Wall Street Justice Obama Style

Over and over again, Americans see the same debacle unroll before their eyes, that is, if they are paying any attention. Earlier this year, billions in bonuses were paid to Merrill Lynch executives as the firm was failing. An agreement was made that Bank of America would pick up the pieces of Merrill Lynch with the support of the American taxpayer and later, BofA was bailed out as well. After a dance with the SEC, no wrongdoing was admitted.

After an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Banking wunderkind JPMorgan agreed to a $722 million settlement. Why? It all rises from a risky derivatives deal that drove Alabama politics to the brink of bankruptcy. As part of the settlement, JPMorgan neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing despite overwhelming evidence that the financial group did actually engage in acute wrongdoing.

What passes for justice on Wall Street? Regulators give a banking institution that they back a fine that taps the corporate bottom line for wrongdoing. The banks are eager to quickly forget the whole thing by paying a modest fine and getting on with business as usual. There is no admission to wrongdoing and business continues. The government gets a fine to pad their already overbloated budgets that the American taxpayer is already floating. We must be stupid because we keep doing the same thing over and over.

No one admits to corruption, much less to making a mistake. Meanwhile, nobody pays back the taxpayer, much less actually pays off a debt of any kind.  Reality is a round robin of funny money, usury and blatant dishonesty. Where is the outrage? Nowhere, because we are too wrapped in our small lives and/or afraid of reprisals or perhaps the boogeyman. Perhaps by our collective refusal to stand up against politicians and bankers, we are admitting that any American would do exactly the same thing; that not one American is any better. What do you say? Probably very little.

Economic Depression: American Resentment Flickers Against Corporate Wealth

The recession and the rising gulf between the haves and have nots; investment bankers versus newly impoverished and unemployed Americans is changing viewpoints. At one time, any company reporting record profits was certain to earn applause for this was seen as the American way. Americans were firmly invested in what they believed was the trickle-down theory of economics. The scam that investment bankers have pulled on the world with their highly staked leveraging games has changed much of this sentiment. Now that institutions that formerly made up the investment banking capital of the world are recovering with the intent of paying back taxpayer-backed Federal Reserve bailout money, Americans are leering at the possibilities that nothing has been learned from the crisis of financial literacy that prevails itself upon the world.

Writer David Segal has introduced the idea that class resentment is to blame as investment bankers continue to rake in the speculation-based financial dough based on the same numbers games that brought the nation to the edge of financial oblivion. The reality runs much deeper. In the eyes of Americans, the reality isn’t about making money, but how money is earned. Americans feel that they are being scammed because the nation operates by multiple sets of rules depending on how much money and influence you can peddle. Even members of Congress like Charles Schumer have demonstrated that they believe Americans are simply brutes to be used by the system to bolster corporate along with government wealth and influence.

Now that the likes JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are reporting fantastic encouraging numbers after having enjoyed bailout at the expense of Americans and the system at large, Americans see that the victory is very hollow. Recent financial victories in American are without benefit to anyone that doesn’t directly play the insider financial games on Wall Street. Multinational corporations continue to rule the roost behind the scenes, taking more out of America than they put in. Profit without personal responsibility is king. Most of America continues to be in great pain and America already knows that recent financial victory on Wall Street is a result of the same deluded thinking and policy that still threatens to destroy the financial system. It is not a system based on honesty and real numbers, but simply a gambling game of manipulation and opportunity.

The fact is that the Federal Government likes the control and authority that it wields in the banking community as a result of the bailout. The same can be said for the money that government has invested in the corporate structure. Uncle Sam holds the cards as the government maintains a front row seat at AIG. This is the only means that government now has to rein in the continued greed and avarice of Wall Street and corporate investors. The system hasn’t been reinvented as promised nor have sufficient reforms taken place to insure the safety of financial system on any level. We are still living in the last century. Nothing has changed. That is why government is so quiet about what is a hollow victory on Wall Street. ~ E. Manning

Global Economic Crisis: G8 and the Papacy

During the G8 economic meetings and debate in Italy, Pope Benedict released a new encyclical saying “there is urgent need of a true world political authority.” In that document, Pope Benedict XVI urged G8 leaders meeting in Italy to rewrite global financial rules and to defend the world’s poor from the effects of the economic crisis.

