“corruption that has become endemic to the political and financial elites of the world. When we refer to corruption we are referring to insider deals, cronyism, lies and fraud. Since the Great Crisis began in 2008, these have become the four pillars of the financial system replacing the pillars of trust, transparency, truth and reality that are the true foundation of capitalism and wealth generation.
Corruption only works as long as the benefits of being “on the take” outweigh the consequences of getting caught. As soon as the consequences become real (namely someone gets in major trouble), then everyone starts to talk.”
This process has now begun..”
Can someone help me with something? One of the comparisons I have been struggling with is how Liberals who spend economies into as close to bankrupcy as they can push it differs from what Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay did at Enron.
In the case of governments (Spain is probably the best European example, but to stay local let’s take Dwight Duncan and McGuinty in Ontario) they seemed to layer on as much debt as they possibly could in eight years, buying streetcars, windmills, subsidizing solar power, signing massive contracts with Samsung. The cancelled gas plants in the middle of an election, and my guess they did all the above looking to strengthen their grip on power. In the process, they almost doubled the debt, from $132 B in 2002/03 to $236B in 2012, on track for $500B if they keep up current spending and revenues.
How does this differ from what Ken Lay and Skilling did at Enron, making big green energy bets and layering on debt but keeping it from the shareholder under the guise of mark to market accounting? Is the only difference that shareholders lost money instead of taxpayers?
Well. At least Mr.Campbell had the sense to spell “conservative” with a lower case “c”. Although they are conservative leftards,socialist,commies,etc. Wonder if any of them remember Romania?
JT,maybe it’s time for some other European Countries to have the Romanian experience,the bastards deserve it!
Not to even mention ultra-civilized Ontario, of course.
The financial system is completely corrupt.
Top to Bottom.
Left to Right.
Inside and Out.
It’s not just the banks and the investment houses.
The regulatory agencies that are supposed to be keeping the industry honest, are a sham that ENABLE the global theft.
B&P, there is no difference. Both share the delusion that everything will be just fine when things turn for the better (the economy grows by x+ per cent, or whatever).
What is different now compared to when Enron was going the rounds is that there’s not nearly as many suckers as there was 15 years ago. Shareholders got burned in the 2007 meltdown, and largely the small investors have stayed out of the markets ever since. Big corporations don’t believe the crapola from governments about “turned the corner” or “stability” or any of the rest of that rot. They’re still sitting on billions in cash, not willing to throw good money after bad.
As best I can tell, the capital reserves of the big corporations are still firmly in the vaults. And I don’t blame them one bit. Every day there’s a bit more evidence of Europe’s descent into kleptocracy. The United States went insane last November and re-elected the worst President it’s ever had, and it’s about to reject the biggest capital expenditure by private industry in years (Keystone XL) when it desperately needs big corporate spending to get some life into a dead economy.
Greeks set fire to their own gold mines.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21489779
If they still believe they have the luxury of destroying their own economy, then they’re still too rich to allow such a petty thing as corruption to bother them. Let them eat their excuses.
@CGH
I know isn’t it great I hope he rejects it but not for any environmental reason actually I don’t care about his reason . I just want to see the SHTF but not because I’m sick or twisted (because if it could be turned around I would be all for it) but because the system needs to hit the reset button (that was easy) and the ppl need to purge the nastiness and set a watermark so that they can learn from this!!
Morality namley christian morality is a huge and important part of any successful country when the moral fabric is unraveled it is only a matter of time so like captain capitalism says and what I am going to do …enjoy the decline!!
Lads, I’ve been saying that for years. Glad someone agrees with me.
Thing was it took eight years of shortages and semi-starvation before Ceausescu got what he deserved. That gives the plain people of Europe four more years of famine to look forward to, if they’re lucky.
I’m trying to think of a province I dislike enough to wish them to have the Romanian experience, which would do what: teach them a lesson?
Since we’re speaking of fellow Canadians here, I would think I’d be wishing them well, and that they could break away from the party that put them into the position in which we in Ontario find ourselves.
One thing I must try to find out diplomatically, of course, is if my R.C. SIL, and her family all plan to vote for Trudeau. Not sure how one broaches the subject, and I think I prefer not to know. I wouldn’t be able to forgive them!
If Europe were a “house” it would be a crack house.
Like a crack house Europe’s owners (the taxpayers) leased the house to a corrupt lot who are selling toxic debt-backed currency, fraudulent investment instruments and synthetic credit to addict governments which will eventually kill the users.
The debt merchants are about to burn down the house to cover their crimes.
