MichaelCollins's blog
"Jeopardizing U.S. Standing" – the Petraeus Controversy
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 19:03 | 
MichaelCollins
Leaks from a recent top level briefing by General David Petraeus are causing quite a controversy. The general pointed out that, "Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region." Mark Perry reported this on March 13 in Foreign Policy. Perry said, "No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue... "
When I read a statement like that, it's like hearing the opening music for The Twilight Zone. What on earth is Perry talking about? Every CENTCOM commander, from General Tommy Franks, through Petraeus, has endorsed the continuation of the Iraq war and occupation. That's as essentially political as you can get.
There was no basis for invading Iraq:
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Tags: Biden, foreign policy, Israel, military, Petraeus, settlements
Economic Warfare? Europe versus Wall Street
Wed, 03/10/2010 - 07:05 | MichaelCollins
(March 10) Wall Streets is headed toward international pariah status thanks to two recent actions by the European Union (EU).
On Tuesday, the EU announced that it was banning Wall Street banks from the lucrative government bond business in Europe. They didn't express official concern or fire off a warning shot. They simply banned Wall Street from financing government bond deals like the one Goldman Sachs sold to Greece. The Guardian pointed out that Wall Street bond business from European governments has gone down over the last two years. Now the business is gone period. In effect, the EU has labeled Wall Streets business tactics as too dangerous for their governments to handle.
Then on Wednesday, the President of the European Commission said that the EU was considering a ban on government debt speculation through Credit Default Swaps (CDS) President José Manuel Barroso announced that, "the Commission will examine closely the relevance of banning purely speculative naked sales on Credit Default Swaps of sovereign debt." While not an outright ban, the threat of banning CDS on national debt would be a major loss for the world's financial speculators, particularly those in the United States and Great Britain.
2 comments | Tags: ban, CDS, Europe, financial crisis, government bonds, Greece, Iceland, Wall Street
First Iceland, then the World
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 13:29 | MichaelCollins
The public is angry. Why should the public pay for the bankers mistakes. Iceland blogger Halldor Sigurdsson
Who cleans up the mess when ignorant, greedy bankers rack up massive debt then go broke? The people of Iceland made a strong statement Saturday. The sins of big bankers and government regulators shouldn't fall on the citizens. By a 93% to 2% margin, they voted down a proposal requiring them to cover bad debt incurred by one of the nation’s oldest and largest banks. Covering the debt would have cost Iceland's 317,000 citizens around $17,000 each.
Iceland's national referendum was the first opportunity for the people of any nation to vote directly on who pays when the financial elite fail.
As citizens voted, Iceland's Prime Minister was dismissing the importance of the vote and promising to negotiate a payment scheme obligating citizen subsidies for bad debt created by Iceland's beyond-bad bankers.
Icelanders are struggling with a collapsed economy. Businesses are failing at a startling rate, unemployment is soaring, and the prospects for the future are simply not there. Yet the British and Dutch governments demand that their swindled citizens receive compensation from beleaguered Icelanders. Where were the British and Dutch central banks and politicians while their citizens were being fleeced? Aren't the rulers of these countries aware that the failed Icelandic bank was owned by wealth investors, not the citizens?
Judge Rakoff Nails JP Morgan
Sun, 02/21/2010 - 16:12 | MichaelCollins
Federal district court Judge Jed S. Rakoff called off a J.P. Morgan deal in an order
that revealed the inside track on how the financial giant does
business. The ruling of January 28 prevents Morgan from selling or participating
the $225 million loan it made to Cablevisión, owned in the majority by
Grupo Televisa, one of Mexico's largest telecommunications companies. (Image)
Cablevisión used the loan to purchase a Empresas Bastel which
operated a major fiber optic network throughout Mexico. While it was no
secret that Morgan would sell the loan to other investors, Judge Rakoff
found that Cablevisión, and its majority shareholder Televisa, had no
intention of allowing it's biggest competitor to control 90% of loan.
Cablevisión sued Morgan after it discovered that the firm had
crafted a loan sales agreement that allowed the Morgan-selected
investor, Banco Inbursa, S.A. (Inbursa), to gain virtually all of
Cablevisión's business secrets in return for purchasing the loan. Banco
Inbursa is owned by Carlos Slim,
the Mexican investor who also owns Telemex, Mexico's largest telephone,
fiber optic, and internet provider. The Slim companies are
Cablevisión's largest competitor for the very business the Morgan loan
was used to purchase, a Mexican business and consumer fiber optic
network.
