The Delicious Irony of Morris Greenberg’s AIG Suit Against the US Treasury by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
January 12, 2013

Image by codepinkhq via Flickr

When the financial bubble burst in September 2008, U.S. and European governments responded by shifting bank losses onto their own balance sheets. The pretense is that real growth cannot resume until the banks and speculators are “made whole.” To cover the cost of bailing out the banks, governments now are trying to run budget surpluses. This adds fiscal deflation to the debt deflation left in the bubble’s wake, shrinking the economy at large. Governments are to raise taxes (or simply print new debt to swap for the financial sector’s bad loans and gambles) to reimburse financial institutions whose lending and outright gambling (not to mention the excursion into financial fraud) caused the crisis.

Michael Hudson on the Keiser Report: The Takeover of the Banking System by the Wall Street Mafia

with Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
October 4, 2012

Image by ChairWomanMay via Flickr

Oct 4, 2012 by RussiaToday

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert bring a bankster rat onto set to discuss the civil suit against JP Morgan’s mortgage fraud. We revisit episode 97 of the Keiser Report on which journalist Teri Buhl had first warned you about the residential mortgage back security fraud issue on JP Morgan’s balance sheet – thanks to their purchase of Bear Stearns.

In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Dr. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond: Fictitious Capital, Debt Deflation and Global Crisis, about Timothy Geithner’s role in facilitating the takeover of the banking system by the Wall Street mafia and about the oligarchic counter revolution against democracy in Europe.

Geithner’s Ploy: Saving U.S. Banks at Taxpayer Expense, Once Again by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
January 8, 2012

U.S. and foreign stock markets continue to zigzag wildly in response to expectations about whether the euro can survive, in the face of populations suffering under neoliberal austerity policies being imposed on Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. Here’s the story that I’m being told by Europeans regarding the recent turmoil in Greece and other European debtor and budget-deficit economies. (The details are not out, as the negotiations have been handled in utter secrecy. So what follows is a reconstruction.)

War Plan Iran: China Snubs Washington’s Best-Laid Plans to Destabilize Iran’s Oil Industry by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
10 January 2012

Why should China shoot itself in the foot to accommodate hostile American chauvinists?

Chinese leaders dealt a blow to US plans to strangulate Iranian oil exports just hours before Washington’s Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner touched down in Beijing.

It could hardly be a more pointed snub to Washington’s designs to press-gang a global lynch mob into laying into the Iranian economy.

How a $13 Trillion Cover Story was Written by Michael Hudson

Dandelion Salad

by Prof. Michael Hudson
www.informationclearinghouse.info
http://michael-hudson.com
June 17, 2011

Image by Plashing Vole via Flickr

Free money creation to bail out America’s elite financial speculators, but not for Social Security or Medicare

Only the “Crazies” Get the Bank Giveaway Right

Financial crashes were well understood for a hundred years after they became a normal financial phenomenon in the mid-19th century. Much like the buildup of plaque deposits in human veins and arteries, an accumulation of debt gained momentum exponentially until the economy crashed, wiping out bad debts – along with savings on the other side of the balance sheet.

Timothy Geithner is a Sniveling Scamster By Mike Whitney

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By Mike Whitney
April 01, 2010 “Information Clearing House”

Whew. That was fast. It didn’t take long for Wall Street to figure out how to game Obama’s new mortgage modification program, did it? The plan was hyped as help for “struggling homeowners”, but it turns out, it’s just another stealth bailout for pudgy bank-execs. It’s funny, the program hasn’t even kicked in yet and, already, bigtime speculators are riffling through their filing cabinets looking any garbage paper they can find to dump on Uncle Sam. Take a look at this on today’s Bloomberg report:

“Subprime-mortgage securities are rising at an accelerating pace as the U.S. begins to encourage reductions to homeowners’ balances, which may lead to fewer foreclosures and a quicker end to the housing slump….Senior-ranked bonds tied to borrowers with poor credit will mostly benefit after the Treasury Department said for the first time it would seek to cut the size of mortgages, reducing the likelihood that loan modifications will fail, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc. (Bloomberg)

The Next Big Bailout is on the Way – Prepare To Get Reamed! By Mike Whitney

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By Mike Whitney
March 16, 2010 “Information Clearing House”

Housing is on the rocks and prices are headed lower. That’s not the consensus view, but it’s a reasonably safe assumption. Master illusionist Ben Bernanke managed to engineer a modest 7-month uptick in sales, but the fairydust will wear off later this month when the Fed stops purchasing mortgage-backed securities and long-term interest rates begin to creep higher. The objective of Bernanke’s $1.25 trillion program, which is called quantitative easing, was to transfer the banks “unsellable” MBS onto the Fed’s balance sheet. Having achieved that goal, Bernanke will now have to unload those same toxic assets onto Freddie and Fannie. (as soon as the public is no longer paying attention)

