Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 17, 2014 Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee convened a hearing to chew on one humdinger of a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO report found that 314 taxpayers have squirreled away at least $25 million in their Individual Retirement Account (IRA) for an aggregate of $81 billion for all 314 taxpayers. That puts the average account within the $81 billion at an astonishing $258 million. The GAO used 2011 data, the most current available to them from the IRS, and noted that since some of the tax returns were for joint filers, the term “taxpayer” may mean an individual or a couple. Still, even two IRA accounts tallying up to $258 million is off the charts. The figures are raising eyebrows in Congress. No one can say with any certainty how an IRA could grow to such astronomical sums. IRAs … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 16, 2014 The Wall Street Journal carries a story today which builds on a topic we have been reporting on since July: that corporations, themselves, have become the largest single participants in the stock market through the repurchase of their own shares. Using data from Birinyi Associates, the Journal reports that U.S. companies bought back a total of $338.3 billion in the first six months of this year, “the most for any six-month period since 2007.” The year, 2007, by the way, was the year before the stock market imploded. The workers of America, whose 401(k) plans represent their savings and hopes for a better, easier life one day in retirement, are increasingly buying funds indexed to the top 500 companies in America, the Standard and Poor’s 500. This is, effectively, giving a steady source of cheap capital to the biggest companies in … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 15, 2014  Last Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down a mere 61.49 points or 0.36 percent, but the overall market breadth (number of stocks advancing versus those declining) was abysmal. At the New York Stock Exchange, there were 666 stocks advancing versus 2,515 declining. Nasdaq showed 893 advancers versus 1,834 decliners. Equally troubling for those who have jumped into stocks with both feet, Bloomberg News has a heart-stopper headline out today: “Record S&P 500 Masks 47% of Nasdaq Mired in Bear Market.” The article, by Lu Wang and Joseph Ciolli, advises that: “Beneath the U.S. Stock market’s record-setting gains, trouble is stirring. About 47 percent of stocks in the Nasdaq Composite (CCMP) Index are down at least 20 percent from their peak in the last 12 months while more than 40 percent have fallen that much in the Russell 2000 Index … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 12, 2014 Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to make sure we are not sleepwalking in a Dickensian dream. Earlier this week we heard Senator Elizabeth Warren tell a Senate Banking session how JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, got a $8.5 million raise after craftily negotiating away all of the bank’s crimes with the payment of billions in shareholders’ money. (Two of those crimes, by the way, were felony counts for aiding and abetting Bernie Madoff in his Ponzi scheme – also craftily settled under a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, which effectively puts the bank on probation for two years.) Last night, the Wall Street Journal informed the public that, apparently, none of this criminal activity at JPMorgan has dulled President Obama’s fondness for its CEO Jamie Dimon, who has recently been undergoing treatments for throat cancer.  The Journal reported: “During … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 10, 2014 Sparks were flying yesterday in what is typically a snooze-worthy Senate session. It felt like alien body snatchers had decided to remove the zombies and return the real U.S. Senators to their chairs on the Senate Banking Committee. Senators, right and left, asked tough, probing questions of the nation’s banking regulators, leaving many squirming in their chairs. The session was so unusual that Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, closed out the session in complete agreement that there is something seriously broken about the justice system in America. Senator Warren told the hearing that in the past year, three of the nation’s largest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America — have admitted breaking the law and settled the claims for $35 billion. The Senator continued: “As Judge Rakoff of … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 9, 2014 This month marks the six-year anniversary of the financial collapse of some of Wall Street’s most iconic names. As this New York Post cover of September 20, 2008 memorializes, rapper Sean Combs (P. Diddy) was stepping in dog excrement while the taxpayer was being dragged into something just as smelly – a government bank bailout that would grow to hundreds of billions in on-the-record cash infusions and $16 trillion in secret below-market-rate loans from the Fed. Now it’s September 2014. Six years of crisis studies, hearings, reform legislation, rule-writing, stress tests, living wills, new bank scandals and no jail time for top dogs have darkened the public mood further about both Wall Street and the ability of Congress to meaningfully reform it. The Senate Banking Committee is hauling all six regulators of Wall Street before it today to take the pulse … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 8, 2014 Last week the Fed announced a plan for the next financial crisis that feels to some observers like a plan to burn down the trading houses on Wall Street – or, alternately, guarantee another massive taxpayer bailout of the biggest banks. The Federal Reserve Board and its regional banks are overflowing with economists. What the Fed does not seem to have is an honest, informed voice to consult about how trading markets think in a severe financial crisis. Last Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Board along with other bank regulators announced a new liquidity rule for the largest Wall Street banks – the ones that required the massive bailout in the 2008 to 2010 financial crisis. The goal of the new rule, according to the Fed, would be to force the biggest, most complex banks to hold enough “high quality liquid assets” … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 4, 2014  The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, together with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – the top regulators of Wall Street’s largest banks – finalized liquidity rules yesterday that make absolutely no sense to anyone with a historical perspective on how Wall Street operates in a crisis. The Federal regulators adopted a new rule that requires the country’s largest banks – those with $250 billion or more in total assets – to hold an increased level of newly defined “high quality liquid assets” (HQLA) in order to meet a potential run on the bank during a credit crisis. In addition to U.S. Treasury securities and other instruments backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government (agency debt), the regulators have included some dubious instruments while shunning others with a higher safety … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 3, 2014 The continuing perversions and disfigurement of an entire nation’s financial system to accommodate insanely complex mega banks – the same ones who brought the country to the brink of financial collapse six years ago – takes center stage in Washington, D.C. again today. Because Federal regulators do not want to have egg on their face if one of these global behemoths has to be rescued by taxpayers again, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are set to release new liquidity rules today. The rules will redefine the types of liquid assets these giant Wall Street banks must hold to meet the new Basel III Liquidity Coverage Rule set by the international banking body known as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a group made up predominantly of … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 2, 2014  Figuring out how to write ever creative versions of headlines that say the market is hitting a new high is commanding a lot of energy in newsrooms these days. What should be commanding more energy in the newsrooms is writing about the market structure that is underpinning this “bull”. On Friday, TheStreet.com went with the headline “S&P Books Best August Since 2000.” Bringing up the year 2000 is a bit like bringing up the Hindenburg during an air show. The year 2000 marked the peak in Wall Street’s dot.com bubble, whose bust erased 78 percent of the Nasdaq stock market over the next two and one-half years. Wiped-out Nasdaq investors were eventually to learn that much of this so-called bull market was a highly orchestrated fraud by some of the biggest firms on Wall Street. The fraud worked like this: Research … Continue reading →