Timothy Geithner

Timothy Geithner: EU Crisis Puts World Economy At Risk

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Timothy Geithner at the Council on Foreign Relations

– EU crisis puts economy at risk, warns Geithner (Independent, Oct. 7, 2011):

A downward spiral of weakening confidence and faltering economic growth in the eurozone could bring the rest of the global economy down with it, the US Treasury Secretary warned last night.

In another nudge to European countries to act decisively to resolve their sovereign debt problems, Tim Geithner said that the direct exposure of US banks to the eurozone was limited but that the country could not escape the wider consequences of Europe’s economic and financial difficulties.

“The European financial crisis has placed significant pressure on its financial institutions and slowed growth significantly in Europe and around the world,” he told a session of the Senate Banking Committee, which was holding a hearing on financial stability.

Read moreTimothy Geithner: EU Crisis Puts World Economy At Risk

Obama and Congress ARE Wall Street, Geithner IS the Federal Reserve

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– Obama and Congress ARE Wall Street, Geithner IS the Federal Reserve – Now What? (Activist Post, Oct. 7, 2011):

Barack Obama and his 2008 presidential challenger John McCain both received more money from Wall Street donors than their combined lifetime government salaries.  It was a billion-dollar-plus campaign.  In fact, all of Congress makes more from Wall Street and corporate campaign contributions than their public salaries.  It is the nature of the modern political system.  And Timothy Geithner, despite cheating on his own taxes, was plucked from the New York Federal Reserve to serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary.  So who can the People turn to for solutions?

Read moreObama and Congress ARE Wall Street, Geithner IS the Federal Reserve

Germany Slams ‘STUPID’ Geithner Plan To Boost EU Rescue Fund

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– Germany slams ‘stupid’ US plans to boost EU rescue fund (Telegraph, Sep. 27, 2011):

German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said it would be a folly to boost the EU’s bail-out machinery (EFSF) beyond its €440bn lending limit by deploying leverage to up to €2 trillion, perhaps by raising funds from the European Central Bank.

“I don’t understand how anyone in the European Commission can have such a stupid idea. The result would be to endanger the AAA sovereign debt ratings of other member states. It makes no sense,” he said.

Mr Schauble told Washington to mind its own businesss after President Barack Obama rebuked EU leaders for failing to recapitalise banks and allowing the debt crisis to escalate to the point where it is “scaring the world”.

“It’s always much easier to give advice to others than to decide for yourself. I am well prepared to give advice to the US government,” he said.

Read moreGermany Slams ‘STUPID’ Geithner Plan To Boost EU Rescue Fund

Tim Geithner Admits … US Economy Is In ‘An Early Stage’ Of A Crisis

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… and we are in the ‘last days’ before the collapse will happen.

This is the Greatest Depression.

– Geithner Admits… U.S. Economy Is In “An Early Stage” Of A Crisis (Politicons, Sep. 15, 2011):

Admitting the obvious…


YouTube

Jim Cramer, CNBC host: “Now let’s talk about the fact that you said the economy is weak. You put out a jobs plan. The New York Times today basically gives its obituary. ‘Tax plan for jobs bill.’ Familiar ring. Meaning the GOP will not back this. Is this dead on arrival?”

Tim Geithner, U.S. Secretary of Treasury: “Absolutely not. I think that there’s no reason now for the Congress of the United States not to act to help strengthen growth in the near term. It’s the conservative, prudent, responsible thing to do. You can think of it as protection against Europe.”

Cramer: “Okay.”

Geithner: “You can think of it as insurance against weaker growth going forward. And you got to think about the alternatives. If Congress or Washington is incapable of acting, then policy will be damaging to growth because what you’ll have is a deeper, steeper contraction in fiscal support than is prudent for an economy at this early stage of the crisis given the shocks we face. You know, life is about choices. Life is about alternatives.”

Read moreTim Geithner Admits … US Economy Is In ‘An Early Stage’ Of A Crisis

US Taxpayers Could Be On The Hook For Europe Bailout

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– US taxpayers could be on hook for Europe bailout (MSNBC, Sep. 16, 2011):

The U.S. is coming to Europe’s financial rescue.

So far, America’s role is fairly limited. But if the crisis continues to grow and the U.S. takes on a wider role, U.S. consumers and taxpayers could feel a bigger impact. The biggest exposure could come from America’s status as the single largest source of money for the International Monetary Fund.

The latest round of American financial assistance came Thursday with a promise by the Federal Reserve to swap as many dollars for euros as European bankers need. In the short run, those transactions won’t have much impact because the central banks are simply swapping currencies of equal value. If the move helps avert a wider crisis, it could help spare the global economy from another recession.

But over the long term, consumers could feel the impact of central bankers flooding the financial system with cash, according to John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics.

“This is a lender of last resort function,” he told CNBC. “With the dollar injections that the Fed has done, it’s like giving a patient medicine with really bad side effects.”  Ryding said the bad side effect in the U.S. has been inflation, which has picked up to 3.8 percent year over year.

