UBS

Jailed UBS Employee Gets $104 Million From IRS For Exposing Swiss Bank Account Holders

by

– Jailed UBS Employee Gets $104 Million From IRS For Exposing Swiss Bank Account Holders (ZeroHedge, Sep 11, 2012):

Just in case there wasn’t enough excitement and fury directed at Swiss bank account holders, which continue to dominate the presidential election “debate” above such mundane topics as the economy, or, say, reality, here comes the IRS, which as we noted yesterday collected $192 billion less than the government spent in the month of August alone, and have awarded Bradely Birkenfeld, a former UBS employee who in 2008 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced in 2009 to 40 months in prison, but received preferential whistleblower status after a prior arrangement to expose numerous Americans with Swiss bank accounts, has just been awarded $104 million.

From Reuters:

U.S. tax authorities have awarded $104 million to a whistleblower in a major tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG that widened a government crackdown on Americans avoiding taxes in Switzerland, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

Bradley Birkenfeld, freed last month from prison, was not present at the news conference where his attorneys announced the reward made under an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower program that has come in for some criticism in Congress.

Birkenfeld had sought a large payout for his role in a tax-dodging case that resulted in early 2009 in UBS entering into a deferred prosecution agreement and paying $780 million in fines, penalties, interest and restitution.

Some more on the Birkenfeld pro- then anti-tax evasion odyssey:

Read moreJailed UBS Employee Gets $104 Million From IRS For Exposing Swiss Bank Account Holders

The Scary Math Behind The Mechanics Of QE3, And Why Ben Bernanke’s Hands May Be Tied

by

– The Scary Math Behind The Mechanics Of QE3, And Why Bernanke’s Hands May Be Tied (ZeroHedge, Sep 7, 2012):

When it comes to the NEW QE, everyone has an opinion, and most seem to believe that the NEW QE will come next week, now that the US economy added “just” 96,000 people (but, but, the unemployment rate ‘fell’). Certainly, and far more importantly, if the most recent FOMC minutes are any guide, the Fed shares this view. Sadly, as so often happens, most, and this includes the FOMC’s various voting members, have once again made up their minds without actually evaluating the limitations posed by simple math. After all it is far easier to form an opinion, and actually think about the underlying facts later. The math, for those who actually have looked at the numbers behind the scenes, is scary (in UBS’ words, not ours).Here is the math.

As part of its Operation Twist, the Fed is buying long-term bonds, and selling short-term (0-3 years) bonds. As we reported in April, the biggest limitation for the Fed is that it is rapidly running out of short-term bonds to sell. There is a fix to this: the Fed will simply have to sell longer dated bonds from its SOMA portfolio, first up to 5 years, then 7, and so on. Of course, this will also force the Fed to extend its ZIRP language by an appropriate amount of time, through 2017, then 2019, and so on (which also means all bets that the Fed will hike any time in the next 5 years will be immediately null and void, and one can position accordingly in the Eurodollar space).

This move, however, will simply permit the Fed to extend Twist 2 beyond its year-end maturity. As a reminder, the primary role of Twist, aside from that stated one which is to keep the curve as flat as possible (i.e., boost housing which as we showed yesterday is not working, as refis have plunged recently despite record low mortgage rates), is to absorb virtually all the long-end supply: after all, it is all about the funding of the US $1 trillion+ annual budget deficit.

Said otherwise, when it comes to the 10-30 year sector the Fed is already monetizing all new issuance. This is part of the entire flow argument which we have been discussing for the past 6 months, and why we, correctly, say that Operation Twist is really QE 3 and QE 3.5 (for the recent extension of Twist). So far so good.

Here comes the important part.

Three weeks ago we presented a video courtesy of Stone McCarthy which showed a timelapse of the “takeover” of the Fed as the primary holder of public debt. For those short on time, here is how the Fed’s holdings portfolio looked like then…

and now:

The shaded region is important for two reasons: this is where the Fed will be buying new bonds as part of any new QE Large Scale Asset Purchase program, and it tells us all there is to know about how big and how effective QE3 (really 4) will be. The bottom line, as calculated by UBS’ Michael Schumacher and confirmed by anyone with access to the detail behind the Fed’s SOMA holdings, which incidentally just hit a record 116 months two months ahead of Twist 2 schedule, is that “the Fed owns all but $650 billion of 10-30 year nominal Treasuries.” Also as pointed out above, Twist 2, aka QE 3.5 is already absorbing all of the long end supply. And herein lies the rub. To quote UBS: “Taking out, say, $300 billion in long-end Treasuries almost certainly would put tremendous pressure on liquidity in that market….Ploughing ahead with a large, fixed size QE program could cause liquidity to tank.”

