–The Segarra tapes: Why the Obama administration has not prosecuted even one crooked banker.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the gap.
===================================================================================

Back in 2012, we published, “The end of private banking: Why the federal government should own all banks.” The title says it all.

I was reminded of that article when I read this one:

The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes
SEPT 26, 2014, By Michael Lewis

(A) reporter, Jake Bernstein, has obtained 46 hours of tape recordings, made secretly by a Federal Reserve employee (Carmen Segarra), of conversations within the Fed, and between the Fed and Goldman Sachs.

First, a bit of background. After the 2008 financial crisis, the New York Fed commissioned a study of itself. This study, which the Fed also intended to keep to itself, set out to understand why the Fed hadn’t spotted the insane and destructive behavior inside the big banks, and stopped it before it got out of control.

(The results:) The Fed failed to regulate the banks because bank regulators were discouraged from (doing their jobs.

In early 2012, Carmen Segarra was assigned to regulate Goldman Sachs, and so was installed inside Goldman. (She found that) Fed employees would defer to the Goldman people; if one of the Goldman people said something revealing or even alarming, the other Fed employees in the meeting would either ignore or downplay it.

For instance, in one meeting a Goldman employee expressed the view that “once clients are wealthy enough certain consumer laws don’t apply to them.” After that meeting, Segarra turned to a fellow Fed regulator and said how surprised she was by that statement — to which the regulator replied, “You didn’t hear that.”

(Before you hear the tape recordings:)

1. You sort of knew that the regulators were more or less controlled by the banks. Now you know.

2. The only reason you know is that one woman, Carmen Segarra, has been brave enough to fight the system. She has paid a great price to inform us all of the obvious. She has lost her job, undermined her career, and will no doubt also endure a lifetime of lawsuits and slander.

So what are you going to do about it? At this moment the Fed is probably telling itself that, like the financial crisis, this, too, will blow over. It shouldn’t.

By now, you may be asking yourself why the Fed employees were so afraid to point out criminal wrongdoing by wealthy bankers, when that is exactly what they are paid to do.

Criminality often starts at the top — in this case, first with President Obama and then with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

There are the two reasons why criminal banksters were not sent to jail, and not only still have their jobs, but received big bonuses. Here is the more benign of the two. We’ll call it the “Holder’s good intentions error”:

How Eric Holder Failed the Economy

In 2002 testing of Enron Corp. auditor Arthur Andersen LLP caused the company to fold, and thousands of innocent people lost their jobs.

Fearing a repeat of the Arthur Andersen debacle, prosecutors were careful to leave companies standing, even as they extracted tens of billions of dollars from banks for transgressions ranging from mortgage-related fraud to laundering money for drug cartels.

Under U.S. Attorney General Holder’s leadership, prosecutors lost sight of what mattered most: holding individuals, not companies, accountable for crimes. Of 21 separate actions against major financial companies from 2009 through May 2014, only eight were accompanied by charges against individuals, and none of them were high-level executives.

Failing to pursue individuals has sent executives the message that if they commit crimes, the worst that can happen is they’ll lose their jobs and shareholders will have to pay up.

Holder was so concerned about hurting innocent people, he didn’t go after the criminals.

Stupid? Yes. Criminal? Maybe. But give the man the benefit of the doubt, and call it “misguided.”

There is, however, a more sinister reason why no banker has gone to jail. Political contributions, aka “bribery.” For example:

Bank of America’s Political Contributions

Bank of America has spend $26.3 million on political contributions since 1989.

Despite tilting heavily toward Barack Obama in 2008, it reversed itself in 2012 on the heels of heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Translation: “We bought Obama but he didn’t stay as bought as he promised. He started to look at us, so we decided to buy the other guy. Too bad he didn’t get elected.”

And then there was:

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
> Total contributions (2012-ongoing): $4,769,994
> Donations to Democratic Party: 29%; Donations to Republican Party: 71%
> Spending on lobbying (2012-ongoing): $1,380,000

Of course, these totals only represent corporate donations, not the millions in private donations from bank executives and other employees.

So the question is, how hard are you going to chase a criminal who gives millions to your political campaign?

And that amount of bribery is why the Obama administration has not prosecuted a single bankster. The money flow simply is too great.

Large, privately owned banks are a curse. Their size, their control over vast amounts of money, combined with their profit motive, makes them ungovernable and their criminality inevitable.