Read moreUS Taxpayers Could Be On The Hook For Europe Bailout

US Treasury Adds Another $20 Billion In Debt Overnight! – Just $160 Billion Below Revised Debt Ceiling!

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What can you say?

– Treasury Adds Another $20 Billion In Debt Overnight, Just $160 Billion Below Revised Ceiling (ZeroHedge, Aug 8, 2011):

Ok, someone please explain this one to us because we must be a little slow. Wasn’t the whole thing with the debt ceiling hike such that no more Congressional melodramas would have to be inflicted upon the population until after Obama [won|lost] the 2012 elections? Because according to the one again exponentially increasing debt balance of the US Treasury (there is another $51 billion in debt/cash coming in next week), the total US treasury balance (subject to the ceiling) is $14.54 trillion (and $14.58 trillion for total), an increase of $20 billion overnight, the Treasury will hit its latest ceiling no later than the end of September. As the latest DTS statement indicates, the debt ceiling now is $14.694 trillion: a number which Tim Geithner will hit in about a month. So if this is due to a planned expansion as part of the two step plan, we would like to understand how it works, because the $400 billion additional ceiling is barely sufficient to cover the catch up in funding for the SSN and the various governmental trust funds. And the far bigger concern is that tax receipts are about to plunge courtesy of the imminent double dip. So we wonder just based on what assumptions does the Treasury believe that its issuance needs will be met by this paltry debt ceiling.

US Treasury Met With Bond Dealers On Debt Ceiling, Auctions (Bloomberg)

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FOX News:

– Obama Privately Told The Banksters: We’re Not Defaulting:

While officials from the Obama Administration raised their rhetoric over the weekend about the possibility of a debt default if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, they privately have been telling top executives at major U.S. banks that such an event won’t happen, FOX Business has learned.

In a series of phone calls, administration officials have told bankers that the administration will not allow a default to happen even if the debt cap isn’t raised by the August 2 date Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the government will run out of money to pay all its bills, including obligations to bond holders. Geithner made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows saying a default is imminent if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, and President Obama issued a similar warning during a Friday press conference after budget negotiations with House Republicans broke down.

– Primary Dealers Met With Treasury on Debt Ceiling, Auctions (Bloomberg, July 29, 2011):

The U.S. Treasury Department met with bond dealers in New York to discuss next month’s quarterly auctions of notes and bonds and the debt ceiling.

The Treasury canceled its regularly scheduled individual meetings with bond dealers in favor of the group meeting, the department said in a statement today. All 20 primary dealers were invited.

The government is inching closer to running out of cash before an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. House Republican leaders scrapped a vote on the debt ceiling bill late yesterday, fueling concern a compromise by the two parties won’t be reached before the deadline and casting doubt on whether the Treasury can sell more debt.

Read moreUS Treasury Met With Bond Dealers On Debt Ceiling, Auctions (Bloomberg)

US Treasury Burns $90 Billion In Cash In Under Two Weeks

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Timmy, Benny and the boys are bankrupting America and destroying the dollar & the middle class with warp speed until there is nothing left.

– George Carlin: The American Dream

– US Treasury Burns $90 Billion In Cash In Under Two Weeks (July 14, 2011):

Now that’s what one calls prudent fiscal planning…

Source: DTS

Now granted this is mostly due to paying off maturing Bills, which Geithner can’t roll due to the debt ceiling being breached. But keep in mind that as we pointed out in T-Minus Two Months Until The $500 Billion Rolling Debt Ticking Timebomb Goes Off that there is nearly $500 billion in maturing short and long-term debt in the next month and a half which there will be no money to fund unless a debt ceiling decision is reached, but not by August 2, but July 22… or a week from today. And with Boehner refusing the Camp David dance invitation today, one can see why for the first time this afternoon we saw a coordinated sell off in bonds and stocks as the market is finall

Obscure (143-Year-Old!) Clause May Help US Avert Default

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See also:

– Exclusive: US Treasury Secretly Weighs Options To Avert DEFAULT (Reuters) – Here Is My Favorite: ‘If the U.S. Constitution allows President Barack Obama to ignore Congress and the government to continue to issue debt

“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution — taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.”
– Thomas Jefferson

– Obscure clause may help US avert default (AFP, July 09, 2011):

The White House could resort to an little-known line in the US constitution to prevent a ruinous default if Democrats and Republicans do not agree to raise the debt ceiling by August 2, experts say.

The 143-year-old clause, written to address still-potent divisions after the bloody Civil War, has been dredged up by legal scholars as well as the US Treasury secretary to suggest how a debt debacle might be avoided.

But resorting to it could spark a constitutional crisis over just who — the Congress or the White House — controls the power of the federal purse, analysts say.

The US government reached its debt limit of $14.29 trillion in May and since then the Treasury has used special measures to allow the government to keep paying its bills.

But unless the limit is raised by August 2, the Treasury says, growing spending and debt service commitments will force a default, which would have disastrous ripple effects throughout the global financial system.

Republicans in Congress — which sets the debt cap into law — have refused to raise it unless the move is accompanied by deep spending cuts, and their talks with Democrats have made little visible progress.

