The artist taxi driver takes a spin with Max Keiser and talks about the current banking scandal that is rocking the world currently. The artist taxi driver puts a street view of world political and economics, into perspective in a very adult way. He rarely holds back, and says what the rest of us are really thinking.
The first of a four-part investigation into a world of greed and recklessness that led to financial collapse.
In the first episode of Meltdown, we hear about four men who brought down the global economy: a billionaire mortgage-seller who fooled millions; a high-rolling banker with a fatal weakness; a ferocious Wall Street predator; and the power behind the throne.
The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. Wall Street turned back the clock to 1929.
But how did it all go so wrong?
Lack of government regulation; easy lending in the US housing market meant anyone could qualify for a home loan with no government regulations in place.
Also, London was competing with New York as the banking capital of the world. Gordon Brown, the British finance minister at the time, introduced ‘light touch regulation’ – giving bankers a free hand in the marketplace.
All this, and with key players making the wrong financial decisions, saw the world’s biggest financial collapse.
In Europe, post-ECB, credit spreads widened. Good-guy yields declined; bad-guy yields rose. See our updated EU contagion series at http://www.cumber.com. Note how Swiss yields are negative until the 5-year maturity (which is a whopping 7 basis points). For new readers, see our archives on why the Swiss 10-year government bond is now the de facto benchmark for the eurozone. The European Central Bank demonstrated too little, too late. This week’s Draghi Q&A did not help matters. We continue to underweight Europe. It is still too soon to bottom fish.
In the US, the employment statistics release shows an ongoing but weakening, very slow recovery. A plus 80 thousand nonfarm jobs is better than minus 80 thousand. We see nothing to alter this slow but marginally positive growth outlook. The Fed’s additional “Twist” is a whimper, not a shout. In fact, that is probably a good thing, since monetary policy has its limits, and we are near them. We expect no more from the Fed for the rest of this year unless there is a seriously negative event. In our US ETF accounts we are still holding a cash reserve. In managed taxable and tax-free bond accounts we are slowly bringing in duration and using tactical hedging where appropriate. Our newly launched US high-yield debt strategy is developing well.
Email: Corzine directly ordered transfer of stolen customer funds
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Monday, March 26, 2012
The media has predictably leapt to former MF Global head John Corzine’s defense following the revelation that $200 million dollars in customer funds was stolen, “per JC’s direct instructions,” by regurgitating the talking point that Corzine was unaware of the fact that the money was taken from clients.
A memo released by the House Financial Services subcommittee contradicts Corzine’s claim, made under oath before Congress, in which the former New Jersey governor claimed, “I did not instruct anyone to lend customer funds to anyone.”
$200 million dollars in customer funds, part of a $1.6 billion in client money that disappeared, was sent to MF Global’s account with JP Morgan by direct order of Corzine, the email reveals.
At House Hearing Thursday, Corzine Expected to Plead the Fifth
Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine will not answer questions from a congressional committee seeking to get to the bottom of the brokerage firm’s collapse, The Post has learned.
Corzine, who has been subpoenaed to testify before the House Agriculture Committee tomorrow, is expected to plead the Fifth Amendment in response to most hard-hitting questions, sources said.
That means the one person who may know the whereabouts of the $1.2 billion in missing customer cash will not be giving up much.
One source close the committee said while he might provide a limited statement, Corzine — the former New Jersey Governor and CEO of Goldman Sachs — was not expected to “say anything of substance” during the hearing.
Keiser Report: ‘Feckless Parents’ vs Reckless Banks (E219)
This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss feckless parents and fiscal unions. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Josh Brown of TheReformedBroker.com about social media snake oil and internet ponzis.