responsibility of the market

In and of itself, the market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak. Society does not have to protect itself from the market, as if the development of the latter were ipso facto to entail the death of authentically human relations. Admittedly, the market can be a negative force, not because it is so by nature, but because a certain ideology can make it so. It must be remembered that the market does not exist in the pure state. It is shaped by the cultural configurations which define it and give it direction. Economy and finance, as instruments, can be used badly when those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends. Instruments that are good in themselves can thereby be transformed into harmful ones. But it is man’s darkened reason that produces these consequences, not the instrument per se. Therefore it is not the instrument that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility.

responsibility of business

Owing to their growth in scale and the need for more and more capital, it is becoming increasingly rare for business enterprises to be in the hands of a stable director who feels responsible in the long term, not just the short term, for the life and the results of his company, and it is becoming increasingly rare for businesses to depend on a single territory. Moreover, the so-called outsourcing of production can weaken the company’s sense of responsibility towards the stakeholders — namely the workers, the suppliers, the consumers, the natural environment and broader society — in favour of the shareholders, who are not tied to a specific geographical area and who therefore enjoy extraordinary mobility. ...business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders who contribute to the life of the business: the workers, the clients, the suppliers of various elements of production, the community of reference.

The papacy has taken an interesting step by inserting itself into the G8 debate framework and  by ordering the involvement of Italy in the process. Certainly, in much earlier times, the papacy was directly involved in such matters without better consequences in those times. History is the best  witness of that truth. Now, the pope indicates that we need a man in charge once again as if the G8 institution is really in charge beyond politics. The real charge has been given to multinational corporations including central bankers on a global basis. The central bankers operate as a global corporate fraternal brotherhood through none other than the Swiss and Rome. Is the papacy and politics going to ‘take authority back’ or have they really lost any authority? The reality is that the papacy already holds ’such coveted authority’ through the central bankers. Most of them have simply forgotten their moral compass in their need to service their clients. Pope Benedict is simply reminding his league that he holds them to a higher priority and that they need to exert a new influence as they continue to profit from money lending.

Pope: Economy Needs Ethics

“Without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot completely fulfill its proper economic function. And today it is this trust which has ceased to exist, and the loss of trust is a grave loss.” According to the Vatican, the economy needs ethics in order to function correctly, just as the implementation of ethical financing and systems of micro-credit and micro-finance indicate. In development programs, the principle of the centrality of the human person must be preserved, while international organizations might question the actual effectiveness of their bureaucratic and administrative structure. This is one of the central messages of Benedict XVIs new encyclical Caritas in Veritate that was published July 7th and signed by the Pope. If you have been following this blog, you know what is up right now. I don’t need to say another word. ~ E. Manning

Federal Reserve Discovers Deviancy

About 16 years ago, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan offered a striking view of the degradation of standards in society. He observed that deviancy was measured as increases in crime, broken homes, and mental illness. These reached levels never seen by earlier generations in the U.S. As a means of coping with the onslaught, society often sought to define the problem away. The definition of customary behavior was expanded. Actions once considered deviant from acceptable standards became, almost immaculately, within bounds. In the case of the authority by the Federal Reserve, deviancy has been all but ignored.

After opening up with a classic comparison of standards in society, Kevin Warsh has other observations about the Federal Reserve that would lead one to wonder if central bankers are really lost, but couching this misdirection as a new philosophy of public exploration of purpose and policy. No such luck fellow Americans and globalists.

Warsh asks: “Will deviancy be defined down with the understanding that a rare crisis is the price for dynamic, robust economic growth?” The Federal Reserve is exploring new philosophy of social and monetary control, but is still thinking within the same old box of capitalism and economic growth via Wall Street and bankers instead of the real economy where the mainstream actually live and grow their lives.

Even Warsh recognizes that over the last few decades that America has not lived in a golden age. He says that periodic, cyclical weakness occur. There were lessons to be learned. Did we learn lessons at any point along the way? Now Kevin Warsh is asking bankers and economic pundits what they want in a new ‘touchy-feely’ approach of philosophy to the recent banking crisis. That’s right…this was a banking crisis, not just another recession. If bankers had not become economic and social deviants, the U.S. and the world would not be in this recession.

