Wednesday
Sep022009
Sep 2, 2009 at 3:58 AMWednesday
Sep022009
Blind Man Reappointed Chairman Of The Federal Reserve
I've not posted this clip (nor had I seen the sickening detail of Obama's praise) and for good reason: I still value my sanity, even after 7 months of covering the greatest heist in the history of our nation, and 11 times having considered trips to the local psych ward. Tell me why I started this site again. Bernanke gets some Presidential love, blind-leading-the-blind style.
Wednesday
Sep022009
Monday
Aug312009
New York Fed President William Dudley On Bernanke's Reappointment, MBS Purchases, Inflation & Quantitative Easing
CNBC's Steve Liesman had a 2-part interview (lovefest) this morning with New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley. Dudley came to the New York Fed from Goldman Sachs, and his appointment to Treasury Secretary Geithner's previous position was incestuous and controversial, as detailed recently in the WSJ. Even the reigning king of corporate cronyism, GE's Jeff Immelt (a NY Fed board member), was said to be unnerved by the appointment.
Warning: watching this clip will likely cause unrelenting indigestion.
Monday
Aug312009
Astroturf Jerks (Steven Crowder Examines Political Activism)
We're new to this guy, and we're not enamored of defining problems in terms of liberal vs. conservative. It's generally divisive and overly simplistic. But this clip satisfies a desire to express an opinion I've held since the town hall protests began: with a few exceptions, these are legitimate expressions of anger and frustration not affiliated by party. The natives are restless and angry. And the outrage over the bailout of failed Wall Street banks, Fannie, Freddie, and AIG is an insidious river of percolating hate. Career politicians beware the wrath of 2010.
Pundits like us to think that we all must fit neatly within one camp or the other. It's all part of the grand masquerade while the private bash rages on. The corporate and special interest lobby are the only game in town, and taxpayers keep getting our asses kicked every time we show up to play.
Crowder goes inside a liberal California PAC for a job interview and brings along a hidden camera. The hypocrisy becomes evident quickly. The interviewer considers the activism organized, fake and astroturf unless of course she happens to agree with the cause. In that case, it's distinctly a grassroots movement. This is the kind of shite that really pisses me off.
Monday
Aug312009
WalStreetPro2 On Obama's Revised Deficit Figures
The newest installment from WalStreetPro, uploaded to Kevin's youtube channel on Friday. He breaks Chinese consumer products while he discusses the economy and markets. From his first video over a year ago, he's been screaming about the national debt and our one-party sytem that never stops spending. For us it's cathartic. For the rest of you, we have no idea.
Monday
Aug312009
Bill Fleckenstein On Greenspan, Bernanke, Bailouts & Bubbles
This is the long audio clip of the weekend. Pretty much everything is in here: the SEC, Wall Street, regulation, Alan Greenspan, Bernanke, the Fed, Paulson and Goldman, Geithner, AIG, Government Sachs, the markets, commodities, gold and other precious metals, debt, deficits and the dollar.
Monday
Aug312009
Meet Robert Benmosche, New CEO OF Taxpayer-Owned AIG
He's already taken some heat for a vacation to Croatia days after accepting the CEO position at AIG. He ran life insurer MetLife for 8 years ending in 2006. According to Bloomberg, he turned down the AIG CEO offer 3 times before finally accepting it at the chiding of friends. Nothing inspires confidence like knowing the guy has no interest in the job.
Short clips from Reuters and Bloomberg are inside.
Monday
Aug312009
AIG Bubble: Irrational Exuberance (By Janet Tavakoli)
Partial to truth, we're always happy to present Janet's articles. She's got a wicked sense of humor and a unique outlook with a strong bullshite filter. She's been warning about the dangers of credit derivatives at least since the publication of her Buffett book, and probably long before.
Mary Schapiro, if your minions are listening, get Tavakoli hired as a consultant to the SEC immediately. You have been talking publicly of late about the need for seasoned voices who understand derviatives. The answer is Janet Tavakoli and she can be reached here. Use our dollars wisely and get someone in there who understands systemic credit risk.
