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Recent Posts
- The Fed Just Kicked the Capital Increases for the Dangerous Megabanks and their Derivatives Down the Road for Years
- Intel, Boeing and U.S. Steel May Hold the Secrets to What’s Behind All the Talk of a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund
- Trump and Paulson’s Proposal: U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund (or Another Grifter Bailout)
- A Wall Street Regulator Is Understating Margin Debt by More than $4 Trillion – Because It’s Not Counting Giant Banks Making Margin Loans to Hedge Funds
- After JPMorgan Threatens to Sue, the Fed Cuts Its Capital Requirement on the 5-Count Felon from a Planned 25 Percent Hike to Less than 8 Percent
- Three Megabanks Had Loans Outstanding of $1.832 Trillion to Giant Hedge Funds on March 31
- Jamie Dimon’s Washington Post OpEd Gets Pummeled at Yahoo Finance
- In the Span of 72 Hours, Four People Tied to a Hewlett-Packard Criminal Case Died in Two Separate Events
- Crypto Took Down Another Federally-Insured Bank and Just Handed Its CEO a 24-Year Prison Sentence
- All the Devils from 2008 Are Back at the Megabanks: Leverage, Off-Balance-Sheet Debt, Over $192 Trillion in Derivatives, Shaky Capital Levels
- New Study Says the Fed Is Captured by Congress and White House — Not the Megabanks that Own the Fed Banks and Get Trillions in Bailouts
- Data from the Fed’s Emergency Funding Program Shows Spring 2023 Banking Crisis Was Far Deeper than Americans Were Told
- These FDIC-Insured Banks Have Lost 69 to 40 Percent of their Market Value Year-to-Date
- Exposure at Hedge Funds Has Skyrocketed to Over $28 Trillion; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Are at Risk
- We Charted the Plunge and Rebound in the Nikkei Versus Nomura and Citigroup; the Correlation Is Frightening
- Former U.S. Labor Secretary Says Billionaires Have No Right to Exist Because their Wealth Comes from Five Illegal or Bad Practices
- Citigroup Is Having a Helluva Summer: A Protest on Thursday Will Turn Up the Heat
- Nikkei Has Biggest Drop in History: Here’s What’s Causing the Global Market Selloff
- JPMorgan Is Tapping Illiquid Assets in its Global Collateral Program; the New York Fed Is Paying for Its Services
- Bank Regulators Issue Warnings on Fintech and Banking as Disasters Pile Up
- Donald Trump Gives a Speech on Not Letting China Win the Crypto Race – Not Realizing China Banned Crypto Mining and Transactions Four Years Ago
- The New York Fed Has Contracted Out Key Functions to JPMorgan Chase; We Filed a FOIA and Got These Strange Invoices
- On the Eve of Netanyahu’s Address to Congress, Senator Bernie Sanders Delivers a Breathtaking Assessment of His War Crimes
- Trump’s Sit-Down with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago Will Cost U.S. Taxpayers Millions While Profiting Trump’s Business
- Protecting Trump and His Jet-Setting Adult Children During His Presidency Cost Taxpayers Over $1 Billion
- A Congressman and a Doctor Reported a Woman Being Shot at Trump Rally: She’s Vanished from Official Reports
- Jamie Dimon Goes Missing from Earnings Call, After Dumping $183 Million of His JPMorgan Chase Stock Earlier this Year
- U.S. Senate Candidate Backed by Hedge Fund Billionaires Was Sitting in Front Row at Trump Rally as the Sniper Fired into the Bleachers
- Project 2025: The Fossil Fuel and Banking Money Behind the Madness
- The Fund Created to Unwind a Failing Megabank Has a Problem: There’s No Money in It
- Joe Biden Versus the New York Times
- Grand Jury Transcript in Jeffrey Epstein Case Is Released, Raising Questions about Epstein’s Darkest Secrets Being Protected in JPMorgan Cases
- The Supreme Court Crowns a King, Immunizing Future Criminal Acts Under Project 2025 – a Right Wing Manifesto
- The Debate Disaster and the Supreme Court’s “Chevron” Repeal Have a Money Trail Leading to Charles Koch
- Congressman Andy Barr Stacks a Hearing on the Fed’s Stress Tests with Lobbyists for Megabanks
- The Fed Posts Historic Operating Losses As It Pays Out 5.40 Percent Interest to Banks
- Goldman Sachs’ Bank Derivatives Have Grown from $40 Trillion to $54 Trillion in Five Years; So How Did Its Credit Exposure Improve by 200 Percent?
