We Speak with Dylan Ratigan on Bank Extraction from the Economy
We had a conversation with Dylan Ratigan about how banks take more than their fair share. You can listen below or find an overview and transcript here.
Read more...Yearly Archives: 2011
Links 12/12/11
Matt Stoller: How the Federal Reserve Fights
By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can reach him at stoller (at) gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @matthewstoller.
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg released a significant story on the actions of the Federal Reserve as the lender of last resort during the crisis and the extent of that lending. The article, an homage to the late great reporter Mark Pittman, revealed lending and guarantees of roughly $8 trillion, and estimated government-granted profit garnered by the big banks of $13 billion.
More disturbing were inconsistent statements by Bernanke publicly claiming he was lending only to sound institutions when the Fed’s internal assessments of those same banks showed otherwise. This article prompted a remarkable back-and-forth between Bloomberg and the Fed, in which neither side backed down while coming close to calling the other a liar. Bloomberg essentially argued that the Fed gave ill-gotten profits to money center banks through facilities set up to flood the system with liquidity. The Fed responded that it charged “penalty” rates to these banks, that it was fulfilling a well recognized function of central banks by serving as the lender of last resort.
I side with Bloomberg, and I’ll explain why.
Read more...Maureen Tkacik: The Anti-#Occupy/CIA Connection
Maureen Tkacik is (now) a writer living in Washington, DC. You can follow her on Twitter at @moetkacik
I was at the Georgetown library the other day flipping through old bound volumes of the Ramparts magazine for reasons entirely unrelated when I came upon a brief story from a 1972 issue about “increasing speculation within the intelligence community that the CIA has struck up a direct relationship with police forces in major cities.” Said speculation had been triggered by a $30 million grant from the Ford Foundation to endow a new nonprofit formed to research “best practices” in policing or something along those lines. And Richard Helms’ former executive assistant had recently left the Agency after 17 years to join, and another bigger deal CIA guy was somehow also involved.
I jotted down some notes because the official description of the Ford Foundation project in question reminded me of the alleged purpose of the organization I’d read about hosting conference calls to discuss “best practices” for cracking down on Occupy Wall Street.
Read more...Journey into a Libertarian Future: Response to Reader Comments
By Andrew Dittmer, who recently finished his PhD in mathematics at Harvard and is currently continuing work on his thesis topic. He also taught mathematics at a local elementary school. Andrew enjoys explaining the recent history of the financial sector to a popular audience.
Many readers wrote in warm and thoughtful comments on the series I wrote interviewing Code Name Cain. I was unfortunately away when the series first posted, and so was not able to respond immediately. Here are some reflections.
Read more...Class War: Low Wages and Beggar Thy Neighbor
I hope readers forgive me for not posting myself tonight. I not only have a lot of good guest contributions, but Philip Pilkington called my attention to this presentation by Dr. Heiner Flassbeck, a former deputy secretary in the German Ministry of Finance and currently chief economist the UN agency for World Trade and Development in Geneva. Even though I feature videos from time to time, I thought this one was particularly worthy of reader attention.
Don’t be deceived. The talk starts out a bit dry, but Dr. Flassbeck builds up a real head of steam as he gets into his material.
Read more...Links 12/11/11
JP Morgan “Greed Washing”: Sponsors Orwellian TV Advertorial to Tout $2 Million of Charity Spending
The New York Times (hat tip Mary B) took note of a seamy JP Morgan effort at brand burnishing:
In a gambit to promote its charitable work — and maybe polish its image, which has suffered since the financial collapse in 2008 — JPMorgan Chase is financing and sponsoring the “American Giving Awards,” which will be televised by NBC on Saturday night. The two-hour show, with Bob Costas as host, will profile recipients of Chase donations, will be book-ended by Chase commercials and will regularly remind viewers that the whole event is “presented by Chase.”…/
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Wolf Richter: Germany’s Last-Ditch Compromise, At A Price
By Wolf Richter, San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Cross posted from Testosterone Pit.
“I’m very happy with the result,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told the cameras on Friday morning as she climbed out the limo. She talked about the start of a stability and fiscal union and didn’t want to accept any “lazy compromises.” But the vague agreement that emerged may be illegal under European Union law and may devastate weaker economies.
Read more...Links 12/10/11
Eurocrisis Solutions For Whom?
This Real News Network segment was recorded before the supposed “this time we’re really gonna fix it” Eurozone deal was announced today. Nevertheless, it is a useful discussion of the political dynamics that drove the pact.
Read more...Econoparody: The Cinders of Ayn Rand
The folks at Versus have released a set of holiday econoparodies. This is my favorite:
Read more...Most Evil Person of the Year Award?
Reader MyLessThanPrimeBeef inquired after having a NC Most Evil Person of the Year Award, and Doc Holiday was enthusiastic:
Smashing concept! I see member votes, contributions, discussions, videos, pixs, stories, editorials and a big build-up, possibly door prizes, publicity, snaxs, parties and a great summation of who had done the most damage to the global economy … best role by a central banker, best supporting role by a Greek Prim Minister, Best financial illusions, best use of a MEFO Covered Bond by a German, Best Italian bankruptcy, Best French Connection, Largest Chunk Of Cash Looted or Burned … great lists that could go infinitely, as we continue our exploration of the black hole this drama is played out in!
Doc is correct in that this is a target rich environment.
Read more...Links 12/9/11
Corzine’s Know-Nothing MF Global Defense
Jon Corzine’s evasive testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee was scripted so as to lay foundations for his defense against customer and possibly shareholder suits and reduce the already very low odds of an indictment.
Although I’ll touch on other interesting elements shortly, the key item from his presentation was one that the New York Times’ Dealbook noted:
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