By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 19, 2024 ~ Tens of millions of Americans rise each morning and pray they are awakening from a bad dream about the President-elect’s plans to put a plethora of outrageously unfit people in charge of critical federal agencies that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we feed our children, our ability to obtain healthcare, social security for the elderly, response to disasters and so forth. What few Americans understand is that this plan is very real, dead serious, and was hatched 44 years ago by two fossil fuel billionaire brothers – Charles and David Koch. The plan was publicly released as the Libertarian Platform when David Koch ran for Vice President of the United States in 1980. David Koch died in 2019, leaving his brother, Charles, who turned 89 this month, to relentlessly push to install the platform, notwithstanding that … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 18, 2024 ~ Last week President-elect Donald Trump announced the nomination of Jay Clayton to become U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York – the regional office of the U.S. Department of Justice that brings (or passes on bringing) criminal prosecutions against the Wall Street megabanks for their serial looting of the American people. In Trump’s first term as President, Clayton was tapped by Trump to serve as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission – notwithstanding that Clayton had represented 8 of the 10 largest Wall Street banks in the prior three years as a law partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the oldest Wall Street go-to law firms. Clayton returned to Sullivan & Cromwell after his stint at the SEC and currently serves there as Senior Policy Advisor and Of Counsel. When Clayton’s name was first announced by Trump to … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 14, 2024 ~ Live streaming to you from various production sites in the nation’s capitol is Donald Trump’s new reality TV show, “Remaking U.S. Government in My Image.” What the cast of the show lacks in serious credentials to run a government for the largest industrialized nation with 5,000 nuclear warheads is being offset by attractive faces and savvy scriptwriters determined to bring daily gasps from the viewing audience. A collective gasp came yesterday afternoon as president-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of House Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve in the highest law enforcement position in the nation: Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Being under an ongoing probe for sex with an underage girl and illicit drug use is apparently not a barrier to sitting at the helm of the U.S. Department of Justice in Donald Trump’s plans … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 12, 2024 ~ On Friday evening, August 2, Howard Lutnick, the Chairman and CEO of the Wall Street trading house, Cantor Fitzgerald, held a fundraiser populated by the super wealthy at his home in the Hamptons. The bash was to help presidential candidate Donald Trump shore up his sagging campaign coffers. Tickets went for $25,000 each or $50,000 if you wanted a photo with Trump. You could be listed on the program as a host for a mere $500,000. According to Lutnick, the event raised $15 million. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Lutnick himself was responsible for a third of that amount. He wrote out a check for $5 million to the Trump campaign the Monday after the event. Not long thereafter, Trump announced Lutnick as Co-Chair of his transition team, a post he shares with former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive Linda … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 5, 2024 ~ Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors released their annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. It showed that by the time Americans have saved enough money for a downpayment to buy their first home in America, they will be close to middle age. The study recorded the median age of first-time home buyers as the oldest in the history of the study, at 38 years of age. (In the 1980s, first-time home buyers were in their 20s.) At the same time the age of first-time home buyers was hitting a record high, the percentage of first-time buyers was hitting a record low – just 24 percent of the market in the latest survey. That is the lowest percentage share of first-time home buyers since the National Association of Realtors began conducting the survey in 1981. The study reminded us of a series of articles … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 4, 2024 ~ The largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, has a rap sheet that rivals that of a crime family — and those crimes show no signs of slowing down. The financial institution is, in effect, a criminal enterprise in drag as a federally-insured banking powerhouse. The facts backing the above assertions are so strong that two trial attorneys, Helen Davis Chaitman and Lance Gotthoffer, wrote a book in which they compared the bank to the Gambino crime family and suggested JPMorgan Chase should be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The authors wrote at the time on their website that “The pattern is clear. JPMorgan Chase has a culture — like the mob — where anything goes so long as it is profitable. This is precisely the kind of pattern of criminal activity that RICO was intended to … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 31, 2024 ~ The New York Fed, long the quintessential keeper of secrets for the Wall Street megabanks that it has been bailing out since the financial crisis of 2008, has suddenly decided to come clean on a big threat to capital at these and other banks. The New York Fed has created gasps in the corridors of power in the banking world by releasing a paper that documents how banks have ginned up their capital by “extending and pretending” on their underwater commercial real estate (CRE) loans. The new paper was written by Matteo Crosignani, Financial Research Advisor at the New York Fed, and Saketh Prazad, a former Research Analyst at the New York Fed who is now a Doctoral Student in the Business Economics program at the Harvard Business School. The authors get right to the crux of the matter on page two of … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 29, 2024 ~ Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk, the CEO and largest shareholder of the private space exploration and satellite company, SpaceX, has been communicating with Russian President Vladimir Putin for two years. Putin is on a U.S. sanctions list for his invasions of Ukraine. The head of NASA, former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, quickly asked for an investigation into the matter. NASA has awarded billions of dollars in government contracts to SpaceX, investing alongside some dubious venture capital firms whose typical motives are to get rich quick in a hot Initial Public Offering (IPO) when the company goes public on a stock exchange. SpaceX has also been awarded billions of dollars in government contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense, including classified contracts for spy satellites. Musk has stated publicly this month that he holds a Top Secret security clearance … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 28, 2024 ~ American taxpayers are footing the bill for 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. Those agencies allowed Donald Trump to become Commander in Chief in 2017, despite multiple women charging him with sexual assaults, his six business bankruptcies and a long history of inflating his wealth to defraud banks. These same 17 intelligence agencies then sat back for four years and allowed Donald Trump to receive Top Secret intelligence briefings and purloin dozens of boxes of classified government documents as he angrily left office after a failed insurrection at the Capitol building. Now, yet another billionaire, Elon Musk, has shown these intelligence agencies to have little bark and no bite when it comes to confronting powerful, ultra wealthy men. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Elon Musk, who as CEO of SpaceX holds a Top Secret government security clearance and is launching spy … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 24, 2024 ~ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) typically receives high praise from Wall Street On Parade for leveling the playing field between the pillagers on Wall Street and the hardworking poor and middle class of America. But yesterday’s announcement of the CFPB’s settlement with Goldman Sachs and Apple over some of the most abusive conduct we have observed against consumers in decades left us with the impression that Goldman Sachs’ lawyers had browbeat the CFPB into a watered-down deal. The enforcement action by the CFPB pertained to years of abuses by both Apple and Goldman Sachs involving the Apple Credit Card. Under the CFPB’s settlement, Goldman Sachs will pay $19.8 million in redress to victims and a $45 million civil money penalty, bringing Goldman’s total settlement to $64.8 million. Apple will pay a $25 million civil money penalty for a combined $89.8 million … Continue reading →