Bernanke’s cash giveaway has helped to buoy stock prices and stabilize housing, but market fundamentals are still weak. There’s just too much inventory and too few buyers. Now that the Fed is withdrawing its support, matters will only get worse.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped the folks at Bloomberg from cheerleading the nascent housing turnaround. Here’s a clip from Monday’s column:

Geithner and Bernanke’s Possibly Criminal Roles – Lehman Brothers Scandal Rocks the Fed By Mike Whitney

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By Mike Whitney
March 15, 2010 “Information Clearing House”

After a year-long investigation, court-appointed bank examiner Anton Valukas has produced a deadly 2,200 page report which details the activities that led to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The report is a keg of dynamite. The question now is whether anyone in government has the nerve to light the fuse. Valukas provides powerful evidence that Lehman executives were involved in “balance sheet manipulation” by implementing an arcane accounting procedure called “Repo 105” which masked the bank’s true financial condition from investors and regulators.

According to Valukas, Lehman was “Unable to find a United States law firm that would provide it with an opinion letter permitting the true sale accounting treatment” using Repo 105. So, Lehman executives went outside of the country in an effort to enlist the support of a London law firm that would approve the procedure.

AIG-Gate: The World’s Greatest Insurance Heist by Dr. Ellen Brown

by Dr. Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
Feb. 6, 2010

Rumor has it that Timothy Geithner is on his way out as Treasury Secretary, due to his involvement in the AIG scandal that is now unraveling in hearings before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Bob Chapman writes in The International Forecaster:

Each day brings more revelations of efforts of the NY Fed and Goldman Sachs to hide the details of the criminal conspiracy of the AIG bailout. … This is a real crisis on the scale of Watergate. Corruption at its finest.

Bernie Sanders Grills Geithner and Takes on Deficit Blame Game

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SenatorSanders
February 04, 2010

Sen. Sanders questioned Treasury Sec. Geithner at a Budget Committee hearing and talked about Republican efforts to shift blame for record deficits away from their own unpaid-for spending habits during the Bush presidency.

Deepening Debt Crisis: The Bernanke Reappointment: Be Afraid, Very Afraid by Prof Michael Hudson

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by Prof Michael Hudson
Global Research, February 2, 2010

If the economy deteriorates in the L-shaped “hockey-stick” rut that many economists forecast, what political price will President Obama and the Democrats pay for having returned the financial keys to the Bush Republican appointees who gave away the store in the first place? Reappointing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may end up injuring not only the economy but also the Democratic Party for years to come. Recognizing this, Republicans made populist points by opposing his reappointment during the Senate confirmation hearings last Thursday, January 27 – the day after Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address.

Keiser Report №12: Tim Geithner’s lies + Fred Harrison

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RussiaToday
January 28, 2010

Every week Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. This time Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandal behind the headlines about the Volcker plan, the Supreme Court ruling and about Central Banks robbing the middle classes. Keiser also speaks to Fred Harrison, the Renegade Economist, about property bubbles and privatizing wages.

Marcy Kaptur grilling Geithner + Entire Hearing

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SilentRepublic
Mar 13, 2010

January 27, 2010

Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio grilling Geithner

The “Volcker Rule” is a Good Start, Now Fire Geithner and Summers by Richard C. Cook

by Richard C. Cook
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
richardccook.com
January 22, 2010

The new restraints on bank lending for speculation proposed yesterday by President Barack Obama follow the advice of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker but will be much more credible if the president now fires Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers.

What President Obama is calling the “Volcker Rule” would take us back in the direction of the 1932 Glass-Steagall Act which kept commercial and investment banking separate for 67 years, until 1999 when it was foolishly repealed by President Bill Clinton.   Then-Treasury Secretary Summers strongly supported the repeal.

Emails implicate Treasury Secretary Geithner in cover-up of AIG deal to bail out the banks by Barry Grey

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by Barry Grey
http://www.wsws.org
12 January 2010

A financial scandal has erupted that implicates Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in efforts to conceal the funneling of $62 billion in taxpayer funds to 16 large banks as part of the government bailout of the insurance giant American International Group AIG.

The revelations coincide with the imminent announcement by the big US banks of their profits and year-end bonuses for 2009. Most of the major banks are expected to report huge profits—in the case of Goldman Sachs, its highest profits ever—and combined bonuses of $30 billion or more.