The Red Lemur and I have created our very first video for your perusal. We want to thank Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R) Utah for the inspiration for this piece. We hope you like it, send it around if you think it is worthy…and we suggest you put your coffee cups down…(although if coffee were to come out your nose, we would know for sure we had accomplished our purpose. If you enjoyed it, please make sure to go over and rate it so that it rises through the rankings.)
And for those of you in the Beltway; all satire aside, A. We’re mad as hell, B. We probably would not have as much time to pick on you if we had jobs, C. Can you feel us yet? We are perhaps not as stupid as you may have been led to believe. (Red Lemur)
Watch this video and you tell me if Ben Bernanke doesn’t look like he is doing a damn fine impression of a deer in the headlights? It is a rare moment when one sees Bernanke squirming and speaking rather rapidly – two hallmarks of Bernanke freaking out. TurboTaxTimmie does the very same thing when he is under fire, and they both realize that their power is slipping away.
Bernanke: “My concern about the legislation (HR1207) is that if the GAO (Government Accountability Office) is auditing not only the operational aspects of our programs, the details of the programs, but is making judgements about our policy decisions, that would effectively be a takeover of monetary policy by the congress, a repudiation of the independence of the Federal Reserve which would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the dollar, and our national economic situation.
Ya Think Ben? Our founding fathers were completely against a central bank system, (a banking cartel which is what the Federal Reserve System IS), and all four presidents that worked toward abolishing a central bank system were assassinated; coincidence?
Remember that quote “quite transparent”? Today’s AYFKM? Award: The Federal Reserve…for not being able, even using red crayon math, to account for $9 TRILLION DOLLARS!!! $9 FREAKIN’ TRILLION – NINE, not $9 Million or $9 Billion, NINE TRILLION!…and Ben does not want to be audited. Tough kibbles Ben!
Timmie is trying to defend The Fed and not doing a very good job of it. Timmie just ain’t that smart even though he does seem to think he is, and in the second video Senator Corker asks for assurances that no one from the White House ends up as the next Fed chairman when Bernanke’s opportunity to crash our economy ends in January, 2010. (That’s my snark, my bad.)
Our founding fathers warned against having a central bank that printed money and loaned it back to us, and each president that even broached the idea of abolishing a central bank ended up 6 feet under. What’s up with that?
I have been studying the 88 page financial reform white pages to see what exactly is hidden inside because you know there is something lurking there that is even more un-Constitutional than the Fed itself. I will post what I find when it makes sense to me, and I can explain it to you.
When it comes to central banks around the world, just because “everyone is doing it”, does not make it the right thing to do – just look at what ended up in our White House.
On Wednesday, TurboTax Timmie and his crew are going to unveil the new financial regulation reforms that they have been talking about since he was installed as Treasury Secretary by the 111th Congress.
If, after reading the next two stories, you still think the Federal Reserve should not be abolished for being the #1 instigator in our economic woes, then I pity you and your declining standard of living.
The Federal Reserve, already arguably the most powerful agency in the U.S. government, will get sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration’s regulatory overhaul plan.
Please remember that the Federal Reserve is really a banking cartel; not a government agency, that was created in 1910 on Jekyll Island by NY bankers, and our government does not instruct The Fed; the power flows the opposite direction.
The final plan due to be released on Wednesday — which originally aimed to streamline and consolidate banking and securities regulation in one or two agencies — now is expected to sidestep most jurisdictional disputes and simply impose across the board standards to be applied by all financial regulators, according to administration and industry sources.
The most likely candidate for elimination is the Office of Thrift Supervision, whose failure to detect and forestall problems at Countrywide, IndyMac, Washington Mutual and other freewheeling mortgage lenders is thought to have contributed to the financial crisis.
The decision to concentrate sweeping new powers at the already overstretched Fed is not without controversy. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which must approve any regulatory overhaul, has raised objections to that approach, and so has Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila C. Bair.
Ms. Bair advocates an alternative where a council of top bank regulators would make decisions on whether to step in, regulate or close major corporations like the American International Group whose failure posed a risk to the whole economy and financial system. The Fed stepped in to save AIG last year without having such powers, but the result was a costly and muddled bailout that no one wants to repeat.
To accommodate dissenting views, the administration will propose that a council of regulators advise the Fed, although the Fed will have the final say, according to administration officials. The new powers augment the Fed’s existing broad authorities to intervene to prevent crises that could seriously damage the markets and economy.
