$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ talks

and CNBC squawks

and lookey here
Sir Alan Stanford”In selecting Pendergest-Holt for this position, Allen Stanford and his deputy, Jim Davis, probably needed someone they could trust and not someone who could pick stocks,” said Lawrence Lieberman, senior managing director at Orion Group, an executive recruiter focused on the money management industry.

A lawyer for Pendergest-Holt did not have an immediate comment.

The 35-year old, who ranked as one of America’s most senior women in the money management industry, got her start in a position that paid about $1 million a year through a connection made at church.

Bank lobbyists were working through Ellen Tauscher and the New Democrat Coalition, in conjunction with the Blue Dogs, tried to kill the bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to write down mortgages, cutting foreclosures by 20% at no cost to taxpayers. Thanks to a big public outcry, the New Dems backed down and the bill passed the House. A bankruptcy judge in Kansas speaks today about how important it is going to be that it pass the Senate and that judges be given the powers that they need to help deal with an unmanageable crisis.
—————-
it is apparent that Ms,Tauscher subscibes to the Alfred E Newmann school of Economy

WHAT ME WORRY?

Nice to hear judges are speaking up.

Digg is open firedogs.

UHM where are the peeps?pups? anybody….kittycats

oh thank goodness,aand how are ya feelin this lovely day?

Grayson replaced Bushlicker Republican Ric Keller. Suzanne Kosmas replaced Abramoff’s golf pal Tom Feeney. Feeney has applied for lobbyist licensing as he is now working for the city of Altamonte Springs, Florida. Feeney claims that he will not be a lobbyist, but he will be conducting DC biz on the city’s behalf and therefore he needs the license.

Let me see how this works:

1. Congress gives our money via TARP to the banksters.
2. The banksters give some of that money back to Congresscritters.

Do the terms “bribes” and “money laundering” occur to anyone else?

$5.1 Billion

from the democracy now! transcript: “Sold Out”: New Report Follows Lobbying Money Trail Behind Deregulation that Helped Cause Financial Crisis

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, we saw over the last decade and really the last three decades, with both parties in power in Congress and the executive branch, this long series of deregulatory moves. And as you go step-by-step through them, you see that those are the things that really paved the way for the current financial collapse.

Perhaps the signature move was the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had prevented co-ownership of commercial banks and securities firms, investment banks. That was precipitated by and directly authorized the creation of Citigroup, which is now sucking so much public taxpayer money and has really been at the cutting edge of driving the financial crisis we’re now in.

You can go forward another year and see that Congress, with the Clinton administration authorization, prohibited the executive branch agencies from regulating financial derivatives, the instruments that no one can really understand or get a handle on but which have multiplied the problem from the housing crash many-fold over. So we now have $600 trillion in financial derivatives being traded around the world, with no one having a handle on what they are, who owes whom, and all of this requiring us to pour tens of billions of more dollars more every day, it seems, into AIG.

You can step forward and look at the failure to enforce rules against predatory lending, beginning with the Clinton administration, but really accelerating in a really terrifying way with the Bush administration, so that there were about three actions taken by federal regulators in the peak period of predatory lending—three—against some of the commercial lenders and mortgage brokers who were undertaking some of the most abusive predatory lending activities. And on and on it goes.

And there was, of course, over the last three decades a real surge in deregulatory ideology. And perhaps the people who were putting this stuff forward believed in it. But it also makes sense to think that, maybe a little bit, they were influenced by the staggering amounts of money that the financial sector was pouring into Washington, as you said, more than $5 billion in campaign contributions and lobbying money. And, you know, they got a good return on investment, and it was good for them while it lasted. It’s turned out to be quite a disaster for them but, more importantly, for the rest of the country and the world.

2 more words
pimps and racketeers

Do the terms “bribes” and “money laundering” occur to anyone else?

yes.

so does “criminal enterprise” and “fair trials!”

You can go forward another year and see that Congress, with the Clinton administration authorization, prohibited the executive branch agencies from regulating financial derivatives
——————-
just great and all the “PLAYERS”
walk away with at least 100,000,00.00dollars…just sickening truly sicckening

RICO!

Scrappy. *s*

RICO.

# Introduction: The Mafia as a Helpful Context

# What constitutes a RICO violation?

1. Section 1962(c) Claims
1. Defendant Persons
2. Enterprise
1. Enterprise / Racketeering Activity Distinction
2. Person / Enterprise Distinction
3. An Enterprise Engaged in or Affecting Interstate Commerce
4. Defendants’ Operation or Management of the Enterprise
5. The Pattern
1. Relatedness
2. Continuity
3. Multiple Schemes and the Pattern
6. Racketeering Activity
1. Mail and Wire Fraud
2. Bank Fraud
3. Extortion
1. The Obtaining of Property from Another And Threats of Physical Violence
2. The Issue of Consent
3. Extortion under Color Of Official Right
4. Extortion vs. Legitimate Exercise of Government Power
5. Other Predicate Acts Related to Extortion

good!

