Wall Street banks threaten to withhold campaign funds from Dems
in tantrum against Elizabeth Warren.
Big Wall Street banks are so upset with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren’s call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said. Continue reading
And then they get caught?! No sense of consequence.
In the New York Times – By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: December 16, 2013
WASHINGTON — It used to be common for the federal government to prosecute prominent people responsible for debacles that rattled the financial system. Michael R. Milken, the junk bond artist, went to prison in 1991; Charles H. Keating Jr., the face of the savings-and-loan crisis, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud in 1999; and it looks like Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, will be in prison until 2017. Continue reading
By FLOYD NORRIS
It’s no fun to be a banker these days. It is not just the increased regulation. It’s the lack of trust.
“At what point does this stop?” asked Gary Lynch, the former director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission who has gone on to jobs with many leading Wall Street firms and is now global general counsel at Bank of America.
He was referring to the escalation in penalties being levied on banks, culminating in the $13 billion JPMorgan Chase was forced to pay for a series of transgressions. Continue reading
New York Times posted by JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG AND BEN PROTESS
JPMorgan Chase and federal authorities are nearing settlements over the bank’s ties to Bernard L. Madoff, striking tentative deals that would involve roughly $2 billion in penalties and a rare criminal action. The government will use a sizable portion of the money to compensate Mr. Madoff’s victims.
The settlements, which are coming together on the anniversary of Mr. Madoff’s arrest at his Manhattan penthouse five years ago on Wednesday, would fault the bank for turning a blind eye to his huge Ponzi scheme, according to people briefed on the case who were not authorized to speak publicly. Continue reading
One of the best week-in-review posts!
BY ERIC OWLES
After JPMorgan Chase’s $13 billion mortgage settlement emerged this week, Jamie Dimon held a conference call with analysts. “It could’ve been somebody else,” the bank’s chief executive said. Who is next on the list?
In a news analysis in The New York Times, Peter Eavis wrote that “there were plenty of other big subprime players — Countrywide Financial, Merrill Lynch and even foreign institutions like Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland among them.” Continue reading
TruthDig posted the latest Ellen Brown, Web of Debt examination of the financial market.
The Armageddon Looting Machine: The Looming Mass Destruction from Derivatives
Five years after the financial collapse precipitated by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, the risk of another full-blown financial panic is still looming large, despite the Dodd Frank legislation designed to contain it. As noted in a recent Reuters article, the risk has just moved into the shadows: Continue reading
“The Leveraged Buyout of America” by Ellen Brown, Author, Web of Debt, Public Bank Solution; President, Public Banking InstituteGiant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts.
They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How have they pulled this off, and where have they gotten the money? Continue reading
Rumor has it that in a matter of days, after months of negotiation with big banks, the White 
House may announce a settlement that would let the banks off the hook for their role in the foreclosure crisis — paying a tiny fraction of what’s needed in exchange for blanket immunity from future lawsuits. If this happens will we ever be able to trust him again?
Gathered here are three excellent presentations from this weekend… Continue reading
By David DeGraw
Continuing from Part I on DEADLY CLEAR:
You can read the suits filed against each individual bank here. For some more information read Bloomberg: BofA, JPMorgan Among 17 Banks Sued by U.S. for $196 Billion. Noticeably absent from the list of companies being sued is Wells Fargo.
And the suits just keep coming…
BofA sued over $1.75 billion Countrywide mortgage pool
Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) was sued by the trustee of a $1.75 billion mortgage pool, which seeks to force the bank to buy back the underlying Continue reading
Deadly Clear 