If the impasse is not broken, could President Barack Obama simply ignore the ceiling and borrow more money?

Some legal experts believe he could, citing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1868.

Read moreObscure (143-Year-Old!) Clause May Help US Avert Default

Exclusive: US Treasury Secretly Weighs Options To Avert DEFAULT (Reuters) – Here Is My Favorite: ‘If the U.S. Constitution allows President Barack Obama to ignore Congress and the government to continue to issue debt’

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“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution — taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.”
– Thomas Jefferson

If the situation is that dire, then how come the US still has a AAA rating? (Rhetoric question.)

Related info:

– The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Collapse – It’s Coming! Are You Ready? (06/14/2011)

– China’s Rating Agency: ‘In Our Opinion The United States Has Already Been Defaulting’

– Germany’s Rating Agency Feri Downgrades US Government Bonds: AAA to AA!

Ready for the greatest financial collapse in world history? Although I do not believe that it will happen now. They will just agree to raise the debt limit (again) and turn on the printing press (again) and create a monster hyperinflationary depression. This is the Greatest Depression. Prepare for collapse!

– Exclusive: Treasury secretly weighs options to avert default (Reuters, July 7, 2011):

A small team of Treasury officials is discussing options to stave off default if Congress fails to raise the country’s borrowing limit by an August 2 deadline, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Senior officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, have repeatedly said there are no contingency plans if lawmakers do not give the U.S. government the authority to borrow more money.

But behind the scenes, top Treasury officials have been exploring ways to prevent a financial meltdown that would be triggered if the government were unable to pay its bills on time, sources told Reuters.

Treasury has studied the following issues:

– Whether the administration can delay payments to try to manage cash flows after August 2

– If the U.S. Constitution allows President Barack Obama to ignore Congress and the government to continue to issue debt

– Whether a 1985 finding by a government watchdog gives the government legal authority to prioritize payments.

Read moreExclusive: US Treasury Secretly Weighs Options To Avert DEFAULT (Reuters) – Here Is My Favorite: ‘If the U.S. Constitution allows President Barack Obama to ignore Congress and the government to continue to issue debt’

Record 44.7 Million People Celebrate Timothy Geithner’s Departure And The End Of QE2 Through Foodstamps

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Recovery is ‘The Greatest Depression’!

– Record 44.7 Million People Celebrate Geithner’s Departure And The End Of QE2 Through Foodstamps (ZeroHedge, July 1, 2011):

The one and only clearest indication of just how effective the recovery and QE2 in general has been, comes courtesy of the USDA, whose just released update of April participation in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as “foodstamps”, shows yet another record, this time 44.647 million people, an increase from May’s 44.587 million. And after rising modestly in the last month, the average monthly benefit per household dropped again to a post April 2009 revision low of $282.38/month.

US Treasury To Implement Emergency Debt Measures This Week, Debt Ceiling To Be Hit By May 16

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“Protecting America’s creditworthiness and our economic leadership position in the world is a duty to our country that is shared by policymakers in both parties, in the Legislative Branch as well as the Executive Branch. Therefore any attempt by either party to use the full faith and credit of the United States as a bargaining chip to advance partisan policy agendas would be irresponsible.”
– Timothy Geithner

Those criminals (Republicans and Democrats alike) are intentionally bankrupting America. They are spending America into oblivion.

And yes, they know exactly what they are doing:

‘Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.’
– Barack Obama

And even Bush’s record budget deficit of $482 billion pales if you compare it to Obama’s projected deficit:

– President Obama Sends Congress $3.73 Trillion Budget:

The administration is projecting that the deficit will hit an all-time high of $1.65 trillion this year.

Elite puppet President Obama is 3,42 times worse than even elite puppet President Bush and Obama correctly stated that under Bush “America had a debt problem and a failure of leadership.’

What does this say about Obama?

Secretary Geithner Sends Debt Limit Letter to Congress

– Secretary Geithner Sends Debt Limit Letter to Congress:

By: Erika Gudmundson
5/2/2011

Today, as Members return from recess, Secretary Geithner sent the following letter to Congress regarding the debt limit, which we estimate will be reached on May 16. He also details the extraordinary measures that Treasury will begin implementing this week in advance of that deadline (download the signed letter here). For more information on the State & Local Government Series (SLGS)  referenced in the letter, read these FAQs. And get the facts about the debt limit, including previous letters from the Secretary and other information here.
May 2, 2011

The Honorable John A. Boehner

Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Mr. Speaker:

Further to my letters of January 6 and April 4, 2011, I am writing again to Members of Congress regarding the importance of protecting America’s creditworthiness by enacting an increase in the statutory debt limit.  This letter is to inform you of the extraordinary measures the Treasury Department will begin taking this week in anticipation of the date the debt limit will be reached, and to provide an updated estimate of the Department’s ability to use these measures to preserve lawful borrowing authority without exceeding the debt limit.  In my last letter, I described in detail the set of extraordinary measures Treasury is prepared to take in order to extend temporarily our ability to meet the Nation’s obligations if an increase is not enacted by May 16, when we estimate the limit will be reached.  Because it appears that Congress will not act by May 16, it will be necessary for the Treasury to begin implementing these extraordinary measures this week.

