Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 11, 2016 If it’s any comfort, and it likely won’t be, markets are now even more bizarre than the situation of the two presumptive candidates for the President of the United States: one is escaping indictment for treating above Top Secret material with the seriousness of a drunken frat boy at an all-night party while the other is hurling adolescent insults on his Twitter page. This in a country where the Commander in Chief will oversee more than 7,000 nuclear warheads. On Friday, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index traded intraday at a new high of 2131.71, beating its prior closing high of 2130.82. It closed a tad lower at 2129.9 but still up 1.53 percent on the day. A rally in the stock market would normally drain money from U.S. Treasury notes, since a stock rally means confidence in a growing economy … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 8, 2016  Just 18 days before the Democratic National Convention is set to convene in Philadelphia, where delegates and superdelegates will select the presidential candidate in one of the most critical elections in U.S. history — coming amidst signs of slowing economic growth and financial stresses where a strong, trusted leader will be needed to steer the country through major headwinds — the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee delivered Hillary Clinton’s campaign a day from hell yesterday. On hand to raise alarming questions about Clinton’s fitness to handle classified national security material was FBI Director James Comey, State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and Charles McCullough, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Here’s a cursory rundown of statements from the hearing that you are likely to see very shortly popping up in PAC ads for Donald Trump: FBI Director Comey added … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 7, 2016  When the State Department Inspector General Steve Linick concluded his investigation of Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a non-secure private server in her home to transmit classified material while she served as Secretary of State, he released a heavily footnoted 83-page report on the matter. When FBI Director James Comey concluded his year-long investigation, he simply held a press conference and made a statement – devoid of any such “official” report from his agency. Yesterday, Wall Street On Parade contacted the FBI and asked when the official report might be forthcoming. We received the following emailed response: “We don’t have any additional information to provide at this time. Thank you.” The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is apparently not content with the abbreviated statement from FBI Director James Comey either. The Committee has called Comey to testify … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 6, 2016  Yesterday, Wall Street mega bank, JPMorgan Chase, was the biggest percentage decliner in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, losing 2.79 percent. Goldman Sachs, another Dow stock, was third in line after Caterpillar, losing 2.56 percent. But that performance was absolutely mild compared to how other global bank stocks that aren’t in the Dow performed. Morgan Stanley lost 3.55 percent; Citigroup shed 3.30 percent; while Deutsche Bank, a German bank heavily interconnected with Wall Street banks, that trades on the New York Stock Exchange, touched $13.34 intraday – its lowest share price in more than 30 years. Deutsche Bank closed the day at $13.40, down 3.67 percent. A U.S. unit of Deutsche Bank, which is designated a global systemically important bank (G-SIB), recently failed its stress test according to the Federal Reserve. Wall Street’s global banks have now resumed a selloff that … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 6, 2016 Republicans have offered Americans a non viable presumptive candidate for President. Democrat elites are offering their continuing model of failing up. Failing up has become the hallmark of the Obama administration. Help crash the biggest bank in the country and take a bonus for yourself from the taxpayer bailout and you fail up as U.S. Treasury Secretary. Work as the lawyer for the Wall Street banks that crashed the U.S. economy and you fail up as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Become a partner at the law firm named in an historic court decision as a co-conspirator with Big Tobacco and you end up as the head of the Justice Department or the head of its criminal division. Fail to rein in systemic Wall Street abuses before they crash the U.S. economy in the greatest downturn since the Great … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 5, 2016  Facts matter, especially when one is trying to drill down to the truth. But despite dozens of news articles from major media outlets on the private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport last week, the facts have typically been reported wrong and serious questions left unanswered. The well worn media narrative has now evolved that both Clinton and Lynch were in Phoenix on the same day for scheduled events. That’s wrong. Bill Clinton was in Phoenix on Monday, June 27, to meet with real-estate developer Jim Pederson and others. (Pederson was Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party from 2001 to 2005. According to Federal Election Commission records, Pederson gave nearly $7.3 million to the Arizona State Democratic Central Committee from 2001 to 2006.) While Clinton was in Phoenix on Monday, Loretta Lynch … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 1, 2016  A rigged system of justice that protects elites was a constant theme under President Obama’s former U.S. Attorney General at the Justice Department, Eric Holder, who failed to prosecute a single Wall Street bank executive over the epic corruption that led to the financial collapse in 2008. Now, President Obama’s newest head of the Justice Department, Loretta Lynch, has come under withering criticism for conducting a private meeting with former President Bill Clinton on her government plane at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport while his wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, is under an active criminal investigation by her office for transmitting classified government material over her private email server while Secretary of State in the Obama administration.  President Obama’s two terms have been filled with personnel from the Bill Clinton presidency, leading to the appearance of continuity government between the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 30, 2016  Nothing would do more to obliterate the legacy of President Obama or the credibility of Federal regulators than for another major U.S. insurer to need a massive taxpayer bailout like AIG did in 2008 because of its exposure to Wall Street mega banks. But the trading action of the giant U.S. insurer, MetLife, following the Brexit vote in the U.K. has tongues wagging on Wall Street. The question is why this company traded worse than even the biggest Wall Street banks in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote. In last Friday and Monday’s trading sessions, MetLife lost 17.3 percent of its market capitalization or $8.4 billion. Adding to the curiosity, this comes at a time when MetLife is fighting in court to avoid the government’s designation of it as a non-bank systemically important financial institution or SIFI. Insurers like MetLife … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 29, 2016  Today, at 4:30 p.m., the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the second leg of its annual stress tests of 33 banks holding $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets. The first leg of the tests was released last Thursday with all 33 banks getting a passing grade in terms of meeting the minimum capital cushion required. Today’s final round, called the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), will determine whether the banks are allowed to continue or increase dividend payments, conduct share buybacks or issue secondary stock offerings. This is the sixth annual round of stress tests conducted by the Fed since the financial crash in 2008. In addition to the regular stress tests, eight large banks with significant trading and/or clearing operations are required to show losses if a major counterparty defaulted. Those banks are: Bank of America, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 28, 2016 The overall stock market is staging a big rally at the open of trading this morning in New York, but that is not going to calm growing anxieties over how badly systemically risky global banks traded in Friday and Monday’s two days of carnage. Watching tens of billions of equity market capital vaporize at the mega banks in two trading sessions of just 6-1/2 hours each has put renewed attention on separating the insured depository banks that are backstopped by the taxpayer from the high risk investment banks and brokerage firms on Wall Street. That effort has just gained a lot more traction.  Quietly, with little media fanfare, restoring the Glass-Steagall Act has been added to the final draft of the Democratic Platform. The passage reads:  “The Democratic Platform will make clear that Wall Street cannot be an island unto itself, … Continue reading →