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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (132239)	3/24/2013 12:06:15 AM
From: John Vosilla	Respond to of 149317

Excuse me. It was wingers that got the US into two wars while reducing taxes for the rich. What game do you think you are playing by suggesting that wingers are the good guys? They are not.......not by a long shot. Somehow the post 9/11 playbook that got us into this mess where these guys controlled everything for six straight years always gets overlooked. Deficits don't matter, shop till you drop, getting them over there so they don't get us over here, installing fear in Americans with all these color coded terror alerts, more trickle down and deregulation just like what resulted in the S&L crisis only ten times worse. Yeah we did good kicking butt over there while spreading democracy and a liberalized government.. I feel so much safer now..

To: tejek who wrote (132239)	3/24/2013 11:32:44 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Think it can’t happen here? It already has By JONATHON TRUGMAN Last Updated: 12:09 AM, March 24, 2013Posted: 11:12 PM, March 23, 2013 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/think_it_can_happen_here_it_already_kprAuhmIYyg9IXystC3BDL Much was made of the tiny European Union member Cyprus last week as regulators attempt to get their pound of flesh from the savings accounts of its banks, with a 10 percent tax on larger accounts. And yet, the European Central Bank taxing citizens to pay up front for a $7.4 billion bailout of the banks still pales in comparison with the fleecing of the US depositor. The Fed has orchestrated a massive transfer of wealth in America from the middle class and the poor to the wealthy. You could call it “Operation Reverse Robin Hood.” Naysavers will object, “That’s outrageous!” I say, “Do the math.” Here it is (in dollars to simplify): If a Cypriot put $1,000 in an island bank four years ago and left it there, today the saver would have a balance of $1,250. Take 10 percent off, and the saver is still up $125. If a US middle-class family put $1,000 in JPMorgan or Citibank four years ago, the balance today would be $1,010 — less bank fees, which means it’s probably closer to a $950 balance. That’s $9.3 trillion in US deposits getting nothing in return except the warm, fuzzy feeling of bolstering the banks’ balance sheets. This does not excuse the ECB action, but it puts into context what Ben Bernanke’s Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) has done for Americans. The Fed chief or theObama administration would never be as blunt as their EU counterparts and call it a tax, but if Uncle Sam — through his policies — is reaching into the pockets of Americans . . . it’s a tax. And what is this ZIRP tax for? A bank bailout just like Cyprus’. The Federal Reserve has been engaged in its $3 trillion covert op, whether it admits it or not. The Fed has been robbing America’s poor and middle class and essentially underwriting the wealthy, the big banks and big business. The twisted maneuvers of grand larceny-like proportions have underwritten the greatest transfer of wealth this generation has ever seen. Millions of responsible Americans — the type who try to put a little away from each paycheck — can’t earn a decent yield from their savings accounts. Take Jamie Dimon’s whale of a bank, JPMorgan Chase, where accounts below $100,000 yield between .05 percent and .25 percent. Or Citibank, where accounts yield the same demoralizing rate. This is a direct byproduct of the Fed’s policy of ZIRP. Another fundamental flaw in the Fed’s policy: It doesn’t address the lack of credit for regular, responsible, everyday Americans. The fact is, average Americans can’t earn a buck on their balance in the bank, and they can’t borrow a buck from the bank at these super-low rates. The Fed has been putting out a kind and gentle message, claiming successes for things they have no deed to, except for making the Dow dance (which to most in the media seems to be the measuring stick by which the Fed is judged). Today, US banks are making billions — many are posting record earnings. Meanwhile, real average earnings for all US employees fell 0.6 percent from January to February, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This stems from a 0.2 percent increase in average hourly earnings being more than offset by a 0.7 percent increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers. So the average American makes almost nothing in the bank, has no access to mortgage or small-business credit and is actually falling behind in real earnings. Suddenly, Cyprus doesn’t look quite so pathetic.

