By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 2, 2021 ~ The chart above has been compiled by the St. Louis Fed using the New York Fed’s data for its issuance of Reverse Repurchase Agreements, otherwise known as Reverse Repos. What’s a Fed Reverse Repo? According to the New York Fed, it is when counterparties loan the Fed money in exchange for collateral, which is typically Treasury bills. In the most recent action, we’re talking about the New York Fed, acting on behalf of the Federal Reserve, selling U.S. Treasuries to Wall Street banks, trading houses, mutual funds and government-sponsored enterprises in overnight and weekend deals and paying zero or next to zero as an interest rate when it buys back the securities. Why would the smartest guys on Wall Street, who never let a loose dime slip through their fingers in order to get a larger cut of the annual bonus pool, be … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: June 1, 2021 ~  “…no adequate rational market explanation for this performance.” If something sounds too good to be true, you can bet your discolored Bernie Madoff account statements that it will inevitably end badly. Quietly, at the start of a three-day weekend, Bloomberg News published this titillating news item about the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, known as RenTech or RenTec on Wall Street: “Credit Suisse Group is temporarily barring clients from withdrawing all their cash from a fund that invests with Renaissance Technologies…The fund lost about 32% last year, in line with the decline in the Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha Fund International fund that it invests into, the people said. Renaissance, regarded as one of the most successful quant investing firms in the world, was rocked by billions of dollars in redemptions earlier this year after unprecedented losses in 2020.” Put the above paragraph together with the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 28, 2021 ~ CEOs from the six largest banks on Wall Street testified under oath yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee. But only one CEO, Jamie Dimon, had an ear-piercing electronic sound emanate from his microphone, which blocked out the sound of his voice, when he was asked key questions by two separate members of Congress. The situation was so bizarre that Congressman Juan Vargas, a Democrat from California, said this about the episodes: “It reminded me of the movie ‘Young Frankenstein.’ Every time they said ‘Luther’ the horses would get scared. Every time they said ‘Jamie Dimon,’ the computers would get scared.” The first episode occurred after Congressman Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, told Dimon that two of the banks previously purchased by JPMorgan Chase had used slaves as loan collateral and at one point, after calling in a loan, the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 27, 2021 ~ Last evening, Bloomberg News, followed by the Wall Street Journal, reported that the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a probe into the late March collapse of the Archegos family office hedge fund. The Wall Street Journal reported that “Banks that lent to Archegos, including Credit Suisse Group AG, UBS Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley,” had been contacted for information by the Justice Department. According to media reports, Archegos is believed to have leveraged $20 billion of its own capital into more than $100 billion in stock and derivative exposure through margin loans from the banks named above, as well as others. Among the laundry list of items the Justice Department may be investigating, is whether the banks violated the Federal Reserve’s Regulation T, which would have limited the banks to an initial margin loan of no … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 27, 2021 ~ Senator Sherrod Brown opened yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing with some fiery words about the mega banks on Wall Street, stating: “Like most Americans, I want businesses to make money, and I don’t mind that bankers are rich. Some people are going to be wealthy, and that’s fine. Here’s the problem: under the current system, Wall Street profits no matter what happens to workers, because those profits now come at the expense of workers. And your banks are the ones that largely built that system. “We often hear about the ‘invisible hand.’ But the economy isn’t physics – it’s not governed by scientific laws outside our control. It’s made up of people making choices about our values and the society we want to live in. The ‘invisible hand’ doesn’t lay off workers. The ‘invisible hand’ didn’t invent credit default swaps. The … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 26, 2021 ~ Below are selected remarks from Jamie Dimon’s prepared statement for the Senate Banking Committee hearing today, which will take testimony from a total of six Wall Street bank CEOs. Wall Street On Parade’s annotated remarks appear in brackets and italics. ~~~ “Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Toomey and distinguished members of the Committee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you to talk about JPMorgan Chase, the strength and resilience of the U.S. financial system, and the people, businesses and communities we serve.” [The strength of the U.S. financial system would, of course, be a lot safer and sounder if the largest bank in the U.S., at which Dimon serves as Chairman and CEO, had not been charged with five felony counts since 2014, all occurring under his leadership. The bank admitted to all five counts.] “JPMorgan Chase is a global financial services firm … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 25, 2021 ~ On Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee will haul each of the CEOs of the largest U.S. banks on Wall Street to a hearing. Three of those banks have been charged with, and admitted to, egregious felonies. But we will be shocked if any Senator dares to inquire about these unprecedented felony counts. Until 2014, no major Wall Street bank that held federally insured deposits had ever been charged with a felony in a century. That all changed on January 7, 2014 when the U.S. Department of Justice charged JPMorgan Chase with two criminal felony counts for its role in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. The bank had managed the business account for Madoff for decades and had even written to U.K. regulators that it suspected Madoff of running a fraudulent operation. It failed to share any such concerns with U.S. regulators. … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 24, 2021 ~ The House Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets will hold a hearing today on the grossly disfigured initial public offering (IPO) process in the U.S. today, which is allowing the rich to get richer as the small retail investor is being effectively looted. The hearing is titled: “Going Public: SPACs, Direct Listings, Public Offerings, and the Need for Investor Protections.” Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, went public on Nasdaq via a direct listing on April 14. On its first day of trading it closed at a share price of $328.28, giving it a market capitalization of $85.8 billion. In a traditional IPO, early investors and company executives are not allowed to sell their shares for several months due to a so-called lockup period. There’s no such prohibition in a direct listing. According to an SEC filing, Coinbase’s Chairman … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 21, 2021 ~ The chart above should provide ample proof to any thinking American that Bitcoin is about as appropriate as a payment mechanism as Elon Musk is appropriate as the CEO of an S&P 500 company. The U.S. Dollar Index, the orange line, is steady as she goes – meaning you have a stable currency to make payments for goods and services. In contrast, Bitcoin, the green line, looks like a heart attack patient being mugged on a gurney. A crypto crash in U.S. markets on Wednesday, spurred by China taking decisive action on barring cryptocurrencies as a means of payment at financial institutions and payment companies, apparently lit a fire under the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to finally come out of their bunkers on the subject. Senator Sherrod Brown, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, released a powerful letter to the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 20, 2021 ~ Yesterday, Bitcoin put on a display that should put to rest any lingering doubts that it is a stable currency that could be used to pay for products or services. The current month Bitcoin futures contract at the CME swung between a low of $30,250 to a high of $43,530 – a difference of $13,280 in one trading session. From its intraday high of $58,140 on Wednesday, May 12, to its close one week later on Wednesday, May 19, Bitcoin had lost 34 percent of its value. As we explained here at Wall Street On Parade on May 12, some of the smartest minds in the investment community think Bitcoin is very bad for America. One of the most iconic investors in America, Warren Buffet, stated in May 2018 that Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared.” In January of the same … Continue reading →