Firefox reports that the link in this post is untrusted. Here is an alternative: http://www.zerohedge.com/print/469490
@GELLEN
You pick the party it doesn’t matter like a maze there is one end result!!
The problem is ,is the exact same problem Ezra levant pointed out about Trudeau !
No one has the balls to tell anyone NO!!
The people can’t here it they just vote you out!! So what does that tell other politicians?
Say yes or your career in office as leader will be over!!
Someone has to throw it out there in a common sense way so the people understand like I understood as a kid we don’t have the money!!!
Don’t Blink, or You’ll Miss Another Bailout
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: February 16, 2013
MANY people became rightfully upset about bailouts given to big banks during the mortgage crisis. But it turns out that they are still going on, if more quietly, through the back door.
The existence of one such secret deal, struck in July between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bank of America, came to light just last week in court filings.
That the New York Fed would shower favors on a big financial institution may not surprise. It has long shielded large banks from assertive regulation and increased capital requirements.
Still, last week’s details of the undisclosed settlement between the New York Fed and Bank of America are remarkable. Not only do the filings show the New York Fed helping to thwart another institution’s fraud case against the bank, they also reveal that the New York Fed agreed to give away what may be billions of dollars in potential legal claims.
Here’s the skinny: Late last Wednesday, the New York Fed said in a court filing that in July it had released Bank of America from all legal claims arising from losses in some mortgage-backed securities the Fed received when the government bailed out the American International Group in 2008. One surprise in the filing, which was part of a case brought by A.I.G., was that the New York Fed let Bank of America off the hook even as A.I.G. was seeking to recover $7 billion in losses on those very mortgage securities.
It gets better.
What did the New York Fed get from Bank of America in this settlement? Some $43 million, it seems, from a small dispute the New York Fed had with the bank on two of the mortgage securities. At the same time, and for no compensation, it released Bank of America from all other legal claims.
When I asked the Fed to discuss this gift to the bank, it declined. To understand how the settlement happened, we must go back to the dark days of September 2008. With the giant insurer A.I.G. teetering, the government stepped in. As part of the rescue, A.I.G. sold mortgage securities to an investment vehicle called Maiden Lane II overseen by the New York Fed. A.I.G. was bleeding from its toxic mortgage holdings, many of which were issued by Bank of America, and it received $20.8 billion for securities with a face value of $39.2 billion.
In 2011, aiming to recover some of that $18 billion loss, the insurer sued Bank of America for fraud. The case, filed in New York state court, sought $10 billion in damages from the bank, $7 billion of that related to securities that A.I.G. sold to Maiden Lane II. Bank of America, for its part, argued that A.I.G. had no standing to sue for fraud on the Maiden Lane securities. With the sale, Bank of America contended, the right to bring a legal claim against the bank for fraud passed to Maiden Lane II. That entity, controlled by the New York Fed, never brought fraud claims against the bank.
Not so fast, said A.I.G. Under New York law, which governs Maiden Lane II, an entity has to explicitly transfer the right to sue for fraud, it said. The original agreement between the New York Fed and A.I.G. never specified such a transfer, the insurer contended.
To settle this question, A.I.G. filed a separate lawsuit against Maiden Lane II in a New York court last month.
A.I.G.’s $10 billion fraud case against Bank of America, meanwhile, was moved to federal court. For pretrial purposes, the bank asked that Mariana R. Pfaelzer, a federal judge in the central district of California, oversee aspects of the case involving the bank’s Countrywide unit, which was in California. Its request was granted. On Jan. 30, Judge Pfaelzer said she would rule on the issue of who owns the legal claims.
More…
Relax guys and gals. The biggies are just getting ready to bust the night shift janitors. They’re the ones who always take the fall.
You can’t, Gellen? I can. The French Canadians in Ottawa and Quebec City have been eating and drinking loyal British subjects out of house and home these fifty years. The hour is late for settling accounts.
Loyal Lower Canadians do not deserve Romanianization, no. For the French Quebecers, it would be much better by far than they deserve. As prime minister, I would advise the Queen to offer the French Canadians the same deal Parizeau planned to offer Lower Canada’s Protestants and Jews—no more than a year to leave her realm in peace, on condition they surrender all they have of value barring a few petty personal belongings, and promise never to return to Canada. For this, if I thought the French had any sense of gratitude, I would expect them to be grateful.
One difference is that the crooks at Enron didn’t do it with taxpayer money and in the name of good government; they were honest crooks, if you can talk of such a thing. They were private crooks.
The public crooks profit in public self-service.