Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Banks convince lawmakers to pass massive bank deregulation, despite record earnings


Well yeah but look at LAST quarter... revealing chart.  That Trump tax INCREASE of Janurary 1 was not well thought out.  Might have well screwed up this entire year...





14 comments:

Konrad said...

”The House passed the bill Tuesday by a vote of 258 to 159, with 33 Democrats supporting it.”

Yes, and 16 Democrats supported it in the Senate (14 March 2018).

We know that Republicans want to screw us, but tell me again why Democrats are “better.”

On one side are Hillary-bots who support establishment Democrats no matter what.

On the other side are Trump-bots who worship Trump no matter what.

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”

Konrad said...

Below is a list of 33 Democrats in the U.S. House who voted to give a major gift to Wall Street.

The list does not show the 16 Democrats in the Senate that voted for the gift.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/23/remember-these-names-33-house-democrats-just-joined-gop-give-major-gift-wall-street

I suspect that come November the Democrats will suffer their biggest election losses ever. Republican voters will vote Republican, and registered Democrats will stay home.

Andrew Anderson said...

How does one regulate thievery without becoming complicit thereof?

Yet our current, government-privileged banking system extends what is, in essence, the PUBLIC'S CREDIT but for PRIVATE GAIN.

Ralph Musgrave said...

Anyone know how many tons of $100 bills had to be stuffed into the back pockets of politicians in order to relax those bank regulations?...:-)

Konrad said...

Trivial observation…

One million dollars in hundred-dollar bills weighs 22 pounds.

Therefore one ton of hundred-dollar bills would be worth just under $91 million.

If Jeff Bezos’ $134 billion existed as hundred-dollar bills, the bills would weigh 1,474 TONS.

” Anyone know how many tons of $100 bills had to be stuffed into the back pockets of politicians in order to relax those bank regulations?”

Actually I am amazed at how small the bribes are in Washington. For a “campaign donation” of $50,000, you can get legislation that will net you an extra $500 million in profit. I’m just making these numbers up, but they describe the bribery process in general.

In politics the bribes are quite modest compared to the returns.

Noah Way said...

The ROI for lobbying is 76,000%.

Andrew Anderson said...

What's the point of blaming Congress for trying to regulate an inherently unethical and thus inherently unstable system? It's supporters of the current system who are to blame and those are legion.

Imagine a steam boiler with the pressure relief valves welded close and trying to regulate pressure by how much fuel is added?

Then:
1) The boiler must be run substantially below capacity to ensure safe operation.
OR
2) If run at capacity, the risk of blowing up is greatly increased.

Arguably our credit system is even worse, with substantial positive feedback. Either it MUST under-perform or it MUST blow-up.

Matt Franko said...

“How does one regulate thievery”

You mean (as you can see in the chart) where Trump taxed this industry one time immediate $40b on previous earnings going back to 1987??

You mean THAT thievery ????

Jeff65 said...

JFC, Matt, you sound like one of those Libertarians. Taxes are not theft! Waaaay out of paradigm!

Andrew Anderson said...

One might think that taxes would be lower (in real terms) in a more just society since there would be less injustice to ameliorate.

That's what I surmise from the Bible since there was to be NO POOR among the Hebrews IF they obeyed wrt usury, debt forgiveness and other economic commandments (e.g. Leviticus 25).

Matt Franko said...

“Matt, you sound like one of those Libertarians”

Ok that is now hitting below the belt...

My point is that the Jan 1 tax policy changes that Trump got thru was hardly a one way deal for the banks... and we took a hit in 1Q because of it...

They screw around with the bank asset levels ALL THE TIME and usually it’s the opposite of helpful for either the banks or users of credit...

Matt Franko said...

“ since there was to be NO POOR among the Hebrews”

There were no poor in the nations you mean .... Paul didn’t go all around Greece and Rome opening up f-ing soup kitchens... he didn’t have to...

Matt Franko said...

AA I did an analysis of context surrounding every occurrence of the word ‘ptochos’ or ‘poor’ in the Greek Scriptures (NT) here a while back ... its IN EVERY CASE referring to somebody “poor” in corrupt Israel... never mentions anyone being “poor” outside of Israel AT ALL....

Why in hell would you want to go back to the Israel playbook for guidance in these material matters????

Andrew Anderson said...

They screw around with the bank asset levels ALL THE TIME and usually it’s the opposite of helpful for either the banks or users of credit... Franko

If you want banks to be 100% free of regulation then they should be 100% free of government privileges too.

Then the economy can go on smoothly as gamblers win and lose.