On Friday, May 6, Treasury will suspend until further notice the issuance of State and Local Government Series (SLGS) Treasury securities.  SLGS are special-purpose Treasury securities issued to states and municipalities to help them conform to tax rules that restrict the investment of proceeds from the issuance of tax-exempt bonds.  These bonds are used to fund a variety of expenditures, including infrastructure improvements across the country.  When Treasury issues SLGS, they count against the debt limit.  Because the United States is very close to reaching the debt limit, Treasury must take this action now.  However, it is not without costs; it will deprive state and local governments of an important tool to manage their outstanding debt expenses.

If Congress does not increase the debt limit by May 16, the Treasury Department will be forced to employ further extraordinary measures on that date to provide headroom under the limit.  Therefore, on May 16, I will (1) declare a “debt issuance suspension period” under the statute governing the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, permitting us to redeem existing Treasury securities held by that fund as investments, and to suspend issuance of new Treasury securities to that fund as investments and (2) suspend the daily reinvestment of Treasury securities held as investments by the Government Securities Investment Fund of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Thrift Savings Plan.  (Under the law, Federal employees are protected by a requirement that both funds be made whole after a debt limit increase is enacted.)

Read moreUS Treasury To Implement Emergency Debt Measures This Week, Debt Ceiling To Be Hit By May 16

US Treasury Sells $29 Billion In Bonds, Bringing Total Settled US Debt To 14.311 Trillion, More Than The Debt Ceiling

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First, the irrelevant news:

Today’s $29 billion 7 Year auction just closed at a yield of 2.895%, the highest since April 2010, just the time when QE1 was ending and everyone was certain there would be no follow through monetization. The Bid To Cover was 2.79, weaker compared to recent auctions, and 2 bps wider of the When Issued, implying the auction was not all that hot. Directs took down 8.76%, in line with the last year average, Indirects accounts for 49.41%, or the lowest foreign take down since November 2010, while PDs bought 41.83% of the auction. Altogether a weak auction but it’s not like the PDs would let it fail especially not with QB9 becoming the next “flip back to the Fed” bond for the PD community.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Next, the relevant news:

Now bear with us for a second: the most recently disclosed total debt was 14,211,567,662,931.23 as of March 28. This excludes the settlement of all of this week’s auctions which amount to $35 + $35 + $29 billion (including today) or $99 billion. Adding the two amounts to $14,310,567,662,931.23. As a reminder the debt ceiling is $14,294,000,000,000.00. In other words, the total US debt just passed the debt limit – break out the Champagne! Granted there is a buffer of $52.2 billion between the total debt and the debt actually subject to the ceiling, meaning that America is not in default, yet.

Read moreUS Treasury Sells $29 Billion In Bonds, Bringing Total Settled US Debt To 14.311 Trillion, More Than The Debt Ceiling

Obama Administration To Hand The Entire Housing Industry Over To The Banks

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See also:

– Paul Craig Roberts: Obama’s FY 2012 Budget Is A Tool Of Class War

– Matt Taibbi: Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? (Rolling Stone):

… a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

“Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail,” he said. “That’s your whole story right there. Hell, you don’t even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.”

I put down my notebook. “Just that?”

“That’s right,” he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. “Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.”

A most dastardly deed occurred last Friday when the Obama administration issued a 29-page policy statement totally abandoning the federal government’s time-honored role in helping Americans achieve the goal of homeownership. Instead of punishing the banks that sabotaged the American ideal of a nation of stakeholders by “securitizing” our homesteads into poker chips to be gambled away in the Wall Street casino, Barack Obama now proposes to turn over the entire mortgage industry to those same banks.

The proposal, originated by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, involves nothing less than a total “winding down” of the 80-year-old federal housing program, setting instead a new goal of a two-tiered America in which the masses are content to be mere renters of the American Dream. Such a deal for a country where, as the report concedes, “Half of all renters spend more than a third of their income on housing, and a quarter spend more than half.”

This is the same Geithner who during his tenure in the Clinton Treasury Department championed the total deregulation of the then-emerging market in collateralized debt obligations that sliced and diced people’s home mortgages into the toxic securities that created what his new report calls the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Later, as president of the New York Fed, he cheered on the banks as they went hog-wild, conning folks into buying homes they couldn’t afford and stuffing them into the incomprehensible securities that form the rot at the core of our bankrupt economy.

Read moreObama Administration To Hand The Entire Housing Industry Over To The Banks

The Ticking US Debt-Limit Clock (Council on Foreign Relations)

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Timothy Geithner at CFR

The big irony is that the Obama administration consists entirely of CFR, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg group members, like all the other US administrations before.

Maybe we should call it the ‘Elite Puppet Wall Street Obama Bin Bush Clintonite administration’ instead.

Those criminals are bankrupting and destroying America.

– Bank Bailouts Explained (Must-see!)

