Sticky Fingers ObaMarx Grabbing For More Economic Power – Even Internationally…
Obama wants his unprecedented historic power grab before he leaves office and the crisis window is closing soon. Obama’s plan Wednesday will officially call for the supervision of global financial firms through supervisory colleges.
The Obama administration this week will propose the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers’ interests.
Under the plan, expected to be released Wednesday, the government would have new powers to seize key companies — such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. — whose failure jeopardizes the financial system. Currently, the government’s authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks.
But critics say the easing of the financial crisis that gripped the country last year appears to have reduced the momentum for some of the most far-reaching proposals, such as merging several banking regulatory agencies.
The administration’s move to seize greater power over the financial industry is quite frankly… making me seize. This is so incredibly unconstitutional and will completely crush the economy. The banks are already too tight on lending and Obama wants to regulate them more – makes tons of sense!/sarc. Too many regulations on the free market make it completely dysfunctional – can we not let capitalism work? Why is it that difficult?
What’s worse? This new push for regulation will also give the Federal Reserve additional power and control. The Federal Reserve, as many of us already realize, has been behind many of the economic collapses/recessions in this country, since it’s creation in 1913.
The Federal Reserve, already arguably the most powerful agency in the U.S. government, will get sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration’s regulatory overhaul plan.
Just what we need, an entity accountable to no one, not even an auditing agency…
To understand Obama’s intentions we could also take a look back at his G20 plan from a couple months prior:
The Financial Stability Board then has the international authority to set policies in these corporations, including compensation packages the private boards of directors in the examined companies decide to pay top executives and senior managers.
Morris charged that the Obama administration, by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, has gone beyond nationalizing U.S. corporations, to “internationalize” U.S.-based corporations under the control of this new global regulator.
While the G20 focused on regulating risks in hedge funds and derivatives, the authority of the Financial Stability Board extends to any banking, brokerage or business practice by a major U.S. corporation that the Financial Stability Board on its own authority determines is unduly risky.
Under the premise that the IMF and the Financial Stability Board would have the ability to make loans to important U.S. corporations, the IMF and the Financial Stability Board become the effective global regulators over the corporate world, superseding all U.S. governmental authorities, including the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a host of corporate regulators, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor.
So Obama says no meddling in Iran but, we can meddle in Capitalism around the globe…? Huh?
New York Fed Chair Has Shady Ties to Goldman Sachs
Who in the Obama cabinet, the Fed or the Senate, doesn’t have ties to Goldman Sachs? That’s what I would like to know!
More corruption is afoot for Wall Street and the Government it seems:
Volcker Getting Snubbed by Obama
Volcker was just another political pawn in Obama’s game to get to the highest office. By name dropping during his debates or letting the press know some of his “advisers” he won over some of the more gullible voters that may have believed this old technique.
No offense, but name-dropping is an extreme turn-off to me. You most definitely should surround yourself with solid people, but the person running for office or applying for a job should be competent and experienced enough in the first place.
As an early supporter of Barack Obama, Paul Volcker gave the young presidential candidate gravitas and advice. He frequently sat by Mr. Obama’s side at key economic events, and started carrying a cellphone for the first time, just to be able to brainstorm with the candidate from the campaign trail.
In the Obama White House, the role of the 81-year-old former chairman of the Federal Reserve has been more limited.
The one-time central banker has been put in charge of a presidential advisory board that hasn’t yet had a formal meeting. It has been nearly a month since he has seen Mr. Obama. Mr. Volcker hasn’t been a main player in key decisions handling the global financial crisis.
He hasn’t even had one formal meeting!? Well, I guess his involvement in being part of an Anti-Stimulus campaign (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) for the betterment of the economy may have something to do with it – mind you it was February of 2009 (not that long ago) that he joined.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the administration’s plans for handling troubled financial institutions and the housing crisis without seeking input from Mr. Volcker, associates say. “Paul was surprised” at the failure to consult him, particularly on issues of financial rescue after his dominant role in resolving financial crises in the 1980s, says one person who has spoken to Mr. Volcker recently.