In other words, anyone expecting a full blown LSAP focusing only on US Treasurys will very likely be disappointed as the Fed will certainly realize, quite soon we hope, that it has only $650 billion in total 10 year + bonds available in the entire private market!

Well, perhaps the Fed will just monetize MBS, as Bill Gross has been betting on for nearly a year now. It could do that… but when once factors in “math“, the results are once again quite startling. Quote UBS again:

Read moreThe Scary Math Behind The Mechanics Of QE3, And Why Ben Bernanke’s Hands May Be Tied

GAO Audit Of The Federal Reserve Reveals $16 TRILLION In Secret Bailouts

by

From the article:

Comment: It’s not “socialism for the rich”; that’s an oxymoron.

It’s corporatism, i.e. fascism, as defined by Benito Mussolini.

– Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts (Sott.net, Sep 1, 2012):

The first ever GAO (Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out.

Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling:

Read moreGAO Audit Of The Federal Reserve Reveals $16 TRILLION In Secret Bailouts

Swiss Bank Crackdown Accelerates As Credit Suisse, UBS Clients Raided In Germany, France

by

– Swiss Bank Crackdown Accelerates As Credit Suisse, UBS Clients Raided In Germany, France (ZeroHedge, July 11, 2012):

While virtually every European risk indicator is now being gamed to underreport the true nature of the capital flow panic on the continent, one remains steadfast: Swiss nominal yields, which as we pointed out a month ago, have become the only true indicator of liquidity stress. And as noted this morning, Swiss 2 Year bond just hit a record nominal -0.37% (which coupled with record low yields in German yields explains everything about where money is sprinting to in Europe, and just how much “confidence” in the system is left). And while the SNB continues to suffer massive losses on its EURCHF peg, the reality is that it continues to offer a free put to all those who wish to move away from EUR exposure and into the relative safety of the CHF (the risk of cantonal disintegration is still relatively low). Which is why the only recourse authorities have in dealing with the now record flight to Swiss safety is brute force. Sure enough, as Reuters reports, clients of the two largest Swiss banks: Credit Suisse and UBS was raided in two independent, but likely linked, operations in Germany and France, respectively, in a show of force that moves beyond mere tax-evasion and has a goal of scaring anyone who still thinks of keeping their money in the relative safety of Geneva and Zurich bank vaults.

From Reuters:

German tax authorities have raided Credit Suisse clients and French officials searched the homes of UBS employees, deepening the crackdown on foreigners hiding money in Swiss offshore accounts to dodge taxes.

Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy rules, which have helped build a $2 trillion offshore financial sector, have infuriated cash-strapped governments as they try to crack down on tax evasion by wealthy citizens.

Roughly 5,000 German clients of Credit Suisse are being probed on suspicion of tax evasion and some had their homes searched, a bank source said on Wednesday, as European tax officials broaden their investigation to include clients as well as banks.

Read moreSwiss Bank Crackdown Accelerates As Credit Suisse, UBS Clients Raided In Germany, France

Big Bank Downgrade By Moody’s Imminent

by

– Big Bank Downgrade By Moody’s Imminent (ZeroHedge, June 21, 2012):

Even as Moody is now about a week late on its Spanish bank downgrade where the banks are rated higher than the sovereign (which obviously is kept in check to prevent yields on bonds from soaring even more), here comes the next wholesale bank downgrade:

  • Moody’s expected to announce ratings downgrade for UK banks this evening – Sky Sources
  • Exclusive: Big news – I’m told Moody’s will announce downgrades of some of world’s biggest banks, incl in UK, after US mkts close tonight. – Sky’s Mark Kleinman

Looks like that fabricated 2 notch Margin Stanley downgrade (because 3 notches just won’t do – those 4 months of Gorman-led “negotiations” made that painfully clear) is about to strike. The real question is: What Would Egan Who Do?

From Sky:

Some of Britain’s biggest banks are poised to have their credit ratings downgraded by Moody’s as soon as tonight as part of a wider reassessment of the health of the global banking industry, I can reveal.

Moody’s is expected to outline its verdicts about the creditworthiness of banks including Barclays, HSBC, JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Read moreBig Bank Downgrade By Moody’s Imminent

UBS Is Sitting On Facebook Trading Loss Of Up To $350 Million

by

– UBS May Have Facebook Trading Loss of $350 Million (Yahoo Finance/CNBC, June 8, 2012):

UBS is sitting on losses that could be as high as $350 million stemming from its investment in the Facebook initial public offering, and is preparing legal action against Nasdaq as a result, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

That loss is some ten-times more than the $30 million number that is currently being speculated in the market by others.

The issue has to do with the failure to get confirmations and executions from the Facebook trade.