To: tejek who wrote (132239)	3/24/2013 11:36:56 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

MF Global And The Cypriot Banking Crisis: Troubling Similarities forbes.com By Fred Kingery With MF Global (MFG) recently disclosing more details on its bankruptcy and liquidation, let’s quickly review the financial debacle that came to fruition under former New Jersey governor, former U.S. senator, and former Goldman Sachs chairman, Jon Corzine. Moreover, let’s relate it to the current debacle in Cyprus. There are some quite troubling similarities. MFG was a small commodity broker, a marginal operation by many standards or metrics; then along came Jon Corzine. He was looking for a new opportunity to make more money than he already had—which was substantial to begin with. So he was offered a chance to expand the MFG business model by setting up an in-house, proprietary securities trading operation. To make a long story short, he massively overleveraged the company’s capital base by borrowing money to buy high-yield Italian and Greek sovereign debt on the theory that I taly and Greece would always be good for the principle and interest. However, the secondary market value for the bonds he bought collapsed, and MFG was hit with a massive margin call. (MFG would have to put up more cash, margin, in order to continue to hold the bond position, so as to avoid being forced to sell the bonds in the trading account and book a loss that would, in turn, bankrupt MFG.) So, what to do? Mr. Corzine went to all of his friends on Wall Street, hat in hand, and asked for additional short-term financing in order to forgo the day of reckoning. But no additional cash was forthcoming. Then, somehow, over one billion dollars’ worth of segregated customer cash from the commodity brokerage side of MFG found its way into the proprietary speculative trading arm of MFG in order to “temporarily” meet the margin call. This was simply sending good money after bad and—in short order—that “temporary” cash was lost as the bond position deteriorated further and forced the bankruptcy of MF Global. Segregated customer money should be just that, segregated. It is meant to be kept separate from all other parts of MFG’s operations. Segregated money belongs to the customers; it’s their property. The taking of this cash was a theft. Many in the financial community saw what happened at MFG as more than appalling. The act shattered a more-than-century-old trust that had stood the test of time. Customer cash was to be segregated capital, never to be touched by anyone other than the customer—ever. Now comes along the banking crisis in Cyprus. The banking system in Cyprus is very small by international standards, but the country’s two large banks are both essentially bankrupt. In order to avoid collapse, they need a capital infusion. They need cash now. So, what to do? Being a member of the European Union, Cyprus turned to the Euro Finance Ministers and what is known as the Troika, which is the European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the European Commission (EC). These institutions represent the financial fire brigade for the EU. Since the Cypriot banks already have worthless equity, and minimal long-term senior debt, the only thing left of value would be the customer deposits at the banks. The financial fire brigade knew this and decided to impose a condition on the Cypriot government in order to gain access to any capital infusion for the banks. The condition is that the Cypriot government had to steal depositors’ money. Oh, they called it a onetime “emergency tax” or a “levy”—but it would be the taking of private property by the government no matter what it’s officially called. Of course, some may argue that government does this all the time via the tax or levy. They do in a sense, but the difference this time is the sanctioning of the theft by the financial fire brigade on the depositors of a bank. This legal plunder is new. This is like a onetime wealth tax on bank depositors. It’s a confiscation of property—thievery—pure and simple. The significance of the act is the shattering of trust and the precedent it sets. As of the moment of this writing, the Cypriot parliament rejected the initial call to enact the “tax” on depositors in some form or another, but the fundamental point still stands: trust and precedent have been respectively shattered and set. The example of MF Global and the Cypriot bank bailouts are small potatoes, given the amounts of money involved. Nevertheless, how these bailouts affect the confidence and trust in the global financial system cannot be underestimated. In the case of MF Global, nobody went to jail. They should have. In fact, a lot of people probably should be in jail. In the case of the Cypriot bank bailout, the government revealed a similar level of fraudulent intent by entertaining the idea of potentially sanctioning the theft of depositors’ cash—which would be a daylight drive-by robbery where no one is going to go to jail. So, what does all of this say about the modern global financial system? If you are thinking it is corrupt and rotten to the core, you are correct.