March 30, 2015

Dirtbox

It's called a coffin and our Constitution is in it.

March 29, 2015

Wankers.

Zero Prosecutions Aren’t Few Enough – Wall Street Wants SEC Sanctions Reduced to DMV Points

By William K. Black
Kilkenny, Ireland: November 8, 2014

Wall Street’s full depravity was put on display in Joseph Fichera’s November 6, 2014 op ed in the New York Times. I hasten to add that the reason that the op ed is so revealing is that Fichera is one of the sometimes good guys who, for example, accurately warned that “auction-rate securities” were a dangerous scam and criticized JPMorgan’s odious abuse of Denver. When the Ficheras of the world join in Wall Street’s “race to the bottom” Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s President Dudley’s point about the corrupt culture that characterizes Wall Street is proven irrefutably.

Let’s begin by reviewing the bidding. We have just suffered through the third economic crisis driven by epidemics of control fraud. In two of the crises the financial industry led the fraud epidemics. In the Enron-era fraud epidemic they eagerly aided and abetted Enron’s frauds. In the current crisis we know that U.S. government investigators have found that 16 of the largest banks in the world conspired to falsify Libor, which is used to price $350 trillion in assets. This is the largest cartel in world history by at least three orders of magnitude. Note that all 16 of the banks that participate in creating Libor falsified their statements for the express purpose of falsifying the Libor “fix.” There were no honest banks and there is no reason to believe that if 25 banks participated in setting Libor the results would have differed. The conspirators are not known to have blackballed any bank from participating in “fixing” Libor because of fears that the blackballed bank was led by an honest CEO who would expose and end the conspiracy.

Government investigators have found that over 20 of the largest banks defrauded Fannie and Freddie by selling them vast amount of toxic mortgages through fraudulent “reps and warranties.” Government investigators have found that over 20 of the largest banks defrauded a series of credit unions by selling them toxic mortgages and toxic mortgage derivatives through fraudulent reps and warranties. Government investigators have found other wide ranging frauds by the large banks to (1) rig bids for issuing municipal securities, (2) to foreclose on people through fraudulent affidavits, and (3) by conspiring to falsify foreign exchange (FX) rates. In sum, the leaders of the largest banks in the world are overwhelmingly leading criminal enterprises that commit financial frauds of unprecedented scope and damage. The resulting financial crisis caused by the three most destructive fraud epidemics in history caused over a $21 trillion loss in U.S. GDP and the loss of over 10 million American jobs. Each of those figures is much larger in Europe.

Worse, no senior banker who led the three fraud epidemics has been prosecuted in the U.S. for those crimes. Virtually no senior bankers who led the three fraud epidemics has even been the subject of a civil suit by the U.S. Virtually no senior banker in the U.S. has had his fraud proceeds “clawed back” by the government or the bank. The senior bankers were made wealthy through the “sure thing” of accounting control fraud – with nearly perfect impunity from the criminal and civil law.

This is the setting in which Fichera writes. As a sometimes good guy, one would expect his column to call for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the SEC to end this impunity and immediately act vigorously to hold the senior bankers personally accountable for leading the frauds that blew up the global economy. Instead, Fichera wrote to urge (1) that the largest banks be treated as “too big to jail,” (2) to decry the “tendency to vilify all Wall Street firms as unscrupulous,” (3) to urge SEC sanctions to be reduced to the level of “DMV” “points,” and (4) to provide that no matter how egregious the fraud the SEC would have no power to remove a Wall Street firm’s license until it committed “multiple” cases of the equivalent of deliberate homicide in which each case could involve deliberately running over millions of investors. Under Fichera’s plan, every dog would get at least one bite – of every investor – which would mean hundreds of thousands of bites. Fichera wants banks to be – officially – entitled to commit securities fraud without effective sanction from the SEC.

CONTINUED...

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/11/zero-prosecutions-arent-enough-wall-street-wants-sec-sanctions-reduced-dmv-points.html#more-8811

March 27, 2015

'the great American tradition of corporations writing trade agreements' is GOP policy.

Why it's now bread-and-butter for the DEMs is a subject worthy of discussion.

March 27, 2015

So, no one can watch the watchers?

Like Catch-22, without the democracy.

March 27, 2015

So why do you mock me for writing about the BFEE?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023849451#post33

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024642132#post53

http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/10023176980#post50

There are more examples, of course.

March 27, 2015

That's the Tell.

When someone is more interested in shutting down discussion rather than examining that which may be uncomfortable, repulsive or disquieting, it is a clear signal that there is something worth discovering. In the case of 9-11, one thing are the ties between the Bush and bin Laden families.



Mark Lombardi made "conspiracy art" based on the criminal connections between people, events and organizations, above is a detail and below "George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens," then he "committed suicide" in July 2001.



Jim Hatfield also wrote about the same connections, writing in July 2001 that Bush was sore afraid of bin Laden aerial attack at G-7 summit in Geneva in April 2001 that he slept aboard a cramped U.S. destroyer floating offshore rather than stay in a posh hotel protected by NATO anti-aircraft missile system. This was the last article Hatfield saw published, as he also "committed suicide" in August 2001.

I'd download the copy off of the Wayback Machine. For some reason, I can no longer find it at Online Journal.

The amazing Amy Goodman still hosts an interview with the feller.

These are the kinds of people I discovered and things I learned on DU and Bartcop. It surprises me to hear people tell me to shut-up when talking about them on DU these days.

Thank you for not being quiet, sabrina 1. What a truly awake person does is speak up so others can know. It's the democratic thing to do.

March 26, 2015

Show where I ''promote anti-Semitic, or homophobic, or racist writers at DU.''

If you could, you would.

But you can't, so you don't.

"Trolling is a art.'' -- SidDithers of DU.

March 26, 2015

You accused me, ''that person'' as one who never admits being wrong.

I asked you to show me where I was wrong and you didn't. If pointing that out confuses you, I can't help you.

March 26, 2015

Here you go, SidDithers of DU.

I've asked you, repeatedly over the years, to show what you term my "propensity for promoting and legitimizing the work of noted bigots, racists, homophobes and conspiracy theorist lunatics. You're a guy who thinks white-nationalist Paul Craig Roberts and insane homophobe Wayne Madsen are credible, and appropriate sources for use on a progressive message board."

Seeing how you fail to actually show any of that, I want these to be in the record for all DU to see:

Where I quoted Roberts when he supported Don Siegelman:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022073759


Where I quoted Madsen recently to document the business links between Bush and bin Laden:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6059251


Where I first quoted Madsen on DU2 in 2003 (earlier examples exist, but none so illustrative):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x610051


Where you smear Naomi Klein, making me think the practice is your speciality:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5318151


You will note that I did not support any theory, smear, or lie; I only posted what these people wrote. And as far I as I knew or know, none of these people are anything like what you describe, SidDithers of DU.

PS: Bookmark this thread. You must've missed the last time you spread the same smear:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026178887#post110

March 26, 2015

So what? What do you know, pintobean?

Going from your posts, I'm still waiting to learn something worth knowing.