Search Results for: trump

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 8, 2021 ~ The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board, which has coddled Trump for his entire four years in office, now apparently realizes that its own credibility is being called into question. So it is now calling for Trump to resign, writing as follows yesterday: “In concise summary, on Wednesday the leader of the executive branch incited a crowd to march on the legislative branch. The express goal was to demand that Congress and Vice President Mike Pence reject electors from enough states to deny Mr. Biden an Electoral College victory. When some in the crowd turned violent and occupied the Capitol, the President caviled and declined for far too long to call them off. When he did speak, he hedged his plea with election complaint. “This was an assault on the constitutional process of transferring power after an election. It was also … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 7, 2021 ~ There is growing anger in America today as the public has time to digest the violent video footage of Trump’s citizen militia storming the Capital building yesterday. According to the Washington, D.C. Police Chief, Robert Contee, four people died during the melee, one woman from a gunshot wound inside the Capital building and three others from “medical emergencies.” Contee also reported that at least 56 police officers were injured. As questions grow as to why the Capitol Police were not adequately prepared for the invasion, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy announced at a news conference today that the military is erecting a seven-foot, non-scalable fence around the full perimeter of the Capitol. McCarthy also announced that 6,200 National Guard troops from Washington, D.C. and six states will be deployed to the area. McCarthy said these security measures will be in place … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 5, 2021 ~ Last Saturday, the sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump, called the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, and told him this: “I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.” The Washington Post has posted the audio of the call. That phone call has come under withering criticism as an attempt to coerce votes from a state Trump lost in the November 3 election. Among those on the call as an apparent advisor to Trump was attorney Cleta Mitchell, who at no point suggested to Trump that what he was saying might be illegal. Mitchell is a long-time law partner at Foley & Lardner, which is now attempting to distance itself from the mess. The law firm released a statement which coyly stated: “We are aware of, and are concerned by, Ms. Mitchell’s … Continue reading →

President Donald Trump has finally emerged from his consultations on the possibility of retaining the White House by declaring martial law to weigh in on the pandemic relief and appropriations bill that was passed by both houses of Congress and awaiting his signature to become law. Instead of speaking out before 510 members of Congress voted on the sprawling 5,593 page document, Trump waited until last night to post a video on his Twitter page in which he demands that the $600 stimulus checks in the bill be increased and pork removed. In the video, Trump cited some of the very same foreign loans and pork items that have been savaged on social media over the past two days. (See Tweets below.) Trump finished up the video with this: “Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the American people … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 14, 2020 ~ Seven banking and credit union associations have sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the regulator of national banks in the U.S., spelling out the dangers of the OCC approving a pending bank charter that would allow a national bank to accept and hold deposits that lack federal deposit insurance. The lack of federal deposit insurance triggered the bank runs and banks collapses that played a key role in ushering in the Great Depression. (More on that in a moment.) The bank making the proposal for uninsured banking is Figure Bank, N.A., part of the blockchain startup, Figure Technologies. The organizations wisely arguing against it are the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Credit Union National Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions, The Clearing House, and Consumer … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 1, 2020 ~ Five days before Congress passed the CARES Act on March 25 of this year, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Memorandum giving U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin complete discretion to use $50 billion in the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) as Mnuchin solely saw fit. The Memorandum was dated Friday, March 20. On the prior Tuesday and Wednesday of that same week, Mnuchin had already used $20 billion of the Exchange Stabilization Fund to bail out Wall Street. As Mnuchin’s letter of November 19 to Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirms, he gave (or committed) $10 billion from the ESF to the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility on March 17 and another $10 billion to another Fed emergency lending program, the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, on March 18. Most Americans have never heard of the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 6, 2020 ~ Americans got a taste last night of how gracefully Donald Trump might hand over the reins of power if he loses this election. A number of networks chose to cut off his remarks from the White House last night as Trump said that he had won the election if you count the “legal” votes.  In Trump’s head, the votes legally cast by mail-in ballots by duly registered voters are “illegal.” Trump’s remarks came as his lawyers both threatened to file and did file lawsuits attempting to stop the counting of mail-in ballots in states where the Trump campaign is contemplating a potential loss. No one in the Trump campaign has produced any evidence of fraud in the election despite Trump’s statement on Wednesday that a fraud is taking place. Some of the threats have not been backed up with actual … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 4, 2020 ~ Presidential candidate Joe Biden has called for Americans to have patience as states continue counting their legitimately filed ballots. Donald Trump, instead, attacked the legitimate counting of these votes in numerous states and declared himself the winner around 2:30 a.m. this morning from the East Room of the White House. Trump said he wanted all vote counting to stop and would be taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump’s fit of pique over the continued counting of mailed-in ballots in Pennsylvania is like the defendant who has killed his parents and is now demanding that the Judge show him mercy because he’s an orphan. It was the Republican State Legislature in Pennsylvania that earlier this year refused the request by counties to be allowed, because of the pandemic, to begin counting the mailed-in ballots prior to election day. … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 2, 2020 ~ The U.S. stock market, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 1,833.97 points last week. The Dow was down every day except Thursday, when it eked out a gain of 139.16. The market was reacting to the following bad news: soaring cases of COVID-19 in the U.S.; a reemergence of the virus in Europe causing business shutdowns there; the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass a new stimulus bill; and a sharply lower price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI), domestic crude oil – which signals a further slowdown in economic activity. (At 7 a.m. this morning, WTI was down further, with a $34 handle.) The stock market’s losses would have likely been greater last week were it not for an intervention staged by the Federal Reserve at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. Here’s what happened and why Americans … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 28, 2020 ~ At 9:10 a.m. this morning, Dow futures were showing a loss of 623 points, signaling another nasty open for the stock market following Monday’s plunge of 650 points and a 222-point loss yesterday. The sell-off in futures this morning is being blamed on the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Europe and the U.S. and the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass a stimulus bill to cushion the coming economic fallout. But tomorrow morning will bring a report showing a huge pop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the third quarter, and the Trump campaign can be expected to spin it into a rallying cry at campaign events. At 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce, will report how the U.S. economy grew from July 1 through September 30. According … Continue reading →