Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.

We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.'

Read more...

Simon Johnson: 'Barack Obama, Like Louis XIV Before Him, Knows Exactly What is Going On'

During the reign of Louis XIV, when the common people complained of some oppressive government policy, they would say, "If only the king knew . . . ." Occasionally people will make similar statements about Barack Obama, blaming the policies they don't like on his lieutenants.

But Barack Obama, like Louis XIV before him, knows exactly what is going on.

Read more...

Is Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks From the Banks He’s Bailing Out?

Last month, a little-known company where Summers served on the board of directors received a $42 million investment from a group of investors, including three banks that Summers, Obama’s effective “economy czar,” has been doling out billions in bailout money to: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. The banks invested into the small startup company Revolution Money, right at the time when Summers was administering the “stress test” to these same banks.

Read more...

Barack Obama: "Financial Crime Boss"

Since taking office, Obama, wittingly or otherwise, has headed the largest criminal enterprise in history - the mass looting of national wealth to enrich his Wall Street benefactors. He assembled a rogue economic team of Clinton/Robert Rubin retreads - to fix the current crisis they engineered.

Read more...

A Lexicon of Disappointment

All is not well in Obamafanland. It's not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury's latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama's silence during Israel's Gaza attack.

Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.

Read more...

Protesters Storm Stage and Interrupt Larry Summers for Conflict of Interest Payments

Obama Regime About More Corruption, Not Change: Economic Advisor Declares Fortune From Banks His Decisions Affect

'White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers received about $US5.2 million over the past year in compensation from hedge fund DE Shaw, and also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from major financial institutions.

A mandatory financial disclosure form, released by the White House on Friday, shows that Mr Summers made frequent appearances before Wall Street firms including JPMorgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.'

Read more ...

Obama's Moment is Passing Quickly

The actions of Obama's Chief Financial Adviser Larry Summers and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in permitting the payment of $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives (Summers, according to the Wall Street Journal, actually pressed Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, to secretly remove a bar to the payment of such bonuses from the bailout bill) and storm of public outrage that has followed public disclosure of those payments, provides President Obama, whose administration is stumbling badly on many fronts, to turn things around and avoid political disaster.

He should promptly demand Geithner's and Summers' resignations, and should also fire the CEO of AIG, Edward Liddy (as 80% owner of AIG, the US has the power to do that anytime). It would also be a good idea at the same time to fire the CEOs of all the leading banks that are at this point surviving on government bailouts.

This would allow Obama to correct the fundamental mistake he made during the transition period following the November election in installing a bunch of Clinton-era economic advisors and Bush holdovers to be his economic team.

Read more...

Cheops, Obama and Other Destroyers

"At this very moment, the President of the United States is announcing a New Age of Space to relieve unemployment. Billions of dollars are going to be spent on unmanned space ships, just to make work. The opening episode in this New Age of Space will be the firing of The Whale next Tuesday. The Whale ... will be loaded with organ-grinder monkeys, and will be fired in the general direction of Mars."

from The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

Well, why not?
If the secret to prosperity is simply to permit the government to spend money it doesn't have in any quantity our rulers can imagine, why shouldn't they commission the construction of a huge fleet of spacecraft to be filled with organ-grinder monkeys and dispatched into the void

Or why not emulate the ancient Egyptians under the tyrant Cheops by commissioning an immense mausoleum to stand in eternal testimony of our bold and visionary ruler, Pharaoh Obama the First?

Read more...