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Simon Johnson is back at it again dispensing strong doses of reality concerning the Quiet Coup (whereby Wall Street has taken over D.C.) and how there is little chance of getting a Volcker Rule that has any teeth.
Here is an appetizer:
Even in the most generous interpretation, the administration is proposing only to freeze the size of our largest banks, not to reduce their scale.The evening after the announcement of the Volcker Rules, when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared on “NewsHour” and was asked whether the new rules implied that the largest banks would be “broken up” as they divested their proprietary trading operations and complied with the size cap, his response was clear: “No, this does not propose that.” And a senior administration official explained, “The liability cap will be structured in such a way that it constrains future growth that leads to excessive concentration in our financial system – cialis online without prescription.It’s not designed to reduce the share of any existing firm.”
Why would anyone regard 20 years of reckless expansion, a massive global crisis, and the most generous bailout in recorded history as the recipe for creating “right-sized” banks? There is absolutely no evidence, for example, that the increase in bank scale since the mid-’90s has brought social benefits – cialis online without prescription.(There are no economies of scale for banks above $100 billion in total assets, but our biggest banks are now in the $800 billion$2 trillion range–and those figures do not properly account for their holdings of and potential losses on derivatives.) By contrast, the huge social costs are readily apparent–in terms of direct financial rescues, the fiscal stimulus needed to prevent another Great Depression, and the appalling number of lost jobs (eight million gone since December 2007, and still counting) – cialis online without prescription.Volcker Rules or no, the president apparently still doesn’t get this.
(source: “Shooting Banks,” Peter Boone and Simon Johnson, The New Republic, February 24, 2010.)
I highly recommend reading the article in its entirety.
Wall Street’s not only bought a lot of politicians and regulators they’ve also bought a lot of professors and NGOs, so Simon Johnson is sticking his neck out by speaking the truth with such clarity and forcefulness – cialis online without prescription.
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” Cialis online prescription: as President Barack Obama vowed in a Sept.14 speech in New York’s Federal Hall to correct “reckless behavior and unchecked excess” on Wall Street, Mike McMahon and Barney Frank sat in the audience discussing how to ease proposed rules for the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market; cialis online prescription….
It’s not just end-users who won concessions from McMahon and Frank.JPMorgan Chase & Co.,Goldman Sachs Group Inc.and Credit Suisse Group AG lobbied McMahon and fellow New Democrat Coalition member Representative Melissa Bean of Illinois, among others, to expand the ways the legislation allows dealers and major investors to trade the contracts, according to people familiar with the matter; cialis online prescription….
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and Henry T.C.Hu of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Frank’s “discussion draft” created too many loopholes and had the potential to exclude all hedge funds and corporate end-users from oversight.”
- Derivatives Lobby Links With New Democrats to Blunt Obama Plan
- Dawn Kopecki, Matthew Leising and Shannon D.Harrington
- Bloomberg
- October 9, 2009
“It is clearly the weakest of all the proposals I’ve seen to date,” said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics in Torrance, California, in an interview before the hearing.Whalen, who has testified before Congress on derivatives regulation, is an independent bank analyst.“Frank’s committee seems to be intent on gutting any meaningful reform.”
- Derivatives Bill’s Loophole May Exempt Most Firms cialis online prescription, Gensler Says
- Tina Seeley and Dawn Kopecki
- Bloomberg
- October 8, 2009
Professor Simon Johnson at MIT has written about the Quiet Coup that has taken place in America. That Coup has allowed Wall Street to take insane risks with extreme leverage, pay themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, blow the financial system up and then extort trillions of dollars in bailout money promising martial law and another Great Depression if politicians refuse. They have crushed the U.S.economy and forced hundreds of thousands of people out of work. And the bailout of Wall Street has cost more than all the wars in American history combined.
