddow Takes Conservatives to Task Over Deregulation
By Daniel De Groot, Open Left
"Heaven forbid, there would be rules to rein in what happens on Wall Street, right?"Read more »
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George Soros always maligned by the right as the financial power behind the throne of every liberal, left wing organization in America has repeatedly warned of the present collapse and positioned himself not only to be immunized against it but to profit from the entire mess and its resolution. He has a perspective that “traditional” financial criminals simply hate, including support for extensive regulation of every facet of the financial market place. I have watched him testify before Congressional Committees and watched them attempt to find some way to attack him as opposed to learning anything from him. But then the Congress has a perfect record (100%) in ignoring every warning and warning sign of the economic collapse that has shrouded the world.
The Financial Crisis: An Interview with George Soros
By George Soros, Judy Woodruff
Soros says world is witnessing end of pure, unregulated capitalism model
'I'm Having A Very Good Crisis,' Says Soros As Hedge Fund Managers Make Billions Off Recession
A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's work.
George Soros, who predicted the global financial crisis twice before, was one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic collapse.
Mr Soros said his prediction meant he was better able to brace his Quantum investment fund against the global storm.
But other investors failed to take notice of his prediction and his decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the fund made him $US2.9 billion.
And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year.
'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work,' he told national newspaper The Australian.
Soros is one of 25, top hedge fund managers from across Wall Street who have defied the credit crunch crisis to reap a total of $11.6billion (£7.9bn) last year.
The managers made their profit by trading above the pain in the markets, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha Magazine.
Former maths professor James H. Simons, who has made billions in hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, earned $2.5 billion running computer-driven trading strategies.
Unlike other critics like Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers, Soros favors government intervention to regulate markets since he doesn’t believe in the “self-correction to equilibrium” notion of markets.
Soros’ skeptical approach to human prediction of markets is similar to Nassim Taleb’s ideas that history is inherently a fallacy and any prediction based on past data is imperfect at best.
The managers made the profit in a year when losses were recorded at two of every three hedge funds and when hedge funds lost an average of 18 percent, according to the New York Times.
Two of the three managers who tied for ninth place, at $250 million, are based in Britain and include David Harding of Winton Capital and Alan Howard of Brevan Howard Asset Management.
Another Brevan Howard employee Christopher Rokos also made the list.
Andrew Cuomo’s Star continues to rise in the firmament.
US bonus buster Andrew Cuomo is gunning for up to 100 British executives believed to have received millions of pounds in payouts from scandal-hit American International Group.
The New York Attorney General is turning his sights on AIG’s London traders after strong-arming most of the company’s American staff to hand back their bonuses.
Public wrath has boiled over in the US with death threats being made to executives in the risk-taking Financial Products division that was blamed for the downfall of the insurance giant.
The firestorm blew up because AIG paid the bonuses after receiving £115billion in bail out cash from the US government.
While Mr Cuomo expects to retrieve more than £54million in bonus cash in America, he revealed that nearly £58million was paid out in lump sums to staff overseas.
Although the identities of the recipients have not been released, it is believed that the majority of the bonuses paid to non-Americans went to Britons working at AIG’s London office.
The Mayfair headquarters dubbed ‘the casino in London’ is already under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office over its controversial trading in credit default swaps – insurance that covered investors against the risk that companies could not pay their bills.
As the credit crunch began to bite, the financial products business lost almost £8billion, bringing the American parent company to its knees and forcing the US government to rescue the group.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner condemned the London office in a Congressional hearing today, saying: 'This division was an unregulated entity operating in unregulated markets.'
Two London executives are said to have voluntarily returned their bonuses.
But Mr Cuomo, who is leading a fraud probe into the AIG bonuses, said: 'We have a very aggressive theory about our jurisdiction, but we don’t have a theory that gets us to London yet.’
Despite that, sources close to the probe said Cuomo could use his extensive powers to block British executives from visiting the US.
Although he is keeping the names of those who give back their bonuses, Mr Cuomo is considering naming all those who keep the cash.
‘If people do return the money, I don’t believe there’s a public interest in releasing their name,’ he added.
The attorney general said fifteen of the top twenty bonus beneficiaries have agreed to give the money back. That total included the biggest payout of £4million to Connecticut-based company vice president Douglas Poling.
About 400 AIG executives received massive bonuses, but a series of resignations has dropped the division’s workforce to about 370.
The American executive who founded AIG’s London office, Joseph Cassano, fell on his sword a year ago after the unit started bleeding money.
Although he did not receive a bail out bonus, Cassano reportedly earned about £200million during his time at the company.
The Essex-born former chief executive of AIG itself, Martin Sullivan, left the company last June and was recently lambasted by congressional lawmakers for walking away with a golden parachute worth an estimated £32.5
The legislation gives him broad powers to subpoena documents and question witnesses.
While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been blasted for his weak response to the bonus scandal, the ambitious Mr Cuomo has grabbed the headlines in the US for his hard-line tactics.
Mr Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended their actions over the AIG bonuses in a Capitol Hill hearing today.
The Fed chief said he was advised against taking legal action to stop the payouts because they were backed by binding contracts.
'It was highly inappropriate to pay substantial bonuses to employees of the division that had been the primary source of AIG’s collapse,’ he said.
America’s top two economic leaders also called for new powers to take over and wind down failing financial companies.
President Obama is expected to emphasize his determination to prevent a repeat of the AIG debacle in a televised prime time news conference tonight.
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Obama Reins in Signing Statements
Jewish Times of Southern New Jersey - Atlantic City,NJ,USA
Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee, was opposed to the Bush signing statements and ...
Americans For Limited Government
Above Is A Link That Will lead you some of the biggest trouble makers around. They obvious think like people who have Cancer, and are in profound denial that it will simply pass, go away on its own.
The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution Page 1 of 8
For A Bit of Diversion
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/03/the-past-is-pre.html
A team of apprentices at Mercedes-Benz have combined 19th century design with 21st century propulsion to create the F-Cell Roadster, a hydrogen fuel-cell concept that isn't so much a car as a rolling timeline of automotive history.
Mercedes says the F-Cell "uniquely combines state-of-the-art technologies with the history of vehicle construction" with a fuel cell powering a reinvention of the iconic 1886 Benz Motorwagen, the first car ever built. Examples of the "everything new is old again" theme include carbon-fiber seats with hand-stitched leather covers, a tiller-style joystick and a vintage-looking flat front that also channels Mercedes' Formula One heritage.
The retro-futuristic design is enough to make us forget that fuel cell technology is about as relevant as Keith Olbermann in an Obama administration.
The F-Cell is as much a testament to German engineering as it is to the German dual education system in which students attending vocational school work as apprentices. They rarely hear you're fired -- most apprenticeships lead to jobs. In the case of the F-Cell, the apprentices came from such diverse fields as automotive mechatronics, model building, electronics, coating technology, manufacturing mechanics, product design and interior appointments. Creating the F-Cell concept gave 150 apprentices experience with alt-fuel tech.
"This project impressively demonstrates that the topic of sustainable mobility has become an integral part of our vocational training," Günther Fleig, Daimler's labor relations manager, said in a statement. "I am delighted to see how much initiative and creativity the young people have put into this project."
While it's true the Roadster's 1.2 kW (1.6 horsepower) output and top speed of 15 mph is only impressive by 1886 standards, we bet the F-Cell feels dangerously fast with those big wheels and the hydrogen tank in the back.
Give Him A Click!
Leonard Cohen- Anthem: He’s Back, He’s On The Road And He Looks And Sounds Good!
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The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.
-- Patrick Henry--
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