Bid On Bernie’s Madoff’s Plunder
Now’s your chance to make off with some of the trappings of arch-villain Bernie Madoff’s preposterous plunder of investors large and small. From NJ.com:
What’s it like to walk in Bernie Madoff’s shoes? You’ll get a chance to buy them, along with the billionaire swindler’s monogrammed socks, size 40-short suits and other items from his New York City and Montauk homes at an auction to be held in Morris County this spring.
James Plousis, U.S. Marshall for New Jersey, has worked out a deal to use donated space at the county’s public safety academy in Parsippany for a Madoff auction, likely to be held in April or May.
“We want to run an auction for as little cost as possible, so that just about every penny we make can go back to the victims,’’…
Goldman Sachs CEO’s Giant, Nuclear-Powered Testicles
As described by the inimitable Matt Taibbi, for Rolling Stone:
On January 21st, Lloyd Blankfein left a peculiar voicemail message on the work phones of his employees at Goldman Sachs. Fast becoming America’s pre-eminent Marvel Comics supervillain, the CEO used the call to deploy his secret weapon: a pair of giant, nuclear-powered testicles. In his message, Blankfein addressed his plan to pay out gigantic year-end bonuses amid widespread controversy over Goldman’s role in precipitating the global financial crisis.
The bank had already set aside a tidy $16.2 billion for salaries and bonuses — meaning that Goldman employees were each set to take home an average of $498,246, a number roughly commensurate with what they received during the bubble years. Still, the troops were worried: There were rumors that Dr. Ballsachs, bowing to…
Bankers Destroy $7 For Every $1 They Earn
BBC News reports on a study analyzing the true societal value of different occupations. In many cases, it seems one’s salary is inversely proportional to the value one generates for society as a whole:
The research, carried out by think tank the New Economics Foundation, says hospital cleaners create £10 of value for every £1 they are paid.
[Meanwhile,] leading bankers are a drain on the country because of the damage they caused to the global economy…They reportedly destroy £7 of value for every £1 they earn.
By devising schemes to cut the amount of money available to the government, tax accountants destroy £47 in value for every pound they generate.
DEADLINE TODAY! — Help Fund ‘PLUNDER: The Crime Of Our Time’
DEADLINE COMING
All of us become weary of the incessant pleas for funding. However, I am sick and tired of being “sick and tired” of the Banksters, the funding of their casinos, the ever increasing subjugation to the banks and Wall Street.
Today, and today only, you can help us finish the film PLUNDER, the story of the financial crisis as a crime story but you have to do it by 5 PM EST TODAY (Jan. 20, 2010). You can be a part of this film for as little as $1.00. [Back This Project]
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‘Freefall’ Excerpt: Too Late To Fix The Biggest Banking Blunder In History?
Rogue economist Joseph Stiglitz has a new book out, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, excerpted here by the Huffington Post:
The entire series of efforts to rescue the banking system were so flawed, partly because those who were somewhat responsible for the mess–as advocates of deregulation, as failed regulators, or as investment bankers–were put in charge of the repair. Perhaps not surprisingly, they all employed the same logic that had gotten the financial sector into trouble to get it out of it. The financial sector had engaged in highly leveraged, non-transparent transactions, many off balance sheet; it had believed that one could create value by moving assets around and repackaging them. The approach to getting the country out of the mess was based on the same “principles.” Toxic assets were shifted from banks to the government–but that didn’t make them any less toxic. Off-balance sheet and non-transparent guarantees became a regular feature of the Treasury, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Federal Reserve. High leverage (open and hidden) became a feature of public institutions as well as private.
Worse still were the implications for governance. The Constitution gives Congress the power to control spending. But the Federal Reserve was undertaking actions knowing full well that if the collateral that it was taking on proved bad, the taxpayer would bail it out. Whether the actions were legal or not is not the issue: they were a deliberate attempt to circumvent…
Move Your Money Out Of The Mega-Banks
The Huffington Post urges readers to move their savings and checking accounts out of Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America, and into smaller, independent banks. I think it’s an inspired idea:
America’s Main Street community banks — the vast majority of which avoided the banquet of greed and corruption that created the toxic economic swamp we are still fighting to get ourselves out of — are struggling.
Why don’t we take our money out of these big banks and put them into community banks? What would happen if lots of people around America decided to do the same thing?
Matt Taibbi on Obama’s Big Sellout
There’s no one individual out there who been more on the ball about this financial “crisis” and the inherent/subsequent corruption than Matt Taibbi. I recommend reading all the work he’s done for Rolling Stone in the past year. Here is his latest article:
Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers “at the expense of hardworking Americans.” Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it’s not like you saw him on the campaign…
The Card Game: Banks, Credit and the American Consumer
The Card Game is the follow-up documentary to the Secret History of the Credit Card, one of the best documentaries I have ever seen on television. The trailer is below.
Hidden fees, skyrocketing interest rates, bankrupt consumers. FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the future of the consumer loan industry amidst an ongoing battle over increased government regulation. The Card Game airs Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 9 PM on PBS (check local listings or watch online).
Pay Your Bills on Time? There’s a Fee for That.
In an attempt to squeeze more revenue out of consumers who don’t rack up much debt, Citigroup, Bank of America, and other credit card companies are adding new fees. According to USA Today credit card users are being hit with new “inactivity fees” and fees for not putting enough debt on your credit cards. Consumers thinking about canceling their cards face taking a hit to their credit scores for closing an account.
Other consumers may have no choice – Citibank has been closing some credit card accounts without reason or warning, damaging their customers credit ratings.
I cut-up my credit cards last night.
Man Sues the Bank of America for “1,784 Billion, Trillion Dollars”
Joe Rauch of Reuters writes:
Dalton Chiscolm is unhappy about Bank of America’s customer service — really, really unhappy.
Chiscolm in August sued the largest U.S. bank and its board, demanding that “1,784 billion, trillion dollars” be deposited into his account the next day. He also demanded an additional $200,164,000, court papers show.
Attempts to reach Chiscolm were unsuccessful. A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.
“Incomprehensible,” U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in a brief order released Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
“He seems to be complaining that he placed a series of calls to the bank in New York and received inconsistent information from a ‘Spanish womn,’” the judge wrote. “He apparently alleges that checks have been rejected because of incomplete routing numbers.”
Chin has experience with big numbers. He’s the judge who sentenced…