And that is why the federal government should own all banks, especially large banks..

Remove the profit motive and you remove the bribery.

Meanwhile, we wait with great anticipation, for the mainstream media (owned by the rich) to pick up on the Segarra tapes.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–It isn’t the money; it’s the votes. Naw, it’s the money.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

As usual, the moneyed interests are intent on beating up anyone who isn’t rich. And, as usual, the excuse is taxpayers’ money.

But it isn’t the money; it’s the votes:

GOP: Obamacare ‘bending over backwards’ for illegals

“The Obama administration is bending over backwards to give Obamacare to illegal immigrants but won’t protect hardworking American citizens who are losing their health care coverage,” said Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican and an outspoken critic of President Obama’s health care law.

Translation: “My heart breaks for those ‘hardworking American citizens.’ I have tried to help them by voting to eliminate Obamacare, while providing them with nothing to replace it. I hope they appreciate my efforts.”

“The Obama administration has been granting deadline extensions, making excuses and turning a blind eye to falsified documents by illegal immigrants,” Vitter said. “Enough is enough, and they need to provide answers to why they think illegal immigrants should be eligible for Obamacare.”

Translation: “Yes, I know. Immigrants are human beings. Their children are human beings. If we deny them medical care, they will sicken and die young.

“And, yes I know, it would cost American taxpayers $0 (that’s zero, zip, zilch) to provide comprehensive Medicare to every man, woman and child in America. Our government, having created the dollar in the first place, never runs short of dollars.

“But it isn’t the money (although I pretend it is). It’s the votes.

“Those immigrants are having kids, and those kids one day will vote, and those kids know we right wingers can’t stand the sight of them and never miss an opportunity to screw them. And, being intelligent, those kids will vote against us.

“We have to do everything to make life more miserable for them than it already is, so they’ll ‘self-deport,’ as my hero Mitt Romney used to say.

“That’s why I always appeal to the lowest instincts of humanity and vote against any benefits for those aliens.”

The administration also has promised to make illegal immigrants repay the government for Obamacare benefits they redeemed during the extended document check.

Translation: The American people who voted for Obama thought they were electing a liberal. Gotcha! He’s to the right of Reagan, and much, much lower on the “decency” scale. (Where is Elizabeth Warren when we need her?)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spokesman Aaron Albright told The Washington Times that the administration had made significant progress verifying immigration documents and sent cancellation notices last week to people who hadn’t produced documents.

“We are committed to assisting consumers and protecting taxpayers by helping to ensure those who are enrolled in Marketplace coverage meet the eligibility requirements.”

Translation: “I know that kicking people off Medicaid has nothing whatever to do with ‘assisting consumers’ amd even less to do with ‘protecting taxpayers,’ but you don’t know that. So, I can lie and get away with it, and the lie makes me sound so very holy, when in fact, I’m a cruel bastard, who cares nothing for human life.”

Barack Obama, America’s “Deporter in Chief,” is the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.” He talks much and does little for the weak and powerless.

In his case, it no longer is the votes. It isn’t even taxpayer’s money. It’s the money he and his family will receive after he leaves office. And that money does not come from immigrants.

That money comes from the people whose primary goal in life is to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.

Meanwhile, middle America believes that denying benefits to the lower income groups will, in some mysterious way, benefit the middle class.

But you middle-class folks don’t seem to remember that trite old saying, “What goes around, comes around,” and the meanness you visit on the immigrants will, very soon, come back to bite you in the butt.

The rich will see to that.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

Fools, damn fools and Durbin/Brown

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
●Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the gap.
===================================================================================

Two points:

1. The U.S. federal government (unlike state and local governments) is Monetarily Sovereign. This means has the unlimited ability to create its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar.

It never can run short of dollars, and never needs to ask anyone for dollars — not you, not me, not China. Even if all federal taxes fell to $0, the federal government could continue paying its bills, forever.

2. Every dollar in federal taxes collected comes out of the private sector, thereby impoverishing the private sector. When millions of American individuals and companies pay taxes, there is less money available for growing the economy. When you pay federal taxes, you have less money left to buy goods and services. It’s that simple.