Login or register to post comments | Tags: bad faith, Cablevision, Carlos Slim, JP Morgan, Judge Rakoff, Televisa
The Hoi Poloi v Goldman Sachs
Tue, 02/16/2010 - 02:21 | MichaelCollins
Numerian (Feb 15) Posted by Michael Collins with permission of the author
Ask yourself who knows how much has really been borrowed by various governments around the world?
Greece is turning into a battle royal between the global financial
elites and the average worker in the industrial West. This started out
as a more limited struggle, pitting the finance ministers and central
banks of the European Union against the Greek unions, but the fight has
unexpectedly broadened with news of the surreptitious involvement of
Goldman Sachs in helping Greece avoid borrowing constraints.
The picture painted in the Western financial press makes the unions
the villain in this play. The unions are described as greedy, lazy, too
quick to strike, and insensitive to the burdens they were imposing on
the Greek economy. To cope with union threats and extortion, various
Greek governments had no choice but to borrow excessively, and well
beyond the European Union target range that allowed domestic budget
deficits to be no higher than 3% of GDP. As of last year, Greece’s
budget deficit was 12.7% of GDP.
The sheer level of these deficits – the highest in the European
community – has spooked international investors and the ratings
agencies like Moody’s, which have dropped the Greek sovereign credit
rating and threatened further demotions if nothing is done. This, along
with the prospect of default on their government debt, has thrown
Greece into a crisis and into the hands of the EU commissioners and
finance officials who are contemplating a bailout.
Where are the Populists?
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 05:42 | MichaelCollins
"There
are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you
just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity
will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if
you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find
its way up and through every class that rests upon it." William Jennings Bryan, 1896
Populism is broadly defined
as "political ideas and activities that are intended to represent
ordinary people's needs and wishes." The majority are deliberately
held down by the financial elite. Removal of the financial elite is
the vehicle to realize the "people's needs and wishes." (Graph)
The
statement from William Jennings Bryan is pure populism. It becomes less
pure as he proceeded with his speech. He used a metaphor of burning
down the nation's big cities since they were, he claimed, the
stronghold of the financial elite and support for the gold standard for
currency.
In practice, populism almost always entails anger and resentment.
Cuomo Takes on The Money Party
Mon, 02/08/2010 - 09:08 | MichaelCollins
Bank of America Looks Like First of Many
"This merger (Bank of America and Merrill Lynch) is a classic
example of how the actions of our nation’s largest financial
institutions led to the near-collapse of our financial system," said
Attorney General Cuomo. "Bank of America, through its top management,
engaged in a concerted effort to deceive shareholders and American
taxpayers at large. This was an arrogant scheme hatched by the bank’s
top executives who believed they could play by their own set of rules.
In the end, they committed an enormous fraud and American taxpayers
ended up paying billions for Bank of America’s misdeeds." (Image)
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo's complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court, County
of New York against the Bank of America and two former top executives
has the potential to push that too big to fail entity off the edge of a very steep cliff. The charges of massive fraud are based on a compelling and exhaustive filing on February 4.
A trial will likely involve testimony by the current Bank of America CEO and President Brian Moynihan against defendants Kenneth Lewis, the bank's former CEO and board chairman, former chief financial officer (CFO) Joseph L. Price, and the bank itself. Price is currently in charge of BofA's credit card division.
The complaint charges fraud before, during and after the bank's
merger with struggling brokerage firm Merrill Lynch in late 2008. The
fraud cost bank shareholders and citizens billions of dollars. This is
the first major case brought against our nation's largest financial institutions. These are the same financial institutions and executives that nearly destroyed the economy.
Hitting bottom at the top - White House forgets to lead on Haiti
Sat, 01/30/2010 - 21:54 | MichaelCollins
People are dying in Haiti because they can’t get out, Dr. Green said. Shala Dewan, New York Times, January 29
Many of us wanted to think that the dreadful behavior during the Bush
administration was some sort of aberration. We had a relatively clean
election and ended up with a more intelligent and compassionate
president who would reflect our views. There would be no more foreign
invasions (wrong); we'd take care of the people before the Wall Street
failures (wrong); and there would be no more Katrinas, without any
doubt!
MIAMI — The United States has suspe
nded its medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims until a dispute over who will pay for their care is settled, military officials said Friday. NYT
Why are "military officials" saying anything in a situation where
the lives of people are involved and the reputation of the United
States is on the line. Where's the White House?