Read moreUBS Is Sitting On Facebook Trading Loss Of Up To $350 Million

Moody’s May Downgrade 17 Global And 114 European Financial Institutions (Reuters)

by

– Moody’s may downgrade UBS and Morgan Stanley (Reuters):

Moody’s warned on Thursday it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign the impact of the euro zone government debt crisis is spreading throughout the global financial system.

It was reviewing the long-term ratings and standalone credit assessments of a range of banks, Moody’s added. Markets were unaffected by the Moody’s announcement.

“Capital markets firms are confronting evolving challenges, such as more fragile funding conditions, wider credit spreads, increased regulatory burdens and more difficult operating conditions,” the ratings agency said in a statement.

It said among 17 banks and securities firms with global capital markets operations, it might cut the long-term credit rating of UBS, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley by as much as three notches following the review. It said the guidance was indicative.

Among the banks that might be downgraded by two notches are Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings, and Goldman Sachs.

Bank of America and Nomura were included in those that might be downgraded by one notch.

 

The Federal Reserve And The $16 Trillion Bankster Bailout

by

See also:

– Gerald Celente Endorses Ron Paul For President – ‘The Entire Economic System Is Collapsing’ – ‘Fascism Has Come To America In Every Form’ (Video – Nov. 29, 2011)

– Have You Heard About The 16 Trillion Dollar Bailout The Federal Reserve Handed To The Too Big To Fail Banks? (The Econonomic collapse, Dec. 2, 2011):

What you are about to read should absolutely astound you.  During the last financial crisis, the Federal Reserve secretly conducted the biggest bailout in the history of the world, and the Fed fought in court for several years to keep it a secret.  Do you remember the TARP bailout?  The American people were absolutely outraged that the federal government spent 700 billion dollars bailing out the “too big to fail” banks.  Well, that bailout was pocket change compared to what the Federal Reserve did.  As you will see documented below, the Federal Reserve actually handed more than 16 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free money to the “too big to fail” banks between 2007 and 2010.  So have you heard about this on the nightly news?  Probably not.  Lately Bloomberg has been reporting on some of this, but even they are not giving people the whole picture.  The American people need to be told about this 16 trillion dollar bailout, because it is a perfect example of why the Federal Reserve needs to be shut down.  The Federal Reserve has been actively picking “winners” and “losers” in the financial system, and it turns out that the “friends” of the Fed always get bailed out and always end up among the “winners”.  This is not how a free market system is supposed to work.

According to the limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the grand total of all the secret bailouts conducted by the Federal Reserve during the last financial crisis comes to a whopping $16.1 trillion.

Read moreThe Federal Reserve And The $16 Trillion Bankster Bailout

Study Confirms Huge Concentration Of Corporate Ownership – One Super Corporation Runs The Global Economy

by


The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue (Image: PLoS One)

– Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world (New Scientist, Oct. 19, 2011):

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

The study’s assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.

The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere (see photo). But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world’s transnational corporations (TNCs).

“Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it’s conspiracy theories or free-market,” says James Glattfelder. “Our analysis is reality-based.”

Read moreStudy Confirms Huge Concentration Of Corporate Ownership – One Super Corporation Runs The Global Economy

Former White House Advisor & UBS Global Strategy Deputy Head And CFR Member: The Germans Announce They Are Re-Introducing The Deutschmark – They Have Already Ordered The New Currency And Asked That The Printers Hurry Up

by

– Dr. Pippa Malmgreen:

Dr. Philippa Malmgren is the President and founder of Principalis Asset Management, a financial firm based in London. In short, she helps fund managers better understand how politics, policy and geopolitics will impact the financial markets. Investors use her insights to manage their portfolios more profitably. Her clients include many investment banks, fund managers and hedge funds as well as Sovereign Wealth Funds, pension funds and corporations. She founded the Canonbury Symposia, which brings together high level experts on strategic security, defense and intelligence matters to meet with experts from the financial markets.

She is a frequent guest on the BBC’s Today Program, Newsnight, a guest presenter on CNBC’s Squawk Box (UK) and is a speaker at conferences. She has a column on the markets in Investment Week and has written for The International Economy, International Fund Investment Magazine and Institutional Investor Magazine. Dr. Malmgren has been a visiting lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing and an occasional lecturer for the Duke Fuqua Global Executive MBA Program.

She serves on the International Advisory Board for the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She is a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation in the UK.

She served as financial market advisor in the White House and on the National Economic Council from 2001-2002, where she was responsible for financial market issues. She founded Malmgren and Company, in London, England on 2000 and was previously the Deputy Head of Global Strategy at UBS and the Chief Currency Strategist for Bankers Trust. She headed the Global Investment Management business for Bankers Trust in Asia. She has a B.A. from Mount Vernon College and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. She completed the Harvard Program on National Security. The World Economic Forum named Dr. Malmgren a Global Leader for Tomorrow in 2000. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chatham House, the Economic Club of New York and the Institute for International Strategic Security.

