Thursday, July 11, 2013
Elizabeth Warren ~ Banking Hearing on Wall Street Reforms
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Elizabeth Warren on Corporate Capture of the Federal Courts
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Financial Industry Regulation: Assisting the Banking and Financial Markets - Elizabeth Warren (2009)
Critics such as economist Paul Krugman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have argued that the regulatory framework did not keep pace with financial innovation, such as the increasing importance of the shadow banking system, derivatives and off-balance sheet financing. A recent OECD study suggest that bank regulation based on the Basel accords encourage unconventional business practices and contributed to or even reinforced the financial crisis. In other cases, laws were changed or enforcement weakened in parts of the financial system. Key examples include:
Jimmy Carter's Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) phased out a number of restrictions on banks' financial practices, broadened their lending powers, allowed credit unions and savings and loans to offer checkable deposits, and raised the deposit insurance limit from $40,000 to $100,000 (thereby potentially lessening depositor scrutiny of lenders' risk management policies.)[87]
In October 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Garn--St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which provided for adjustable-rate mortgage loans, began the process of banking deregulation,[citation needed] and contributed to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s.[88]
In November 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm--Leach--Bliley Act, which repealed part of the Glass--Steagall Act of 1933. This repeal has been criticized for reducing the separation between commercial banks (which traditionally had fiscally conservative policies) and investment banks (which had a more risk-taking culture).[89][90] However, the vast majority of failures were at institutions that were created by Glass-Steagall.[91]
In 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relaxed the net capital rule, which enabled investment banks to substantially increase the level of debt they were taking on, fueling the growth in mortgage-backed securities supporting subprime mortgages. The SEC has conceded that self-regulation of investment banks contributed to the crisis.[92][93]
Financial institutions in the shadow banking system are not subject to the same regulation as depository banks, allowing them to assume additional debt obligations relative to their financial cushion or capital base.[94] This was the case despite the Long-Term Capital Management debacle in 1998, where a highly leveraged shadow institution failed with systemic implications.
Regulators and accounting standard-setters allowed depository banks such as Citigroup to move significant amounts of assets and liabilities off-balance sheet into complex legal entities called structured investment vehicles, masking the weakness of the capital base of the firm or degree of leverage or risk taken. One news agency estimated that the top four U.S. banks will have to return between $500 billion and $1 trillion to their balance sheets during 2009.[95] This increased uncertainty during the crisis regarding the financial position of the major banks.[96] Off-balance sheet entities were also used by Enron as part of the scandal that brought down that company in 2001.[97]
As early as 1997, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan fought to keep the derivatives market unregulated.[98] With the advice of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets,[99] the U.S. Congress and President allowed the self-regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market when they enacted the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Derivatives such as credit default swaps (CDS) can be used to hedge or speculate against particular credit risks. The volume of CDS outstanding increased 100-fold from 1998 to 2008, with estimates of the debt covered by CDS contracts, as of November 2008, ranging from US$33 to $47 trillion. Total over-the-counter (OTC) derivative notional value rose to $683 trillion by June 2008.[100] Warren Buffett famously referred to derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" in early 2003.[101][102]
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Elizabeth Warren on Student Debt Trap
Senator Warren Introduces the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, her first piece of stand-alone legislation, on May 8, 2013. The bill would would students who are eligible for federally subsidized Stafford loans to borrow at the same rate the big banks get through the Federal Reserve discount window.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Elizabeth Warren ~ Banking Committee Hearing - Illegal Foreclosures
Senator Elizabeth Warren's opening statement and Q&A at the April 11, 2013 Senate Banking Committee, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Hearing. Panelists include: Mr. Daniel P. Stipano Deputy Chief Counsel Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Mr. Richard Ashton Deputy General Counsel Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Elizabeth Warren: The Minimum Wage Should be $22 an hour
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to know one thing: why isn’t the minimum wage at $22 per hour? During a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing Monday, Warren cited a study that showed the minimum wage had stayed flat since 1960 and it has not risen with the rise of inflation and the increased cost of living.
