Bailouts

H.R. 4681 Passes Congress – Justin Amash Calls It: “One of the Most Egregious Sections of Law I’ve Encountered During My Time as a Representative”

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Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 12.10.06 PMDecency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means — to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal — would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face.

–  Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice, in 1928

While most Americans are busy Christmas shopping and making preparations for trips to see family, Congress remains hard at work doing what it does best. Giving gifts to Wall Street and trampling on citizens’ civil liberties.

I knew the plebs were about to be royally screwed a week ago when I published the post: Wall Street Moves to Put Taxpayers on the Hook for Derivatives Trades. The piece concluded with the following:

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Jamie Dimon’s Big $13 Billion Secret – The Truth Behind the JP Morgan Settlement

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“Afterward, West went into the office, where his first meeting of the day was with Holder and James Cole, the deputy attorney general, in Holder’s conference room. Just as he was telling the two men about his call with Dimon, his cellphone rang. It was Dimon again. West took the call, pacing back and forth at the far end of the room. Dimon proposed a meeting on September 26 and assured him that the bank would come back with a significantly increased offer. West agreed to recommend that Holder postpone the filing of Wagner’s complaint and meet with Dimon. That was an unprecedented move. It’s not every day that the attorney general of the United States postpones the filing of a civil complaint against a powerful Wall Street bank at the request of its CEO so that the two sides can cut a deal in private. Whatever was in Wagner’s complaint, Jamie Dimon did not want it to become public knowledge.”

– From William Cohan’s excellent article, Jamie Dimon’s $13 Billion Secret

Those of us who have been following the outrageous, unaccountable theft and criminality of the banking industry for many years reacted in a similar manner to the announcement of a $13 settlement late last year between JP Morgan and the Department of Justice. The first thought that crossed our minds was “no criminal prosecutions, another settlement of course.” Then, once the reality of the size of the settlement sunk in, we couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that no organization is going to cough up $13 billion unless there is some serious criminality at play.

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Citigroup Written Legislation Moves Through the House of Representatives

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Five years after the Wall Street coup of 2008, it appears the U.S. House of Representatives is as bought and paid for as ever. We heard about the Citigroup crafted legislation currently being pushed through Congress back in May when Mother Jones reported on it. Fortunately, they included the following image in their article:

citigroup-side-by-side

Unsurprisingly, the main backer of the bill is notorious Wall Street lackey Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a former Goldman Sachs employee who has discovered lobbyist payoffs can be just as lucrative as a career in financial services. The last time Mr. Himes made an appearance on these pages was in March 2013 in my piece: Congress Moves to DEREGULATE Wall Street.

More from the New York Times:

The House is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would undercut new financial regulations and hand Wall Street a victory. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House, even after lawmakers learned that Citigroup lobbyists helped write one of the bills, which would exempt a wide array of derivatives trading from new regulation.

Remember what George Carlin observed:

“Bipartisan usually means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.”

The bills are part of a broader campaign in the House, among Republicans and business-friendly Democrats, to roll back elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive regulatory overhaul since the Depression. Of 10 recent bills that alter Dodd-Frank or other financial regulation, six have passed the House this year. This week, if the House approves Citigroup’s legislation and another bill that would delay heightened standards for firms that offer investment advice to retirees, the tally would rise to eight.

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Watch Ben Bernanke Panic as Reporter Asks a Question!

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Luke strikes again!  My favorite part is actually when then lady asks him “how did you get in here?”  How dare a lowly little serf get near the great magician Bernanke!   Like this post? Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G Follow me on Twitter.

Why Bailouts are Anti-American in One Minute by Max Keiser

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A succinct and eloquent summarization on why bailouts are the most Anti-American thing possible. Thank you Max. . Like this post? Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G Follow me on Twitter.