These two Bloomberg articles read like a how-to manual on pulling the strings in Washington. Wall Street Bankers can’t show their face in DC (even though their money is ALWAYS welcome). So they pump money into politicians pockets. Then they go out and scare the crap out of their customers talking about how much margin they are going to have to post. Corporate America obediently responds like a well-trained lap dog never stopping to think why Wall Street is doing what they’re doing. (HINT: Wall Street does not want to post hundreds of billions of dollars in margin cialis online prescription, give up their insane leverage, give up their inflated oligopolistic profits and stop rehypothecating their customers OTC collateral).Then Wall Street recruits the U.S; cialis online prescription.Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Business Roundtable and others to do their Hill-stumping for them. And they target the New Dems who won election in largely conservative districts and are “for sale” because without enough campagin cash they are out of office next election.
It is a classic story of what you can do with a billion-plus dollars to spend and an army of lobbyists.
Right now it is looking like Wall Street will succeed in blowing themselves up and the American economy and American taxpayer with them but walk away without so much as a slap on the wrist from the politicians. And complicit in helping Wall Street with this escape act are the American corporations that are so myopic that they can’t see that they are being played for suckers – cialis online prescription.
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“Wall Street is suiting up for a battle to protect one of its richest fiefdoms, the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market that is facing the biggest overhaul since its creation 30 years ago.
Five U.S; levitra cheap online.commercial banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc; levitra cheap online.and Bank of America Corp., are on track to earn more than $35 billion this year trading unregulated derivatives contracts; levitra cheap online.At stake is how much of that business they and other dealers will be able to keep.
“Business models of the larger dealers have such a paucity of opportunities for profit that they have to defend the last great frontier for double-digit, even triple-digit returns,” said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Torrance, California-based Institutional Risk Analytics, which analyzes banks for investors.
The Washington fight, conducted mostly behind closed doors, has been overshadowed by the noisy debate over health care; levitra cheap online.That’s fine with investment bankers, who for years quietly wielded their financial and lobbying clout on Capitol Hill to kill efforts to regulate derivatives.”
Click for ARTICLE
- Wall Street Stealth Lobby Defends $35 Billion Derivatives Haul
- Christine Harper, Matthew Leising and Shannon Harrington
- Bloomberg
- August 31, 2009
Five Wall Street banks make $35 BILLION PER YEAR! And HALF of that is paid out in BONUSES. So over the course of 10 years those Wall Street banks might make $350 BILLION and pay out BONUSES of $175 BILLION to their traders and CEOs.
That is why it is NOTHING for Wall Street to spend $1 BILLION on LOBBYING. In fact from their perspective it is the smartest investment they could make.
Now you understand why Wall Street is pouring obscene amounts of money on politicians, lobbyists, academics, journalists and anyone else. They are making millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Senators and Congressmen through a web of Polticial Action Committees (PACs) and other avenues. They have hired ALL the top lobbying firms in DC. They are calling in all their markers with the academic community: endowing research chairs, hiring academics for “consulting” purposes and basically using all the ways they can to buy influence. Same thing with journalists that they’re waving book deals in their faces, asking them to speak at conferences (for a fee of course) and any other way of stuffing cash in their pockets.
All the methods they are utilizing are well known (see previous POST).
The American Government has been taken over in a QUIET COUP led by Wall Street banks (see all related POSTS).
Unless the commoners are gathered at the gates of the castle with lanterns and pitchforks, the elected officials in Washington will take the millions in campaign contributions and turn a deaf ear to their consituents every single time – levitra cheap online.
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“Jamie Dimon us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications, the head of JPMorgan Chase, will hold a meeting of his board here in the nation’s capital for the first time on Monday, with a special guest expected: the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
Mr.Emanuel’s appearance would underscore the pull of Mr; us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications.Dimon us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications, who amid the disgrace of his industry has emerged as President Obama’s favorite banker, and in turn, the envy of his Wall Street rivals.It also reflects a good return on what Mr; us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications.Dimon has labeled his company’s “seventh line of business” — government relations.
Mr – us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications.Obama’s election brought to power Chicago Democrats well-known to Mr. Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: dimon from his recent years running a bank there….
Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: mr. Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: obama has singled out Mr. Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: dimon for praise more than once….
