Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 12, 2017 The President of the United States is typically viewed as the person whose top job is to inspire confidence in the dignity, integrity and sanity of his leadership of the country. But the presser held by President-elect Donald Trump yesterday, the first in six months and likely viewed by world leaders around the globe, was short on confidence building and long on slandering the American media and U.S. intelligence agencies. In short order, the U.S. dollar took a dive. Trump has yet to assimilate the concept that his words no longer belong just to him but attach themselves like flypaper to the credibility of the most powerful nation on earth. At times, the press conference felt more like an unruly street fight than a media Q&A by the man who will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 11, 2017  As Goldman Sachs guys prepare to take the reins of power in Washington under the Trump administration, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided a tragic reminder on Monday regarding the power of the U.S. citizen versus their Wall Street overlords. The GAO released a study showing that as of October 31, 2016, the government “had disbursed $22.6 billion (60 percent) of the $37.51 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds” that were directed at helping distressed homeowners as a result of the 2008 Wall Street financial crash and the resulting housing bust. Those paltry billions stand in stark contrast to the $7.8 trillion in near-zero interest loans that the Federal Reserve secretly funneled to just four Wall Street banks from 2007 to 2010. The Fed funneled $2.5 trillion to Citigroup; $2 trillion to Morgan Stanley; $1.9 trillion to Merrill Lynch; and … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 10, 2017 Just 11 days before Donald Trump is sworn into office as the 45th President of the United States, CNN hosted a Town Hall with Senator Bernie Sanders fielding a broad range of grave questions from people in all walks of life on where the country is heading. The event was held at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and aired on CNN at 9 p.m. ET last evening. Chris Cuomo was the moderator. Sanders’ no-holds-barred answers and the audience’s warm embrace of his message, provided the distinct feeling that Sanders may be positioning for another presidential run in 2020 to bring to fruition his promised political revolution in the United States. Sawyer Neale, the youngest Bernie Sanders delegate from Pennsylvania at the Democratic Convention last year, was in the audience and asked the question that was on everyone’s mind: would Sanders … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 9, 2017 During his political campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly railed against Wall Street with a specific focus on Goldman Sachs. In the final days of his campaign, Trump released an advertisement (see video below) that featured his opponent, Hillary Clinton, shaking hands with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. As the image flickers on the screen, Trump does a voice over, stating: “”It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.” As the ad ends, Trump bares his soul: “I’m doing this for the people and for the movement and we will take back this country for you and we will make America great again.” How did a candidate who repeatedly demonized Goldman … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 6, 2017 Northwest Ohio supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders in his run for President have launched a nationwide push to enlist other organizations to send it letters and take to social media to endorse a demand that President-elect Donald Trump fulfill a campaign pledge. Trump made the pledge on October 26 of last year in a speech he delivered in Charlotte, North Carolina, promising to enact a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act to reform Wall Street. Such legislation has been sitting dormant in both the House and Senate for years. If enacted, it would separate the deposit-taking, taxpayer-insured commercial banks from the globe-trotting, high-risk trading casinos known as investment banks on Wall Street. The 1933 Glass-Steagall Act kept the financial system of the United States safe for 66 years until its repeal in 1999 during the Bill Clinton presidency. It took only nine years … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 5, 2017 The rationale for Donald Trump’s selection of Jay Clayton, a law partner at Sullivan & Cromwell which has represented Goldman Sachs since the late 1800s, to be the next SEC Chairman grew exponentially fuzzier after Wall Street On Parade reviewed political donation records at the Federal Election Commission. FEC records show that 59 of Clayton’s fellow lawyers at the firm made over $900,000 in donations to the Hillary Victory Fund while one lone lawyer, Donald Korb, made two $2700 donations to Trump’s primary and general election campaign. Donations from three other lawyers at the firm, Justin Decamp ($2700), Robert Giuffra ($25,000), and Diane McGimsey ($5,000) to the Trump Victory committee came after Trump was already elected President, according to images of receipts filed with the FEC. In addition to the more than $900,000 that went to the Hillary Victory Fund, tens … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 4, 2017 Over the span of the last two weeks, President-elect Donald Trump’s U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee, Steven Mnuchin, has been the subject of multiple, scathing investigative reports by the media; earned a web site established by Senate Democrats dubbing him the “Foreclosure King” and soliciting complaints from the public; garnered a television ad campaign directed against him; and has been skewered by a devastating document leaked by someone currently or formerly connected to the California State Attorney General’s Office, indicating that the bank Mnuchin ran from 2009 to 2015, OneWest, repeatedly violated California foreclosure law, including backdating documents and making illegal bids, in order to throw thousands of vulnerable people out of their homes. Mnuchin is also a former Goldman Sachs partner and hedge fund operator who has never held public office before. His rapid rise to nominee for one of the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 3, 2017 Just 17 days from today, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the nation’s 45th President and deliver his inaugural address. Trump is expected to announce priorities in the areas of education, infrastructure, border security, the economy and curtailing the outsourcing of jobs. But Trump’s agenda will be derailed on all fronts if the big Wall Street banks blow up again as they did in 2008, dragging the U.S. economy into the ditch and requiring another massive taxpayer bailout from a nation already deeply in debt from the last banking crisis. According to a report quietly released by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research less than two weeks before Christmas, another financial implosion on Wall Street can’t be ruled out. The Office of Financial Research (OFR), a unit of the U.S. Treasury, was created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 30, 2016 We have noticed throughout this past year that when the Standard and Poor’s 500 index of stocks sold off, big banks’ share prices sold off by dramatically more on a percentage basis. Yesterday, notwithstanding the big rally bank stocks have enjoyed since Donald Trump’s win on November 8, the big banks once again dramatically outpaced the S&P 500 on the downside. The S&P lost 0.03 percent while the major Wall Street banks like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America lost over 1 percent. It was a worthwhile reminder that the hurdles the big banks have experienced this year have not diminished – by any means. As 2016 began, the big, globally-interconnected Wall Street banks were facing serious headwinds. The Fed had just hiked rates and oil prices could not find a floor and neither could the share prices … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 29, 2016 Typically, it takes two to settle bank fraud charges – the bank committing the fraud and the law enforcement agency bringing the charges. But in the case of the announcement late last Thursday evening that Deutsche Bank and the U.S. Justice Department had reached an agreement to settle claims against the bank for allegedly swindling investors in the sale of toxic residential mortgage backed securities, all that could be heard was the sound of one hand clapping in a press release issued by the defendant, Deutsche Bank. Nowhere to be found was a statement of particulars on what the bank was admitting to or a man behind a podium bearing the seal of the U.S. Justice Department in a press briefing room, as typically occurs in a real settlement. The lack of substantive details to this “settlement” and no confirmation from … Continue reading →