By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 6, 2016 Republicans have offered Americans a non viable presumptive candidate for President. Democrat elites are offering their continuing model of failing up. Failing up has become the hallmark of the Obama administration. Help crash the biggest bank in the country and take a bonus for yourself from the taxpayer bailout and you fail up as U.S. Treasury Secretary. Work as the lawyer for the Wall Street banks that crashed the U.S. economy and you fail up as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Become a partner at the law firm named in an historic court decision as a co-conspirator with Big Tobacco and you end up as the head of the Justice Department or the head of its criminal division. Fail to rein in systemic Wall Street abuses before they crash the U.S. economy in the greatest downturn since the Great … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 5, 2016  Facts matter, especially when one is trying to drill down to the truth. But despite dozens of news articles from major media outlets on the private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport last week, the facts have typically been reported wrong and serious questions left unanswered. The well worn media narrative has now evolved that both Clinton and Lynch were in Phoenix on the same day for scheduled events. That’s wrong. Bill Clinton was in Phoenix on Monday, June 27, to meet with real-estate developer Jim Pederson and others. (Pederson was Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party from 2001 to 2005. According to Federal Election Commission records, Pederson gave nearly $7.3 million to the Arizona State Democratic Central Committee from 2001 to 2006.) While Clinton was in Phoenix on Monday, Loretta Lynch … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 1, 2016  A rigged system of justice that protects elites was a constant theme under President Obama’s former U.S. Attorney General at the Justice Department, Eric Holder, who failed to prosecute a single Wall Street bank executive over the epic corruption that led to the financial collapse in 2008. Now, President Obama’s newest head of the Justice Department, Loretta Lynch, has come under withering criticism for conducting a private meeting with former President Bill Clinton on her government plane at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport while his wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, is under an active criminal investigation by her office for transmitting classified government material over her private email server while Secretary of State in the Obama administration.  President Obama’s two terms have been filled with personnel from the Bill Clinton presidency, leading to the appearance of continuity government between the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 30, 2016  Nothing would do more to obliterate the legacy of President Obama or the credibility of Federal regulators than for another major U.S. insurer to need a massive taxpayer bailout like AIG did in 2008 because of its exposure to Wall Street mega banks. But the trading action of the giant U.S. insurer, MetLife, following the Brexit vote in the U.K. has tongues wagging on Wall Street. The question is why this company traded worse than even the biggest Wall Street banks in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote. In last Friday and Monday’s trading sessions, MetLife lost 17.3 percent of its market capitalization or $8.4 billion. Adding to the curiosity, this comes at a time when MetLife is fighting in court to avoid the government’s designation of it as a non-bank systemically important financial institution or SIFI. Insurers like MetLife … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 29, 2016  Today, at 4:30 p.m., the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the second leg of its annual stress tests of 33 banks holding $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets. The first leg of the tests was released last Thursday with all 33 banks getting a passing grade in terms of meeting the minimum capital cushion required. Today’s final round, called the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), will determine whether the banks are allowed to continue or increase dividend payments, conduct share buybacks or issue secondary stock offerings. This is the sixth annual round of stress tests conducted by the Fed since the financial crash in 2008. In addition to the regular stress tests, eight large banks with significant trading and/or clearing operations are required to show losses if a major counterparty defaulted. Those banks are: Bank of America, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 28, 2016 The overall stock market is staging a big rally at the open of trading this morning in New York, but that is not going to calm growing anxieties over how badly systemically risky global banks traded in Friday and Monday’s two days of carnage. Watching tens of billions of equity market capital vaporize at the mega banks in two trading sessions of just 6-1/2 hours each has put renewed attention on separating the insured depository banks that are backstopped by the taxpayer from the high risk investment banks and brokerage firms on Wall Street. That effort has just gained a lot more traction.  Quietly, with little media fanfare, restoring the Glass-Steagall Act has been added to the final draft of the Democratic Platform. The passage reads:  “The Democratic Platform will make clear that Wall Street cannot be an island unto itself, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 27, 2016 Wall Street On Parade has reported on multiple occasions that the Federal Reserve has no idea what it’s doing with its stress testing of the largest banks on Wall Street. Last Friday’s market action, following the Brexit vote in the U.K. to leave the European Union, proved just how feeble the Fed is when it comes to assessing systemic risk and capital vaporization at the deeply interconnected Wall Street mega banks. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3.39 percent at the close on Friday, Morgan Stanley lost a stunning 10.15 percent of its market capital in a 6-1/2 hour trading session. At that speed, Morgan Stanley’s equity market capital could be wiped out in 10 trading sessions were this Brexit panic to continue. Citigroup, which became a basket case during the 2008 financial crisis, ending up as a penny stock … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 24, 2016  The anti-establishment trend has picked up its pace this morning, showing no signs of abating. Around 2:30 a.m. New York time, Wall Street traders were stunned by the news that U.K. voters had backed leaving the European Union by 51.9 percent versus a remain vote of 48.1 percent in the anxiously anticipated Brexit referendum held yesterday. The outcome slammed markets – leaving many wondering if big banks and hedge funds were going to take heavy losses this morning for placing wrong way trades. Futures markets were doing little to reassure that this wasn’t the case with futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average showing a loss of over 553 points before the market opened and major Wall Street banks like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase off by 6 to 7 percent in premarket trading. In times of … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 23, 2016 Millions of Americans think that Congressional Republicans are in conspiracy with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cato Institute, Koch brothers, and the Mercatus Center to advance an agenda of increasing corporate profits while sacking the needs of the poor and middle class. That doesn’t mean, however, that Republicans can’t sometimes spot a conspiracy on the part of others. Yesterday, four Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, during the semi-annual monetary policy testimony by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, presented a persuasive argument that it’s really the Federal Reserve (which was flattered by many House Democrats at the hearing) that’s sacrificing the poor and middle class in order to benefit the rich and “the Goldman Sachs CEOs of the world.” Congressman Ed Royce, Republican from California, said that he was “concerned that the Federal Reserve has created a third pillar … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 22, 2016  Talk about bad timing. Tomorrow, while the Brexit vote takes place in the U.K. and is guaranteed to whipsaw markets through the Friday morning open when the results of the vote are expected, the Federal Reserve plans to add to market jitters on Thursday by announcing the results of its stress tests on the biggest banks — while withholding the final leg of the results until the following Wednesday. The stress tests are an annual Fed exercise which are meant to reassure the public and Congress that the mega banks are holding adequate capital for even an extreme economic downturn; in other words, that another epic taxpayer bailout of insolvent banks won’t sneak up on the Fed like it did in 2008. Unfortunately, according to the Federal agency established under the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation to provide ongoing research on potential … Continue reading →