Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Pam Martens: August 13, 2013  Qu’est-ce que c’est? Frenchmen?  In the quintessentially American male testosterone epicenter known as Wall Street, Frenchmen are dropping like flies. Not so much the American CEOs in Wall Street’s corner offices. The only handcuffs these guys are seeing are the golden ones.  Fabrice Tourre, the 34-year old Goldman Sachs salesman from an elite educational background in France, was found guilty of six counts of securities fraud in a Manhattan jury trial that ended 12 days ago. The case was a civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. One of those counts was for “aiding and abetting” Goldman Sachs in the fraud. Goldman Sachs did not stand trial, in the technical sense although it certainly has in the court of public opinion, because it settled its charges with a payment of $550 million. Not only did the corporation not stand trial, but neither … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 12, 2013  Let’s put aside for a moment the patently ridiculous question of whether Larry Summers is fit to Chair the Federal Reserve. (Summers is one of the key officials in the Clinton administration who bullied policy makers and won the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and prevented the regulation of derivatives, ushering in the financial collapse of 2008. That President Obama has publicly acknowledged that he is considering Summers for the highest monetary post in the U.S. underscores the administration’s serial ability to insult public sensibilities when it comes to Wall Street.)  Even if Summers does not get the nod from the President for Fed Chair, he’s back to his dangerous tinkering with the financial infrastructure of the country. Within the past four days, the New York Times has published two articles, including one on its front page, noting Summers’ involvement with a start-up company … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 8, 2013  If a major Wall Street firm is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that’s one thing. The SEC has no criminal powers to prosecute. And when it comes to Wall Street mega banks, there is a long tradition of fines and slaps on the wrist rather than prosecutions.  But when there is an open investigation by the Department of Justice, which does possess the power to criminally prosecute, there should be concern in the marketplace, if for no other reason than the fact that there is significant public attention being paid to the DOJ’s failure to prosecute big Wall Street firms.  Yesterday, JPMorgan Chase filed its quarterly 10Q with the SEC. If ever there was a document making a convincing case for breaking up the big banks and restoring the Glass-Steagall Act, this is it.  JPMorgan reported it is under investigation … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 7, 2013  It’s only Wednesday and two major American newspapers, in separate transactions, have been purchased for cash by billionaires – in a fashion reminiscent of how they might shop for a bauble at Cartier.  On Saturday, John Henry, hedge fund trader turned owner of the Boston Red Sox, bought the Boston Globe from the New York Times for $70 million in cash. Forbes puts Henry’s net worth at $1.5 billion as of March of this year.  On Monday came the news that Jeffrey Bezos, CEO of online retailer Amazon.com, is purchasing the Washington Post for $250 million in cash. Forbes puts Bezos’ net worth at $25.2 billion as of March.  Included in the Washington Post deal is the Post’s web site, the Express newspaper, Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers, Fairfax County Times, the Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo Latino as well as a production and printing … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 6, 2013  Robert A.G. Monks has written a very dangerous book, Citizens DisUnited: Passive Investors, Drone CEOs, and the Corporate Capture of the American Dream. Grab two copies of this book as fast as you can: put one out to sea in a watertight bottle for future archeologists to piece together the downfall of America; put another in a safe in your home. If things continue on the path we’re on, corporations will be rounding up books like this for bonfires.  Monks’ book is a serious threat to the status quo because there are only a handful of Americans who could so deftly unravel the corporate takeover and corruption of every device or institution available to the average citizen to have a meaningful voice in society. Monks builds his case, much as a skilled trial lawyer presents his evidence to the jury, but in an immensely … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 5, 2013  The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Carl Levin, has disclosed that it is conducting an investigation into the ownership and warehousing of physical commodities by large Wall Street firms. Senator Levin has also announced that he will not run for reelection next year – meaning this could be one of his last major opportunities to save the country from the further ravages of Wall Street.  The Senate investigation comes four long years after 60 Minutes reported that Morgan Stanley had acquired the capacity to store 20 million barrels of oil. The report also showed that Goldman Sachs had taken stakes in companies owning oil storage terminals. The 60 Minutes report was in 2009. In 2008, during the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve had approved making Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs bank holding companies – giving them the ability to own banks … Continue reading →

 By Pam Martens: August 2, 2013 Jon Stewart calls them “those f*!*!ing guys. Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone calls them “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Today, they’re the Wall Street megabank that dodged securities fraud charges by greasing the hand of government with $550 million while their 34-year old salesman stood trial for the crimes. Yesterday, nine jurors found that a Goldman Sachs vice president, Fabrice Tourre, (infamously known as Fabulous Fab from an email in the case) was liable on six counts of violating federal securities law by intentionally misleading investors. Just what his penalty will be and whether he will be barred from ever working again on Wall Street will be determined at a later date. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has no criminal powers, brought the case as a civil suit. Only … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 1, 2013  President Obama met in a closed door session with the House Democratic Caucus yesterday and was told that Lawrence (Larry) Summers is a decidedly bad choice for Federal Reserve Chairman. That assessment triggered a strident response from the President. He defended Summers and praised him for his hard work during the 2008 financial crisis.  The President’s praise of Summers has been met with a new volley of press today that is keeping it fresh in the minds of the voting public that were it not for Summers’ brashness and bullying of opponents to deregulate Wall Street, repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, and keep trillions of dollars of derivatives off regulated exchanges during the Clinton administration – there might not have been a 2008 financial crisis. Summers served as both Deputy Secretary at the Treasury and Secretary during Clinton’s Presidency.  It’s tough to convince the public that a … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: July 31, 2013  After packing his administration with 1 percenters or people earning a lucrative living off the 1 percenters, President Obama has decided, seemingly out of the blue, to hit the stump on behalf of the plight of the struggling middle class while railing against the income inequality that plagues the U.S.  Could the President’s new focus have anything to do with a new probe of Wall Street practices opened by Carl Levin and the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations? The Subcommittee is delving into the hoarding of physical commodities by the largest firms on Wall Street.  Whether the President is cognizant of the fact or not, the two issues are indelibly linked. Hoarding physical commodities pushes up prices on everything from the cost of food and beverage packaging to the price of a tank of gas to get to work or heating oil to stay warm … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: July 30, 2013  The financial crimes you can’t see are the ones that can really hurt you.  When Congress, the media, the financial experts talk about transparency on Wall Street, it is always in abstract terms: we should have more transparency; we should know more details about the kinds of risks Wall Street is taking with other people’s money; we should be able to see the nature of derivatives trading being conducted in private agreements between Wall Street firms; we should make the big banks hold more capital to offset all the risks we know they’ll never let us see until it’s too late.  Unfortunately, we can’t fix Wall Street’s problems by discussing them in the abstract. We need to be comprehensively cognizant of what Wall Street has become, peel away the artifices layer by layer, and put in legislative fixes that get quickly to the problem – … Continue reading →