By Pam Martens: March 5, 2013  Just when one thinks the winks and nods between Washington and Wall Street couldn’t get any worse, there is growing evidence that the U.S. Justice Department knows that 20 banks engaged in the rigging of Libor but is intentionally delaying bringing charges against U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.  Evidence is also stacking up that while the largest banks in the world were under intensive investigation for rigging Libor, they continued to rig it, while regulators remain dumbfounded about what to do.  And, in an Alice in Wonderland type of development, despite trillions of dollars of financial products resetting based on the Libor index, a key regulator says it’s become a fictional benchmark because the loans between banks that it’s based on have all but disappeared.  Libor is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. It is supposed to be a reliable reflection of the rate at … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: March 4, 2013  Last November, one of Europe’s largest publications, the German news magazine Der Spiegel, splashed a terminally ill Uncle Sam on its front cover. Inside we are told that “Many developing countries are now looking to China instead of the US as a role model on how to structure a country. They are no longer seeking the light of the American beacon on the horizon.”  One of the reasons cited by the article for America’s decline is that our best and brightest no longer focus their talents and energies on enriching America’s future, but rush to Wall Street to line their own pockets: “About a third of the students in every graduating class at Harvard University accepts jobs in investment banking and consulting, or with hedge funds — that is, industries that produce one thing above all: fast money…” reads the article.  Last week, Wall Street’s … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: March 1, 2013  Each year, millions of Americans who inherit wealth or seek to start investing for the first time, struggle with how to go about finding a competent, honest and experienced financial advisor. Having painstakingly observed for the past two weeks how the U.S. Senate went about hiring Jack Lew to be the top financial advisor to the country as Treasury Secretary, I feel there is now a very simple example millions of Americans can follow in formulating a selection process of who should manage their money: do the exact opposite of those men in Washington.  Despite enough conflicts of interests, red flags, sleazy compensation deals to repulse anyone who looked closely, the U.S. Senate voted 71-26 Wednesday to hand the keys to the U.S. Mint to Jack Lew.    But simultaneously with that vote to install the country’s financial advisor at Treasury was a no-confidence vote … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: February 28, 2013  In several respects, Occupy Wall Street reminds me of the feminist movement. Corporate funded media has declared the women’s rights movement dead ad nauseam for four decades — and yet it thrives and reinvents itself. Similarly, corporate funded media has eulogized Occupy Wall Street from almost the moment of its nascent birth in the Fall of 2011.  If there is a common thread connecting these movements and the dire media prognostications of their demise, it is likely that when either one advances, entrenched power — and its iron grip on the wealth of a nation — loses.  Now, similar to the early court battles for women’s rights, Occupy Wall Street has tossed aside its encampments and bullhorns and donned its legal garb and pro hac vices. Occupy Wall Street’s brain trust, Occupy the SEC, just filed a Federal lawsuit that encapsulates the crony capitalist … Continue reading →

 By Pam Martens: February 28, 2013  The Obama administration pushed through the full Senate vote on the nomination of Jack Lew for Secretary of the Treasury late yesterday afternoon, just one day after the Senate Finance Committee voted to confirm the nomination. One suspects the rush was to prevent further details of Lew’s lavish pay packages, loans and other perks at his previous employers, New York University and bailed out bank, Citigroup, from gaining traction in the press.  But rest assured, this is no win for the President’s legacy or his party. The Democrats’ progressive base was just as adamant against Lew for U.S. Treasury Secretary as were most Republicans who took a careful look at Lew’s history.  Robert Scheer, writing at The Nation Magazine said:  “I suppose that he can’t be much worse than Timothy Geithner, but that should be scant cause for cheer over the news that the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: February 27, 2013 As questions swirl as to why New York University, a nonprofit subsidized by the taxpayer, used endowment funds from its law school foundation to provide Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew with more than a million dollars in mortgage loans in 2001 and a $685,000 “severance” payment when he voluntarily left to accept a high paying job at Citigroup in 2006, the name of John Sexton has emerged as someone who was in the know about the dealings. As the document below confirms, Sexton, who has been President of NYU since 2001, signed off on the first $1,300,000 mortgage loan to Lew on August 22, 2001. The second mortgage loan by NYU to Lew in the amount of $150,000 was made later that same year. Lew has said in written testimony to the Senate Finance Committee that NYU forgave portions of the first loan and … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: February 26, 2013  The American people can rest assured that it’s still business as usual in Washington. Despite growing financial questions swirling around Treasury Secretary nominee, Jack Lew, the Senate Finance committee confirmed his nomination moments ago in a 19 to 5 vote. The full Senate must still vote and is expected to do so this week or next.  Senator Orrin Hatch, who said many questions about Lew’s time at two employers, New York University and Citigroup, remain unclear, failed to show the courage of his convictions and voted yes on the nomination, saying the President was owed deference in his selections.  Only Senator Chuck Grassley showed any courage in today’s hearing, asking to speak on the nomination and then voting no. Grassley said the Obama administration continues to criticize Congress when it is simply fulfilling its role of due diligence. He said Lew had real “eagerness … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: February 26, 2013  Today, an august body of the United States Senate will vote on President Obama’s nomination of Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary, a post that oversees the paying of the country’s bills, collection of taxes, printing of the country’s currency, issuing the Nation’s debt securities and maintaining the stability of the financial system. The full Senate will likely vote in a matter of days thereafter.  And yet, the man who will be voted on by the Senate Finance Committee today will not give straight answers to the most basic of questions about $1.4 million in loans from his previous employer, New York University, and the assumption and modification of those loans by his next employer, the bailed out banking institution, Citigroup.  A mortgage loan is typically a straightforward matter that doesn’t require multiple rounds of written questions. But in Lew’s case, Senator … Continue reading →

 By Pam Martens: February 25, 2013  Have you ever landed a new job with a private employer who bought you a $1.3 million house and paid you a bigger salary than your boss. Did you ever have an employment contract that called for awarding you a bonus of $940,000 if you could somehow advance yourself from shepherding an insolvent bank to a “full time high level position with the U.S. government or regulatory body.” How about getting a deal where your company will leverage your investment in a Cayman Islands fund by chipping in $2 for every $1 you put in and let you keep all the winnings. Did you ever refinance a mortgage loan, take out $352,195 in new cash and not have to pay a legally mandated mortgage recording tax?    I don’t know of anyone in America who has these kinds of skeletons popping out of their closets … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: February 22, 2013 You know the President’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, is in trouble when media from the left, right and center of the political spectrum are shredding the mild-mannered, bespectacled numbers cruncher. For good reason, I might add.  Lew will now have more embarrassing details to explain (or not, as has become his custom). We’ve dug out the details of his head-spinning mortgage deals with his two former employers,  New York University and Citigroup. This comes on the heels of the bombshell dropped by Senator Orrin Hatch in the confirmation hearing regarding Lew’s cozy employment agreement with Citigroup that paid him a bonus of $940,000 if he could somehow manage to secure a “full time high level position with the United States Government or a regulatory body.” The insolvent bank had just been bailed out by the taxpayer, making the $940,000 bonus accepted by Lew … Continue reading →