May 24
- Veteran reporter: Nobody’s data safe from feds (WND, May 21, 2013)
Tags: Big Brother, Dictatorship, Global News, Government, Journalism, Politics, Society, Surveillance, U.S., Wall Street Journal
Mar 20
- Euro: Currency Or Prison? (ZeroHedge, March 20, 2013):
The following Wall Street Journal article deserves to be read in its entirety…
Authored by Vincent Cignarella, originally posted at WSJ Market Beat,
Is The Euro a Currency or a Prison?
Wearing the disguise of austerity, the euro has emerged as the gatekeeper of what is fast becoming a debtors’ prison.
The Troika of the ECB, IMF and European Commission acting in concert have become more like another Troika–of judge, jury and executioner–for any nation within the euro zone that dares not follow the letter of budgetary imposition.
The latest country bound by these handcuffs: Cyprus.
Tags: Cyprus, ECB, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Global News, Government, IMF, Politics, Society, Wall Street Journal
Sep 13
- Because The First Amendment Does Not Reach Across The Atlantic… (ZeroHedge, Sep. 13, 2011):
The idiocy just hit record highs:
- BNP PARIBAS SAYS IT ASKED AMF TO INVESTIGATE WSJ OPINION PIECE – BLOOMBERG
What next: the AMF dispatches black choppers to round up all those trop-beaucoup criminal bloggers?
In other news:
- BNP Paribas seeks AMF enquiry on WSJ column (Reuters, Sep. 13, 2011):
(Reuters) – BNP Paribas said on Tuesday that it had asked French market regulator AMF to open an enquiry about a Wall Street Journal opinion piece claiming that France’s largest bank could face a dollar funding crunch.
BNP Paribas, whose shares slumped more than 10 percent in early trading but later rebounded to gain 7.2 percent, said it had requested the enquiry earlier in the day after what it called the “false” report.
- BNP Paribas Asks French Market Watchdog To Probe “Erroneous” News In WSJ (Wall Street Journal, Sep. 13, 2011):
PARIS (Dow Jones)–BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR, BNPQY) on Tuesday said it had asked the French stock-market watchdog to open a probe following the publication of an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal that contained “erroneous information.”
The Autorite des Marches Financiers, or AMF, the stock-market watchdog, wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Tags: AMF, Banking, Bloggers, Blogs, BNP Paribas, Economy, Global News, Wall Street Journal
Jul 29
Rupert Murdoch (left) with Abraham Foxman of the Anti- Defamation League at a 2010 dinner in honor of the News Corp. chairman. JTA photo by David Karp Photography.
- Amid Murdoch scandal, Israel backers worry about muting of pro-Israel media voice (JTA, July 19, 2011)
- Israel backers worried about Murdoch’s pro-Israel media empire (Jewish Community Voice, July 27, 2011):
Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp.
Murdoch’s sudden massive reversal of fortune—with 10 top former staffers and executives under arrest in Britain for hacking into the phones of public figures and a murdered schoolgirl, and paying off the police and journalists—has supporters of Israel worried that a diminished Murdoch presence may mute the strongly pro-Israel voice of many of the publications he owns.
“His publications and media have proven to be fairer on the issue of Israel than the rest of the media,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “I hope that won’t be impacted.”
Murdoch’s huge stable encompasses broadsheets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and The Australian, as well as tabloids, most notably The Sun in Britain and the New York Post. It also includes the influential Fox News Channel in the United States and a 39 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, a satellite broadcaster. Murdoch founded the neoconservative flagship The Weekly Standard in 1995, and sold it last year.
Jewish leaders said that Murdoch’s view of Israel’s dealings with the Palestinians and with its Arab neighbors seemed both knowledgeable and sensitive to the Jewish state’s self-perception as beleaguered and isolated.
Tags: ADL, Corporate Media, Fox News, Global News, JTA, New York Post, Politics, Rupert Murdoch, Society, The Australian, The Sun, The Times, Wall Street Journal
Aug 26
Related information:
- Judge: Federal Reserve Must Release Reports on Emergency Bank Loans
- Federal Reserve Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion
In an interview released today by Digg and the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pressured about the growing popular movement to Audit the Fed spearheaded by Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
A visibly uncomfortable Geithner attempts to dismiss the question by stating “I’m sure people understand that you want to keep politics out of monetary policy.”
When Geithner is again pressed on the issue, he makes the stunning assertion that conducting an audit of the Federal Reserve-something never before done in its 96 year history-is a “line that we don’t want to cross,” proclaiming that such a move would be “problematic for the country.” Watch the interview in the player below:
Geithner’s response that auditing the Fed would give politicians dangerous control over American monetary policy is mistaken at best and a deliberate lie at worst.