Really says it all, doesn’t it? I’ve been spreading that story far and wide.

3. Multiple Schemes and the Pattern
6. Racketeering Activity
1. Mail and Wire Fraud
2. Bank Fraud

Bailout transparency

http://www.thememoryhole.org/2…..nsparency/

Conspiracy?

from opensecrets.org: TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year:

The struggling companies whose freewheeling business practices have contributed to the country’s economic woes are getting a lucrative return on at least one of their investments. Beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout package in the finance and automotive industries have spent a total of $114.2 million on lobbying in the past year and contributions toward the 2008 election, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. The companies’ political activities have, in part, yielded them $295.2 billion from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), an extraordinary return of 258,449 percent.

“Even in the best economic times, you won’t find an investment with a greater payoff than what these companies have been getting,” said Sheila Krumholz, the Center’s executive director. “Some of the companies and industries that have received payments may now consider their contributions and lobbying to be the smartest investments they’ve made in years.”

from the excel file available for download:

grand totals:

“Campaign Contributions, 07-08 Cycle” = $37,477,300.00
“Campaign Contribs to Democrats” = $21,423,761.00
“Campaign Contribs to Republicans” = $15,991,543.00

im telling you this is the biggest RICO case evah,and under RICO the funds can be retrieved

Well we haven’t used the word incestuous yet but we should. We are expecting politicians to set up regulations for banks even though they are in the banks’ pockets. We expect regulators to regulate banks even though most of their bosses are transplants from the banks working in government and who are looking forward to returning to the banks and big salaries they pay.

I used the example of PIMCO, the big bond fund, earlier today. It hired Alan Greenspan and then lobbied the government to save their asses by taking over Fannie and Freddie and then get hired by the government to oversee its Fannie and Freddie holdings.

It is the same system that lets a Hank Paulson move from Goldman to Treasury and then put together a series of bailouts which always seemed to benefit Goldman first, and help his friends and punish his enemies second.

Our economy is sinking fast, but the priority of government, the Congress, the media, and financial elites is not this or the needs of the American people but both feeding the greed of Wall Street and covering up its mistakes.

A good AG shouldn’t have a problem applying the RICO laws in this context. Whether there will be any such individual(s) with the cajones to take on such an exercise is quite another matter. I do seem to recollect that the NY AG is doing some poking around. Anyone know anything about that?

Hey wait a minute. Just a second!

Thanks to a big public outcry, the New Dems backed down and the bill passed the House

Let’s just savor that for a minute.

OK, as you were, back to the revolution.

You can go forward another year and see that Congress, with the Clinton administration authorization, prohibited the executive branch agencies from regulating financial derivatives
——————-
just great and all the “PLAYERS”
walk away with at least 100,000,00.00dollars…just sickening truly sicckening

Which Idiot Decided Not to Regulate Credit Default Swaps?
Which Idiot Decided to Repeal Glass-Steagall?

yes, i know it’s lame to pimp my own diaries.

Frog march across America. And a new law, all lobbyists have to wear orange jumpsuits.

from wiki

Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of “racketeering activity.” RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.

When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, he or she has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant’s assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond. This provision was placed in the law because the owners of Mafia-related shell corporations often absconded with the assets. An injunction and/or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.

In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney. Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court, as it focuses on patterns of behavior as opposed to criminal acts.[2]

used the example of PIMCO, the big bond fund, hire Alan Greenspan and then lobby the government to save their asses by taking over Fannie and Freddie and then get hired by the government to oversee its Fannie and Freddie holdings
———————-
that old man has NO SHAME

Hopefully someone like looseheadprop will post on it soon.

Why is Harold Ford on Hardball talking about “counterparties” without disclosing his relationship with Merrill Lynch, one of the biggest counterparties in the AIG fiasco?

and most important
GIVE THE MONEY BACK

I’m sorry, but are you actually suggesting that these large sums of money would in any way influence a politician? I just assumed these companies were writing checks out of a pure and unadulterated appreciation of the democratic process. You mean, they’re actually expecting to get something in return? Who knew? I’m shocked.

In addition:

President Obama collected at least $4.3 million from employees at these companies for his presidential campaign.

All that money goes a long way toward explaining why no one who can actually do it seems to be interested in taking over failed banks.

They are good diaries that lay out how Obama’s economics team created the changes necessary for the current economic collapse.

I don’t know who’s the bigger dipshit, Harold Ford or Tweety. Tough call…

Perhaps this is why the Oracle of Omaha is speaking today? to diss Geitner in sort of an indirect way by asking Obama to calm the mob?

CABLE SNOOZE all propaganda all the time
ORWELL ROLLS

The NewsHour has a segment on about how slow the Obama Administration is in filling positions. Apparently it is because the vetting process is so onerous. Curious, because most of the time it doesn’t look like they have done any vetting at all.

