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 →

By Pam Martens: August 31, 2012 This week Citigroup, the serial settler of lawsuits on the cheap over wrongdoing, agreed to end litigation over its failure to disclose the full scope of its exposure to subprime debt.  The settlement tab — $590 million.  Between 2006 and November 21, 2008, the Friday before “Citigroup Weekend,” when the U.S. government had to step in to save the bank, Citigroup’s market value (the worth of all of its common shares in the marketplace) went from $250 billion to $20.5 billion.  So the harm done to shareholders, in terms of loss of confidence, was more in the range of $229.5 billion, not $590 million. The lead law firm was Kirby McInerney LLP.  It did a masterful job of compiling and exposing the subterfuge and who knew what and when at Citigroup.  We have the Court system to thank for the diminished payout.  Court precedents … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 30, 2012 Shortly after the Occupy Wall Street protests began in lower Manhattan in the Fall of 2011, Naomi Klein published a piece at The Nation, heralding the movement as “the most important thing in the world now.” To the chagrin of Wall Street, Klein succinctly explained to the populace what was coming next from the marauding wealth barbarians unless there was a demonstrative push back from the citizenry: “If there is one thing I know, it is that the 1 percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over. “And there is only one … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 29, 2012 There really are two kinds of Americans.  One type is of the Ayn Randian persuasion, believing that rapacious capitalism without safety nets is an ideal model for our country.  The other kind believes that our Nation’s children represent the future and each and every one of them – regardless of class, race or social circumstances – deserves a chance at a productive life.  The second kind of American is frequently derided as a soft-hearted liberal sop; but that’s a shallow analysis.  We fail as a country when we fail our children – both morally and in terms of global competitiveness.  This is why the revelations in Neil Barofsky’s new book — Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street – are so disturbing.  Barofsky was the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief  Program (TARP), put in charge to monitor … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: August 28, 2012  When Ron Suskind’s new book, “Confidence Men,” was released last Fall, there was much noise about the jaw-dropping revelation that President Obama told Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to “wind down” Citigroup and Geithner brazenly disobeyed the President, essentially doing his own thing where Citigroup was concerned.  Here’s a snippet: “In early April, Obama’s economic team congregated in the Oval office for the morning briefing.  All the key players were there, except Geithner.  After a few moments, the president talked about a resolution plan for Citigroup as a key item in his arsenal, and wondered how close it was to completion.  Christina Romer and Larry Summers glanced at each other.  They had been talking for nearly a month about how the Treasury Department seemed to be ignoring the president’s clear, unequivocal orders involving Citigroup. Geithner and his team were moving forward with their own favored … Continue reading →