No Remedy For Greedy Bankers

Don’t be fooled by government lies or by greedy bankers. We are not coming out of the recession. We are going into an even deeper depression from which there will be no remedy and no exit. Why? It’s called greed, greedy bankers. As we melt down further every day, the government through its mouth piece, the media, is opening the flood gates of lies to keep the mooing, mindless, masses sedated until they are ready to throw the switch to the chair. Now, with the government establishing the big Wall Street banks as “too big to fail,” the greedy bankers, like a band of hardened, brazen, psychopaths, have thrown all caution to the wind. After they gorged themselves on the first wave of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, they took a brief brake, and now they are back again for their next feast. This time they are defiantly and permanently implanted as mega-mafia, financial tapeworms, doing the exact same things they did before when they created the original meltdown starting at the end of 2007. After gorging on millions of innocents in the first round, they have grown to become a Goliath tapeworm. And with nothing to stop them, they won’t rest until they suck every ounce of life’s blood out of our country until it’s dead.

Vital signs not responding

Before we shine the light on that Goliath tapeworm of greedy bankers, let’s get a snapshot of the U.S. economic and financial vital signs. The unemployment number is probably the most critical number to watch because it tells us what the future will bring. The government unemployment number is 9.8%, but we all know that is a total joke. According to John Williams at Shadow Stats, the actual unemployment number is 21% and rising. And when people lose their jobs and can’t find another one, within six to nine months after that they lose their homes.

I read an interesting statistic the other day that stated that we would have to create 400,000 jobs a month for the next two years just to regain the jobs that were lost from before the fourth quarter of 2007 before the meltdown started. And we all know that the chances of that happening are the same as an elephant sprouting wings, sprinting down the runway and taking off into the air. But when people lose jobs then their homes are the next to go, and the sheriff soon appears on the doorstep with foreclosures papers.

Speaking of foreclosures, according to a September 23, 2009, Bloomberg article, “Seven million properties that are likely to be seized by lenders, have yet to hit the market.” Have yet to hit the market? We can’t even handle two million foreclosures let alone the seven million that are coming. When people lose their jobs and their homes to foreclosure six months to a year later, they are then forced to file for bankruptcy to protect what little, if anything, they have left. According to an October 2, 2009, article, the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), states, “Consumer bankruptcies totaled 1,046,449 filings through the first nine months of 2009. Bankruptcy filings continue to climb as consumers look to shelter themselves from the effects of rising unemployment rates and housing debt.” There is no stopping this or turning it around.

What has been the affect on the housing market amidst the meltdown? The housing market continues to be devastated from the onslaught of this tidal wave of economic and financial devastation. In a September 19, 2009, article entitled “Moody’s: Some Home Prices Won’t Rebound Until 2030,” it basically tells how most home values will not, and cannot be expected to return to pre-2007 values for another 10 to 20 years. How can anyone fathom that kind of length of time from where we stand now? Home values have plummeted 40% to 60% across the country since the meltdown started at the end of 2007. Who can wait two to three years for things to come back, let alone 20 years? Truth is - we’re already buried.

Speaking of two to three years, to continue with the bad news, that’s how long it will take for the prime rate mortgages, the Alt-A mortgages, the Option Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM) and the commercial real estate mortgages to completely meltdown. With the US losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month with no end in sight, what are the chances of escaping or delaying the impact of that 300 foot high tsunami wave? Even the Fed is now making dire comments on the current commercial real estate devastation. And when the Fed opens its mouth about something then you know it is becoming a real problem.

Dead by design

But we don’t need to whip this dead donkey any more. We could continue to present mountains of evidence which points to the fact that we will never recover from this terminal disease, but it would serve no further purpose at this point. We’re simply dead. By pumping in gallons of adrenaline into the dead donkey, and by propping it up on crutches, you can neither raise it back to life, nor make it run. But why did it die? Who killed it? Wasn’t anybody watching? Didn’t anyone care? Where are our government officials? Where are our bankers? Where are our presidents?

There is only one possible way for things to go from here, and that is fast descent into the abyss. A recovery or resurrection is not possible. Why? Because it was all set up by design years ago by the big corporations, bankers, and government officials who colluded to put the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in place. Inspired by the almighty god of greed, our Quisling, socialistic leaders and power elite shipped all of our good jobs overseas, and now we are dead. No turning this around from this point on, or ever, for that matter. Now let’s add a lot of insult to a lot of injury? Look at what the Wall Street Goliath tapeworm is doing now that they know they are invincible.

The tapeworms (greedy bankers) are gorging themselves again

As I mentioned earlier, the Wall Street bankers and our faithful government officials have morphed into a Goliath tapeworm and are sucking us into emaciation and ultimate death. In a Breitbart, New York (AP) article, entitled “Risk taking is back for banks 1 year after crises,” the author, Stevenson Jacobs, reveals some pretty shocking things about what is currently happening here with the banks and our faithful, fine-feathered friends in Washington. Also, to add to the melodramatic hypocrisy, Obama, in a speech just a few weeks ago, stated emphatically that he and his administration would make sure that this kind of greedy, irresponsible, banker behavior would never happen again. Sure. Hang on to your seats. We’re already off and running again, as will be starkly evident when you read the following quotes. I will bullet various quotes from the article and then comment on them at the end. I usually don’t like to spend so much time quoting someone else’s article, but I felt that these things were so critical and so telling that I took the time and space to quote them. Therefore, from the article:

• Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others - - which have received tens of billions of dollars in federal aid- - are once more betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products, trading that nearly stopped during the financial crisis.

• That Wall Street is making money again in essentially the same ways that thrust the banking system into chaos last fall is reason for concern on several levels.

