The Money Party at Work by Michael Collins

[Joanne98]

ENABLING ACTS
FOR AN ERA OF GREED

Huge majorities in both houses of Congress voted for legislation to allow the biggest bank heist of all time. But this time, it was the banks pulling the heist.

Our financial system looks ruined beyond repair. The credit default swaps crisis is 40 or so times bigger than the real estate meltdown over subprime derivatives. The top 25 banks in the United States are loaded down with $13 trillion in credit default swaps and the deal is coming unraveled. If we accept the highly dubious assumption that the debt from the financial meltdown needs to be repaid by us, were looking at $43,000 a citizen right now. And we’re just starting.

It didn’t get that way by accident. There was special legislation that enabled the current crisis.

This was classic Money Party strategy and tactics.

The strategic goal was to turn Wall Street into a big casino for the “in crowd” of major investors, funds, and institutions. No rules and no regulations: “let the market take care of it” was the philosophy.

The tactics were easy. First you set up a scholarly group called the Law and Economics movement to give your scheme legitimacy. Then you give money and other favors to members of Congress.

At the right moment, you call in your congressional markers to let the banks start doing what they did to spark the Great Depression. Walk into the Wall Street casino loaded with cash and spend like they’re on coke. Your corny academic group has a couple of judges who decide a case that gives legal grace to the scheme. The casino is legit says the court. You then go for the whole nine yards by bringing back the long outlawed derivatives, subprimes, credit default swaps, etc.

The corporate media either ignores your “long con” altogether or covers it on their back pages.

Done deal! It’s the perfect storm to create economic chaos allowing the most massive transfer of wealth since the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 CE. It’s all about socialism for the rich and survival of the fittest for the rest of us.

But Congress and the Treasury Department will preserve the financial elite in perpetuity. Why? To begin with, they’d have to admit that they created the problem in the first place with their enabling legislation. Congress would also have to admit to absolutely zero oversight on this matter despite warnings.

Legislative, Judicial and Executive Branches - Acting in Unison Deliver the Goods

Three distinct events enabled the current economic chaos. The baseline requirement for the era of greed was satisfied in 1999 when Congress repealed key provisions of the Glass-Steagall act. That law was established during the first Great Depression. It tightly restricted the opportunities for reckless speculation by banks.. They were barred from selling stocks and other speculative schemes. Title 1 of Financial Services Modernization Act, 1999 says it all:

“Facilitating affiliation among banks, securities firms and insurance companies”

“Commercial banks, brokerage firms, hedge funds, institutional investors, pension funds and insurance companies can freely invest in each others businesses as well as fully integrate their financial operations.”

This was a bipartisan effort with the Senate version passing 90 to 8 and the House 362 to 57.

The once scorned derivatives had been the Holy Grail for “free” market radicals on Wall Street and elsewhere for years. They said that the restrictions on these products were unnecessary and stifled the free market (”free” for them). Even before Congress acted definitively in December 2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit struck down the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to rein in ruinous high risk financial schemes on Sept.1, 1999.

Reagan appointees Richard Posner, then chief judge, and current chief judge Richard Easterbrook were key movers. They’re also heavily involved with the Law and Economics movement, a right wing, free market movement that opposes almost all regulation in Pavlovian fashion.

Continued>>>
http://theruthlesstruth.com/wordpress/?p=717

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0904/S00140.htm

[bvar22]

1. More:

"The culprits are still in place at failing financial institutions.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for political action to fix the situation. Both parties were in on this mess. Huge majorities in both houses of Congress voted for key legislation to allow the biggest bank heist of all time. But his time, it was the banks pulling the heist.

That’s why the bankers have to stay in place. To remove them, would be telling, as William K. Black said recently:

"But the other element of your question is we don’t want to change the bankers, because if we do, if we put honest people in, who didn’t cause the problem, their first job would be to find the scope of the problem. And that would destroy the cover up." --- William K. Black, Apr. 3, 2009

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0904/S00140.htm

I would like to have a list of the 8 Senators and 57 Reps who stood up to protect the Working Class in 1999. The rest of them are beneath my contempt.