– Government Economists: America Faces The Biggest Budget Deficit In History

– Elite Puppet President Obama Exposed (This video exposes also several other elite puppet US administrations!)

– Geithner Warns Lawmakers That Failure to Raise US Debt Limit ‘Precipitates a Default by the United States’ With Catastrophic Economic Consequences

– US Government Spends $6.85 Million Per Minute

– US Government Borrows 40 Percent Of Every Dollar It Spends

– Federal Reserve US Treasury Holdings Pass The $1 Trillion Mark

– Quantitative Easing Explained (Must-see!)

Prepare yourself for the greatest financial collapse in history.

This is the Greatest Depression.

Now here is the Council on Foreign Relations article …

The Ticking U.S. Debt-Limit Clock


U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner delivers his testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel. (Jonathan Ernst/Courtesy Reuters)

The U.S. Treasury begins taking steps to avoid hitting the government’s legal debt limit this week as political squabbling continues over how to rein in public spending. The Treasury is roughly $279 billion away from the legal debt ceiling of $14.294 trillion. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Congress (Reuters) earlier this month the debt limit could be reached as early as late March. As an initial step, the Treasury will gradually cut the balance of a financial lending program with the Fed to $5 billion from $200 billion (TheHill). But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the Treasury’s day-to-day borrowing needs, and the move was already factored into Geithner’s estimate of when the debt ceiling will be reached. Employing other special measures–such as issuing more short-term cash bills and suspending payments to government employee pension funds–could push back the date the limit is reached (Reuters) by about eight weeks.

Danger of hitting the debt limit–which could force the country to default on its loans–comes amid mounting domestic and international pressure for the government to produce a credible deficit-reduction strategy. The Republican House is threatening to vote against raising the debt ceiling (NYT) unless Democratic lawmakers and the White House agree to serious spending cuts. Helping its stance was last week’s announcement by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (MSNBC) that the budget deficit will reach nearly 40 percent of GDP this year under the tax cut deal struck by the White House and Republican lawmakers. The International Monetary Fund added to the pressure in a report stressing that low U.S. borrowing costs will not last indefinitely. The fund said Washington would need to make up for its delayed budget strategy (Reuters) by cutting more deeply in 2012 and laying out more long-term specifics.

Read moreThe Ticking US Debt-Limit Clock (Council on Foreign Relations)

Bank Bailouts Explained (Must-See!!!)

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Added: 28. January 2011

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Slams Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson, Summers, SEC, Rating Agencies and Big Banks for Causing Crisis

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The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is releasing its report Thursday.

The New York Times has a preview of the report, which shows that the Commission will slam the right people for causing the financial crisis.

Barry Ritholtz gives a good summary of the Times’ article:

The many causal factors highlighted in the FCIC report:

• Alan Greenspan’s malfeasance — his refusal to perform his regulatory duties because he did not believe in them — allowed the credit bubble to expand, driving housing prices to dangerously unsustainable levels; Greenspan’s advocacy for financial deregulation was a “pivotal failure to stem the flow of toxic mortgages” and “the prime example” of government negligence;

• Ben S. Bernanke failed to foresee the crisis;

• The Bush administration’s “inconsistent response” — saving Bear, but allowing Lehman to crater — “added to the uncertainty and panic in the financial markets.”

• Bush Treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. wrongly predicted in 2007 that subprime meltdown would be contained.

• The Clinton White House, including then Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, made a crucial error in “shielding over-the-counter derivatives from regulation [CFMA]. This was “a key turning point in the march toward the financial crisis.”

• Then NY Fed President, now Treasury secretary Timothy F. Geithner failed to “clamp down on excesses by Citigroup in the lead-up to the crisis;” Further, a month before Lehman’s collapse, Geithner was still in the dark about Lehman’s derivative exposure;

• Low interest rates brought about by the Fed after the 2001 recession “created increased risks” but were not chiefly to blame, according to the FCIC (I place some more weight on Ultra-low rates than they do);

• The financial sector spent $2.7 billion on lobbying from 1999 to 2008, while individuals and committees affiliated with the industry made more than $1 billion in campaign contributions. The impact of which an incestuous relationship between bankers and regulators, Congress and bankers, and classic regulatory capture by the industry.

• The credit-rating agencies “cogs in the wheel of financial destruction.”

• The Securities and Exchange Commission allowed the 5 biggest banks to ramp up their leverage, hold insufficient capital, and engage in risky practices.

• Leverage at the nation’s five largest investment banks was wildly excessive: They kept only $1 in capital to cover losses for about every $40 in assets;

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency along with the Office of Thrift Supervision, “federally pre-empted” (blocked) state regulators from reining in lending abuses;

• The report documents “questionable practices by mortgage lenders and careless betting by banks;”

• The report portrays the “bumbling incompetence among corporate chieftains” as to the risk and operations of their own firms:

-Citigroup executives admitting that they paid little attention to the risks associated with mortgage securities.
-AIG executives were blind to its $79 billion exposure to credit default swaps;
-Merrill Lynch top managers were surprised when mortgage investments suddenly resulted in billions of dollars in losses;

Read moreFinancial Crisis Inquiry Commission Slams Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson, Summers, SEC, Rating Agencies and Big Banks for Causing Crisis

Geithner Warns Lawmakers That Failure to Raise US Debt Limit ‘Precipitates a Default by the United States’ With Catastrophic Economic Consequences

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Timmy’s exact analysis of the situation is just brilliant!

