Wall Street

According to the Wall Street Journal: "The White House wants Congress to rewrite a $25 billion fund for retooling plants to make more energy-efficient vehicles to allow the auto makers to tap it for bailout money—if they can show long-term viability. The auto makers and some of their Democratic supporters prefer a quick infusion of emergency cash from the $700 billion financial-rescue fund that troubled Citigroup was allowed to use."

[COULDN'T THEY HAVE GIVEN ABOUT $20,000 TO EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD INSTEAD? -DS]

By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry, Bloomberg

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.

The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the only plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.

General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
By Russ Dallen | Latin American Herald

General Motors (GM) plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.

According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."

"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.

By Dave Lindorff

The ongoing and deepening global economic crisis, to which Barack Obama owes his presidential election victory, is no small thing, to be sure. It also presents us on the left with a lot of openings to press for progressive change.

The G20 Economic Summit Won’t Change This Dirty Diaper
Remarks by Richard C. Cook | George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia | November 15, 2008

The G20 is meeting today in Washington, D.C., to discuss the world financial crisis, its causes, and what can be done about it. But this won’t help the people of the U.S. who have been victimized by their own financial system.

The stated objectives are to find ways to stabilize and reduce speculation in the financial markets and make financial transactions more transparent, more efficient, and more international in scope. But this is also a revolt by the nations of the world against over-reliance on the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. What we are likely to see over time is a multi-currency regime that includes the Euro and one or more Asian currencies as well.

Citing Administration’s Failure and Unwillingness to use funds to Prevent Foreclosures, as Congress Intended

Washington D.C. (November 17, 2008) – Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to Representative Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, recommending that Congress inform the White House that it will not authorize the second $350 billion tranche of the bailout funds to the Treasury Department. The Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow examining oversight of the implementation of the bailout and of government lending and insurance facilities.

By Muriel Kane, Raw Story

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) is making waves by criticizing Treasury Secretary Paulson's handling of the bailout and saying that Congress should take back whatever is left of the $700 billion "blank check" it issued to the Bush administration in October.

In a letter posted on his website, Inhofe told his Senate colleagues that he intends to push for immediate legislation that would require Congressional authorization for any further payouts.

People Need to Organize to Break the Bailout and Demand the Economy We Want
By Kevin Zeese

October saw an increase in bankruptcies -- 108,595, an average of 4,936 every business day.

President Bush hosted the G-20 summit –the official menu included fruitwood-smoked quail, thyme-roasted rack of lamb and baked Vermont brie with walnut crostini, along with three wines . . .

More than a quarter million U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in October. A total of 279,561 properties got a default notice, were warned of a pending auction or were foreclosed.

World leaders washed down their quail and lamb with three expensive wines – one Shafer Cabernet “Hillside Select” 2003 sells at $499 a bottle.

Have these leaders ever heard of Maria Antoinette and the French Revolution?

Worse Than the Great Depression?
by Stephen Lendman

It's a minority but growing view, including from 86-year old former Goldman Sachs chairman, John Whitehead, at the November 12 Reuters Global Finance Summit in New York. As disturbing evidence mounts, he said: "I think it would be worse than the depression. We're talking about reducing the credit of the United States of America, which is the backbone of the economic system. I see nothing but large increases in the deficit, all of which are serving to decrease the credit standing of America.

Global Economic Tremors
by Stephen Lendman

On October 28, the Financial Times' columnist Martin Wolf wrote: "Preventing a global slump must be the priority." He cited Nouriel Roubini back in February listing "twelve steps to financial disaster," all of which the US took and dragged the whole world down with it.

Priority one is to rescue it and avoid a possible depression. "Given the near-disintegration of the western world's banking system, the flight to safe assets, the tightening of credit to the real economy, collapsing equity prices, turmoil on currency markets, continued steep declines in house prices, rapid withdrawal of funds from hedge funds and ongoing collapse of the so-called "shadow banking system." More worrisome is that "next year could be far worse" so what does Wolf think should be done?

Washington D.C. (November 11, 2008) – The leading Democrat and Republican of a House Oversight Subcommittee insisted on the testimony of a top Treasury official today. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Secretary Paulson insisting that Mr. Neel Kashkari, the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, testify before a hearing of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee on Friday, November 14, 2008. Congressman Kucinich is the Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee and Congressman Issa is the Ranking Minority Member.

“There are serious questions about Treasury Department’s plans to realize the goals of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that can only be addressed by the official in charge,” Kucinich and Issa wrote in the letter.