Senator Elizabeth Warren's Q&A at the March 14, 2013 Senate HELP Committee hearing titled "Keeping up with a Changing Economy: Indexing the Minimum Wage." Witnesses include Brad Avakian , Commissioner, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Portland, OR; Dr. Arindrajit Dube , Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA; Lew Prince , Managing Partner, Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis, MO; Carolle Fleurio , Restaurant Worker, Jonesboro, GA; Melvin Sickler , Franchisee, Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Cinnabon, Williamstown, NJ; David Rutigliano , Owner, Southport Brewing Company, Trumbull, CT
Monday, March 18, 2013
Elizabeth Warren - Senate HELP Committee - Minimum Wage
Elizabeth Warren - Senate HELP Committee - Minimum Wage , Senator Elizabeth Warrens Qamp;A at the March 14 2013 Senate HELP Committee hearing titled Keeping up with a Changing Economy Indexing the Minimum Wage. Witnesses include Brad Avakian Commissioner Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Portland OR; Dr. Arindrajit Dube Department of Economics Universityof Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA; Lew Prince Managing Partner Vintage Vinyl St. Louis MO; Carolle Fleurio Restaurant Worker Jonesboro GA; Melvin Sickler Franchisee Auntie Annes Pretzels and Cinnabon Williamstown NJ; David Rutigliano Owner Southport Brewing Company Trumbull CT
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Elizabeth Warren ~ Taxpayers subsidize big Banks handing out $85 Bln annually
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) grilled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the risks of having banks that are too big to fail on Tuesday. According to a recent Bloomberg study, some of the biggest banks are receiving $83 billion in subsidies each year. Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee and was forced to answer whether or not these financial institutions should be forced to reimburse taxpayers for the bailouts. Anthony Randazzo, director of economic research with the Reason Foundation, breaks down the numbers.
"Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation.
Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile."
- William Lyon Mackenzie King
"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks."
- Lord Acton
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Senator Elizabeth Warren EMBARRASSES Bank Regulators At First Hearing!
warren bank hearing | Warren questioned top regulators from the
alphabet soup that is the nation's financial regulatory structure: the
FDIC, SEC, OCC, CFPB, CFTC, Fed and Treasury. Elizabeth Warren is the
truth!!!! show your support http://www.warren.senate.gov/
The
Democratic senator from Massachusetts had a straightforward question
for them: When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial?
It was a harder question than it seemed.
"We do not have to bring
people to trial," Thomas Curry, head of the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency, assured Warren, declaring that his agency had secured a
large number of "consent orders," or settlements.
"I appreciate
that you say you don't have to bring them to trial. My question is, when
did you bring them to trial?" she responded.
"We have not had to do it as a practical matter to achieve our supervisory goals," Curry offered.
Warner
turned to Elisse Walter, chair of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, who said that the agency weighs how much it can extract from
a bank without taking it to court against the cost of going to trial.
"I
appreciate that. That's what everybody does," said Warren, a former
Harvard law professor. "Can you identify the last time when you took the
Wall Street banks to trial?"
"I will have to get back to you with specific information," Walter said as the audience tittered.
"There
are district attorneys and United States attorneys out there every day
squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin grounds and taking
them to trial in order to make an example, as they put it. I'm really
concerned that 'too big to fail' has become 'too big for trial,'" Warren
said.
A Warren constituent, open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz,
recently committed suicide after being hounded by federal prosecutors
who reportedly said they wanted to "make an example" of him. Warren had
met and said she admired Swartz and, after he died, expressed her
concern by attending his memorial in Washington.
The financial
regulators can blame, at least in part, Wall Street lobbyists (along
with outgoing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Senate Republicans)
for their embarrassing turn at the hearing. Warren would have been on
the panel herself representing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
instead of a sitting senator, if her nomination to head the agency
hadn't been thwarted in 2011.
Blog Archive
“once a standing army is established, in any country, the people lose their liberty.”
George Mason
“Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”
Henry Kissinger
“If you are an ordinary person, then you can prepare yourself for war by moving to the countryside and building a farm, but you must take guns with you, as the hordes of starving will be roaming. Also, even though the elite will have their safe havens and specialist shelters, they must be just as careful during the war as the ordinary civilians, because their shelters can still be compromised.”
Henry Kissinger
"We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?" Joseph Stalin
The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
Joseph Stalin
Governments keep a lot of secrets from their people . . .
Why aren't the people in return allowed to keep secrets
from the government?
PHILIP ZIMMERMAN, DER SPIEGEL
“Some call it Communism, I call it Judaism.”