Related article:

– Geithner urges Congress to raise debt limit (AFP):

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned congressional leaders Thursday that the government could reach its borrowing limit by spring and failure to raise it could affect millions of American jobs.

The US is totally broke and this is the Greatest Depression.

Geithner Warns Lawmakers On US Debt Limit

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. could reach its debt limit of nearly $14.3 trillion as early as March 31, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday.

Geithner in a letter to lawmakers said failure to raise the debt limit could “precipitate a default by the United States” and have catastrophic economic consequences–potentially more harmful than the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.

The letter received a cool reception on Capitol Hill.

“The American people will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington,” Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said.

Boehner, leading a new Republican majority in the House, said spending cuts remained a top priority lawmakers.

The Treasury Department estimates that the U.S. could reach its debt limit as soon as March 31 and probably no later than May 16. The exact date depends on the rate of economic growth, tax receipts and other factors.

“This means it is necessary for Congress to act by the end of the first quarter of 2011,” Geithner said in the letter.

Geithner is pushing lawmakers to lift that ceiling for the sixth time in less than four years. Lawmakers last increased the debt ceiling almost a year ago.

But by Monday, the federal debt subject to that ceiling stood at around $13.95 trillion, giving the government just $355 billion before it would be legally prohibited from borrowing to pay its financial obligations.

Read moreGeithner Warns Lawmakers That Failure to Raise US Debt Limit ‘Precipitates a Default by the United States’ With Catastrophic Economic Consequences

The Dylan Ratigan Show with Prof. William Black: ‘Fire Holder, Fire Geithner, Fire Bernanke’

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Complete administrations should have been fired a long time ago:

– Elite Puppet President Obama Exposed

Even firing complete administrations would not solve the problem, because they are all only puppets of the elitists that OWN governments (all big parties), the Federal Reserve, other central banks, the big corporations and the mass media worldwide.

– The Rothschild Documentary


Added: 25. October 2010

The fraudulent CEOs looted with impunity, were left in power, and were granted their fondest wish when Congress, at the behest of the Chamber of Commerce, Chairman Bernanke, and the bankers’ trade associations, successfully extorted the professional Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to turn the accounting rules into a farce.

The FASB’s new rules allowed the banks (and the Fed, which has taken over a trillion dollars in toxic mortgages as wholly inadequate collateral) to refuse to recognize hundreds of billions of dollars of losses. This accounting scam produces enormous fictional “income” and “capital” at the banks.

The fictional income produces real bonuses to the CEOs that make them even wealthier. The fictional bank capital allows the regulators to evade their statutory duties under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) law to close the insolvent and failing banks.

See also:

– Prof. William Black’s Testimony on Lehman Bankruptcy: ‘Lehman Was The Leading Purveyor of Liars’ Loans in The World’ (Transcript & Video)

– Prof. William Black: Timothy Geithner ‘Burned Billions,’ Shafted Taxpayers on CIT Loan

Transparency: US Treasury Shields Citigroup as Deletions Undercut Disclosure

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Related articles:

– Investigative Reporter Mark Pittman Responsible For Bloomberg News Lawsuit Against The Federal Reserve Dies At 52

–  Federal Reserve Seeks Delay of Bank Data Release While Considering Appeal


(Click on image to enlarge.)

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) — The late Bloomberg News reporter Mark Pittman asked the U.S. Treasury in January 2009 to identify $301 billion of securities owned by Citigroup Inc. that the government had agreed to guarantee. He made the request on the grounds that taxpayers ought to know how their money was being used.

More than 20 months later, after saying at least five times that a response was imminent, Treasury officials responded with 560 pages of printed-out e-mails — none of which Pittman requested. They were so heavily redacted that most of what’s left are everyday messages such as “Did you just try to call me?” and “Monday will be a busy day!”

None of the documents answers Pittman’s request for “records sufficient to show the names of the relevant securities” or the dates and terms of the guarantees. Even so, the U.S. government considers the collection of e-mails a partial response to an official request under the federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. The Justice Department in July cited an increase in such responses as evidence that “more information is being released” under the law.

President Barack Obama vowed to usher in a new era of open government. On Jan. 21, 2009, the day after his inauguration and a week before Pittman submitted his FOIA request, Obama directed agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA.”

Limits of Transparency

The saga of Pittman’s request shows that the promise of transparency has its limits when it comes to the government’s intervention in the financial industry, which at its peak reached $12.8 trillion in commitments. From the 2008 Bear Stearns Cos. rescue to the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing in 2010, the Obama administration has delayed disclosures and defended its right to secrecy in court, said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch Inc., which describes itself as a conservative foundation.

