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US Bankers control USA - 7/19/2009 8:43:03 PM
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prophet
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THE BANKERS ARE STILL RUNNING THE SHOW
The masters of the financial circus are the bankers. Not only did they reap the benefits from manufacturing toxic financial products to the extent of receiving bonuses and stocks in the $trillions during the last 15-20 years. But they are also the only beneficiaries of the trillions of dollars that have been printed by governments to rescue the financial system. Why are the bankers benefiting from the rescue of their own banks? Because they are the ones controlling the government, advising the government and making major contributions to the politicians.
[Edited by moderator - Copyright issues]
< Message edited by ta_mosquito -- 7/19/2009 8:56:44 PM >
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/19/2009 8:45:23 PM
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prophet
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Goldman saga not so rosy
Diane Francis, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, July 18, 2009
This week the headline should have read: "Goldman Sacks America's Taxpayers" instead of Goldman Sachs posts a US$3.88-billion quarterly profit. The Wall Street firm's workers are licking their lips at the thought that the firm has set aside enough money to pay out billions in bonuses this year, equivalent to US$770,000 per worker.
[Edited by moderator - copyright]
< Message edited by ta_mosquito -- 7/19/2009 8:58:14 PM >
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/19/2009 8:58:35 PM
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ta_mosquito
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/19/2009 11:01:39 PM
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blessedinnyc
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I really don't think this is the case. In fact, my experience suggests something completely different.
I worked for the major investment bank that was allowed to go under in September of last year. There were some irregularities in which financial institutions got bailed out (the Treasury secretary bailed out the counterparties of his former employer), but there isn't this secret cabal of bankers that pull the strings in Washington. The fact that DC is trying to undermine the bonus system simply demonstrates that the rich and powerful at the banks don't really hold much sway. Economic expediency holds more sway than the bankers do, and some would argue that it is economically expedient to bail out the banks rather than switch to a completely cash economy for a decade or so.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/20/2009 12:30:49 AM
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prophet
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Paying bonuses is one thing . But paying for apparent profits from payments of AIG?
What is interesting is its compensation package of a total of US$6.7bil, almost 50% of net revenue and more than its net profit. Its non-compensation expenses in contrast were just US$2.1bil. More than three-quarters of operating expenses were salaries!
Works out an average of over US$200,000 per employee for just the second quarter alone!
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/20/2009 4:50:20 PM
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blessedinnyc
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quote:
ORIGINAL: prophet
What is interesting is its compensation package of a total of US$6.7bil, almost 50% of net revenue and more than its net profit. Its non-compensation expenses in contrast were just US$2.1bil. More than three-quarters of operating expenses were salaries!
This isn't much different from a typical accounting firm. Most financial services firms' expenses will be salaries; they ultimately require fewer physical materials to run the business than say, an airline or an auto company.
Your biggest physical material expense at an I-bank might just be paper for the printers.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/20/2009 7:33:27 PM
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prophet
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Read again.
quote:
What is interesting is its compensation package of a total of US$6.7bil, almost 50% of net revenue and more than its net profit.
in these times, you should think otherwise. Especially when their 'profits' is from AIG payments. Imagine those AIG employees....
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/20/2009 7:55:16 PM
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blessedinnyc
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quote:
ORIGINAL: prophet
in these times, you should think otherwise. Especially when their 'profits' is from AIG payments. Imagine those AIG employees....
Again, this isn't atypical. Many I-Bank employees could make their money just about anywhere or even operate without a major bank behind them, and if the I-banks kept more in profits than they paid out in salaries, they would also have a really ridiculous profit margin.
I-banks tend to be about people and their financial decisions. It makes sense that most net revenues would be used to pay for people.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/20/2009 8:29:58 PM
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prophet
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quote:
but there isn't this secret cabal of bankers that pull the strings in Washington
You dont think so?
Look at GS, JPM. They are allowed to do most things with the SECs and other regulatory bods eyes shut.
"too big to fail" is an excuse. Why not GM?
i remembered when the 98 financial crsis hit Asia, US called for the banks to bite the bullet. My govt refused and did exactly what the US govt is doing now! Bailing them out.
Hypocrites of a very high order. OR Powers of a very high order? 
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/20/2009 8:31:17 PM
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prophet
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Watchdog sees huge U.S. bill for banks bailout
Financial bailout's cost to U.S. could total almost $24 trillion
WASHINGTON - The federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion to help the financial sector through its crisis, a watchdog report said Monday.
Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American.
The figures are part of a tough new quarterly report to Congress from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, who accuses the Treasury Department of repeatedly failing to adopt recommendations aimed at making one component of the government financial rescue effort more accountable and transparent.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32010841/ns/business-us_business
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WOW! Watch out Hyperinflation!
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/21/2009 12:30:28 AM
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blessedinnyc
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quote:
ORIGINAL: prophet
Watchdog sees huge U.S. bill for banks bailout
Financial bailout's cost to U.S. could total almost $24 trillion
WASHINGTON - The federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion to help the financial sector through its crisis, a watchdog report said Monday.
Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American.
