The Face of the Oligarch Recovery – Luxury Skyscrapers Stay Empty as NYC Homeless Population Hits Record High

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 11.20.14 AMNowhere is the fraudulent and criminal “oligarch recovery” more on display than in my hometown of New York City. Despite benefitting more than any other community from an enormous taxpayer bailout of the industry that destroyed the economy, financial services, the vast majority of the wealth has been allocated to a handful of oligarchs.

To make matters even worse, American public policy, if you can even call it that, has been to encourage overseas oligarchs to park billions of dollars in U.S. real estate that largely sits uninhabited. Manhattan is a perfect example of this unproductive behavior and misallocation of capital. I covered this theme last year in the piece, Introducing Ghost Skyscrapers – NYC Real Estate Goes Full Retard, where it was noted that:

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Here’s What Happens When the U.S. Embassy Spokesman in Moscow Asks Twitter if RT or The Economist is More Trustworthy

This is brilliant. Will Stevens is the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The following needs no further commentary.

The latest in a long line of establishment Twitter fails.

For related article, see:

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The Future of Medicine? Forget Private Doctor Appointments, Group Medical Visits are Coming

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 3.34.43 PMAccording to the American Academy of Family Physicians, around 10 percent of family doctors already offer shared medical appointments, sessions that bring together a dozen or more patients with similar medical conditions to meet with a doctor for 90 minutes. With pressure from the government and insurers to bring down the cost of care while treating the increasing number of people with health insurance, patients can expect group visits to become more common. “It’s efficient. It’s economical.

– From the Bloomberg article: Your Next Doctor’s Visit Could Get Crowded

Get ready, this is coming. While this trend was already happening before the passage of Obamacare, it’s not hard to imagine that private medical consultations could soon be a thing of the past for your average American serf.

Somehow I doubt members of Congress will be having group visits any time soon…

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NYPD Launches Plan to Deal with Protests – Arm Police with Long Rifles, Machines Guns and Extra Protective Gear

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 12.44.27 PMMurders reached a historic low in NYC for 2014; overall crime was down across the board by nearly 5%; hell, even the holiday slowdown didn’t really lead to any additional crime. So clearly, now is the time when NYC really needs to implement a new anti-terrorism program which would empower a team of NYPD officers to roam around the city carrying machine guns. What could go wrong?

This new squad will be used to investigate and combat terrorist plots, lone wolf terrorists, and… protests. “It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” Bratton said, according to CBS.

– From the Gothamist article: New NYPD Anti-Terror Unit Will Get Machine Guns To Police Protesters

The morphing of “terrorism” and “domestic dissent” into an all encompassing and convenient category known as “domestic terrorists” or “domestic extremists” has been a long time coming. It has always been my contention, and continues to be, that the oligarchs who have funneled all of the wealth to themselves since the 2008 banker bailouts know exactly what they are doing. They also know that it will eventually result in severe domestic unrest during the next cyclical downturn. As such, the agenda has been to utilize the entirety of the intelligence-industrial-military complex created by the “war on terror” against the domestic population once it recognizes how badly it has been looted.

All the way back in 2010, in the post, The Dangers of a Failed Presidency, I wrote:

There is clearly a power elite that consists of a union between big corporate and financial oligarchs and career bureaucrats in Washington D.C.  These are the folks that pull the strings of all administrations.  All you have to do is look at the trends that have been in place since George W Bush and continue under Obama to see what these players want.  Bigger government and thus more Federal power, more wealth for the oligarchs (thank you Federal Reserve) and an erosion of the middle class, and reduction of civil liberties in the name of the 1984-like never-ending “war on terror.”  I believe in a war on terror of my own.  A war against the terror that Washington D.C. is constantly trying to inject into your head so that you sheepishly give away all you rights and power to them.  That’s my war on terror.

The vast majority of people simply refuse to believe any of the above. They will remain in denial until the very moment at which denial becomes an impossibility. By that point it might be too late.

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Occupied by Wall Street Part 2 – Creating CLOs to Bypass Regulations

Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management LLC, Carlyle Group LP and a unit of Credit Suisse Group AG have all taken steps in the past two months to create CLOs now that they may be able to refinance after the rules take effect in December 2016 without having to comply with the new regulations, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The firms are trying to avoid a requirement to hold a stake in the funds they manage.

– From the Bloomberg article: Wall Street Creating CLOs That May Bypass Rules: Credit Markets

As the U.S. inches closer to a cyclical downturn within the secular theft up-cycle known as the oligarch recovery, the craftiest of financial oligarchs will be scurrying to position themselves as beneficially as possible while not missing out on any crumbs that remain ripe for the taking. As such, it behooves us all to pay increasingly close attention to their shenanigans. In this regard, we have some excerpts from the following Bloomberg article:

(Bloomberg) — Wall Street has another rule it’s trying to get around: regulations seeking to limit risk-taking by managers of collateralized loan obligations.

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Video of the Day – John McCain Threatens Protesters with Arrest, Calls them “Low-Life Scum”

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 2.05.49 PMHe’s a thug, and a crook, and a liar, and a pseudo-intellectual and a murderer. Ok? Those things are factually verifiable.

– From the late Christopher Hitchens’ outstanding interview: Christopher Hitchens’ Polemic Against Henry Kissinger

Crazy John McCain is at it again. Nothing gets this guy more riled up than American plebs questioning status quo war criminals. I suspect much of this anger is rooted in his own legitimate fear about how history will remember his own legacy of remarkable stupidity.