“This is an unprecedented crisis for open government,” said Fitton, whose Washington-based organization sued the Bush administration more than 200 times over disclosure issues. “When it comes to the bank bailout, the Obama administration has made a decision to err on the side of secrecy.”

The Justice Department, which oversees disclosure for the executive branch, is “working specifically to encourage agencies to be as transparent as possible and release as much as possible,” said Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the department’s Office of Information Policy. “We view our efforts as an ongoing process.”

Read moreTransparency: US Treasury Shields Citigroup as Deletions Undercut Disclosure

G20 to Timothy Geithner: ‘You’re Joking … Right?’

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The stock market was relatively calm Friday morning but market players are on edge ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit in Seoul.

With the world’s economic powers seemingly in a race to have a weaker currency than their trading partners, the threat of a currency war hangs over the conference.

Ahead of the confab, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sent a letter requesting the G20 “commit refrain from exchange rate policies designed to achieve competitive advantage by either weakening their currency or preventing appreciation of undervalued currency.”

China’s currency manipulation was the primary target of Geithner’s request, as was his proposal that G20 nations adopt specific targets to reduce trade gaps between specific countries.

The problem is U.S. policy appears designed to weaken the dollar without regard for our trade deficit, so Geithner seems, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, hypocritical.

Furthermore, S&P 500 companies are benefiting from a weak dollar, as Henry and I discuss in the accompanying clip. The dollar’s weakness makes it easier for U.S. multinationals to sell their goods abroad, a primary reason the stock market is hovering near its highest levels since Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy in September 2008.

For better or worse, the big threat to the bulls today is the communiqué coming out of the G20 meeting might help shore up the dollar, a big reason gold has fallen from its recent peak this week.

Posted Oct 22, 2010 10:56am EDT
by Aaron Task

Source: Yahoo Finance

ROFL! – Geithner: America Will Not Engage In Dollar Devaluation – Fed Officials: More Quantitative Easing

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There are not much choices left:

–  Three Horrifying Facts About the US Debt ‘Situation’:

#3: The US will Default on its Debt

… either that or experience hyperinflation. There is simply no other option. We can NEVER pay off our debts. To do so would require every US family to pay $31,000 a year for 75 years.

Bear in mind, I’m completely ignoring the debt we took on with the nationalization of Fannie and Freddie, AIG, and the slew of other garbage we nationalized or shifted onto the Fed’s balance sheet. And yet we’re STILL talking about every US family making $31,000 in debt payments per year for 75 years to pay off our national debt.

Obviously that ain’t going to happen.

US Treasury chief Timothy Geithner says America will not engage in dollar devaluation

Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, said the United States would not engage in a currency war by devaluing the dollar to boost the country’s flagging economy.


Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, when asked how much higher China should allow the yuan to rise, replied: ‘Higher.’ Photo: Bloomberg

“It is very important for people to understand that the United States of America and no country around the world can devalue its way to prosperity, to [be] competitive,” he said. “It is not a viable, feasible strategy.”

The dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies after his comments to business leader in California’s Silicon Valley on Monday, including the yen, euro and sterling.

This is the first time since February that Mr Geithner – who helped create the “strong dollar mantra” in the 1990s – has broken his silence on the weakening US currency.

It also comes ahead of this weekend’s meeting of finance leaders from the Group of 20 wealthy and emerging nations in South Korea, which is expected to be overshadowed by a dispute between China and the US over the valuation of the yuan and growing fears of protectionist currency wars.

The weak dollar has already led export-focused Japan to launch an unsuccessful intervention to strengthen the yen, while Brazil has warned that an “international currency war” was hurting his country’s competitiveness – a weak dollar causes more funds to flow into Brazil and other emerging market economies, pushing up currencies.

The dollar has fallen 7pc since late August when Fed chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at the possibility of fresh stimulus to stoke the world’s largest economy.

Answering audience questions before the Commonwealth Club of California in Palo Alto, he said the US needed to “work hard to preserve confidence in the strong dollar.”

On Friday, the dollar index hit a 10-month low against a basket of major currencies, while the greenback has been plumbing fresh 15-year lows against Japan’s yen.

Brazil on Monday moved to cool a strong rally in its currency by raising taxes for foreigners buying local bonds and trading in foreign exchange derivatives.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the move was aimed at reducing foreign investment into Brazil, and he urged other countries to take coordinated action against the weak dollar.

Argentina’s Minister of Economy and Public Finance Amado Boudou on Monday called on developed nations to focus on creating jobs rather than actions that weaken their currencies, saying a “true currency war” was underway.

However, the US say the problem is China’s restrictive exchange rate regime, which until recently had kept the yuan largely pegged to the dollar. It wants China to allow the value of the yuan to rise.

On Friday, Mr Geithner delayed a report about whether the yuan’s value is being manipulated, saying instead that he wants to work through the G20 process to hash out a multilateral solution.

Asked how much higher China should allow the yuan to rise, he said: “Higher.”

On whether the dollar would lose its status as the world’s reserve currency, the Treasury chief said: “Not in our lifetime.”