By Dave Lindorff

The one thing we are not hearing from Congress or from incoming president Barack Obama in the current economic crisis facing the country are the words “anti-trust” and “public ownership.”

From the moment the crisis first struck, with the near collapse of AIG, the mantra has been that companies like AIG, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, etc.--and more recently General Motors Corp. and Ford--are “too big to fail.” That is, it is argued that these companies are so huge that if they were to collapse into the rubble they deserve to be, it would damage the nation irreparably.

The question is, if that is genuinely the case, why were they allowed to be that big in the first place, and why aren’t we rethinking that policy?

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose
By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

With attention on bailout debate, Treasury made change to tax law
By Amit R. Paley, The Washington Post

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

An Open Letter Regarding the Upcoming G-20 Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Read the full text here

An Open Letter Regarding the Upcoming G-20 Meeting in Washington, D.C.

To add your name, register, log in, and sign the petition.

From Dennis Kucinich:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 6, 2008) — On Friday, November 14, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154, the Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled, “Is Treasury Using Bailout Funds to Increase Foreclosure Prevention, as Congress Intended?” This will be the Subcommittee’s sixth hearing in the 110th Congress examining the foreclosure crisis and its solutions.

The End of Prosperity
by Stephen Lendman

From too much of a good thing. From the 1980s and 1990s excesses. From the longest ever US bull market. Heavily manipulated to keep it levitating. From August 1982 to January 2000. An illusory reprieve from October 2002 to October 2007. Fluctuations aside, all lost in the past 12 months. The wages of sin are now due, and payment is being painfully extracted. From all nations globally. Affecting ordinary people the most who had nothing to do with creating booms and busts. They got little on the upside but are paying dearly for the down.

The Leader Who Always Gets It Right
By Natasha | OpEdNews.com

The measure of a person's greatness and success lies not in the office to which that person is elected but in the person's ability to be true to the electorate once in office.

Anyone can sell their soul to buy a presidency or a dictatorship. It takes real power and courage to stand up to the forces that control most members of government. It takes true greatness to stand with the people against power-buyers.

Introduction to Devaluation and Demonetization
By Dave Dionisi | Teach Peace Foundation

The current financial crisis is a great opportunity to teach peace. Wars may be about land, or energy, or power, but they require vast expenditures of money.

Americans are beginning to see the Teach Peace bailout grand theft warning is accurate. A JPMorgan Chase executive has confirmed the bailout funds are not to help homeowners but to consolidate power in anticipation of what could become a depression. The banks listed below are using taxpayer funds to buy smaller banks.

More from the Front Lines of the Financial Crisis
by Stephen Lendman

In its latest economic outlook, Merrill Lynch economists "worry about inflation, or more precisely," a lack of it. From crashing global equity markets, falling commodity prices, rising unemployment, stagnant wages, over-indebted households, declining production, the continuing housing crisis, and more. All pointing to several future quarters of negative growth. Showing that Fed chairman Bernanke will face "his greatest fear: deflation." An analysis of the coincident to lagging indicators signals "deep recession."

In his October 24, commentary, Merrill's North American economist David Rosenberg sees "economic data deteriorating in a very serious way (and says) we are witnessing unprecedented stuff happen:"

• the two-year housing recession "is still far from over" with new lows in a number of key readings;
• it's "morphed into a capex recession, industrial production" had its worst decline in 34 years;
• consumer confidence showed record declines;
• retail sales keep falling; evidence is that auto and chain store sales will show four straight down months; it's happened only four other times since 1947, so "we're living through a 1-in-200 event;"
• based on CPI data, prices are falling; at a rapid pace also seen only four other times since 1947;

By William Greider, The Nation

The swindle of American taxpayers is proceeding more or less in broad daylight, as the unwitting voters are preoccupied with the national election. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson agreed to invest $125 billion in the nine largest banks, including $10 billion for Goldman Sachs, his old firm. But, if you look more closely at Paulson's transaction, the taxpayers were taken for a ride--a very expensive ride. They paid $125 billion for bank stock that a private investor could purchase for $62.5 billion. That means half of the public's money was a straight-out gift to Wall Street, for which taxpayers got nothing in return.

William Greider: United Steelworkers Union prez Leo Gerard cracks open the sweetheart deal that bailed out nine banks--and likely lined the Treasury Secretary's own pockets--with billions of taxpayer dollars. Does anybody care?