– September 2011 Policy & Markets (Dr. Pippa Malmgreen, Sep. 13, 2011):

News to expect in the coming days and weeks:

  • Greece defaults
  • Germany protects German banks but other countries cannot do the same thus quickly provoking multiple sovereign defaults and or bank failures, all of which may easily lead to a payments crisis in the global banking system. Derivatives are particularly at risk in terms of operation and execution.
  • The Euro falls in value especially against the US dollar
  • The Germans announce they are re-introducing the Deutschmark. They have already ordered the new currency and asked that the printers hurry up.
  • The Euro falls even more on any news that Germany is withdrawing from the Euro.
  • Legal wrangling begins as to the legality of Germany’s decision. Resolution takes years.
  • Germany insists that the Euro continues to exist even they do not use it any longer. They emphasize that European unification will continue and suggest new legal instruments to strengthen European Unification including new EU Treaties.

The markets are focused on the imminent default by Greece. But, this is not the most important issue now. The historic development the markets have not priced in as that Germany is preparing to exit the Euro. The markets are very likely to have to contend with the re-introduction of Deutsche Marks in the near future. This is bound to mean a collapse in the value of the Euro for those countries that will remain in it (devaluation for the rest of Europe). This step may seem unthinkable but, I believe that the German government is telling us in multiple ways that there is no other solution from their point of view. It is also why you will hear various policymakers at the G7 meeting his weekend echo Christine Lagard’s comment that the world economy is entering a “dangerous new phase.”[i] This was certainly the atmosphere at Jackson Hole where policymakers openly talked about entering a period of history where we would face challenges beyond the scope of anything we have seen in our careers.

Read moreFormer White House Advisor & UBS Global Strategy Deputy Head And CFR Member: The Germans Announce They Are Re-Introducing The Deutschmark – They Have Already Ordered The New Currency And Asked That The Printers Hurry Up

Matt Taibbi: The $2 Billion UBS Incident: ‘Rogue Trader’ My Ass (Rolling Stone)

by

– The $2 Billion UBS Incident: ‘Rogue Trader’ My Ass (Rolling Stone, Sep. 15, 2011):

The news that a “rogue trader” (I hate that term – more on that in a moment) has soaked the Swiss banking giant UBS for $2 billion has rocked the international financial community and threatened to drive a stake through any chance Europe had of averting economic disaster. There is much hand-wringing in the financial press today as the UBS incident has reminded the whole world that all of the banks were almost certainly lying their asses off over the last three years, when they all pledged to pull back from risky prop trading. Here’s how the WSJ put it:

The Swiss banking giant has been struggling to rebuild trust after running up vast losses in the original financial crisis. Under Chief Executive Oswald Grubel, the bank claimed to have put in place new risk management practices, pulled back from proprietary trading and focused on a low-risk client-driven model.

All the troubled banks, remember, made similar promises in the wake of the financial crisis. In fact, some of them used the exact same language. Some will recall Goldman’s executive summary from earlier this year in which the bank pledged to respond to a “challenging period” in its history by making changes.

“We reviewed the governance, standards and practices of certain of our firmwide operating committees,” the bank wrote, “to ensure their focus on client service, business standards and practices and reputational risk management.”

But the reality is, the brains of investment bankers by nature are not wired for “client-based” thinking. This is the reason why the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept investment banks and commercial banks separate, was originally passed back in 1933: it just defies common sense to have professional gamblers in charge of stewarding commercial bank accounts.

Read moreMatt Taibbi: The $2 Billion UBS Incident: ‘Rogue Trader’ My Ass (Rolling Stone)

UBS Unaware That Rogue Trader Had Lost $2 Billion Until He Blew The Whistle On HIMSELF – UBS Shares Plummet 10%

by

Oh, sure!

More BS we can believe in!

In other news:

– Alleged rogue trader costs UBS $2bn (Guardian):

A 31 year old man has been arrested by City of London Police on suspicion of fraud in connection with the alleged rogue trading incident that has cost Swiss bank UBS around $2bn (£1.3bn).

The Zurich-based bank uncovered the incident as recently as the last 24 hours and suffered a near 10% fall in share price in early trading after it revealed the loss could push the bank into the red for the current financial quarter.