And now for something totally expected from a banking cartel:
Bank of America’s chief executive Thursday for the first time said publicly that officials in the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve threatened to remove top executives of the bank unless the financial giant merged with the troubled Merrill Lynch for the good of the foundering economy.
Bank of America’s Kenneth Lewis told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the threat was not the deciding factor in the bank’s acquisition of the nation’s largest investment banking firm. But he added: “What gave me concern was that they would make that threat to a bank in good standing.”
Ken? You are a moron! What does being a bank in good standing have to do with threats being made against a private company in a country that has as it’s basis, the Constitution and the Rule Of Law?
The testimony came as the No. 2 Republican in the House said President Obama’s handling of the auto company bailouts was comparable to the strong-arm tactics of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
If you have not thrown your support behind Ron Paul and H.R. 1207, now might be a good time before The Fed becomes tired of being a shadow chess player and just strangles the economy and country into submission.
It never fails to amaze me that people will appear to testify under oath at a congressional hearing and try to make events seem completely different than what they are even when there is a known paper trail. Did Lewis think that Bernanke was going to cover his behind? I personally think there is much more to this story; whether we ever find out how much Bernanke and The Fed actually had to do with the merger of BofA and Merrill Lynch is another story completely.
Watch as Rep. Dennis Kucinich, (who seems to have found his cajones), puts Kenneth Lewis, (former Bank of America CEO), through the gauntlet of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. I hope the irony of the name of the committee has not been lost on you, and that you understand that this little dog and pony show is just for you, the American public.
Also remember that this mess started decades ago with The Fed, Congress, the big NY Banks, and the SEC. I wonder if the message that we cannot trust our government is getting through yet? Bush threw gasoline on this economic downturn, and Obama is striving for complete scorched earth with the help of Rahm, David, Austin, etc.
Yesterday I read that Bambi’s economic advisory board was “finally” going to hold their first meeting since being appointed early in February, 2009. Since the economy has been issue #1 for well over a year, one would think that this “board” would have been going strong by the end of February, and one would think that the treasury spots would have been filled by now. One would be wrong though, because rebuilding the economy is NOT job #1; completely breaking it down and draining every last penny from the American Taxpayer through nationalization of any and all income producing business, and forcing every average American into the yoke of slavery to Federal Government dependence is JOB #1. We are already slaves to the national income tax and work 5 full months just to pay for our indentured servitude. I have been saying for months that Barack Obama will turn on his handlers who are seeking a global government just so he can install himself as the first American Dictator of the Obamanation, and I am watching it all unfold.
Paul Volker assisted with creating this mess alongside the depression expert, Ben Bernanke and the international currency expert, TurboTax Timmie Geithner, among others. All three of these traitors are Federal Reserve soldiers to the Pilgrims. If Volker has a “come to jesus” moment, he will have to go off the reservation to have anyone listen to him as he has been absorbed by the Borg Collective.
WASHINGTON — The prime office space in the southeast corner of the Treasury building sits vacant four months into the Obama administration. Its ample desk is empty, the walls are bare. Occupants from nearby offices occasionally gather there when in need of a conference table, but otherwise, it’s a den of inactivity.
The assigned occupant? Paul Volcker, the towering former chairman of the Federal Reserve and now chairman of President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Like Volcker, the 16-member advisory board, announced with fanfare by Obama in February, has been largely out of public view despite the administration’s frenetic attention to the economy.
On Wednesday, its members will make their first public, joint appearance since they gathered at the White House on Feb. 6. The focus of the board’s presentation is expected to be energy and jobs.
Poor Paul Volker, Bambi’s Economic Advisory Board Chairman thought that he had been hired because of his ideas and experience. Little did he know that he was hired because once inside the Obamanation, he cannot ridicule or critique the usurper or his policies. I am still amazed at how stupid people become when they start drinking the koolaid.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is reportedly unsure of the president’s economic recovery advisory board’s influence and unhappy at having to defer to other members of Obama’s economic team.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker can’t get enough respect.
As he convened the first meeting of the president’s economic recovery board with the president himself in attendance, the Washington Post offered a front page story alleging Volcker is unsure of the panel’s influence and unhappy at having to defer to other members of Obama’s economic team.
After the meeting, one of the president’s advisors cut short a question and answer session before Volcker could offer the concluding statement he’d planned. The slight was unintended and Volcker had already spoken and answered questions. But it seemed to illustrate one of the problems of the president’s high powered “team of rivals.”