Allowing the public to know what happened to their $24 trillion in bailout money does not give undue control of monetary policy to the people’s elected representatives.
Instead, such an audit would finally allow the public to see how their money has been spent in the midst of the largest spending binge in the history of the world’s economy, hardly an unreasonable demand given the well-documented revolving door between the Treasury and Goldman Sachs, the main recipient of bailout funds.
Ultimately, the Treasury Secretary is left spewing the absurdity that “I think even the sponsor of that bill recognizes how important it is to us to have the Fed independent of politics,” which can only be said to be true insofar as Ron Paul-the sponsor of House Resolution (HR) 1207- wants to abolish the Federal Reserve system altogether.
That the Wall Street Journal would even pressure the Treasury Secretary on serious issues like the Audit the Fed movement may be surprising, given that the Wall Street Journal is a mouthpiece of the financial oligarchy and that editor Paul Gigot, like Geithner himself, is a Bilderberg attendee.
Needless to say, this was not a typical inside-the-beltway interview. Instead, questions were submitted and voted on by the Digg community, with the top 10 questions being posed to Mr. Geithner.
Tags: Bailout, Ben Bernanke, Digg, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Politics, Ron Paul, Taxpayers, Timothy Geithner, Wall Street Journal
Sep 02
British banks soon could be scrambling for short-term funding once more amid reports that supplies from Threadneedle Street and from Frankfurt may be drying up.
The Bank of England explicitly ruled out extending its Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS), while the European Central Bank is reportedly considering tightening its lending criteria.
The two central banks have been huge suppliers of liquidity to British banks. The SLS is thought to have provided £50 billion or more, while the ECB has lent banks €467 billion (£378 billion) – much of it thought to have gone to UK institutions.
Tags: Banking, Credit Crisis, Credit Crunch, ECB, Economy, Mortgage crisis, Mortgages, U.K., Wall Street Journal
Aug 29
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) list of troubled banks has increased by 30 percent this quarter, and this jump is causing the FDIC and the banking community to prepare for tomorrow’s problems today.
The FDIC may have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to handle an expected wave of bank failures coming down the road, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It would not be surprising if this were to occur, according to Chris Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics. In an interview with CNBC, Whalen said the FDIC needs a backstop.
“They need about a half a trillion dollars in borrowing authority, and they need a vehicle to own these banks while we triage them and sell them.”
Tags: Banking, Credit Crisis, Economy, FDIC, Government, Treasury, Wall Street Journal
Aug 29
U.S. and European banks, already burdened by losses and concerns about their financial health, face a new challenge: paying off hundreds of billions of dollars of debt coming due.
At issue are so-called floating-rate notes – securities used heavily by banks in 2006 to borrow money. A big chunk of those notes, which typically mature in two years, will come due over the next year or so, at a time when banks are struggling to raise fresh funds. That’s forcing banks to sell assets, compete heavily for deposits and issue expensive new debt.
The crunch will begin next month, when some $95 billion in floating-rate notes mature. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. analyst Alex Roever estimates that financial institutions will have to pay off at least $787 billion in floating-rate notes and other medium-term obligations before the end of 2009. That’s about 43 percent more than they had to redeem in the previous 16 months.
The problem highlights how the pain of the credit crunch, now entering its second year, won’t end soon for banks or the broader economy. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said on Tuesday that its list of “problem” banks at risk of failure had grown to 117 at the end of June, up from 90 at the end of March. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said her agency might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures. She said the borrowing could be needed to handle short-term cash-flow pressure brought on by reimbursements to depositors after bank failures.
Tags: Bank Failure, Banking, Citigroup, Credit Crisis, Credit Crunch, Debt, ECB, Economy, FDIC, Fed, Federal Reserve, Government, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Stock Market, Treasuy, U.S., UBS, Wachovia, Wall Street, Wall Street Journal
Aug 28
(Reuters) – Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Tags: Bank Failure, Banking, Credit Crisis, Economy, FDIC, Government, Mortgage crisis, Stock Market, Treasury, U.S., Wall Street, Wall Street Journal
Jul 29
Its name somewhat anachronistically means “assembly of old men.” George Washington famously – and, it must now be admitted, with excessive optimism – characterized it as an institutional saucer intended to cool legislation passed in the intemperate heat of the moment. Its members demand, with entirely unwarranted self-approval, to be called, collectively, the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.
Tags: Bailout, Bank Failure, Banking, Congress, Dollar, Economy, Fannie Mae, Fascism, FDIC, Fed, Federal Reserve, Freddie Mac, Government, Henry Paulson, IndyMac, Middle Class, Mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Politics, Ron Paul, U.S., Wachovia, Wall Street Journal, Washington Mutual
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