Keep those two points in mind as you read these excepts from an article that appeared in the September 23, 2014 Chicago Tribune:

Illinois firms keep $100 billion in foreign profit from U.S. tax man
Becky Yerak

Six of Illinois’ biggest companies hold a combined $100 billion in profits overseas, a strategy that keeps those earnings from being subject to U.S. corporate income taxes.

The tax-trimming move by those and 44 other U.S. companies with global operations was put in the spotlight Friday when U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin proposed a bill that would penalize companies that moved their headquarters overseas.

U.S. corporations face income taxes as high as 35 percent on income earned both domestically and abroad. However, there is one important caveat: Companies aren’t required to pay the U.S. taxes on foreign profits that they say are “indefinitely” reinvested overseas and not brought back, or repatriated, to the U.S.

Translation: The U.S. government, not needing tax dollars, unnecessarily taxes companies as much as “35 percent on income earned both domestically and abroad.” There is no reason whatsoever for this tax.

The amount of such earnings for corporations in the Russell 1,000 has grown by 93 percent to $2.12 trillion, said the Sutton, Mass.-based researcher of public companies.

In addition, the number of firms reporting indefinitely reinvested earnings has risen by 12 percent from 2008 to 2013, to 547 companies, Audit Analytics said.

On Friday, (Sen. Dick) Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, announced legislation that would require U.S. corporations that relocate to a foreign country to pay taxes on any overseas profit they were holding before their move took effect.

Translation: Rather than reduce or eliminate a wholly unnecessary tax — a tax that comes out of the private sector’s pockets, a tax that makes U.S. corporations less competitive with foreign corporations, thereby cutting U.S. employment and economic growth — Durbin and Brown wish to increase it.

In their announcement, they listed 50 U.S. companies that were, as of 2013, “indefinitely” reinvesting billions of dollars in earnings in their overseas operations. Few of the companies, however, have announced plans to move their headquarters overseas.

Translation: This all began with Durbin’s “shock” that Walgreen considered moving its headquarters address out of the U.S., an event that would have had zero effect on the U.S. or Illinois’ economy.

Durbin warns of customer boycott if Walgreen moves HQ to Europe
Crain’s Chicago Business

The U.S. Senate’s No. 2 Democrat today ramped up his opposition to tax-driven corporate headquarters relocations another notch, suggesting that customers of Walgreen Co. may defect if the drugstore chain proceeds with a rumored HQ move to Europe.

Mr. Durbin conceded that Walgreen could “dodge” an estimated $4 billion in U.S. taxes over the next five years by moving its headquarters to Switzerland. “I recognize that potential windfall is an attractive option for shareholders,” he wrote.

However, he continued, “customers have many choices about where to shop and where to have their prescriptions filled. I believe you will find that your customers are deeply patriotic and will not support Walgreen’s decision to turn its back on the U.S.”

Translation: A corporation providing more money to shareholders, while building its business and employing more people, is “unpatriotic” and a “dodge.” It would be far better for that corporation to send more dollars to the federal government (which neither needs nor uses tax dollars), while cutting business growth and employing fewer people.

Similarly, if you the reader, wish to be a patriot, you should pay more taxes. Never mind your family’s needs. Never mind food, clothing, housing, health and education. Divert all those dollars to the federal government, which has no need for them.

Mr. Durbin is a candidate for re-election. His GOP opponent, Jim Oberweis, responded, “There is nothing ‘patriotic’ about a career politician bullying a job-creating Illinois company for legally using the tax code he helped create. Instead of haranguing companies that employ thousands of Illinoisans, Dick Durbin ought to do his job and reform our tax code, which includes the highest corporate tax rate in the world.“

Amen, brother.

Durbin is counting on the public’s ignorance of basic economics. Paying federal taxes helps no one. The federal government (unlike state and local governments) has no use for tax dollars. It creates dollars, ad hoc, when it pays bills. It never can run short of dollars. Federal taxes are a net loss for the economy and everyone in it.

And Durbin knows it.

Durbin merely needed an nice, safe issue to demagogue, in advance of the election. With this phony issue, he can portray himself as a great patriot and protector of America.

He is neither.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Why the Barack Obama Presidential Library must be in Chicago

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the gap.
===================================================================================

Soon a decision will be made about where to put the Barack Obama Presidential Library. Several cities are in the running, one of which is Chicago.

