Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 8, 2017 President Trump’s firing of top law enforcement officials now covers a broad spectrum. In addition to FBI Director James Comey, Trump fired the Acting Attorney General of the U.S. Justice Department, Sally Yates, as well as Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York where most major Wall Street criminal investigations take place. All of these individuals were involved in investigations of Trump associates’ involvement with Russia. Now, Trump is sending signals that his current U.S. Attorney General at the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions, may be next in line for sacking. Comey’s written testimony that was released yesterday in preparation for his appearance today before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee completes the picture of a President who believes that the Federal government’s law enforcement apparatus can be re-engineered into his own Praetorian Guard, complete with taking loyalty … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 7, 2017 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) just released its latest economic outlook which it sums up as “better but not good enough,” noting that, since the financial crisis of 2008, global growth remains “below past norms and below the pace needed to escape fully from the low-growth trap.” Projecting a modest pickup in global growth to 3.5 percent this year, the authors write: “After many years of weak recovery, with global growth in 2016 at the lowest rate since 2009, some signs of improvement have begun to appear. Trade and manufacturing output growth have picked up from a very low level, helped by firmer domestic demand growth in Asia and Europe, and private sector confidence has strengthened. But policy uncertainty remains high, trust in government has diminished, wage growth is still weak, inequality persists, and imbalances and vulnerabilities remain in financial … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 6, 2017 Headline writers at the New York Times need to sharpen their pencils. Yesterday’s New York edition carried a front page article that links two of the biggest Wall Street banks, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, to the Jared Kushner affair with the Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov, Chairman of the state-owned Russian bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2014.  But readers would have missed that completely if they only read the softball headline, which failed to mention either bank. Everyone on Wall Street has been waiting for the next shoe to drop in the Jared Kushner episode. Kushner is under FBI and Congressional probes over allegations that he met in December with Gorkov while simultaneously attempting to set up a secret channel to communicate with Russia using its equipment inside its own embassy – ostensibly to thwart U.S. intelligence … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 5, 2017  After building the case for months that Russia was a major meddler in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, on Sunday the Washington Post connected the dots between a “shadow universe” of right-wing front groups domiciled in the U.S. with tax-exempt privileges who have a lot more to show for their efforts than does Russia. At the center of the Post article, written by reporters Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, is lefty turned righty David Horowitz and his nonprofit group the David Horowitz Freedom Center. While sanctions have not been lifted against Russia as potential proof of a quid pro quo with the Trump administration, Horowitz boasts of at least six of his Freedom Center’s supporters who hold top slots in Trump’s administration to push for his long-held positions on a Muslim ban, border wall, school vouchers and ridicule of global … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 2, 2017 The unthinkable is happening so fast to America that there is a serious, growing threat that U.S. citizens are becoming desensitized to the chilling reality of our nation’s precipitous decline in respect and credibility around the world. The reflex action is to either deny it’s happening or pull the covers over one’s head. Two weeks before President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, Der Spiegel, one of the most influential and widely read news magazines in Europe, published a breathtaking assessment of the sitting President of the United States. Written by its Executive Editor, Klaus Brinkbäumer, the editorial was brutal and came from a publication known for its investigative acumen. Brinkbäumer made the following observations: “Donald Trump has transformed the United States into a laughing stock and he is a danger to the world. He must … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 2, 2017 When it comes to demanding transparency in government, Wall Street On Parade typically takes the position that citizens have a constitutional right to their government’s records. We demand those records regularly at Federal agencies using the Freedom of Information Act and at state and local government agencies using the relevant sunshine laws.  This past Wednesday was the first time that we can recall when we read a publicly released report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the nonpartisan watchdog for Congress, that made us queasy that the information should never have been released. The report concerned the information technology systems of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The GAO seemed to be handing potential cyber attackers a roadmap on how to exploit the FDIC’s many vulnerabilities. Federal deposit insurance was first created under the Glass-Steagall Act (also known as the Banking … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 1, 2017 Two of the most intuitive members of Congress, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Elijah Cummings, sent a letter to the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) all the way back on November 23, 2016 demanding an investigation of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team expenditures, business conflicts and communications with foreign leaders. If the duo had been peering into a crystal ball, they couldn’t have delivered a more prescient recital of today’s unprecedented train wreck in the White House. The GAO report is set for draft release to relevant Federal agencies this month. Expect leaks before its official public release. The GAO is the nonpartisan Congressional watchdog that investigates, at the beckoning of members of Congress, how the Federal government spends taxpayer dollars. GAO says its mission is to “provide Congress with timely information that is objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 30, 2017  The 2017 Memorial Day weekend will inevitably go down in history as the three-day span when remembrances of our military veterans took a media backseat to President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and everything Russian. One of the key areas under multiple probes is a meeting Kushner held in December with Sergey Gorkov, the Chairman of Vnesheconombank (VEB), a Russian state-owned bank which has been under U.S. sanctions since July 2014 for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine. What this meeting was about has yet to be officially determined. Reuters reported on Saturday that “FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official.” Financial dealings with a Russian bank that remains under … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 29, 2017  As reporters in every major newsroom in the U.S. scramble to fill in the blanks in the bizarre tale of President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, attempting to set up a secret back channel with Russia using Russian communication equipment almost two months before Trump had taken the reins as President, there’s another related story that has not been adequately fleshed out. Eight days before Washington Post reporters named Kushner as a key participant in this plan, reporters at Reuters had already reported on May 18 that “Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race…” The Reuters report then dropped the bombshell that Flynn and Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 26, 2017 The majority of American citizens have never heard of the U.S. Treasury agency known as FinCEN – short for Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. But for those who work for Wall Street brokerage firms or the mega Wall Street banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup or German banking giant Deutsche Bank, just the mere mention of FinCEN can quickly produce beads of sweat dripping onto those expensive Canali suits. That’s because FinCEN is the Federal agency where suspicious financial activity that might turn out to be money laundering gets reported. All three banks, and numerous others, have had their share of scandalous run ins with money laundering. In recent weeks, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Senate Intelligence Committee and the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee have all shown an interest in what FinCEN might have in its database that would shed sunshine … Continue reading →