– Bank unaware that ‘rogue trader’ had lost £1.3bn until he blew the whistle on HIMSELF (Daily Mail, Sep. 15, 2011):

  • UBS were only alerted to the staggering losses when Kweku Adoboli ‘confessed about the dealings’
  • Privately educated Adoboli was a ‘work-hard play-hard’ trader who entertained a string of attractive women at his luxury flat in East London
  • Shares in Swiss bank UBS slump 10% following the scandal
  • Adoboli’s boss ‘quits’ as questions surface over his supervision of staff
  • Credit ratings agency Moody’s said it will review UBS’s rating

The trader arrested on suspicion of a staggering £1.3billion fraud at UBS is believed to have blown the whistle on himself about the unauthorised deals.UBS’s internal controls were unaware of the the huge losses allegedly generated by ‘rogue trader’ Kweku Adoboli, 31, who allegedly confessed to bosses about the huge losses.

UBS are then believed to examined his trading positions and called City regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the police, according to the BBC.

After his arrest at his desk in the early hours of Thursday, Adobli has hired City experts Kingsley Napley, the law firm which advised Nick Leeson, the man who brought down Baring’s Bank in the 1990s, according to Sky News.

Read moreUBS Unaware That Rogue Trader Had Lost $2 Billion Until He Blew The Whistle On HIMSELF – UBS Shares Plummet 10%

Irish Euro Exit Could Cost €45,000 For Each Family

by

Pressure on currency and fears of its demise mount after Dutch government’s bombshell


NEW RULES: Dutch finance chief Jan Kees de Jager

– Euro exit could cost €45,000 for each family (Irish Independent, Sep. 11, 2011)

THE cost of Ireland leaving the euro could be as much as €45,000 per family in the first year, according to research report for clients of giant Swiss investment bank UBS.

The threat of a break-up of the euro mounted last week when the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and his finance minister, Jan Kees de Jager, dropped a bombshell by suggesting that countries that persistently break eurozone budget rules should be chucked out of the currency. With the latest Greek bailout deal on a knife-edge, the possibility of Greece leaving the euro has increased dramatically in recent weeks.

Read moreIrish Euro Exit Could Cost €45,000 For Each Family

European Bank Job Cuts Exceed 40,000 In The Past MONTH – UBS Eliminates 5% Of Its Workforce

by

– European Bank Job Cuts Exceed 40,000 as UBS Eliminates 5% of Its Workforce (Bloomberg, Aug 24, 2011):

UBS AG (UBSN)’s decision to cut 5 percent of its workforce brings to more than 40,000 the number of jobs cut by European banks in the past month as the region’s worsening sovereign debt crisis crimps trading revenue.

UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, said yesterday it will eliminate 3,500 jobs, mainly from its investment bank. It follows HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), which announced 30,000 cuts on Aug. 1, Barclays Plc (BARC), which is cutting headcount by 3,000, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), which is eliminating 2,000 posts. Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) announced 2,000 reductions on July 28.

European banks are slashing jobs this year six times faster than their U.S. peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as concerns about the creditworthiness of Italy, Spain and France roil financial markets and reduce income from fixed- income trading, stock and bond underwriting as well as mergers and acquisitions. Financial firms are also cutting costs as regulators force banks to hold more and better quality capital to withstand future shocks.

“It’s a bloodbath, and I expect things to get worse before they get better,” said Jonathan Evans, chairman of executive- search firm Sammons Associates in London. “I cannot see a lot of those who have lost their jobs getting re-employed. Regardless of how good someone is, no one wants to talk about hiring. Life will be very difficult for two or three years.”

The 46-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index has fallen 31 percent this year. RBS tumbled 47 percent, Barclays 45 percent and France’s Societe Generale (GLE) SA 48 percent.

Read moreEuropean Bank Job Cuts Exceed 40,000 In The Past MONTH – UBS Eliminates 5% Of Its Workforce

‘Here Is what The Fed Didn’t Want You To Know’: ‘Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Fed Loans’ (Bloomberg, Aug 22, 2011 – Video)

by


YouTube Added: 22.08.2011

– Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Fed’s Secret Loans (Bloomberg, Aug 22, 2011):

Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage firms to their best year ever with $104 billion of profits.

By 2008, the housing market’s collapse forced those companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress.

Read more‘Here Is what The Fed Didn’t Want You To Know’: ‘Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Fed Loans’ (Bloomberg, Aug 22, 2011 – Video)

Accusations Of Treason In The Greek Parliament Against Bilderberg PM Papandreou

by

Flashback:

– Greek Central Bank Accused of Encouraging Naked Short Selling of Greek Bonds (Financial Times)

And remember that the biggest Greek CDS speculator has been the state-controlled Hellenic Post Bank with help from (Yes, you’ve guessed it!) Goldman Sachs:

– State-controlled Hellenic Post Bank (TT) bet against Greece (Kathimerini)

– Fragwürdige Finanzgeschäfte Griechen wetten auf eigene Pleite (Sueddeutsche Zeitung)

The state-controlled Hellenic Post Bank was betting on Greece going bankrupt!