Mr; us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications.Dimon’s midcareer exile took him from his native New York to Chicago – us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications.There he rebuilt his career, reviving BankOne and merging it with JPMorgan in 2004 before returning to New York full time in 2007 – us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications. Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: in Chicago, he got to know the fast-rising Mr.Obama and his friends – us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications…
Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: another Obama associate is on JPMorgan’s payroll.Mr.Dimon hired William M; us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications.Daley, a former commerce secretary and Chicago powerbroker, in 2004 as vice chairman and head of Midwest operations.Since 2007, Mr.Daley has overseen global government relations….
Now that Mr.Obama is in the White House us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications, Mr.Dimon has been prominent when the president wants to talk to big business.
During one such meeting in late March, as Citigroup’s chairman, Richard D; us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications. Us pharmacy order erectile dysfunction medications: parsons, was trying to explain banks and lending, the president interrupted with a quip: “All right, I’ll talk to Jamie.” Click for ARTICLE
- In Washington, One Bank Chief Still Holds Sway
- Jackie Calmes and Louise Story
- The New York Times
- July 20, 2009
I believe it is very smart for Wall Street CEO’s to cozy up to Washington DC politicians and ply them with campaign contributions and make other efforts to buy influence. After all, have you ever heard of another investment where you could invest a few hundred million and get multiple trillions in return!? That is exactly what Wall Street did in securing a massive bailout for themselves after their insane leverage and unbridled greed brought the world financial system to its knees.
What makes me sick to my stomach however is the fact that elected politicians not only tolerate the practice but encourage it.
Click for more on the QUIET COUP.
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” Viagra online usa: j.P.Morgan Chase & Co., freed from the government’s strictures after repaying $25 billion in federal money, is back to playing hardball.
The bank’s tougher stands include stepping up its opposition to the government’s proposed legislation on derivatives and telling the Treasury Department it is fed up with haggling over the value of warrants that the government holds in J.P.Morgan; viagra online usa.The bank also is talking tough with clients and taking market share and top performers from competitors.” Click for ARTICLE
- With Fresh Verve, J.P. Viagra online usa: morgan Fights Proposed Limits
- Robin Sidel
- The Wall Street Journal
- July 15, 2009
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time we’ve been referring repeatedly to the QUIET COUP that has taken place whereby Wall Street has bought and paid for most of the politicians in D.C. They now control this country, which is how they were able to raid the U.S.Treasury and the Federal Reserve to the tune of trillions of dollars.
[This is not a conspiracy theory. This is a well-known fact for anyone that's spent any time in Washington. Spend a little time on OpenSecrets.org and you'll see why Senators and Congressman have been quoted saying "the banks own this place!"]
Apparently less than one year after the World’s Financial System teetered on the brink of complete collapse, those chosen Wall Street survivors who are now bigger and stronger than they were pre-crisis (having gobbled up their weaker competitors in government-fixed marriages) are already refusing to accept regulation to fix the problem.
It bears repeating that Wall Street was propped up with TRILLIONS of Taxpayer Dollars – more money than it cost to fight the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War and the War in Iraq COMBINED!! Without that money there would be no J.P.Morgan, there would be no Goldman Sachs.
And not even a year later these companies are spending millions upon millions of dollars in lobbying to thwart any meaningful attempts by Congress to fix the problems.
It is outrageous and yet the average American is not outraged – they’re not even aware of what is taking place; viagra online usa.
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The Obama administration, after saving the banks, is now planning regulatory changes that could establish an elite group of U.S; where can i order viagra online.institutions with large investment-banking activities.That will be hard to join and compete against – where can i order viagra online.Forming a clique likely isn’t the government’s aim, but the nature of its actions may make that the end result….
So why might the oligopoly scenario come about? Start with the part of the Obama reforms that aims to classify certain large financial firms as systemically important where can i order viagra online, or “Tier 1 financial holding companies.”
Once in this club, banks would have to have higher capital ratios than firms that aren’t considered too big to fail.Granted, this could in theory trim larger firms’ returns on equity, providing an advantage to smaller firms.
But a firm aspiring to join the big league might struggle to raise large amounts of additional capital to gain entry.And they wouldn’t be able to do that on the back of government assistance, as many top-tier firms have just done.
