Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Pam Martens: September 14, 2012 The incendiary anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims, is being widely blamed for sparking anti-U.S. demonstrations in the Middle East, leading to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Libya.  This morning, according to NBC News, a Federal law enforcement official has confirmed that the shadowy Sam Bacile, the producer of the film, is really Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an ex-con on probation for financial crimes.  Nakoula produced an amateurish documentary that was screened in one tiny theatre, with a trailer released on the internet.  That limited circulation stands in sharp contrast to another Islamophobic film that was broadly circulated in 2008 by mainstream newspapers with financial backing from a nonprofit group with ties to the Koch brothers. In the Fall of 2008, in the leadup to the Presidential election, approximately 100 newspapers and magazines in the U.S., including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 13, 2012 The U.S. Census Bureau reported yesterday that annual household income fell in 2011 for the fourth straight year to an inflation-adjusted $50,054.  That figure is 8 percent lower than in 2007 and 1.5 percent lower year over year.  The $50,054 figure represents the Nation as a whole.  The West and the Midwest showed even sharper declines year over year, losing 4.1 and 2.1 percent, respectively.  The U.S. poverty rate, which is defined as an annual income of $23,021 for a family of four, was 15.0 percent in 2011 versus 15.1 percent  in 2010.  That figure translates into 46.2 million of our fellow Americans living in poverty – a national disgrace by any interpretation.  On September 22, 2010,  Forbes magazine released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans.  Their combined net worth climbed 8% that year, to $1.37 trillion.  More recently, from 2010 to … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 12, 2012 At first I thought someone had emailed me a piece from The Onion, the on-line satire magazine; Charles G. Koch lecturing Americans on business integrity and crony capitalism – what else could it be but satire?  So I went directly to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal last Sunday evening and there it was – a piece by Charles G. Koch titled “Corporate Cronyism Harms America,” — the equivalent of  Mitt Romney lecturing Americans on  compassionate pet care.  Koch puts forth the premise that when businesses collude with government and receive corporate welfare, we all lose.  But along the way in this argument, he makes a number of highly hypocritical comments.  Koch tells us that the role of business is to “act lawfully and with integrity.”  Should someone with Koch’s baggage dare to make that assertion, and in a newspaper owned by … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 11, 2012 Will someone please wake up the Wall Street Scrooge crowd with the news that while they may still be munching on their Golden Osetra caviar and sipping Billinis, tens of thousands of fellow citizens of their city are experiencing the worst downturn since the Great Depression – and, for God’s sake, that includes innocent children who can’t be blamed by even the most Ayn Randian of cold hearts for their circumstances. According to New York City data and a report in the New York Daily News on Sunday, the number of homeless children sleeping in New York City shelters reached 19,000 last week.  That’s on a par with the data for the Great Depression. The numbers are rising dramatically year after year and yet Wall Street’s response last year to a core charity easing the suffering of homeless children in its own city  was … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 10, 2012  Last week the business media was buzzing about a newly ramped up investigation into the $5.8 billion in losses thus far reported by JPMorgan’s Chief Investment Office in what is now dubbed the London Whale trade.  The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Chaired by Carl Levin, is reportedly interviewing former personnel who worked in that division, based in London as well as New York.  Levin’s powerful subcommittee has jurisdiction to conduct investigations into a wide array of issues, including fraud and abuse, and corporate crime.  The real breaking news on this matter, however, occurred on May 13 of this year when Levin appeared on Meet the Press.  Host David Gregory asked Levin what should be the price for what occurred at JPMorgan.  Levin has this to say:  “In terms of past activities, that’s in the hands of people who are assessing whether there was any criminal … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 8, 2012 The books coming out about Wall Street today reflect an incremental change in attitude: in the late 80s, it was a pack of phone throwing liars; by the 90s, they were thieves; today, devils.  Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart, All the Devils Are Here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, show an evolution in sophistication of crime on Wall Street. While the public may not be able to recite the precise underpinnings of each securitized, high frequentized, internalized crime, it is now accepted wisdom that pigs, liars, thieves and devils inhabit much of Wall Street.  Not surprisingly, this perception has led to an exodus of people willing to turn over their hard-earned life savings to the gluttonous crowd.  An old saying on Wall Street was “where are the customers’ yachts.”  Today, it’s “where are the customers.”  That … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 7, 2012 It’s hard to imagine that a large number of the biggest, most powerful law firms representing Wall Street would be putting their money behind anything but a sure bet.  So forget what you’ve heard about the Romney campaign getting the big bucks from Wall Street; here’s how the smart money is betting. The data was compiled from records at the Center for Responsive Politics and represents contributions made by employees of the law firms.  It does not include funds given to PACs or Committees.  DLA Piper LLP Obama: $308,165     Romney: $26,750 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Obama: $194,616     Romney: $47,160 Arnold & Porter LLP Obama: $127,687     Romney: $8,500 Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Obama: $111,176     Romney: $7,750 Covington & Burling Obama: $91,082     Romney: $36,000 Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, McCloy LLP Obama: $72,840     Romney: $54,000 WilmerHale Obama: $70,860     Romney: $15,250 Goodwin Procter LLP Obama: $67,410     Romney: $13,500 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 6, 2012  To help answer the question posed in our headline, we have a two-part investigation appearing today and tomorrow over at the gutsy web site, AlterNet.  If you participate in a public pension or own index funds in your 401(K) plan, chances are you are a long-term shareholder of Citigroup common stock.  That means you’ve lost 90 percent in the value of those shares over the past five years while former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill got an inside deal that reaped him a 29 percent gain in less than two years.  But don’t feel too bad; even a powerful ally of the U.S. can’t get justice when it comes to Wall Street.  This story should have been front and center in the excellent book by Neil Barofsky, Bailout: An Inside Account Of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Bailing Out Wall Street.  Barofsky was the crusading … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 5, 2012  Creating a timeline of some of the major voices and media that are now calling for the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, separating Wall Street trading firms from commercial banking, exposes interesting new insights.  Most notably, the New York Times editorial page did not admit its mistake in supporting the repeal of the legislation, or offer an apology to the public, until Sandy Weill had effectively given the break-up of banks his blessing on CNBC. Why is it that the New York Times needed the nudge from Weill.  Also insightful is the Bill Moyers’ interview with John Reed, who co-chaired Citigroup with Sandy Weill. Reed candidly confirms what many of us have suspected for a long time.  Repealing the legislation that had kept the financial system safe for almost seven decades was motivated by visions dancing around in Weill’s head of getting very rich.  And finally, we learn … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: September 4, 2012  The reality of what is happening in New York City has eclipsed the human capacity to absorb it. Four years after crippling the U.S. economy, Wall Street is still settling new cases of fraud each week by paying a fine and moving along to the next fraud and the next fine.  Citigroup settled three cases just last week.  This is the culture that landed the U.S. within a hairsbreadth of the second Great Depression and yet, incomprehensively, the coddling of the crime denizens continues while the media who attempt to cover protests against that culture are battered and jailed along with the protesters.  Exhibit A on the list of New York City insanity is the spy center created by the NYPD to cohabitate with Wall Street using $150 million of taxpayer funds – the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center.  Firms like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, … Continue reading →