The figures are part of a tough new quarterly report to Congress from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, who accuses the Treasury Department of repeatedly failing to adopt recommendations aimed at making one component of the government financial rescue effort more accountable and transparent.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32010841/ns/business-us_business
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WOW! Watch out Hyperinflation!
That would be for gross exposure, not net exposure. In all likelihood, the government will make money off of this bailout as it did with the S&L crisis, or at least come very close to breaking even.
In reality, the money has already been created when the banks borrowed it into existence. Printing money to bail out the banks is a net wash for the economy. Time to stop panicking; a better thing to panic about is the geological problem of peak crude oil.
The dire predictions of TARP never came true; in fact, we saw deflation and the US Dollar rose against other currencies. Now, as the banks pay back TARP, that should actually reduce inflationary pressures. Peak oil has us toasted anyways, though, so I guess you're right on the inflation. In 15 years, gasoline will cost $20/gallon, but I'd like to think a house or a loaf of bread will still be relatively reasonable.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/21/2009 12:45:01 PM
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GroupW
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That exposure article/Fed report was downright silly.
To get to that figure (which Barofsky himself admits) , you have to assume that all home mortgages owned by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie all default.
Then you have to assume that the homes backing those mortgages are all of zero value.
Then you have to assume that all banks in the US go under with no value to their assets.
And then you STILL have to assume that the US Treasury defaults on all the treasury bonds owned by the Fed and the other securities that the Fed has lent money against all default with no recovery value.
Edit: plus Barofsky didn't adjust for programs that have been eliminated or curtailed. He also assumed that each program hits it's maximum authorized size all at the same time before writing it all off. He also clearly doesn't understand how banking works when he said that banks haven't disclosed the performance of TARP funded investments. TARP funded the damaged capital accounts of the banks that got the funds. The TARP money supports banks overall assets, not any one particular bucket.
It's an interesting number, but it's just a different way of saying that we have a really big economy.
That's about it.
< Message edited by GroupW -- 7/21/2009 1:26:16 PM >
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/21/2009 12:56:19 PM
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GroupW
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I'm at a bit of a loss to understand why the GS bonuses are such a problem.
There are relatively few options here:
1) Have only marginally profitable firms that pay their imployees very modestly.
2) Have very profitable firms that pay their employees who make all the profits modestly and let shareholders enjoy the wealth.
3) Have very profitable firms that pay the people who make them all that money very well. This is the "eat what you kill" brand of compensation and it works well for transaction oriented firms like GS.
It seems to be an issue for shareholders and noone else. If the firm thinks they can do well by paying high wages in return for high commitment/profit levels, then fine. If the shareholders disagree, they can take their own actions.
As an aside - high compensation levels in financial firms had little to do with the crisis. The crisis came as a result of a confluence of many unique factors, none of which on their own could have precipitated it. Consumers, banks, governments, investors, ratings agencies etc. all played a role. It's too simplistic to think that I-bankers making high 6/low 7 figures can take down the worlds financial system on their own without the complicity of other players.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/22/2009 1:39:54 PM
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GroupW
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Seems like taxpayers have very little to complain about here.
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which reported a record profit for the second quarter, paid the U.S. Treasury $1.1 billion to redeem warrants the government received in October when it invested $10 billion in the firm.
The value was established by the Treasury, the New York- based firm said today in a statement. The payment is in addition to $318 million in preferred dividends that the company paid on the investment since October. On an annualized basis, the return to taxpayers was 23 percent, Goldman said.
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“For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant and wrong.” -H.L. Mencken
"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so." -Bertrand Russell
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/23/2009 7:47:50 PM
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prophet
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taxpayers have YOU any problem with hank?
Watch: Congresswoman Kaptur: The Greatest Hail Mary Pass Of ALL TIME!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_PjGqy2_w&feature=player_embedded
Congressman Stearns: Mr Paulson How Do You Have Any Credibility?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MH_oz9f1E4
quote:
Isnt it true that Goldman Sachs benefit from the AIG bailout? They got 13bil and was the largest recepient of public fund.....
Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) served as the 74th United States Treasury Secretary and is a member of the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors. He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson
< Message edited by prophet -- 7/23/2009 7:56:12 PM >
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/26/2009 9:02:42 PM
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prophet
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kerrlaw
quote:
Because they are the ones controlling the government...
Thank goodness that someone is in control. 
So sad to find that you think its funny when someones crooked.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/26/2009 11:14:23 PM
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blessedinnyc
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I have to be off to a meeting with the Rothschilds to discuss how we would like Obama to handle the war in Afghanistan; the Secretary of State will be there to take our marching orders. In the meantime, however, would it make more sense to discuss this in the conspiracy section?
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/28/2009 11:24:39 PM
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cornergas
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The Federal Reserve is run by some of the major banks, the same ones, I believe who were bailed out. The government does not own the Federasl reserve, but has allowed this private institution to create the money supply (currency and credit) for the nation, with interest. The supplying the money supply for the country is supposed to be a duty of the Treasury of the Federal Government, but has been turned over to private hands in 1913. So now every thime the federal government places money into circulation it is done through the federal reserve/large banks, which charge interest of course. So it is ironical the Federal government bails out the banks with borrowed money, these banks are actually making the interest on...figure that out!