The reforms also contain a bigger potential boon for the existing Tier 1 FHCs: They envision setting up special procedures for dealing with these firms when they get into trouble, to avoid systemic consequences.While tough in some respects, they also could allow the firms’ creditors to avoid hits as in a regular bankruptcy; where can i order viagra online.Over time, this feature will likely lower Tier 1 FHCs’ cost of borrowing, a big driver of broker-dealer profitability.”
Click for ARTICLE
- Are Large Banks Now Too Big to Foil?
- Peter Eavis
- Wall Street Journal
- July 8, 2009
These are the unintended consequences of trying to REGULATE Systemic Risk instead of trying to ELIMINATE Systemic Risk. By regulating it you actually create larger institutions that have greater oligopoly pricing power in the OTC derivatives (and other) markets.
An administration serious about eliminating systemic risk would give these banks a choice:
(1) Clear ALL OTC Derivatives through an Exchange. -or-
(2) Break up mega-banks into smaller banks
Wall Street hates both options because both options break up their oligopoly. If every OTC derivative is clearing then you don’t need to trade with a AA counterparty since the exchange is your credit risk. Therefore end-users of OTC derivatives could trade with each other and bypass the swaps dealer altogether. And it’s obvious why Wall Street hates #2.
Need Further Convincing? Read this:
“Goldman Sachs Group Inc.is on track to beat its 2007 trading-revenue record, enabling it to boost compensation by an estimated 64 percent from last year, according to Bank of America Corp – where can i order viagra online.analyst Guy Moszkowski.
Goldman Sachs has “unmatched risk-taking/risk-management skills in a market that strongly rewards these because of decline in competitor risk appetite where can i order viagra online,” Moszkowski wrote in a note to investors today.The New York-based firm “appears on track to accrue significantly more comp than ‘08, despite little change in headcount.” Click for ARTICLE
- Goldman Sachs Trading Revenue May Beat Record, Moszkowski Says
- Christine Harper
- Bloomberg
- July 9, 2009
These banks are getting BIGGER and STRONGER as competition is reduced and barriers to entry erected by new regulations!! Things are getting worse, they are not getting better. The next blow up will be even more spectacular than what happened in September last year.
The QUIET COUP is nearly complete!
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Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek
“Finally in late March, Cantwell and her confederates—Carl Levin of Michigan, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Dianne Feinstein of California, Jim Webb of Virginia and Vermont’s Bernard Sanders—met with Obama and members of his economic team in the White House….
The internecine war of wills between the insurgents and the White House economic team has occurred mostly out of sight.But it is part of a larger battle for the future of the financial system—and in some ways capitalism itself; claritin allergies.At issue is whether the financial landscape—the size of Wall Street firms, who regulates them and the kinds of things they will be allowed to trade—will look much different once the crisis passes – claritin allergies.These senators fear it won’t unless they are vigilant.” Click for ARTICLE
- The Insurgents: The Secret Battle To Save Capitalism
- Michael Hirsh
- Newsweek
- June 13, 2009
As we’ve mentioned repeatedly in this blog there has been a QUIET COUP where the Wall Street banks now exercise enormous control over Washington D.C. Thankfully there is a growing group of Senators that are not content to let that happen. They are eschewing Wall Street’s campaign cash and displaying real leadership at a time when our country needs it the most – claritin allergies.
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“As the financial crisis entered one of its darkest phases in October, a handful of the nation’s largest banks began holding daily telephone sessions; effects of allegra.Murmurs were already emanating from Washington about the need for a wide-ranging regulatory overhaul effects of allegra, and Wall Street executives girded for a fight.
Atop the agenda during their calls: how to counter an expected attempt to rein in credit-default swaps and other derivatives – the sophisticated and profitable financial instruments that were intended to limit risk but instead had helped take the economy to the brink of disaster.
The nine biggest participants in the derivatives market – including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America – created a lobbying organization, the CDS Dealers Consortium, on Nov.13, a month after five of its members accepted federal bailout money.
