Two Interviews

Just a brief update.

Two links for you . Two brief interviews: one  with me the other with Jonathan Sugarman, both about the failure of Financial Regulators.

Belgian TV released another part of the interview they did with Jonathan Sugarman. In this part he talks about the Irish Bank guarentee and asks where was the regulator.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmr2u2P4OE

Mine is brief  – two chunks – about money laundering in Cyprus, the Magnitsky case and a somewhat bald statement about the real role of regulators. The link should start at the appropriate place. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=5kgki8_q_W8#t=548s

They are just pebbles lobbed at giants but ….

 

15 thoughts on “Two Interviews”

  1. Lanny Breuer, chief of DOJ’s criminal division, returns to Covington & Burling, as a specialist in…… “white collar defense”:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-business/post/lanny-breuer-chief-of-dojs-criminal-division-returns-to-covington-and-burling/2013/03/27/3b27d7a6-9703-11e2-b68f-dc5c4b47e519_blog.html

    So there you have it. The former DOJ head in charge of “prosecuting” criminals turned out to be the best “defense” lawyer (campaign) money could buy.

    1. Yes Lanny “you can get mad but you can’t get even” has left the building. Keep your eye on the revolving door for a replacement.

  2. I don’t get it this guy is asking why did the taxpayers bail out Ireland and others are now saying why didn’t the taxpayers bail out Cyprus?

    If after a bank failure deposits are guaranteed up to some arbitrary limit it’s still the taxpayers who are going to pay in the end. Is this fair?

    The question is where were the regulators and why didn’t someone go to jail? The answer is quite simple the regulators were bought off or afraid of the powerful and of course jail is for the poor and uneducated. The rich and powerful are sheltered by their rich and powerful friends.. Don’t hold your breath for this to change.

    1. I agree the people we want to be looking in to are the regulators.

      I also agree it is instructive to conpare Ireland with Cyprus.

      The crime in Ireland was the overnight decision to guarentee all deposits for their full amount. It was done simply and only to make sure the huge corporations who had headquartered themselves in Ireland for tax purposes, didn’t lose the billions they had banked there.

      And the cost have fallen on the ordinary tax payers who pay taxes and not on the companies who often don’t.

    2. The Dork of Cork.

      @Buck
      A countries money supply is a very basic utility.
      You cannot reduce / destroy it without causing enormous damage to the organic flow of exchange & commerce which would create real physical economic damage.

      The problem is of course that deposits are at the other side of banks “assets”.

      However the assets have no value.
      In fact they never did have real value.
      The assets be it so called sov debt or mortgages are mere conduits for wealth extraction.

      At lower leverage ratios you could argue the extraction was sustainable over a long time period.
      Sheep are sheered rather then butchered.

      Obviously the higher the leverage the higher the rate of extraction.
      As more of the core capital base get destroyed the leverage / rate of extraction must increase so the people who are extracting the wealth can continue to live a prosperous life.

      You need to separate fiat tokens from bank assets.
      If fiat cannot be legally leveraged all the banks are dead and we get no inflation to boot.

    1. backwardsevolution

      Phil – from the article you linked:

      “I think that bankruptcy is one of the most extraordinary advances in civilisation. Because people used to be destroyed by debt, they went to Marshalsea prison and died. Capitalists finally realised, ‘we’ve lost him as a consumer and a producer. Let’s put him back on the street’.”

      And that’s really what it’s all about, I think, putting the consumer and producer back out there. Nothing’s changed, the system goes on, except “the consumers are back in town” and ready to buy, the corporations are ready to sell, and the lobbyists, politicians, bankers and regulators are gearing up for the next go-round.

      In nature, when predators hunt prey until there’s very few left, eventually the predators die off as well.

      The current financial system is extremely detrimental to society, to countries. Before it gets cranked up again, wouldn’t it be a good idea to actually fix it? Or do the prey want to have another flogging?

  3. backwardsevolution

    The Wealth Jubilee:

    “1). 1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $1.9 billion tax refund.
    Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? Over $1.3 trillion.
    Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.6 billion.

    2). Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $278 million tax refund.
    Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $824 billion.
    Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.7 billion

    3). JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon
    Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $416 billion.
    Amount of federal income taxes JP Morgan Chase would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.9 billion.

    4). General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund.
    Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion.
    Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001.

    5). Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund.
    American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.

    6). Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr.
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? None. $124 million tax refund.
    American Jobs Shipped overseas? Over 57,000.
    Amount of Corporate Welfare? At least $58 billion.

    7). Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
    Amount of federal income taxes Microsoft would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $19.4 billion.

    8). Honeywell International CEO David Cote
    Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $34 million tax refund.

    9). Corning CEO Wendell Weeks
    Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $4 million tax refund.

    10). Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $74 million tax refund.

    11). Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $55 million tax refund.

    12). Deere & Company CEO Samuel Allen
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $1 million tax refund.

    13). Marsh & McLennan Companies CEO Brian Duperreault
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $90 million refund.

    14). Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
    Amount of federal income taxes Qualcomm would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.7 billion.

    15). Tenneco CEO Gregg Sherill
    Amount of federal income taxes Tenneco would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $269 million.

    16). Express Scripts CEO George Paz
    Amount of federal income taxes Express Scripts would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $20 million.

    17). Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman
    Amount of federal income taxes Caesars Entertainment would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $9 million.

    18). R.R. Donnelly & Sons CEO Thomas Quinlan III
    Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $49 million tax refund.”

  4. As taxpayers are stupid enough to keep re electing crooks, CJHaughey, that clown in Tipperary, and then the sons daughters and assorted relations of “professional” representatives, they actually deserve to pay for the mess that their stooges create?

    That they may have been expertly set up, by a paranoid gang from the CoL, merely indicts their ability to organize and govern themselves properly. They even through away their own laws and faithful servants.

    Let them eat bankers!

  5. David,
    Thanks for pointing us to that video and -by the way – thanks for the many insightful and revelatory posts I have read on your blog for several years now..
    Watching the amazing interview of Jonathan Sugarman on Canvas, I was reminded of Harry Shearer’s Excellent Interview of Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism) on his podcast “Le Show”. here is the 2 minutes extract on Ireland:
    http://youtu.be/TzXD6y_QFck
    .
    The full interview is on http://harryshearer.com/

Leave a Reply to Buck Turgidson Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.