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/29/2009 1:11:31 AM
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prophet
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quote:
The history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates. By now, most of us know the major players. As George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup — which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the xxxxxxx chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibillion-dollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden-parachute payments as his bank was self-destructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director whom Paulson put in charge of bailed-out insurance giant AIG, which forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board. The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman.
quote:
It began in September of last year, when then-Treasury secretary Paulson made a momentous series of decisions. Although he had already engineered a rescue of Bear Stearns a few months before and helped bail out quasi-private lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Paulson elected to let Lehman Brothers — one of Goldman's last real competitors — collapse without intervention. ("Goldman's superhero status was left intact," says market analyst Eric Salzman, "and an investment-banking competitor, Lehman, goes away.") The very next day, Paulson greenlighted a massive, $85 billion bailout of AIG, which promptly turned around and repaid $13 billion it owed to Goldman. Thanks to the rescue effort, the bank ended up getting paid in full for its bad bets: By contrast, retired auto workers awaiting the Chrysler bailout will be lucky to receive 50 cents for every dollar they are owed.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/inside_the_great_american_bubble_machine
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/30/2009 12:12:39 PM
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GroupW
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quote:
ORIGINAL: cornergas
The Federal Reserve is run by some of the major banks, the same ones, I believe who were bailed out. The government does not own the Federasl reserve, but has allowed this private institution to create the money supply (currency and credit) for the nation, with interest. The supplying the money supply for the country is supposed to be a duty of the Treasury of the Federal Government, but has been turned over to private hands in 1913. So now every thime the federal government places money into circulation it is done through the federal reserve/large banks, which charge interest of course. So it is ironical the Federal government bails out the banks with borrowed money, these banks are actually making the interest on...figure that out!
The FRB is run by a government appointed board. Private member institutions have no input on the operations of the Fed.
Ownership is interesting. Technically, it's organized like a private corporation - member institutions are required to purchase stock in the FRB, but the stock is non-voting and has no control rights. This is the source of the confusion regarding ownership. Members receive a 6% "dividend" (more like interest or a preferred stock dividend) on their "stock" (more like a deposit or preferred stock), but don't control the operations or have a say in monetary policy. Any profits remaining after dividends and expenses are remitted to the US Treasury.
So, technically the member banks own the stock but the Treasury gets all the profits, and the Board/and Open Market Committee make all the decisions independent of the members and Congress.
If you had to determine who actually "owns" the Fed, you would have to say that ownership is defined by a) who has control, and b) who gets the profit. In each case, the answers are different. The Board has control subject to Congressional oversight, and the Treasury gets the profit.
Final control and ownership are really in the hands of the federal government.
Now, can we PLEASE move this into Conspiracy Central?
BT
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"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so." -Bertrand Russell
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 7/30/2009 12:41:50 PM
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blessedinnyc
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quote:
ORIGINAL: GroupW
Final control and ownership are really in the hands of the federal government.
Now, can we PLEASE move this into Conspiracy Central?
BT
It's ok. SuperDOT, the evil mainframe that runs the NYSE, is printing $300 Billion in bankers' bonus money right now, so we need to keep the usual meddlers distracted.
Oh well, I've got a meeting with Obama right now. It's time to threaten impeachment- he's not giving the banks enough money. We'll be having it in the Rothschild vault under 50th street in NYC where 1/2 the world's gold is kept.
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RE: US Bankers control USA - 8/10/2009 7:22:47 PM
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prophet
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Hank Paulson In Constant Contact With Goldman During Crisis (GS)
GS Aug 10 2009, 06:40 PM EDT
160.36 Change % Change
-3.29 -2.01%
New York Times reporters Gretchen Morgenson and Don Van Natta have dumped a gigantic bucket of kerosene on the Goldman Sachs (GS) conspiracy fire with a new report detailing the extent to which then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was in touch with his old bank during the pit of the crisis.
Bottom line: he was in touch with Goldman a lot.
While Mr. Paulson spoke to many Wall Street executives during that period, he was in very frequent contact with Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman’s chief executive, according to a copy of Mr. Paulson’s calendars acquired by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
During the week of the A.I.G. bailout alone, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Blankfein spoke two dozen times, the calendars show, far more frequently than Mr. Paulson did with other Wall Street executives.
On Sept. 17, the day Mr. Paulson secured his waivers, he and Mr. Blankfein spoke five times. Two of the calls occurred before Mr. Paulson’s waivers were granted.
By waviers, they're referring to ethics waivers which had barred Paulson from having any significant relationship in dealing with Goldmn Sachs issues, as Secretary of the Treasury. Clearly, this was no time to be bound by old formalities and ethics limitations that they thought would never become an issue.
It also belies the claim -- which Goldman still maintains to this day -- that the firm was never in danger, even with the teetering AIG and the financial crisis as a whole. What these records suggest is that Paulson was, indeed, concerned about Goldman's condition specifically -- if he'd just been talking to Blankfein about general market conditions, the waivers wouldn't have been required.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hank-paulson-in-constant-contact-with-goldman-during-crisis-2009-8
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