WHY CAN'T WE ALL 'MARK TO MODEL'?

Conspiracy capitalism has taken things to a new level. Have you heard of the expression: "marked to market?" Each day our investments are assigned the value that the so-called free market in their infinite wisdom have decided they are worth. (By the way, there are no more free markets. But that's another story).

The banksters and their bought-up political bedfellows have concluded that it would be best if they just did away with the abovementioned marked-to-market accounting and simply allowed the bankers to decide what their toxic assets are worth. This creative accounting maneuver is called "marked to model." If the market values an over-the-counter derivative at ten cents on the dollar, the bank can now raise the worthless piece of paper to fifty cents on the dollar. Thank you very much, says the bank, whose balance sheet has suddenly miraculously improved.

Inspired by the conspirators, (and remember I have no compunction about calling them what they are), I decided to call up my friendly local banker where I have a modest savings account and the two brokerage companies where I have equally unimpressive stock accounts. As you can probably guess by now, I insisted that they mark my accounts to model. My model. When they inquired what my model was, I told them that it was the one that added several zeroes to each of my holdings.

They assured me that they could not fulfill my request. I was shocked. "But the big insolvent banks, who just received trillions of dollars from the American people, are able to decide what the value of their pieces of paper are, why can't I?" I asked with proper indignation. My answer was the same from all three entities. "The banks are just doing what they do best: shifting the trillions in risk from themselves to the taxpayer." I was told not to worry about it. Everything would turn out OK in the end.

I found an old baby tooth of mine and put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy before retiring for the night.

04/07/2009

THERE IS NO SOLUTION TO WALL STREET TERROR

After watching Treasury Secretary Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke on TV today, it has become quite obvious that they have no idea how to save the financial system. In fact, there is no practical solution to this crisis.

Confidence will return only when the Wall Street terrorists who got us here are behind bars.

02/12/2009

WHITE COLAR CRIME IS A FELONY

There is a rumor going around that some Americans are actually coming out of their long-term hibernation. It has even been suggested that a handful of these formerly comatose citizens are awakening with a certain displeasure.

Apparently, their imploding home values, pension funds, stock accounts and 401Ks are beginning to get on their nerves. And---you better sit down for this one---a few have even connected the dots of the conspiracy that has brought them down to where they find themselves today.

There is a silent anger rising up in this land of ours. It is directed at the politicians who allowed Wall Street to operate without regulation, the Federal Reserve, whose absurdly low interest rates invited everyone to the party, the banker terrorists who leveraged other people's money 30 to 1 in complex unregulated derivatives for which they received obscene fees, the rating agencies who blessed these toxic assets with their AAA approval and the SEC which, though repeatedly warned about what was happening, looked the other way.

The long-sleeping electorate is slowly coming to the delayed conclusion that conspiracy capitalism has been separating them from their money, their dreams, their retirement and their childen's future. As the flow of funds move ever faster from the many to the few, the middle class is being hijacked, outsourced to oblivion.

The other day I actually heard a member of the human species ask the simple question: "Hey, wait a minute, how come no one is in jail?" To which there is no intelligent response. A teen ager, who happens to get caught with an ounce of marijuana in his pocket, goes directly to the slammer. But the banksters, who have destroyed the global financial system, are free to hide out on their yachts, untouched by the legal system.

President Obama and Congress can throw as many trillions of paper dollars at the problem as they can borrow or print, but until white collar crime in this country is treated as a major felony, even as a capital offense, and members of the SEC, who do not carry out their job of enforcement, are considered felons, then the confidence of the American people will not return. And without trust in the system, there can be no substantive economic recovery.

The President may want to take the "high" road and look only "forward," but the country wants a level playing field where no one is above the law.

03/19/2009

BOO TO BUSH

On Tuesday, January 20th, I think the most appropriate send-off that the American people can give to the disgraceful and embarrassing George Bush would be for the one to two million people standing in front of the Obama inaugeration to offer the departing figurehead a resounding BOO!

01/16/2009

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

I'm simply stunned at the apathy. I just can't get over the ongoing complacency. Is America still at least on the outer fringes of a democracy? The banks, brokerage houses and insurance companies screw everybody over in order to enrich themselves, and, then, when the scam blows up in their faces, the victims, that's us, are told, not asked, to bail the bastards out, there is a deafening silence from the populace. Then, instead of lending out the funds in an effort to get things unclogged in the credit markets, these corporate terrorists hoard our money in order to recapitalize their balance sheets, buy other banks, give themselves bonuses for all their successful enterprise and hold parties for top executives at spas and fancy hotels. All done with our money.