What will happen if Greece defaults:

– Here Is What Happens After Greece Defaults

Solution:

– Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Revolution is the Only Answer (For Greece, Ireland etc.)

Must-read!

The following article will be constantly updated at ‘Covering Delta’, so please visit the link  and read the article there.

– Accusations of Treason in the Greek Parliament (Covering Delta):

Leaving aside for a moment the obvious questions of criminality and treason that have arisin from the details of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Greek government and the Troika (IMF/EU/ECB), which concedes total sovereign authority of the Greek state over the fate of its own citizens to foreign banks, let us turn to recent allegations made in Parliament against the Prime Minister of Greece himself, George Papandreou.

Recently, in an interview on Greek television, Member of Parliament for New Democracy, Mr. Panos Kammenos, made allegations that if true, could very well constitute treason for the Greek Prime Minister, members of his staff and possibly members of his own family. These allegations were repeated by Mr. Kammenos on the floor of parliament and given support by the leader of LAOS, Mr. George Karatzaferis. These allegations are therefore, not made lightly, and have now been plainly put forth before the Greek people. They can no longer be ignored, and the Prime Minister is obliged to respond to them.

The gist of the allegations rest on the charge by Mr. Kammenos, that the Greek Prime Minister, Mr. George Papandreou and members of his team, presided over the sale of 1.3 billion dollars worth of credit default swap contracts (CDS on Greek sovereign debt) on or around December of 2009, shortly after coming to power. The 1.3 billion dollars worth of insurance protecting against a Greek default was bought during the spring and summer of the same year, by the Hellenic Postbank, a public banking arm of the Greek government. It is unclear what the intentions of the Postbank were when it purchased the credit protection. Clearly, the previous government that was in power at the time (New Democracy or N.D.) understood that Greece was headed towards a fiscal crisis, otherwise they would not have purchased the insurance. However, we do not know if the move was initially made with the intention of reaping private profit, or simply as a hedge by the government itself against it’s own default.

[*Note: I have been made aware of a possible discrepancy between the numbers cited by Mr. Kammenos and those cited by Mr. Tombras in his law suit. Specifically, the subject at issue is the notional value of the CDS purchased and then sold by Hellenic Postbank. The size of the bank’s balance sheet would not warrant as large a hedge as the 60 billion in notional CDS (implied by Kammenos), which would imply that either the bank was net-short it’s own government’s debt, or that some mistake has been made by those looking over the books. This would affect the profit potential for the position, but would not change the fundamental fact that insurance protection was sold from public to private hands. – i.e. it has no bearing on the allegations]

Read moreAccusations Of Treason In The Greek Parliament Against Bilderberg PM Papandreou

Massive CDS Price Manipulation Scandal Erupts, EVERYONE Implicated!

by

Back in March of 2009 Zero Hedge, once again a little conspiratorially ahead of its time, solicited reader feedback on a key topic: CDS pricing manipulation, involving in addition to key cartel banks, such “independent” pricing services as MarkIt. We said: “Zero Hedge has received some troubling info (like there isn’t enough) regarding major pricing discrepancies between certain securities pricing services.

The services include companies such as IDC, Advantage Data, Markit and others. While I will not disclose which one may be a culprit, the allegation is that one (or more) are providing substantially above market pricing levels, specifically as pertains to distressed securities.” Then back in August 2010, we followed up by explaining that it is the ongoing price manipulation scheme, in addition to other factors, that allows Goldman Sachs (and other CDS dealers to a much lesser extent) to constantly generate massive profits from trading an opaque off-exchange product like CDS. It took two years and a month for others to take notice of this inquiry, although naturally not in that slum of corruption and market manipulation, the United States of America, but in Europe. Bloomberg reports: “Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and other 14 other investment banks face a European Union antitrust probe into credit-default swaps for companies and sovereign debt, regulators said. …The European Commission said it opened two antitrust probes. It will check whether 16 bank dealers colluded by giving market information to Markit, a financial information provider.” So while some post flow charts explaining the hilarity behind conspiracy theories, others actually expose the facts that today are a conspiracy and tomorrow are a full blown criminal investigation.

From Bloomberg Apr 29, 2011:

“Lack of transparency in markets can lead to abusive behavior and facilitate violations of competition rules,” said the EU’s antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, in an e-mailed statement. “I hope our investigation will contribute to a better functioning of financial markets.”

Global regulators have sought to toughen regulation of credit-default swaps saying the trades helped fuel the financial crisis. Lawmakers in the EU plan to encourage the use of clearinghouses and transparent trading systems. CDS are derivatives that pay the buyer face value if a borrower defaults.
Possible Collusion

JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Barclays Plc (BARC), BNP Paribas (BNP) SA, Citigroup Inc. (C), Commerzbank AG (CBK), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Goldman Sachs, HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), UBS AG (UBSN), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Credit Agricole SA (ACA) and Societe Generale (GLE) SA will be investigated for possible collusion in giving “most of the pricing, indices and other essential daily data only to Markit.”