Truly remarkable to see a Senator become so easily unhinged when protesters show up to condemn Henry Kissinger. See for yourself:

For a related post on Crazy John McCain, see:

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Meet Loretta Lynch – Obama’s Attorney General Nominee Who Might be Even Worse than Eric Holder

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 1.05.44 PMOn matters of policy, Ms. Lynch called capital punishment “an effective penalty” and said she disagreed with Mr. Obama’s statements that marijuana was no more harmful than alcohol. She called the National Security Agency’s collection of American phone records “certainly constitutional, and effective.”

– From the New York Times article: Criticism of Holder Dominates Hearing on Loretta Lynch, Attorney General’s Possible Successor

Eric Holder made a career out of protecting and coddling financial oligarchs (his 1999 memo essentially invented “Too Big to Jail”). This was such a lucrative decision for Mr. Holder, that it allowed him to climb all the way to the top of his profession. The dividends that supporting this man ultimately paid to Wall Street criminals were priceless. Not only were they bailed out despite wrecking the U.S. economy, they have since funneled all of the wealth gains since 2008 to themselves, while remaining above the law. This truly remarkable heist is what both Barack Obama and Eric Holder will be remembered for by history. Congratulations guys.

When Eric Holder announced his resignation, many of us breathed a sigh of relief thinking it can’t get much worse, but not so fast. The authoritarian streak and rampant cronyism of the Obama administration is a well oiled machine. You didn’t think you’d get off that easily did you? Enter Loretta Lynch.

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Former NBC and Bloomberg Executive and Head of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of America Compares RT to Terrorist Groups

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 11.35.17 AMAndrew Lack was sworn in this week as the first chief executive of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, putting him in charge of an agency with a $700 million budget and an outsize influence on shaping world opinion about the United States. Foreign policy experts and some critics say the appointment of Mr. Lack, the former president of NBC News and a prominent news media executive, represents a sea change for the often-criticized agency, which oversees United States government-supported civilian international news media such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Free Asia.

“We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram, “ he said. “But I firmly believe that this agency has a role to play in facing those challenges.”

– From the New York Times article: U.S. Seeking a Stronger World Media Voice

I have appeared on Russia Today (RT) several times in the past. First on Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert’s Keiser Report, but also as a guest the now defunct Capital Account. Before appearing on these shows, no one ever told me what I could or could not say. Rather, we simply talked freely about whatever I was writing on at the time. I am certainly no spokesperson or cheerleader for Russia, as I am against centralized, authoritarian nation-states no matter where they occur. Nevertheless, I am an American citizen, so that is and should be my primary concern. Certainly, I was chosen as a guest because I was an ardent critic of the inept, crony, war criminal executives running the out of control American Empire, but so what?

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Occupied by Wall Street – The Latest TARP Taxpayer Screw-Job is Revealed

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 1.25.20 PMThe Treasury-created market has benefited a few savvy investors, while saddling taxpayers with a loss. Three private funds, which the report didn’t name, have won almost half the shares available at auction, often netting either a profit on paper or on the resale, according to the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Treasury, which has held 185 auctions to date, said it has raised about $3 billion on TARP investments that were originally valued at $3.8 billion, for a loss of $800 million at the auctions.

The Treasury “set up this market where investors could come in quickly and flip and profit,” said Christy Romero, TARP’s special inspector general, in an interview.

– From the Wall Street Journal article: Hedge Funds, Private Equity Win Big at TARP Auctions

One story that I’ve told several times on this site has to do with the day TARP passed. How I got into work extremely early and starting irately yelling about how TARP represented the end of America as we knew it. There weren’t many people on the trading floor at the time, but my boss was there and he told me to take a “walk around the block.” I politely declined, but continued to seethe at my desk.

It’s almost shocking to see the horrific transformation that has occurred in the subsequent six years. It’s so bad, that many people now take things that would’ve been considered unconscionable just a few years ago as part of the “new normal.” There will be a horrible price to pay for this perspective.

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Teachers’ Retirement Funds are Piling into Manhattan Real Estate at Record High Prices

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 11.55.34 AMRather than buying equity interests in buildings, TIAA-CREF and KTCU are seeking to invest in mortgages backed by office towers, retail properties, warehouses and apartments in major U.S. cities. The venture between the two companies, which manage teachers’ savings in their respective countries, is 51 percent owned by TIAA-CREF and 49 percent held by Seoul-based KTCU.

“You invest in a huge office tower in New York because you want a safe place to put your money and a decent return,” over the long-term, he said. “This is more a capital preservation play than it is a capital appreciation play.”

– From the Bloomberg article: Manhattan Towers Lure Koreans in $1 Billion Joint Venture

As soon as I woke up this morning, I saw an email from a very smart friend of mine in the finance industry. He forwarded me an article from the New York Post, about how TIAA-CREF had paid $3,158 per square foot for a building in the Meatpacking area of Manhattan (a record for the area), which isn’t far from where I lived for several years in the mid-2000s.

For those of you who aren’t aware, TIAA-CREF stands for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund. According to the company’s own website, it:

We specialize in the distinctive needs of those who work in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. We’re here to listen to you, to advise you, and to help you feel confident about making financial decisions.

So it essentially manages the investments of people who know the least about investing, i.e., muppets. As such, it came as no surprise that TIAA-CREF might serve as an important bag-holding vehicle for bubble assets just before a fall, tempted by juicy 4% yields. As my friend noted: “In other words, teachers and nurses are shattering property records to fund their retirement.”

Here are some excerpts from the article:

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