Published: 8:22AM BST 19 Oct 2010

Source: The Telegraph


Officials hint Fed on the verge of more easing


CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta Dennis Lockhart listens during a presentation at the American Economic Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A string of Federal Reserve officials on Tuesday indicated the central bank will soon offer further monetary stimulus to the economy, with one saying $100 billion a month in bond buys may be appropriate.

While internal differences on the unconventional policy are still evident, the consensus view at the Fed appears to be that the economy is weak enough to warrant further support, most likely through increased purchases of Treasury debt.

The U.S. economy is expected to have grown just 1.9 percent in the third quarter, a level considered too low to bring down unemployment. The debt purchases would help lower long-term interest rates in the hope of boosting demand.

Read moreROFL! – Geithner: America Will Not Engage In Dollar Devaluation – Fed Officials: More Quantitative Easing

EPA Whistleblower On Gulf Health Risk Cover-Up: ‘People Who Work Near Corexit Are Hemorrhaging Internally.’

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EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup


With BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. We speak with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. [includes rush transcript]

SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: The Obama administration has given BP the go-ahead to keep its ruptured well sealed for another day despite worries about the well leaking some oil and methane gas. National Incident Commander Thad Allen said the seep was not cause for alarm. Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has released its analysis of BP’s data on the exposure of cleanup workers to the chemical dispersants being used in the Gulf. OSHA chief David Michaels told the environmental website Greenwire that, quote, “I think you can say exposures are low for workers. Exposures of workers on shore are virtually nonexistent. There are significant exposures near the source, and that’s to be expected given the work being done there. Those workers are given respiratory protection,” he said. But with BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. At a Senate subcommittee hearing last week, Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski grilled administrators from the EPA about Corexit and said she didn’t want dispersants to be the Agent Orange of this oil spill.

    SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI: I’m concerned because I feel and I believe, and my reading verifies, that we don’t know enough about the impact of dispersants and dispersed oil on people, marine life and water quality. I’m very concerned. And my question is, should we ban them? Should we take a time out from using them? What are the short- and long-term consequences of using them? I don’t want dispersants to be the Agent Orange of this oil spill. And I want to be assured, in behalf of the American people, that this is OK to use and OK to use in the amounts that we’re talking about.

AMY GOODMAN: Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski. While concerns over the impact of chemical dispersants continue to grow, Gulf Coast residents are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money cleanup workers earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. It’s seen as an effort to limit the number of lawsuits against BP. We’re joined now by two guests on these two issues, on Corexit and the workers. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail is joining us from Tampa, Florida. He’s been reporting from the Gulf Coast for three weeks. His latest article at Truthout is called “BP’s Scheme to Swindle the ‘Small People.'” And from Washington, DC, we’re joined by Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He’s been a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Hugh Kaufman. First of all, explain what Corexit is, the company that makes it, what’s in it, and your concerns.

HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money. And the government-both EPA, NOAA, etc.-have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up. Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that’s been going on for almost three months.

Congressman Markey and Nadler, as well as Senator Mikulski, have been heroes in this respect. Congressman Markey made the BP and government put a camera down there to show the public the gusher. And when they did that, experts saw that the amount of material, oil being released, is orders of magnitudes greater than what BP and NOAA and EPA were saying. And the cover-up started to evaporate. But the use of dispersants has not. Consequently, we have people, wildlife-we have dolphins that are hemorrhaging.

People who work near it are hemorrhaging internally. And that’s what dispersants are supposed to do. EPA now is taking the position that they really don’t know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It’s very dangerous, and it’s an economic-it’s an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public.

Now, the one thing that I did want to mention to you, Amy, that’s occurred in most investigations, back even in the Watergate days, people said, “follow the money.” And that’s correct. In this case, you’ve got to follow the money. Who saves money by using these toxic dispersants? Well, it’s BP. But then the next question-I’ve only seen one article that describes it-who owns BP? And I think when you look and see who owns BP, you find that it’s the majority ownership, a billion shares, is a company called BlackRock that was created, owned and run by a gentleman named Larry Fink. And Vanity Fair just did recently an article about Mr. Fink and his connections with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Summers and others in the administration. So I think what’s needed, we now know that there’s a cover-up. Dispersants are being used. Congress, at least three Congress folks-Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski-are on the case. And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.


Read moreEPA Whistleblower On Gulf Health Risk Cover-Up: ‘People Who Work Near Corexit Are Hemorrhaging Internally.’

Goldman Sachs Reveals That Bailout Cash Went Overseas

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goldman-sachs
Goldman Sachs received a $12.9 billion payout from the government’s bailout of AIG, which was at one time the world’s largest insurance company.

Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night.

Goldman Sachs disclosed the list of companies to the Senate Finance Committee after a threat of subpoena from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia.

Asked the significance of the list, Grassley said, “I hope it’s as simple as taxpayers deserve to know what happened to their money.”

He added, “We thought originally we were bailing out AIG. Then later on … we learned that the money flowed through AIG to a few big banks, and now we know that the money went from these few big banks to dozens of financial institutions all around the world.”

Read moreGoldman Sachs Reveals That Bailout Cash Went Overseas