Read moreMassive CDS Price Manipulation Scandal Erupts, EVERYONE Implicated!

Gold Buying in China Jumps as Inflation Flares, Boosting Demand: UBS

by

Mar. 2 (Bloomberg) — Gold purchases in China, the world’s largest producer, climbed to 200 metric tons in the first two months of 2011 as faster inflation boosted consumer demand, according to UBS AG, which said the price may gain to $1,500.

“China is the big buyer,” Peter Hickson, global commodities strategist at Switzerland’s largest bank, said by phone yesterday, without giving a comparable figure for 2010. The estimate for the two-month period compares with full-year consumer demand from China of 579.5 tons for last year, according to the World Gold Council, a producer-funded group.

Bullion, which rallied 30 percent last year, surged to a record yesterday as uprisings in the Middle East, quickening inflation and currency debasement boosted global demand. China’s consumer prices rose 4.9 percent in January from a year earlier, exceeding policy makers’ 4 percent ceiling for a fourth month.

“Chinese interest is huge,” said Peter Tse, Hong Kong- based head of precious metals at Bank of Nova Scotia. “Demand for physical gold and imports has increased substantially” due to the Lunar New Year holiday, Tse said today, referring to the week-long break that began Feb. 2.

Read moreGold Buying in China Jumps as Inflation Flares, Boosting Demand: UBS

30 Facts – The Rothschild Bankers Planned The Gulf Disaster

by

Must-see:

– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Gulf Coast Oil Spill’

The Gulf oil disaster is WAR on we the people

This article explains what is really happening in the Gulf of Mexico, who is really responsible for the explosion, and how the devastation serves investment bankers who sway stocks, create markets, and planned this crisis, among a series of catastrophies, to advance geopolitical and financial agendas for their New World Order.

by

Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Sherri Kane

Introduction

WAR has been declared against We The People. Yet, there is no country or military present to defend us.

Covert infiltrations and corruptions in governments by the “Rothschild League” of bankers and “private equity investors” now poison our bodies, minds, and planet. Yet, appropriate military and/or militia defenses are prohibited.

Crisis-capitalists are massacring us and our environment petrochemically. They have deployed propaganda—mass media deception—to camouflage their real intentions and vast destruction.

The air we breathe, food we eat, and water we drink, has been polluted to deliver profitable diseases and depopulation, simulating a “scorched earth policy” of war.

Citizen’s arrests, grand jury investigations, criminal indictments, and war crimes prosecutions are urgently needed, yet forbidden.

Generalized fear, depression, fatigue, and apathy is incapacitating our defenses, aiding the adversaries, and predisposing us to diseases and early deaths.

Based on the following irrefutable facts, the so-called “accidental explosion” in the Gulf is a Transocean/Halliburton/British Petroleum/Goldman-Sachs attack—the latest in a series of unspeakable war crimes perpetrated by Anglo-American State of “Rothschild League” bankers.

The Little-Known Rothschild Banking Dynastry

Definition and Function of War

WAR has been defined as “a contest between nations or states, carried on by force, . . . for the extension of commerce, . . .  for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other.”

Read more30 Facts – The Rothschild Bankers Planned The Gulf Disaster

Has the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world?

by

Related articles:

– Federal Reserve Withholds Collateral Data for $885 Billion in Financial-Crisis Loans

– Federal Reserve Made $9 Trillion In Emergency Overnight Loans

– UK Banks Borrowed More Than $1 Trillion From US Federal Reserve

– Federal Reserve to Name Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Aid During Crisis


UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday.

Federal Reserve data showing UBS AG and Barclays Plc ranked among the top users of $3.3 trillion from emergency programs is stoking debate on whether U.S. regulators bear responsibility for aiding other nations’ banks.

UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday. London-based Barclays Plc took the biggest single amount under another program that made overnight loans, when it got $47.9 billion on Sept. 18, 2008.

“We’re talking about huge sums of money going to bail out large foreign banks,” said Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent who wrote the provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that required the Fed disclosures. “Has the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world? I think that is a question that needs to be examined.”

The first detailed accounting of U.S. efforts to spare European banks may add to scrutiny of the central bank, already at its most intense in three decades. The Fed, which released data on 21,000 transactions, said in a statement that its 11 emergency programs helped stabilize markets and support economic recovery. The Fed said there have been no credit losses on rescue programs that have been closed.

Read moreHas the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world?