Volcker was a prominent advisor during Obama’s campaign and months before the board was actually created then President-Elect Obama announced Volcker would chair it. The 81-year-old Volcker is praised for helping tame inflation in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and President Obama chose him to lead the advisory group in part to reassure the financial community that he’d be getting advice from someone who is respected by Republicans and Democrats. Volcker was appointed to the Fed by President Jimmy Carter, in 1979, and reappointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
Volcker is said to resent having to defer to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, on how to best overhaul the financial system.
In addition, Christina Romer, the head of the Council of Economic Advisors and Austan Goulsbee, a member of the council, have a more public role, than Volcker, in promoting the administration’s economic policies. Other reports say Geithner and Summers are rivals themselves, with Summers choosing a cramped office in the West Wing, in part because it gives him better access to the Oval Office.
White House officials say Volcker’s advisory group, which includes CEOs, labor officials and prominent economists, was created to offer an “outside the beltway perspective” on how to deal with the financial crisis.
Volcker told the Wall Street Journal last month organizing it has “been a nightmare.” Goolsbee, who is also staff director of Volcker’s advisory board, says the group had a rough start, but is now very influential.
Stay tuned for an upcoming post on the banks that are needing capital because of the commercial real estate bubble that is about to pop, and the coming change in America’s Triple A status.
Eight days ago I did something I have not done in months; I bought a bottle of wine and drank 3/4 of it in one evening in the hope that a little self-medication would relieve my angst. For 8 days, I have been suspended in that split second of motionless time when you see the train wreck about to occur and are trying to decide whether to watch in horror or turn away. That moment right before time catches up with itself and slams into “real time” and the horror unfolds. The only difference right now is that I do not know what the train is, just that something is coming, and that the usurper in charge is creating more and more instability in the world with his every word and action.
I have been watching the distract and deflect manuevers from the administration, reading the corporate owned newpapers, and digging for information on items that have been blacked out; i.e. David Kellerman, Mark I. Levy, and the swine flu infected pigs in Canada. Yet what we are being fed is the lies about the torture photographs, the lies about Pelosi’s knowledge or lack thereof concerning waterboarding, the Federal Reserve pleading stupid while ‘losing’ $9 Trillion dollars, and all I can think is “How Stupid Do They Think We Are?” The Fed didn’t lose $9 Trillion, they just don’t want to tell anybody where it went; it was Bambi’s idea to release the photographs in the first place, and Nazi Nancy knew about everything because ‘she is what she is’. Meanwhile, TurboTax Cheating Timmie and Bambi are flying the following fascist b*llsh*t right under the radar, and everybody wants to keep calling Barack Obama a socialist, when I believe he is a fascist who thinks he is something of a cross between Hitler and the Ottoman Empire. Read the following excerpt and remember that it gets even better after this. Can anybody identify the traitors to the United States?
Administration in Early Talks on Ways to Curb Compensation Across Finance
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has begun serious talks about how it can change compensation practices across the financial-services industry,including at companies that did not receive federal bailout money, according to people familiar with the matter.
The initiative, which is in its early stages, is part of an ambitious and likely controversial effort to broadly address the way financial companies pay employees and executives, including an attempt to more closely align pay with long-term performance.
Administration and regulatory officials are looking at various options, including using the Federal Reserve’s supervisory powers, the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission and moral suasion. Officials are also looking at what could be done legislatively.
Among ideas being discussed are Fed rules that would curb banks’ ability to pay employees in a way that would threaten the “safety and soundness” of the bank — such as paying loan officers for the volume of business they do, not the quality. The administration is also discussing issuing “best practices” to guide firms in structuring pay.
At the same time, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) is working on legislation that could strengthen the government’s ability both to monitor compensation and to curb incentives that threaten a company’s viability or pose a systemic risk to the economy.
It is unclear how such a bill would fit with what the Fed and others are already considering. But any legislation passed would make it harder for policy makers to dial back limits once the financial crisis subsides.
Any new compensation rules would likely be rolled out alongside a broader revamp of financial-markets regulation that the Treasury is pushing. The compensation effort is the latest example of the government’s increasing focus on aspects of the financial sector that once were untouched.
Say one thing and do another:
Government officials said their effort, which is just beginning, isn’t aimed at setting pay or establishing detailed rules. “This is not going to be about capping compensationor micro-management,” said an administration official. “It will be about understanding what is the best way to align compensation with sound risk management and long-term value creation.”