I’m a Chicagoan, born and bred, though (full disclosure): For the past 50 years I have lived, not IN Chicago, but in a suburb of Chicago – about 4 miles outside the city limit.

Anyway, if you know Chicago as I do, you know its criminal history. Ted Kacyznski, the Unabomber was one of our guys. And no one will forget Rod Blagojevich, who thought the opportunity to sell a Senate seat was “golden,” as he put it.

And John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer of 33 boys – yup, a Chicago product. And are you old enough to remember John Dillinger? No? Don’t you go to the movies?

We’ll surely you remember our most famous product, Al Capone. Right?

We’ve not mentioned the innumerable Chicago aldermen sent to jail — people like Arenda Troutman, who took bribes, and Ambrosio Medrano, who also took bribes, and Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, both of whom took bribes (Note a pattern here?).

You see, if you run a tenement that has been cited for numerous code violations, you don’t fix the violations. You bribe your alderman.

If you need a liquor license in a neighborhood not zoned for liquor sales, you bribe your alderman. If you want to get out of a DUI ticket, you bribe your alderman.

In short, if you have any annoying problem, especially a problem with some illegal act you may have committed or wish to commit, you perform another illegal act: You bribe your Chicago alderman.

Since 1976, Chicago and its suburbs have seen 1,485 (!)federal convictions of corrupt public officials and businessmen, including 31 aldermen. Considering that Chicago has only 50 aldermen in total, sending 31 to jail in less than 40 years, is quite an accomplishment.

It demonstrates not only criminality, but incompetence for getting caught.

Why is this meaningful?

Are Some Banks Too Big to Punish?
By David Sirota

The Department of Labor notes that Credit Suisse (bank) “operated an illegal cross-border banking business that knowingly and willfully aided and assisted thousands of U.S. clients in opening and maintaining undeclared accounts” and in “using sham entities” to hide money.

Under existing Department of Labor rules, a conviction could prevent Credit Suisse from being designated a Qualified Professional Asset Manager. That designation exempts firms from other federal laws, giving them the special status required to do business with many pension funds.

The Obama administration is proposing to waive those anti-criminal sanctions against Credit Suisse, thereby allowing Credit Suisse to get the QPAM designation needed to continue its pension business.

According to data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation, employees of Credit Suisse have given President Obama’s campaigns more than $376,000. That’s particularly relevant in light of an April study of SEC data from London Business School professor Maria M. Correia.

That analysis showed that “politically connected firms are on average less likely to be involved in … enforcement action and face lower penalties if they are prosecuted.” Credit Suisse committed a crime. Where’s the punishment?“

Which brings us to the Barack Obama:

After graduating college, Mr. Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project, on Chicago’s South Side, as a community organizer. He then attended Harvard Law School, after which he was Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.

From then on, for Mr. Obama, it was all Chicago, all Illinois, all politics. Everything he knows comes from the Chicago political system. The man has the Chicago river running through his veins.

Now, nothing is to suggest Mr. Obama is another Ted Kacyznski, John Wayne Gacy or Al Capone.

No, in essence, Mr. Obama is a Chicago alderman on steroids. He grew up in the “Chicago way.” Prosecuting a money-donating backer for the “minor crime” of stealing millions, would be as alien to him as paying a traffic ticket.

So what could be more fitting than to site the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Chicago? It will be paid for by donors, absolutely none of whom expect anything in return.

Please ignore the fact that Mr. Obama named Penny Pritzker, Chicago’s wealthiest woman, to be his Secretary of Commerce.

Penny’s uncle owned Superior bank. Why is this meaningful?

The FDIC seized the bank and the Pritzker family reached an agreement with regulators to pay $460 million.

Industry experts have criticized the Pritzkers in regard to Superior. Consumer advocates and government investigators asserted Superior “engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices.”

What could be higher qualification for Secretary of Commerce than being involved with a crooked bank? Well, for one thing:

On July 2, 2008, Ms. Pritzker and her husband hosted a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Mr. Obama’s campaign in Chicago with Warren Buffett and his wife, and Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett.

If you want something done, like loosening laws against illegal bank operations, failing to prosecute any bankster or cutting taxes on the rich while raising taxes on the poor, you don’t bribe your alderman. You bribe your President.

So yes, by all means, put the Obama Presidential Library here in Chicago. Keep it close to the money.

It’s the Chicago and the Obama way.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

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