US public pension funds face big losses
By Deborah Brewster | FinancialTimes.com

Public pension funds in US states are facing their worst year of losses in history, exacerbating existing funding shortfalls and putting pressure on state governments to shore them up.

In the nine months to the end of September, the average state pension fund lost 14.8 per cent, according to Northern Trust, a fund company. The loss has grown since, as financial markets slumped further in October. The previous highest loss for state funds was 7.9 per cent for the full year in 2002.

California’s Calpers, the US’s biggest pension fund, last week reported a loss of 20 per cent of its assets, or more than $40bn, between July 1 and October 20 this year.

Public Enemy Number One
by Stephen Lendman

A note before beginning. This article focuses on today's financial and economic crisis. Not affairs of state, war and peace or geopolitics. No guessing who's number one under those headings. That said:

With so many good choices, it's hard just picking one. But given the gravity of today's financial crisis, one name stands out above others. The "maestro," as Bob Woodward called him in his book by that title. The "Temple of Boom" chairman, according to a New York Times book review. Standing "bestride the Fed like a colossus." Now defrocked as the "maestro" of misery. Alan Greenspan. From August 11, 1987 to January 31, 2006, as head of the private banking cartel euphemistically called the Federal Reserve. That Ron Paul explains isn't Federal and has no reserves.

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig

The battle for Barack Obama's economic soul is on in earnest, and it has nothing to do with the "European socialism" that John McCain attempted to use as an epithet against him. The Republican quickly dropped that line of attack, perhaps because the European Union's brand of democratic socialism has proved more effective in regulating the rapacious financial markets at the heart of the economic meltdown. Besides, the socialist British Labor Party has been President Bush's most loyal supporter of the Iraq occupation that McCain has made the test of true patriotism.

By Dave Lindorff

I’m ready to call this election. It’s going to be a big win for Barack Obama.

I know this because of a story I heard from an employee of a major polling organization. He tells of a poll worker who was interviewing homeowners in a small town in central Pennsylvania, part of that “real” American hailed by Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The man knocked on the door, and when the woman of the house answered, told her he was a pollster and wanted to know how her household planned to vote in November.

The woman turned and yelled into the house, “Honey, how are we voting this year?”

From inside the house, a male voice yelled back, “I guess we’re voting for the nigger.”

The woman turned to the stunned pollster and, without a hint of embarrassment, said, “I guess we’re voting for Obama.”

Simply put, Obama has won the racist vote, a core Republican constituency since the late 1960s.

Bailed-Out but Still Giving Bonuses
Questions Loom Over How Much Cash Wall Street Firms Are Still Paying Executives
By Scott Mayerowitz | ABCNews.com

Fear that Wall Street firms receiving billions of taxpayer dollars in aid might still go ahead with hefty executive bonuses has led one U.S. congressman to start investigating compensation packages.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is chairman of the Domestic Policy subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he plans to ask banks and brokerages to detail their employee pay packages.

Kucinich voted against the $700 billion bailout package, saying that he "had great suspicions" that the money wouldn't help stop the flood of foreclosures. Reining in excessive executive compensation was promised as part of the bailout plan. Now it appears, Kucinich said, that such promises aren't coming true and that some firms might even be using the cash from the federal bailout to reward employees.

"That raises questions about the legitimacy of the bailout and we really need to find out how widespread this is," he told ABC News today.

Kucinich's concerns stem from a recent report by London's The Guardian that more than $70 billion in bonuses might be paid out by Wall Street banks this year. The firms named by the British paper include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

An Interview With Richard C. Cook: The Challenger Disaster, Financial Collapse And Viable Solutions By Gary Corseri

GC: Just a little background: I was reading your articles on the Web, with much interest, getting a lot of information; then, I was pleased to find your favorable comments on something I’d written. I wrote you that, should you find yourself in the D.C. area, give a holler—and, you’re the only guy I ever wrote that to who actually hollered!

RC: (Laughs.)

GC: So … here we are … I want to get into your ideas—your views on the economy … But first, can you tell us a little about yourself? I’ve read some of your first book, CHALLENGER REVEALED, and I think it’s fair to say that you established your reputation as a whistle-blower back in 1987 in front of the Presidential Commission on the space shuttle disaster. You worked for NASA, you were prescient back then, your warnings were ignored or dismissed. I hope that some of us are a little smarter, and that there are more of us who can better heed your warnings now about our free-falling economy. First, Who is Richard Cook?