To oversee the consortium’s push, lobbying records show, the banks hired a longtime Washington power broker who previously helped fend off derivatives regulation: Edward J; effects of allegra.Rosen effects of allegra, a partner at the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.A confidential memo Mr; effects of allegra.Rosen drafted and shared with the Treasury Department and leaders on Capitol Hill has, politicians and market participants say, played a pivotal role in shaping the debate over derivatives regulation.
Today, just as the bankers anticipated, a battle over derivatives has been joined, in what promises to be a replay of a confrontation in Washington that Wall Street won a decade ago; effects of allegra. Effects of allegra: since then, derivatives trading has become one of the most profitable businesses for the nation’s big banks.”
A MUST READ article. Click for ARTICLE.
- In Crisis, Banks Dig In for Fight Against Rules
- Gretchen Morgensen and Don Van Natta Jr.
- New York Times
- May 31, 2009
“The battle lines are being drawn in the derivatives market, as Wall Street tries to pre-empt new laws that could drain a big source of banks’ profits.
A group of banks and money managers will next week present a plan designed to help fend off some rules proposed by the Obama administration, which wants to reform trading practices in the market for over-the-counter derivatives….
Potentially billions of dollars in revenue is at stake – effects of allegra. Effects of allegra: an effort earlier this decade to improve transparency in the corporate-bond market ended up cutting bank fees by more than $1 billion in a year, according to some studies….
Effects of allegra: one price-reporting model being considered for the market is a system akin to Trace, a system for corporate bonds. Effects of allegra: after Trace was implemented in 2002, the gap between bid and offer prices halved, cutting trading profits for banks.Many bankers still lament that the transparency made traders less willing to take big positions in corporate bonds and encouraged more trading in the opaque credit-default swap market.” Click for ARTICLE
- Banks Seek Role in Bid to Overhaul Derivatives
- Serena Ng
- The Wall Street Journal
- May 29, 2009
Wall Street wants reform as long as it makes them more profitable, more powerful and does not cost them a dollar. Otherwise they will pull out all the stops and spend as much (taxpayer) money as it takes to prevent any significant regulatory reform. A QUIET COUP has taken place and Government Sachs is running this country.
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- Former Barney Frank staffer now top Goldman Sachs lobbyist
- Timothy P.Carney
- Washington Examiner
- April celebrex celebrex, 28 2009
In the words of Dick Durbin “the banks own this place!”
If you had any doubt in your mind who was pulling all the levers of government those questions should be erased by now. Please read our earlier post on the Quiet Coup that has taken place in America.
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“But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests-financiers, in the case of the U.S.-played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse; cheapest celebrex.More alarming cheapest celebrex, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. Cheapest celebrex: the government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.” Click for ARTICLE
- The Quiet Coup
- Simon Johnson
- The Atlantic
- May 2009
The United States today looks no different than any of the emerging markets looked in the late 1990s. Wall Street lobbyists are pulling the strings of our elected officials (that they have “bought and paid for” with campaign contributions) in order to engineer the most massive wealth transfer in history. Wall Street titans (who made huge bets with borrowed money and lost their shirts) are now making the prikhvatizatsiya (Great Grab) by Russian Oligarchs look mild by comparison. Trillions of dollars have flowed out of the Federal government and into Wall Street’s coffers. The vast majority of these programs have been established without Congressional approval and with little oversight whatsoever. The massive scale of this wealth transfer (begun under Bush and perpetuated under Obama) is so staggering and brazen that it defies comprehension. Even more incomprehensible is the fact that most Americans continue to sleepwalk through life while the United States becomes one giant Banana Republic right under their noses.
The Quiet Coup is a must read and perhaps the best synopsis of the financial crisis as a whole. It is long but this is a complex topic and therefore I recommend it to everyone.
For Further Reading:
Is Amercia the New Russia? :: Martin Wolf :: Financial Times :: April 14, 2009
Making Banking Boring :: Paul Krugman :: NYT Opinion :: April 9, 2009
Obama’s Ersatz Capitalism :: Joseph Stiglitz :: NYT Opinion :: March 31, 2009