Still, Warsh is asking his friends and banking associates whether they choose stability or performance. What do you think bankers will say? The Fed is not really talking change, just more of the same boilerplate economic policies, unchanged for decades and augmented with more control measures and power for central bankers. The Fed doesn’t seek to reform anything, but has plenty to say that supports the status quo. The U.S. and the Fed, through the brotherhood of central bankers, has misused a position of trust. Now the Fed is printing vast sums of money (credit) that will ultimately tumble the dollar and create a larger crisis. ~ E. Manning

Recovery: New Technology and Financial Literacy With a Glimmer of Hope

There are signs that the rapid decline in economic activity of the past few quarters is slowing. Per the observation by the Federal Reserve, stabilization or improvement will begin from very low levels compared with those the levels of previous recoveries. This recovery is likely to be painfully slow and “the economy unusually vulnerable to new shocks. The news remains bad in two areas of direct importance to American families: Unemployment continues to rise and housing prices continue to decline.”

“Government-provided liquidity and guarantees remain as necessary supports in many areas. Because the collapse of these same markets set off the present crisis and the serious recession that has followed, the case for far-reaching reform appears a strong one.”

The Federal Reserve admits the fact that banks are highly leveraged, presumably due to the fractional reserve backlash in this crisis and compounded by creative banking instruments that have brought the system to its’ knees. Many bankers have been highly creative in protecting themselves from public or government scrutiny on an ongoing basis.

The Fed readily admits:

“that a malfunction in the financial industry can immediately and profoundly harm the entire economy…As we have seen to our dismay in the last year, even where such support is forthcoming, the resulting damage inflicted on the real economy by the financial sector can still be extensive, and the potential costs to taxpayers can still be high.”

For some time, the Federal Reserve has heralded the idea of financial literacy as if it were some ‘new technology’. Now the Fed has realized its’ own training regarding the need for a new financial literacy. The Fed now admits “that systemic risk was very much built into our financial system,” spotlighting the too-big-to-fail phenomenon as one of the most problematic systemic risks in the financial system.

Many members of the Fed now admit that we much apply ‘new technology’ to financial literacy and systemic risk in an effort to overcome the greed syndrome that has wracked U.S. and global banking for the last several decades. The problem remains that central bankers, like the Federal Reserve, are now in charge of implementing policy that can pad and perpetuate their own bottom line and purpose for existence since all central bankers are, in reality, a closed brotherhood or society devoted to their own corporate and global power in the financial system as they tap profits from their own system to benefit the global system and the shareholders of the global corporate central banking system. ~ E. Manning

Wall Street Giddy with High Times to Come

We live in exciting times. The stock market is up 100 points… or who knows what goodness corporate investors are blessed with today. Wall Street mavens and financial wizards are feeling giddy with delight. They want good times so badly that they are already deluding themselves that the recession is over and that runaway prosperity is in the wings. It’s time to start making money all over again the way “we” used to. After all, nothing has changed beyond massive cast infusions to hold up the system. Multitudes of banks, corporate mongers, financial wizards and wishful investors are convinced that we are about to relive heady good times without an ounce of reform or correction in the system that jack built. They may be right.

The longer reform takes, the less likely reform is to happen, at least if financial and corporate simple simons have their way. It’s time to stop pretending that the Wall Street economy is the same as the real economy that everyone lives in. Wall Street hasn’t met with total and final meltdown because the Wall Street economy has been rescued. They have lived to see another day because of government bailout, presumably at taxpayer expense. Yep, Wall Street seems to be showing signs of life along with the giddiness that goes along with having a future without any reform or consequences. A real party is set to ensue at the expense of all. The real economy that the rest of America lives is another matter altogether.

What is truly important where the economy is concerned is whether real Americans can find work. If Americans can’t find work or create work that they use to survive, the country is in trouble, pure and simple. 539,000 Americans lost their jobs last month after many months of ongoing successive unemployment disaster. Since the recession officially began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been given the write off by government employment statistics. The reality is actually even worse.

Still, there has been plenty of impressive talk about the new world of reform that America will enjoy, but little has been done beyond the talk. Regulatory reform is dying on the government vine of important projects.

Geithner has quipped, “We are being dramatically more aggressive than I believe any serious government has ever been, certainly in generations, in responding to financial crises. So if you look at the scale of action, look at the quality of initiative we’ve taken, I think it dramatically exceeds even the best-managed crises we’ve seen before.” Ple-e-ze. The system continues just as before, but without any reform or any real ideas for reform that hold any substance. The Masters of the Economy can’t seem to wrap their minds around the banking deluge that has brought us to our knees, much less figure out a way to reform it. They just don’t want to rock the boat of monetary largess. Geithner told Congress that fixing the system would be accomplished not by “modest repairs”, but by “new rules of the game.” I agree that what is playing out between government, corporate bankers and central bankers is a game. That much is obvious.

People are watching. Are you? ~ E. Manning