Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

May 1, 2012 At approximately 10:28 p.m., after a large presence of New York City Police broke up a general assembly of Occupy Wall Street protestors in lower Manhattan, announcing by megaphone that protestors would be arrested if they didn’t disperse, the police began to indiscriminately arrest peaceful participants.   After forcing protestors out of Battery Park and onto the street, a wall of police surrounded the protestors, preventing their movement, while simultaneously telling protestors they would be arrested if they didn’t disperse.  There were multiple reports of police brutality.  At 11:00 p.m., about 200 occupiers had reassembled in Zuccotti Park, birthplace of the movement.  There were reports of violent confrontations between police and occupiers in Seattle and Oakland. Photos of police action between 10:30 p.m.  and 11:00 p.m. in New York City.   

May 1, 2012 As video and photos from citizen journalists showed the largest May Day turnout since the inception of Occupy Wall Street in New York City, the international news wire, Reuters, ran the following headline: “Occupy Wall Street Resurgence a Dud.”  The headline was accompanied with the following text: “Occupy Wall Street was planning to make a big comeback, taking aim at old targets like Bank of America and headquarters of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. empire. But the demonstration lacked the crowds of the protest’s early days, leading many to question if the movement has any movement left.” First, using the word “movement” twice within a span of five words is, well, bad journalism.  Failing to peek out a window in Manhattan is just plain dumb.