The $700 billion TARP program is just the tip of the iceberg. The feds have given their friends in the banking system access to over $8 trillion from at least 12 different programs. Where do you think that money is coming from? It is borrowed from us and from foreigners, many of whom do not particularly like us, or it is printed. The Federal reserve, that unconstitutional paper company, refuses to tell us who got the money and through what channels. And the banks simply will not discuss the matter. Such "transparency" rivals only Cheney's stiffing the American people about his secret meetings with oil company execs back in 2001. Who do these people think they are?

In France, when the people see political misdeeds or injustice, they take to the streets until the problem is resolved in their favor. In Greece, the shooting of a single policeman causes the masses to demonstrate throughout the country for almost a month. But in America, when our rulers — and believe me, the bankers, the regulators, and the politicians on the take run this country — fleece the masses while lining their own pockets, there is not a peep or a squeak out of the American people.

Failure and mediocrity are being rewarded before our very eyes, and not a thing is being done for the victims. Our money is being used along with some Scotch tape to prop up these institutions, who otherwise, without exception, would be insolvent. What I want to know is where is the outrage?

12/23/2008

THE CRIMINALS MUST BE PUNISHED

In my letter to the editor on August 28th I wrote: “The facts are irrefutable. There is no practical strategy in place nor is there a viable solution to prevent a systemic meltdown of our financial system. Protect your assets while you still can.”


And on September 21st, in another letter to the editor, I said: “The financial system is now broken. The meltdown is underway……..We are living in the midst of an event that will go down in history right alongside the Great Depression and the Civil War.”

I have been writing about the inevitability of this catastrophe for over two years because the mainstream financial press wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. They had strict instructions from their “masters” not to discuss it.

So are you mad yet? I would certainly hope everyone is. The blatant conspiracy that exists between the most powerful banking and corporate institutions, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury and most of our elected representatives have “killed” infinitely more people than the planes that crashed into the buildings on September 11, 2001. The loan originators, the appraisers, the investment banks, the rating agencies, the mortgage insurers, the government regulators, the Congressional oversight committees and the 28-year-old MBA’s, who created those esoteric weapons of mass destruction called over-the-counter derivatives, were all in on it. That many were enriched, some by hundreds of millions of dollars, while the American people saw their pension and retirement plans go broke as trillions of dollars of their life savings got vaporized, is a crime, plain and simple. To ask those who got raped to bail out the perpetrators just rubs salt into the wound.

In case the citizenry should take to the streets to demonstrate their anger, the government, cognizant of this prospect, has deployed thousands of troops in our own country to put down any possible uprisings. A large demonstration was held near Wall Street a couple of weeks ago and purposely not covered by the press.

Understand, that brief rallies to the contrary, there are no good solutions to the credit freeze or the downward spiral in our markets. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is about to explode as it tries to prevent a 1930’s deflationary depression. No longer of any use, the printing presses have been replaced by key strokes on computers in an attempt to reflate the system. If they are “successful,” then we’re looking at a Weimar Republic experience of hyperinflation. If they can’t create money out of thin air fast enough to keep the major banks i.e. Citi Group, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs etc. capitalized (they are all technically insolvent), then can “bank holidays” be avoided?

We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth from the many to the few in the history of the planet. All trust in the financial system and our elected officials is gone. Only when the criminals are punished will any semblance of confidence return.

10/15/2008

THE HUNTING LOOPHOLE

In thinking further about the tragic killing of Karen Wood virtually in her own back yard by a man who thought she was a deer, I am struck by one point which has not to my knowledge been discussed in the press.

Donald Rogerson, who shot Mrs. Wood to death, had been hunting. "HUNTING" is the key word here. When asked how he had managed to end the life of a fellow human being, Mr. Rogerson could look the questioner right in the eye and say he had been HUNTING. He had made an honest HUNTING MISTAKE. It was terrible for sure but also understandable because he had been HUNTING. By all means drop the charges; after all, the man was only HUNTING.

Can you imagine what the authorities would have done to you and me if we had been slinking around a neighborhood with a high-powered rifle and in the process shot a human being to death---if we couldn't claim the HUNTING LOOPHOLE?

P.S. I never thought I'd consider buying a hunting license, but as it turns out for only $16 you can get yourself a license to kill. It kind of gives a fella ideas. After all, I haven't been getting along with Harry or Joe down at the office.....

12/19/1988