On the eve of one announcement, a Wall Street executive ran into Mr. Volcker at a cocktail party and asked what he expected from the Treasury secretary’s imminent announcement. “I have no idea what Tim’s going to say,” he responded, according to somebody there.
Seems like Paul Volcker’s fiscal restraint and tighter monetary policy was not part of the Obama agenda… So, no need to consult the man.
When Mr. Obama announced the blue-ribbon advisory group on Feb. 6, he praised Mr. Volcker as “one of the world’s foremost economic policy experts.” With big names like General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, the group, Mr. Obama said, would provide “voices to come from beyond the Washington echo chamber….” At a ceremony in the White House’s East Room, the president added that the group would “meet regularly” with him.
So far, the full group hasn’t met. “The whole organizational side of this has been a nightmare,” Mr. Volcker says. A White House spokeswoman says it will hold its first quarterly meeting in mid-May.
First of all, Immelt is an incompetent hack pretending to be a CEO. General Electric has bombed since he took over, so to expect that he would have anything of value to add is hilarious. The other bit of hilarity in this is that they did not plan to have a “meeting of the minds” until mid May with all of the economic turmoil currently going on? That’s insane and should give us insight into the poor management/governing abilities and practices of this administration.
Mr. Volcker’s advice hasn’t always been heeded. The former Fed chairman urged the administration to “slow down” its push for regulatory changes. “Paul thought it was important to take enough time to fill holes in the regulatory framework and not get caught up in the current atmosphere,” says former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson, who’s on the Volcker panel.
When a former Fed official, attorney John Walker, recently met Mr. Volcker, Mr. Walker told him the administration “isn’t getting the best use of you.” Mr. Volcker shrugged it off, saying he’s comfortable with his role. Mr. Walker says Mr. Volcker added: “I’m 81 years old.”
Paul, you are making too much sense for these guys even at the age of 81 – please stop!… Heh
On the AIG Debacle from an Insider
I will be paraphrasing and placing those elements from a family friend who was an executive at AIG in quotes.
Thank you for contactingn me about the current AIG crisis. I am very worried about my wife and the pressure that she has been under in regards to this situation.
I have not been with AIG since October, but I did receive a retention plan payment (way under the $ 1 million payment though). The vast majority of people working at AIG-Financial Products Division had nothing to do with the transactions that are causing so much trouble. 10 employees out 400 executed and priced those transactions. The rest of us at the company were pretty much clueless in regards to how these products were underwritten. The AIG employees were told that the underwritten securities contained no risk. However, the current AIG-FP employees (those who account for the 390 who had nothing to do with the underwritings) are enduring the most anger from the public.
I can understand why there is anger, however, AIG-FP did not cause the ruin of AIG, that distinction belongs to AIG itself through its security lending program that has lost billion more than AIG-FP. Why is that not being discussed? because it does not fit the class warfare discussion that is going on now. Its not conducive to the “crisis” to say that senior management at AIG was irresponsible and incompetent its much easier to say that and entire division of AIG (AIG-FP) and those greedy employees and credit derivatives destroyed the company.
Now the History:
AIG goes to AIG-FP employees in late March of 2008 (not March of 2009 – these contracts were signed way in advance) with a retention plan because the head of FP is fired for the credit derivatives that are causing so many problems. The employees did not ask for the retention plans and most employees were not very happy about signing them either.
AIG gives us two weeks to decide whether we want to sign these agreements. As an AIG employee, if you did not sign the agreement you weren’t considered a “team-player” and your days at the office were numbered. Yes, we benefited by signing the retention agreements, but the offset is that AIG wants to make sure that its employees do not walk out the door with the specific knowledge they have to deal with these products and the problems at hand. Most of the employees sign the agreements, and most employees work their butts off figuring out how best to get us out of the mess. The problem is that we did not know how bad the mess was and the economy continues to unravel, which exascerbates the problems.