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have both blamed the way banks structured compensation plans for contributing to the financial mess. In February, Mr. Obama said executive pay helped lead to a “reckless culture and a quarter-by-quarter mentality that in turn helped to wreak havoc in our financial system.”
Mr. Geithner recently instructed his staff to begin discussions with the Fed, the SEC and others about ways to address compensation practices.
During a recent congressional hearing, Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed was working on rules that will “ask or tell banks to structure their compensation, not just at the very top level but down much further, in a way that is consistent with safety and soundness — which means that payments, bonuses and so on should be tied to performance and should not induce excessive risk.”
In an indication of how broad the effort may become, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said regulators need to examine compensation practices in the mortgage industry,suggesting new limits could stretch beyond banks.
But Wait! There’s More!
Professor Roubini is not the only economist speaking the truth about the fall of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. After this little blurb, you will see why our dollar is more than likely going to crash, and reduce the once great United States to a third world country that is controlled by the United Nations and the world globalists.
Professor Roubini, of New York University’s Stern business school, believes that while such a major change is some way off, the Chinese government is laying the ground for the yuan’s ascendance.
Known as “Dr Doom” for his negative stance, Prof Roubini argues that China is better placed than the US to provide a reserve currency for the 21st century because it has a large current account surplus, focused government and few of the economic worries the US faces.
In a column in the New York Times, Prof Roubini warns that with the proposal for a new international reserve currency via the International Monetary Fund, Beijing has already begun to take steps to usurp the greenback.
China will soon want to see the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights “basket”, he warns, as well as seeing it “used as a means of payment in bilateral trade.”
From the dipshit-in-charge, and the person who will forever be etched in my mind as the perennial winner of the ‘Today’s Are You Freakin’ Kidding Me? Award’, his holiness, Barack Obama.
May 14 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama, calling current deficitspending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”
Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously.
Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending.
This is $17 Billion in cuts after some $12 Trillion in spending. What few realize is that the U.S. is $1.24 QUADRILLION in debt when the Social Security balloon is added into the equation, yet this frakkin’ idiot and the brain dead congress are spending with no concern for us or future generations because it appears they definitely know something we don’t.
In his New Mexico appearance, the president pledged to work with Congress to shore up entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. He also said he was confident that the House and Senate would pass health-care overhaul bills by August.
“Most of what is driving us into debt is health care, so we have to drive down costs,” he said.
NO! What is driving us into debt is the ponzi scheme of Social Security and BARACK OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION AND DEMOCRAT DRIVEN CONGRESS who have now been empowered after 100 years of bad decisions and unconstitutional laws and mandates being passed by frakkin’ socialists. The Founding Fathers are way past turning in their graves now.
“We’ve got a long way to go before we put this recession behind us,” Obama said. “But we do know that the gears of our economy, our economic engine, are slowly beginning to turn.”
If that were true, Chrysler and GM would not be the situation they are in, credit would not still be frozen after the TARP money was dispersed, (the banks are waiting for the commercial real estate bubble to pop), and we would NOT be reading these headlines:
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Fitch Ratings on Friday gave the markets notice that it may issue wholesale ratings downgrades on the U.S. banking sector if credit conditions and the economy continue to worsen.
Given all that information in one little string of facts over marketing, here is something everybody should be thinking about and considering; do you believe there are late night meetings at the WH that are attended by David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, and Michelle Obama while his holiness sleeps? Would this not explain:
His absolute need for a cheat-sheet called a teleprompter, and
His inability to make a decision and stick with it because it wasn’t his idea to begin with?
How far off do you think I am? Now excuse me, I have a train wreck to watch…
Ron Paul questions Traitor Bernanke today at Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, and we get the phrase, “…I will resist any attempt to dictate to the Federal Reserve how to make monetary policy…” Obama doesn’t run this country, Bernanke does, and has been for quite some years. Remember, there has been some 20 recessions and 1 Great Depression since the Federal Reserve started dictating monetary policy and “stabilizing the economy”. If these guys worked for me, I would have fired them long ago – but wait, don’t they work for us? Only in name…
The Federal Reserve only ranks #2 to the Patriot Act on my list of scam organizations and laws that need to be repealed!
WHAT is it going to take for America to realize that The Federal Reserve is a worse case of smoke and mirrors than the Usurper-In-Chief? WHAT? Since American Idol is getting bumped for AIG Bonuses and Chris Dodd, the distraction continues. Get ready for hyper-inflation folks – it is on it’s way. If you haven’t bought gold, silver, and two of everything that you are purchasing right now; better start doing it.
WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve sharply stepped up its efforts to bolster the economy on Wednesday, announcing that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities.
Having already reduced the key interest rate it controls nearly to zero, the central bank has increasingly turned to alternatives like buying securities as a way of getting more dollars into the economy, a tactic that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air. But the moves on Wednesday were its biggest yet, almost doubling all of the Fed’s measures in the last year.
The action makes the Fed a buyer of long-term government bonds rather than the short-term debt that it typically buys and sells to help control the money supply.
Excuse me?
But there were also clear indications that the Fed was taking risks that could dilute the value of the dollar and set the stage for future inflation. Gold prices rose $26.60 an ounce, hitting $942, a sign of declining confidence in the dollar. The dollar, which had been losing value in recent weeks to the euro and the yen, dropped sharply again on Wednesday.
In its announcement, the central bank said that the United States remained in a severe recession and listed its continuing woes, from job losses and lost housing wealth to falling exports as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown.
“In these circumstances, the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability,” the central bank said.
What did he say? “…promote economic recovery…”. Is that why we have had a great depression and some 12 recessions since The Fed started managing our economy, printing our money, and loaning it back to us at interest?
In addition, the Fed said it would buy up to $300 billion worth of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months. That would tend to push down longer-term interest rates on all types of loans.
Is this their idea of reassuring China that our debt is good?
All these measures would come in addition to what has already been an unprecedented expansion of lending by the Fed. The central bank also said it would probably expand the scope of a new program to finance consumer and business lending, which gets under way this week.
In effect, the central bank has been lending money to a wider and wider array of borrowers, and it has financed that lending by using its authority to create new money at will.
Since last September, the Fed’s lending programs have roughly doubled the size of its balance sheet, to about $1.8 trillion, from $900 billion. The actions announced on Wednesday are likely to expand that to well over $3 trillion over the next year.
Okay, that’s enough. I am so *&$&*#$@# angry again I am going to be ill!
America – stop watching American Idol and stop paying attention to AIG, Dodd, Frank, and Congress. Start buying hard metals and stocking upbefore you can’t afford to buy anything.
The Obama administration, moving with increasing speed, has inked the main contours of its plan to revamp financial-market oversight — changes that will ripple through the economy, affecting everything from the operations of international banks to consumer protection.
The principles include giving the Federal Reserve new powers that include authority to monitor and address broad risks across the economy, say people familiar with the matter. The proposals are expected to include tougher capital requirements for big banks and authority for regulators to take over a large financial firm that is failing.
“We want to accelerate the pace of change on the reform agenda,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview after a meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers over the weekend. Mr. Geithner was pressed for action on the regulatory front at the meeting, held just outside London. The administration’s goal is to unveil its proposals before G-20 heads of state meet April 2, to wrest leadership of the thorny topic.
President Barack Obama has pitched a regulatory overhaul as a way to help forestall another financial crisis in the future. Many Democrats and some Republicans blame lax, misdirected or weak oversight in part for precipitating the current one. (The way to forestall another financial crisis is to abolish The Fed and have the government print it’s own currency with no interest/debt attached to it.)
<snip>
Mr. Geithner’s agenda closely resembles some of the priorities laid out recently by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.), both important players in determining whether the concepts become law. (An agenda that was proposed by Bernanke and Frank; two of the biggest problems in our government today.)
<snip>
“We are going to be ambitious, but we are going to work with them,” Mr. Geithner said.
A major component of the plan would be new clout for the Federal Reserve, which already runs monetary policy and has accumulated large new powers since the financial crisis began. (Let’s give more power to the people that caused the credit/housing crisis with too much money in circulation which created easy credit/debt — just like the roaring ’20’s. Don’t believe me? Look it up!)
The balkanized structure of financial-services regulation has meant that no one institution had the ability to look broadly at markets to spot signs of systemic risk, such as huge bets made by investment banks on mortgage debt.
Mr. Geithner wants the Fed to have the authority to do so.
Make sure to go to the link and read the rest.
The basic rundown = MORE CONTROL…
Proposed Changes
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will soon outline proposed changes in financial regulation. They are expected to include:
An enhanced role for the Federal Reserve to monitor and address broad economic risks.
Changes to the way banks are overseen to prevent lenders from shopping among regulators for the easiest supervision.
More transparency and stricter rules for the way money flows between banks.