• There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behavior.

• Through mergers . . . the mammoth banks whose near collapse prompted government rescues have gotten even bigger, increasing the risk they pose to the financial system. And they still make bets that, in aggregate, are worth far more than the capital they have on hand to cover against potential losses.

• The government’s response to last year’s meltdown was to spend whatever it takes to protect the financial system from collapse - - a precedent that could encourage even greater risk-taking from the private sector.

• During the fourth quarter of 2008, when the financial crisis made even the shrewdest bankers risk-averse, Goldman’s trading of risky assets nearly stopped. But in the second quarter of 2009, trading revenue had climbed to nearly 50 percent of total revenue, closer to where it was two years ago before the recession began. JP Morgan’s reliance on trading revenue has exhibited a similar pattern.

• The government hasn’t just watched banks resume their freewheeling ways and prosper. It has been an enabler in the process. The Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. - - during the Bush and Obama administrations - - have made trillion of dollars available to the biggest banks through bailouts, low-cost loans, and loss guarantees designed to stabilize the financial system.

• Five of the biggest banks - - Goldman, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Bank of America - - posted second-quarter profits totaling $13 billion. That’s more than double what they made in the second quarter of 2008, and nearly two-thirds as much as the $20.7 billon they earned in the second quarter of 2007 - - when the economy was strong.

• Meanwhile, Bank of America and Wells Fargo today originate 41% of all home loans that are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The banks made $284 billion in such loans in the first half of this year, up from $124 billon during the same period last year.

• But one thing fundamental to Wall Street hasn’t changed. Big banks and their traders are still finding creative - - some say speculative - - ways to profit.

• They’re still packaging risky mortgages into securities and selling them to investors, who can earn higher returns by purchasing the securities tied to the riskiest mortgages. That was the practice that helped inflate the real estate bubble and eventually spread financial pain around the globe.

• In a way, the government has emboldened banks to keep selling risky securities.

• One investment gaining popularity is a direct descendant of the mortgage-back securities that devastated many banks last year. To get some lesser performing assets off their books, banks are taking slices of bonds made up of high-risk mortgage securities and pooling them with slices of bonds comprised of low-risk mortgage securities. With the blessing of debt ratings agencies, banks are then selling this class of bonds as low-risk investments. The market for these products has hit $30 billion, according to Morgan Stanley.

• “It may be unpleasant to hear that the traders are riding high,” said Walter Bailey, chief executive of boutique merchant banking firm EpiGroup. “But, hey, it’s a pay-for-performance thing, and they’re performing like mad.”

• And that means the return of another Wall Street mainstay: Lavish compensation.

• After 10 of the largest banks received a $250 billion lifeline from the government last fall. Some lawmakers were outraged that employees were being paid seven-figure salaries even though their companies nearly collapsed.

• Goldman spent $6.6 billion is the second quarter on pay and benefits, 34 percent more than two years ago.

• One major component of the Obama plan - - creating an agency to oversee the marketing of financial products to consumers - - will be difficult to pass in Congress. (Financial) Industry lobbying against it and other proposed financial rules has been fierce.

• Lobbyists for hedge funds, the large investment pools that cater to the rich, have been able to fend off proposals that would require them to register with the SEC and regularly disclose their holdings.

Avoiding the tapeworm (greedy banker)

Well, there it is, folks - - belly up to the trough. These greedy animals are unstoppable. What are the big bailed out banks doing now? They are sitting on over $800 billion of TARP funds, and they are not lending any of it to anyone. In the midst of the greatest depression our country has seen since the 1930s, Wall Street is planning to divvy up $74 billion worth of bonuses this year among themselves, topping the $60 billion they divided last year. There aren’t even words for this kind of brazen greed. They have also chosen to draw interest on that $800 billion bail out money from the Fed, a move that they all decided would profit them more than lending it into a risky economy. Their own collective greed is their only interest, as their actions so dramatically demonstrate. As a shark turns into a crazed killer when it smells of blood in the water, in like manner, these bankers and government officials, driven by their insane, insatiable greed for more and more money will stop at nothing until they have killed the country and sucked every last ounce of blood from its veins.

And what is the Fed doing amongst the outcry from the public concerning the Fed’s commanding role in this crime syndicate? The Fed has squirreled itself into its hole, brandishing an AK-47, waiting for anyone foolish enough to shine a light in the hole, challenging them to see their books. The rich and the greedy bankers are getting richer and more greedy and the rest of us simple, dumb folk will be looking, either at the street in the cold of winter, or be setting up camp under a bridge somewhere when they take our houses from us.

The only thing a person can do is to recognize what these greedy bankers are doing and get out of their system before they swallow you and anything you might still have left. Remember the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) that we talked about before? If you have any kind of an investment out there, and you value it, remember that the so-called money that you think is yours, exists only in the form of electronic digits on a computer some place in the DTCC money pool, and your name has been twice removed. And the big boys and insiders are playing with that money pool, doing their naked short selling, their derivatives trading, their high frequency trading, their flash trades, and laughing at us poor fools all the way to the bank, which they own anyway. That process will never change because no one has the authority or the power or the will to change it. Thieves own and run the whole show, and thieves in the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) watch other thieves divide the spoils while we all sit helpless on the sidelines knowing, only too late, that we have become their victims.

When the time comes for these greedy thieves to flip the switch to the chair, if you are sitting in it, you will be fried, and your money is theirs. Neither you nor I can change these parasites, these animals in human bodies. You must know by now that this Goliath tapeworm is a beast without a conscience. All you can do is just get out of its way while you can. The life that you save may be your own.

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