Hey Selise, thanks for the DN transcript and your diaries. Really good genealogy on the fallen souffle (ouch, what a crappy metaphor).

thanks. i only wish there was one “idiot” to blame – instead of almost all of them, Rs and Ds, congress and the administration, virtually tripping over themselves to deregulate.

you funny.

it takes longer when they’re not doing it.

works for me. especially if i consider how hard it is to fix after the souffle has fallen.

Hey you know what? Maybe bullies will report to the principal’s office right after recess and drivers should write their own speeding tickets, too. And burglars should arrest themselves. Let’s deregulate everything.

UNPOSSIBLE………….g

If you didn’t have a chance to digg Jane’s announcement of the campaign to – Tell Congress “No More Dough Till We Know Where It Goes”, please consider digging it now. It’s up to 49 diggs, Spread the word.

Buffet is probably doing damage control for his own reputation. He’s a great investor a fairly mediocre macro-economist. But not even a great investor can do much with a sinking economy like this one.

we are currently college shopping for our teens. I was amazed and delighted to see that Boston U. has the only (perhaps the first?…) department of Political Disinformation. Cool. Now you can major in (the study of) Lying. Lyology.

Ok. but as a major Obama supporter, he can’t be too thrilled with the econ team Obama has any more than we are, reputation or no. jmho.

i went looking for that upton sinclair quote:

“If is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”

and found this one too:

“The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery”

And a new law, all lobbyists have to wear orange jumpsuits.

i like.

my favorite quote re credit is still Wimpy’s:

I’ll give you two hamburgers tomorrow for one hamburger today.

omg! you have got to be kidding

The ones that passed had minor problems. The O Administration is so slow at filling positions becuase few pass the vetting process.

Touche.

“The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery”
———————–
it is…look at the criteria

Yes, but the dirt is beginning to come out. Keep on beating this carpet.

I figure once everybody sees what they are really doing it will save both time and money.. if they are already dressed for prison.

That possible motivation occurred to me, too, but I think he’s genuinely concerned. As you note, even a great investor is going to have trouble doing well in a depression, and if I’m reading what he said correctly, that’s what he’s afraid is about to happen.

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

~ President Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin in 1802

That’s part of it. There have also been holds put on various nominees in the Senate, mostly by Republicans as I understand. One such instance that Edward Teller wrote about today.

This is a crime, and it makes any legislator that accepts such money a criminal profiting from the looting of our nation. Who is accepting money? It is time for them to be removed from office, no matter who they are.

that’s a great quote. and a good corrective to the fear of nationalization bs

Boston University (www.bu.edu), Boston, MA. With a prime location in Boston, a major student populated city, BU offers something for every major. The School of Communication has a great reputation and houses the nation’s only Center for the Study of Political Disinformation. BU also has a study abroad and internship abroad program in major cities around the world.

http://www.vault.com/articles/…..57187.html

Funny thing is, now that I’m trying to find it again on BU’s own site, I can’t find it! Maybe it’s been scrubbed! *g*

Snopes thinks this letter is a hoax, and they have some good reasons.

The problem with the RICO idea is that no one in a position of power sees any of this behavior as criminal, so we can’t get anyone to pay attention, much less investigate and prosecute. The consensus in Washington seems to be that those of us that just do the nuts and bolts of business and banking (by working, managing mortgages, paying credit cards, etc.) don’t UNDERSTAND business and banking. After all, if we did, we’d BE them and would be getting bailouts instead of paying for them.

uh oh. thanks, that’s good to know.

Maybe be so, but he was no friend of bankers

no one in a position of power sees any of this behavior as criminal,

getting to be a list:

torture
lying the country into war for no good reason
using the AGs for political purposes
…

Yes, but it still appears to be a fake. This “letter” shows up depressingly often in a Google search of that last line of your comment. I had to restrict it to the Snopes domain before I could find that link.

But selise, your diaries need to be pimped!

*g*

Thanks for being all over this for so long.

Bob in HI

University of Virginia

http://etext.virginia.edu/jeff…..ff1325.htm

So the USA is now one big criminal enterprise?

Add:
…War on Drugs (Prohibition)
…No bid contracts
…K Street project
…Agriculture Subsidies
..GM foods (Monsanto’s project on seeds)

Snopes has nothing on The Library of Congress. Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, May 28, 1816

2nd paragraph

I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should confirm our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our constitution, and fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The sixth section on the good moral principles of our government, I found so interesting and replete with sound principles, as to postpone my letter-writing to its thorough perusal and consideration.

I think this line is very important in talking to our Congresspeople

Besides much other good matter, it settles unanswerably the right of instructing representatives, and their duty to obey.

Again to the bankers

The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens.

From the last line of the last paragraph

And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Thanks to all who put this project together. I’m in for $25 now and more as needed.
My comment to Members of Congress was that the government is good at holding the average middle class American accountable for every tax dollar owed. They should be just as accountable for every American Tax Dollar spent. I added ; it’d be good to have the bank execs fill out the same welfare form everyone else does. Then the process could proceed from that point, based on general financial information and personal lifestyle/work info.
Once “the rabble, always “the rabble”. But polite rabble.