World-News

Ellen Brown, Truthout: "Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was on the Congressional hot seat, grilled for fraud in its sale of complicated financial products called 'synthetic CDOs.' Last week the heat was off, as all eyes turned to the attack of the shorts (bets that a stock will decline in value) on Greek sovereign debt and the dire threat of a sovereign Greek default. By Thursday, Goldman's fraud had slipped from the headlines and Congress had been cowed into throwing in the towel on its campaign to break up the too-big-to-fail banks. On Friday, Goldman was in settlement talks with the SEC."

http://www.truthout.org/stock-market-collapse-another-goldman-market-rigging59369



Wall Street Goes to the Movies

Zach Carter, The Media Consortium: "Last week, the U.S. Senate rejected a plan that would have broken up the nation's six largest banks firms into firms that could fail without wreaking havoc on the economy. Even though the defeat reinforces Wall Street's political dominance, there is still room for a handful of other useful reforms, like banning banks from gambling with taxpayer money and protecting consumers from banker abuses. After looting our houses, banks are now pushing for the ability to bet on movie box-office receipts, and will keep trying to financialize anything they can unless Congress acts."

http://www.truthout.org/wall-street-goes-to-the-movies59385

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Big Bank Lobby: Too big to bare?

Our Future
by Robert Borosage

05/11/10

Two-hundred and forty former legislators, bank committee staffers, and Treasury officials deployed to lobby. $600 million spent in lobbying, trade association activity and political contributions since March 2008. And that is just from the six biggest banks. The entire financial industry is spending an estimated $1.4 million a day, hiring 70 former members of Congress to make their case. … As the Senate moves towards passing financial reform legislation, it is worth focusing on how the lobby works. Bailed out by taxpayers, the big banks … are emerging from the financial crisis larger and more concentrated than ever. Their very size offends market competition. Entities that are too big to fail cannot be disciplined by the market...

http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010051911/big-bank-lobby-too-big-bare


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greek
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
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