NOW we have Your Children’s Money too !!!
And there is not a fucking thing you can do about it!
Now THIS is “Post-Partisanship” !
Better get used to it!!
Hahahahahahahahaha!


K&R

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Nobody's looking at camera - studiously averting their gaze. One, actually,

looking over Paulson's left shoulder (to camera). Paulson's got a lowered ten centimeter gaze. Reminds me of a photo of various characters flanking Jacky Kennedy just before or just after John's murder.

[bvar22]

3. Fancy Nancy & co-conspirator Harry Reid KNOW...

...KNOW that they just sold out the bottom 95% of America.
They feel a little guilty, but HEY,...BIG BUCKS for THEM!
They're IN the top 5%.

Fuck those dirty people who have to Work for a Living....
Its their own damn fault!
They should have become Congressmen and Senators!

[Grinchie]

4. Insurance has played a major part for a long time in the setup.

If one takes a close look at Insurnace in general, one see's that it is a "Jackpot" mentality that drives the so called marketing. One is taught from a very early age that Insurance protects you in case anything should happen to your precious material belongings, and on the surface, this is a valid claim. For many years, Insurance behaved in a rational manner, and provided a much needed safety net for capitalists that were truly taking risks, such as financing sailing junkets to the New World.

The Insurance companies saw a pattern similar to the Fractional Reserve Banking System, where there rarely was any payout for actual loss, yet the income soon made mountainous piles of money for the Insurance companies. They took their piles of money and branched out into other areas and infiltrated all aspects of the Economy. They bought farms, Airlines, Military industrial contractors, and bought influence in the government as well.

Meanwhile, back in suburbia, they are starting to notice that houses are much safer these days, and whole cities don't burn down at once any more, yet, they manage to mandate fire insurance on any real property that is encumbered by a Mortgage. They used the Mortgage and the Bankers as the excuses to mandate fire insurance, but market the mandatory cram down of insurance as something "For Your Own Good". Perhaps there is some truth in that, but in the end, the insurance that you paid for somehow becomes very difficult to collect. Why is this?

The fact of the matter is that the Insurance racket was a scam. It is just another method of extracting an annuity from the public. The mythology that Insurance companies are always being taken advantage of by unscrupulous fraudsters is perpetuated in order to sheild them from their ultimate obligations under contract.

They have emplaced laws forcing insurance coverage on nearly everything, Auto, health, life, home, fire, flood, earthquake, casualty, liability, etc. They have managed to do this via complicit government regulations, bankers, Lawyers, and the Law to back them up.

Everyone should see "Insurance Company Rules", and then dig up their insurance policies and take the time to read through the declarations completely, striving for "FULL COMPREHENSON", and you will be amazed. Even when you fully understand what is covered, the insurance companies will deny coverage.

Look at New Orleans. We were at the peak of the housing bubble, and many houses were insured due to refies and home equity lines of credit. When it came time to pay out for Katrina, the Insurance companies bailed out, because their capital had been stolen long ago. It was all a sham.

When people realize that their insurance policy is a crap shoot, and that their is good chance that it isn't worth the paper it's written on, maybe they will think twice about purchasing it and becoming self insured, which is basically being financially sound enough to weather the loss on your own. Thats what the truly wealthy people do. Truly wealthy people really don't own much either. It is all held in trusts, corporations, and other vehicles.

[formercia]

5. Always good material from Autorank.

:hi:

[truedelphi]

6. William K Black not only says that these thieves will keep their jobs

In the banking system, because both parties need them to be there, (so we don't look too closely at this mess and see how almost every elected official is culpable), but Black also said that what Geithner, Summers and Rubin are doing is ILLEGAL.

Doesn't seem to bother Barack or anyone else too much.

Nothing to see here; now go fill out your unemployment forms like good boys and girls.