- The Fed and FDIC Wake Up Suddenly to the Threat of Derivatives, Flunking the Four Largest Derivative Banks on their Wind-Down Plans
- Is the Stock Market Setting Investors Up for a Tech Bust Similar to the Dot.com Bust?
- Chase Bank Customers Are Reporting a Wave of Wire Fraud in their Accounts; the Bank Won’t Make Good on the Looted Funds
- The Senate Race in Ohio Is the Sickest in U.S. History in Terms of Billionaire Money from Outside the State
- Sullivan & Cromwell’s Legal Work for Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto House of Fraud Is Getting a Closer Look in Two Federal Court Cases
- Crypto Tries to Recreate the Koch Money Machine to Pack Congress with Shills
- French Fears Ignite Selloff in U.S. Megabanks and Foreign Peers
- Crypto Just Got Exponentially More Dangerous: Meet Fairshake
- Nvidia Hit a $3 Trillion Market Cap Last Week; Dark Pools Are Making Over 300,000 Trades in the Stock Weekly
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Is Making Enemies in All the Right Places
- A Former Exec at Citibank Raises Alarm Bells in Federal Court Over Failed Risk Controls Inside the Bank
- Charles Koch’s Money Is Being Used in Elections in Ways Only Orwell Could Have Imagined
- Freakonomics and Frankenbanks: JPMorgan Chase Sucked Up 18 Percent of All Profits of 4,568 FDIC-Insured Banks in the First Quarter
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Can You Trust This Banker
By Pam Martens: June 13, 2012 Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee today that “there are no off-balance sheet vehicles…” But JPMorgan Chase’s financial filings with the SEC for 2011 tell a different story. Those documents state: “Includes off–balance sheet risk-weighted assets at December 31, 2011, of $301.1 billion, $291.0 billion and $38 million…for JPMorgan Chase, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Chase Bank USA, N.A., respectively.” Dimon was not asked to testify under oath today. In an exchange with Senator Bob Menendez, Dimon said he never criticized the new regulatory requirements for increased capital for banks. Senator Menendez said he did. Dimon said that was untrue. The Senator was referring to an interview Dimon gave to the Financial Times of London which was published on September 12, 2011. The Financial Times reported as follows: Dimon: “ ‘I’m very close to thinking the United States shouldn’t be … Continue reading
Moody’s to Lower the Boom on Wall Street By End of June
By Pam Martens: June 11, 2012 As Congress and a growing number of economic analysts rethink the mega bank model and the repeal of the depression era Glass-Steagall Act that walled off commercial banks holding insured deposits from high risk investment banks and brokerage firms, Moody’s is expected to raise more alarm bells within the next two weeks. It is anticipated based on previous statements from Moody’s that up to 17 global banks may see a ratings downgrade. Among the group, five of the largest U.S. banks could be negatively impacted, including, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley may see a multi-level downgrade; its corporate bonds are trading as if the downgrade has already occurred. This is not reassuring to the millions of brokerage clients in the firm’s Morgan Stanley Smith Barney unit. In 2009, Morgan Stanley purchased 51 percent of the … Continue reading
Kim Kardashian Versus Global Financial Instability; Kardashian Wins Hands Down
By Pam Martens: June 10, 2012 According to this up-to-the-minute chart showing a Google Search Index comparing the search engine rankings for the words “Kim Kardashian,” and “Volcker Rule,” and “Euro Crisis,” a good chunk of the U.S. is not prepared for the next phase of the financial crisis but is well versed on the romantic tribulations of Ms. Kardashian. Back in March of this year, I reached out to Wall Street veteran and author, Nomi Prins, with this question: “What is the one thing that could happen in America today that would make you optimistic that the country will find its moorings in time to save itself.” Ms. Prins specifically referenced the Kardashian syndrome in the U.S. Her answer was published in an article I wrote for CounterPunch on March 19: Nomi Prins: “Any potential for a more positive outcome would have to rise from a broad population push that renders the … Continue reading
JPMorgan: If This Is a Financial Fortress, Run for the Bunkers
By Pam Martens, June 6, 2012 The U.S. Senate Banking Committee spent over two hours on Wednesday proving to the American people that any shred of confidence they might still have in our financial markets is misplaced. Just as with the six recent hearings on the collapse of MF Global and its $1.6 billion of missing customer funds, five different regulators could not, or would not, reveal anything useful to the American people on how JPMorgan, the largest bank by assets in the U.S., was permitted to blow up billions in depositor funds in an outpost in London. Thomas Curry, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) since April 9 of this year, did confirm one important detail during the hearing: the reckless derivative trading at JPMorgan’s London office occurred in a unit of the national bank (not the broker-dealer), using insured deposits of bank customers, … Continue reading
Occupy Wall Street Groups Demand Investigation of JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon
By Pam Martens: June 4, 2012 Occupy the SEC and Occupy Wall Street’s Alternative Banking Working Group are asking the SEC to investigate Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and make a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice, if appropriate. This Wednesday, June 6th, at 5:30 p.m. EST, the two groups will march from Liberty Plaza to the offices of JPMorgan Chase, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and on to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York City office for a teach-in. The groups issued a statement, that read: “We are marching on June 6th because that date marks the 78th anniversary of the founding of the SEC in 1934. The SEC was created to enforce two basic principles: 1) public companies offering securities to investors must tell the truth about their business, the securities, and the risks involved in investing. 2) people who … Continue reading
MF Global Trustee Releases 275-Page Report on Final Days of Firm
By Pam Martens: June 4, 2012 James Giddens, the trustee overseeing the return of customer money at the failed commodities firm, MF Global, this morning filed a 275-page report with the court outlining the firm’s final days and its transformation under CEO Jon Corzine. Read the full report here. In the report, the Trustee indicates a belief “that there are claims, including claims for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence, that may be asserted against Mr. Corzine, Mr. Steenkamp, and Ms. O’Brien, among others.” Steenkamp was CFO and O’Brien, who took the Fifth before Congress, was an assistant treasurer involved in wiring customer funds to cover overdrafts at other units of the firm. The trustee has previously stated that $1.6 billion in customer funds is missing. Read a Wall Street On Parade report here. The trustee also indicated that he may be forced to litigate against JPMorgan Chase. The report … Continue reading
Trade Group Lobbies to Gut Wall Street Financial Reforms
By Pam Martens: June 4, 2012 According to data at the Center for Responsive Politics (www.OpenSecrets.org), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has spent over $95 million since 2000 lobbying Congress on behalf of Wall Street firms. Whom has SIFMA employed to do their lobbying? The largest Wall Street law firms – the same law firms that get a call when the firm blows up a trading desk or its balance sheet. Heads the law firm wins; tails the law firm wins. At least in the past. But what happens when there is nothing left of Wall Street but the charred ashes of failed firms? Last week we saw a glimpse of what happens when legal hubris is unconstrained. The large law firm, Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, filed bankruptcy, owing over $315 million to more than 5,000 creditors. Below is from the SIFMA web site; the status of … Continue reading
Senate Banking Hearing: Mission Impossible to Regulate Wall Street
By Pam Martens: May 22, 2012 If bank depositors were not sufficiently frightened to learn that JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, was using customers’ insured deposits as collateral to sell credit default insurance to hedge funds – the same dangerous derivatives maneuver that blew up AIG Financial Products and made the giant insurer a ward of the U.S. taxpayer – today’s U.S. Senate hearing added more reason for anxiety. The hearing was convened from 10 a.m. to 12 noon by the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to hear from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Schapiro and Gary Gensler, Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The two main regulators of the derivatives used by JPMorgan, that produced trading losses currently estimated by outside analysts at $3 billion to $5 billion, had to concede that they had no advance knowledge of … Continue reading
Is a Whistleblower Involved in the FBI’s Criminal Probe of JPMorgan Chase?
By Pam Martens: May 18, 2012 On May 16, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” The hearing came less than a week after JPMorgan Chase announced it had lost at least $2 billion of insured deposits in a so-called hedging strategy it has yet to define. (According to media reports today, that loss is now dramatically larger.) Senator Richard Blumenthal is a member of the Judiciary Committee with an impressive resume as a former prosecutor, serving five terms as Connecticut’s Attorney General as well as a former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut. When Senator Blumenthal’s turn came to question FBI Director Robert Mueller, the dialogue went as follows: Senator Blumenthal: “I would like to ask first about the JPMorgan Chase investigation. Can you tell us what potential crimes could be under investigation, without asking you to conclude anything or talk about … Continue reading
Jamie Dimon: The More He Talks, the Less We Know
By Pam Martens: May 14, 2012 Jamie Dimon, the red-faced Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who last week reported a $2 billion trading loss at the firm, has a rare quality. He talks really fast, uses a lot of plain, folksy words, and leaves us dumber than when he started speaking. It feels like Dimon is hoping to talk fast enough and call himself stupid often enough that no one notices that he hasn’t told us a thing we need to know: Like – exactly how did you lose $2 billion of your depositors’ money? Like – when will you cut your losses short and unwind this “stupid” trade? Like – why haven’t you already unwound this “stupid” trade? Like – how is this different from AIG Financial Products selling credit default insurance, collecting the big quarterly premiums on that insurance to boost revenues, profits and pay big bonuses … Continue reading