Now we know the truth: The financial meltdown wasn’t a mistake – it was a con

by

Hiding behind the complexities of our financial system, banks and other institutions are being accused of fraud and deception, with Goldman Sachs just the latest in the spotlight. This has become the most pressing election issue of all

goldman-sachs-lloyd-blankfein
Goldman Sachs was in the spotlight last November when demonstrators protested outside its Washington offices against executive bonuses. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The global financial crisis, it is now clear, was caused not just by the bankers’ colossal mismanagement. No, it was due also to the new financial complexity offering up the opportunity for widespread, systemic fraud. Friday’s announcement that the world’s most famous investment bank, Goldman Sachs, is to face civil charges for fraud brought by the American regulator is but the latest of a series of investigations that have been launched, arrests made and charges made against financial institutions around the world. Big Finance in the 21st century turns out to have been Big Fraud. Yet Britain, centre of the world financial system, has not yet levelled charges against any bank; all that we’ve seen is the allegation of a high-level insider dealing ring which, embarrassingly, involves a banker advising the government. We have to live with the fiction that our banks and bankers are whiter than white, and any attempt to investigate them and their institutions will lead to a mass exodus to the mountains of Switzerland. The politicians of the Labour and Tory party alike are Bambis amid the wolves.

Just consider the roll call beyond Goldman Sachs. In Ireland Sean FitzPatrick, the ex-chair of the Anglo Irish bank was arrested last month and questioned over alleged fraud. In Iceland last week a dossier assembled by its parliament on the Icelandic banks – huge lenders in Britain – was handed to its public prosecution service. A court-appointed examiner found that collapsed investment bank Lehman knowingly manipulated its balance sheet to make it look stronger than it was – accounts originally audited by the British firm Ernst and Young and given the legal green light by the British firm Linklaters. In Switzerland UBS has been defending itself from the US’s Internal Revenue Service for allegedly running 17,000 offshore accounts to evade tax. Be sure there are more revelations to come – except in saintly Britain.

Read moreNow we know the truth: The financial meltdown wasn’t a mistake – it was a con

US Justice Department Names JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS in Bid-Rigging Conspiracy

by

wall-street-sign
A Wall Street sign hangs near the New York Stock Exchange in New York, on Dec. 18, 2009. (Bloomberg)

March 26 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S. state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

A government list of previously unidentified “co- conspirators” contains more than two dozen bankers at firms also including Bank of America Corp., Bear Stearns Cos., Societe Generale, two of General Electric Co.’s financial businesses and Salomon Smith Barney, the former unit of Citigroup Inc., according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24.

Read moreUS Justice Department Names JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS in Bid-Rigging Conspiracy

More UBS Clients Win Ruling Blocking Data Transfers to US

by

ubs
A pedestrian enters the UBS headquarters on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich (Bloomberg)

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — A Swiss court ordered tax officials to drop two more cases involving UBS AG account holders, adding urgency to the government’s effort to find a political solution that will preserve a data-sharing agreement with the U.S.

The Federal Administrative Court, in a decision published today, told Switzerland’s tax authority to comply with an earlier ruling that blocked it from sending the U.S. information on 26 UBS customers. The court in Bern said Switzerland may only lift bank secrecy rules when there is evidence of tax fraud.

The ruling increases pressure on the Swiss to find a way to salvage the agreement to hand over data on as many as 4,450 UBS account holders as part of a U.S. crackdown on tax evasion. Ministers said this week they will ask the parliament to approve the U.S. settlement to get around the court rulings.

Read moreMore UBS Clients Win Ruling Blocking Data Transfers to US

UBS bankers’ 2009 cash bonuses up a third on year

by

ubs-bandits

The wealthy clients are leaving UBS. UBS is bleeding to death.

Solution: Pay higher cash bonuses!

The logo of Swiss bank UBS

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – UBS will pay about 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.7 billion) in cash bonuses for 2009, up about a third from depressed payouts a year earlier, the Swiss bank said on Tuesday.

UBS said the variable compensation payment did not include deferred share awards and was up 34 percent from 2008, when the bank made a record loss. It will also be shared by fewer staff.

UBS returned to a fourth-quarter profit of 1.2 billion francs, its first quarterly net profit since Oswald Gruebel took the helm a year ago. [ID:nLDE61802M]

Personnel expenses for 2009 totalled 16.5 billion francs, up 2 percent from 2008. The bank had 65,233 employees at the end of the year, down 16 percent from a year earlier, as Gruebel pushes through an aggressive plan to revive its fortunes after the credit crisis and a bitter U.S. tax row.

UBS declined to say how much it would give staff in shares. Many banks have said they will raise fixed salaries and pay a higher proportion of bonuses in stock and defer more over several years.

Read moreUBS bankers’ 2009 cash bonuses up a third on year