Rabbi Stephen Weiss
“Anti-Communism is Anti-Semitism.”
Jewish Voice, July - August 1941
Taxing People is Punishing Success
UNKNOWN
There's the rich, the poor, and the tax payers...also known as the middle class. Robert Kiyosaki
The Tax you pay is The Bill for Staying Stupid
Stefan Molyneux
“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is, perhaps, the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banks can in fact inflate, mint and un-mint the modern ledger-entry currency.” Major L L B Angus
The few who understand the system will either be so interested in its profits or so dependent on its favours that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of the people mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system will bear its burdens without complaint and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.
The Rothschild Bros
"Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers.
This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world.
By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished."
USA Banker's Magazine, August 25 1924
Cutting Tax Rates stimulates Economic Growth creates more Profit , more Jobs and therefore The Treasury ends up with more Tax Money
UNKNOWN
Taxation is legalized Theft
UNKNOWN
"The Objective of the Bank is not the control of a conflict , it's the control of the debt that a conflict produces . The real value of a conflict , the true value is in the debt that it creates . You control the debt , you control everything . this is THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY , to make us all , whether we be nations or individuals , SLAVES TO DEBT " An UNKNOWN Banker
Patriotism is the last refuge... to which the scoundrel clings .... Steal a little and they throw you in jail ..steal a lot and they make you king ....
Bob Dylan
"Corporations are stealing billions in tax breaks, while the confused, screwed citizenry turn on each other. International corporations have no national allegiance, they care only for profit." Robert Reich
There is NO political answer to a spiritual problem!
Steve Quayle
Political Correctness is a Political Stand Point that does not allow Political Opposition , This is actually The Definition of Dictatorship
Gilad Atzmon
The modern definition of racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal
Peter Brimelow
When People lose everything and have nothing left to lose , They Lose It !
GERALD CELENTE
Your Greatest Teacher is Your Last Mistake
DAVID ICKE
The one who Controls the Education System , Controls Perception UNKNOWN
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything."
Albert Einstein
UNKNOWN
No man escapes when freedom fails; The best men rot in filthy jails. And those that cried 'Appease! Appease!' Are hanged by those they tried to please
UNKNOWN
Freedom is not Free
UNKNOWN
Don't Steal The Government Hates The Competition
Ron Paul
"Buy The Rumor , Sell The Fact " Peter Schiff
You can love your Country and not your Government
Jesse Ventura
" The Government Works for ME , I do not answer to them They Answer to ME "
Glenn Beck
"Tyranny will Come to Your Door in a Uniform "
Alex Jones
"The Government is not The Solution to our Problems , The Government is The Problem "
Ronald Reagan
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato
The world is a tragedy to those that feel, and a comedy to those that think...Beppe Grillo
"The people should not fear the government for it is the government who should fear the people" UNKNOWN
"If You are looking for solutions to the world's problems , look in the Mirror , You Are The Solution , You have the power as a human being on this planet " UNKNOWN
"They don't control us , We empower them " UNKNOWN
"Serial Killers do on a Small Scale What Governments do on a large one..."
Serial Killer Richard Ramirez
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Thomas Jefferson
Albert Einstein
Schools manufacture people who think that they're smart but they're not.
Robert Kiyosaki
Education is what you learn after you leave School
Robert Kiyosaki
" Schools were designed to create employees for the big corporations."
Robert Kiyosaki
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey, he is obligated to do so" Thomas Jefferson
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism
Thomas Jefferson
“True education makes you feel stupid. It makes you realize you have so much more to learn.” Robert Kiyosaki
"One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." - Gerard Way
"Aspire not to have More but to be More "
UNKNOWN
The losers in life think they have all the answers. They can’t learn because they’re too busy telling everyone what they know.
Robert T. Kiyosaki
"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again. -This time more intelligently." Henry Ford
What You Own Owns You
UNKNOWN
If you expect the government to solve your problems, you have a problem. Robert Kiyosaki
"Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security." Benjamin Franklin
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Always trust someone who is seeking the truth , never trust someone who found it" Jordan Maxwell
Be The Change you want to see in The World
UNKNOWN
Failure inspires winners but defeats losers
Robert Kiyosaki
“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people” A Chinese Proverb
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me." UNKNOWN