Friday
Aug282009
Bailout Barney Gets Frank About The Fed: "The House Will Pass HR 1207 In October"
It's been a bittersweet week for Uncle Ben. First he's egregiously re-appointed to a new term by President Bush Obama. Then Judge Loretta Preska hits him with a Mike Tyson overhand right, and while still concussed and shaky, Bailout Barney brings out the 2 x 4.
At long last we have public comments from Congressman Frank on Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve. And somewhat shockingly, at least based on his response in this town hall clip, Frank heartily supports HR 1207 and is working with Congressman Paul to steer its passage.
As we have surmised and have written several times, the component of the bill giving Congress power to oversee monetary policy (Fed interest rates), is being scaled back or perhaps tossed from the language of the bill entirely (it's not clear from his response). It appears that it was a mere device of negotiation, and has functioned as intended.
This is huge news and a big win for truth, justice and taxpayer sanity.
Transcript and video are inside. Halle-freaking-lujah.
Thursday
Aug272009
Jim Chanos Warned The G7 In Secret Meetings And No One Listened
In the early days of the sub-prime collapse, in April of 2007 to be exact, hedge fund managers James Chanos and Paul Singer were asked by Bob Steel, then the Under-Secretary of the Treasury, to make a secret and private presentation to the G7 Finance Ministers in Washington.
Singer and Chanos gave very specific warnings about the massive over-leverage and securitization time bombs that permeated the balance sheets of the world's largest and most well-known financial institutions, going to great lengths in an attempt to get the world's top central bankers to take notice.
They were completely and unabashedly ignored. We have the transcript and audio inside.
Wednesday
Aug262009
What Would You Ask Tim Geithner? (Alan Murray Interviews The Treasury Secretary With Reader-Submitted Questions From Digg)
I wish we had known about this ahead of time. It's our mistake for missing it and not alerting readers. The questions submitted and voted by Digg users were outstanding. Tougher and more intelligent questioning than I've seen in any interview of Timmaaay, including Fareed Zakaria's commendable effort. Steve Liesman and Erin Burnett should seek solace under a rock considering their feeble attempts with the Treasury Secretary.
The disadvantage for us is that because of the public nature of voting (Digging) the submitted questions, Turbo knew ahead of time what would be asked and was fully prepared with rehearsed answers. Still the questions were so aggressive and critical in nature that TG couldn't help but squirm through many of them.
I've had a draft post half-written for 8 weeks entitled Ten Questions For Geithner And Summers. One of these days I'll get around to completing it, but the first question on my list is the most glaring omission from the Digg final 10 and is the same that I posed to Simon Johnson and Brad Delong:
- In the discussion of bank losses, why are taxpayers asked and expected to bear the entire loss, while bank bondhholders who recklessly lent trillions to risky bank management teams, are spared completely from this discussion? They knowingly took the investment risk in search of higher returns and they aren't even being asked to forfeit a penny on their bond holdings. It is criminal, conspiratorial and reeks of Treasury capture. What say you, Mr. Secretary?
Wednesday
Aug262009
The Fed Gets Busted: Wednesday Links (30 Articles, Aug. 26, 2009)
Court Orders The Fed To Disclose Emergency Bank Loans (A Taste Of Victory)
The Goldman Connection (Summers, Rubin, Geithner, et al)
The Man Who Sells America's IOUs
Former St. Louis Fed President William Poole Says Bernanke Should Not Have Been Reappointed
Matt Taibbi: AIG's New Chief Is A Raging Dickhead
Matt Taibbi: Goldman Busted Again
The Real Reason Americans Are Angry
Monday's Links (National Strike Edition, 23 Articles)
20 More Articles Inside
Wednesday
Aug262009
Hitler Misses The Bull Market
Hitler is upset with his inner circle for selling stocks at the bottom of the market in March. The Allies are advancing towards Berlin and the fuhrer has no funds left to thwart the onslaught. He laments that even Citigroup, which is 'basically bankrupt', has rallied almost 500% from the lows, yet his money is stuck in cash earning 3%.
I have no idea who directed this piece of comic financial genius, but it's the best stock market satire I've ever seen. I hate to oversell clips, but this one deserves it.