Tell President Obama, No More Tim Geithners!

The narrative behind it? Tell Obama we want:

1) an adequate income for every US citizen,

2) a productive role for every available resident, and

3) taxes low enough to allow quality and innovation expressed in distributed decision-making to continuously increase.

[Note, that narrative contains no mention whatsoever of "balanced fiat" or of solvent banks - both of which are trivially incidental details that would always come out in the wash.]

Another incidental bit of trivia? No More Tim Geithners!
Need we add that Mo, Larry & Curley needn't be elected to Congress? Ok, three we could live with, but 500+? A little help here, please.

Trumped up comedy routine: "Take my Congressperson .... please!

 (I'll throw in our Treasury Secretary - if you act fast.)"

Even if Geithner Won't, DoJ Bowing to State AG Demands.

Justice Dept to highlight investment fraud scams

"We see it as a growing problem. We see it as a serious problem," Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein said in an interview.

Ya think?

Sadly, it seems that the DoJ, despite it's history, back to the Peccorra Commission and beyond, finds itself in need of a manifesto as well (just like orthodox economics does).

Maybe Geithner would pen one, from scratch, as that seems to be where he's starting from.

"The Timeless Theme of Official Corruption" - Gogol's Plays

commentary by Roger Erickson

It's official? Nothing's changed? At least not much?  Only the details?

Does one of Gogol's plays remind you of the Keating-5?

Has anyone seen this one?

The Government Inspector (Nikolai Gogol’s satire on corrupt people worrying they're being investigated)

A modern retake must certainly feature the GORBS (Greenspan, Geithner, Orszak, Rubin, Bernanke, Summers).

Especially if given a looney-tunes veneer.

How Many Times Can You Repeat "Treasury did nothing"?

Barofsky Interview: Another Financial Crisis All But Inevitable

Can we launch a citizen's arrest of Geithner the crook? Or at least a class-action lawsuit?

Even if the Entity Fails, Executives Walk Away Rich. From Banks? Or From the Entire USA? How about WE Walk Away Instead, With OUR Nation Still Wealthy?

commentary by Roger Erickson

"Even if the entity fails, you walk away rich." That's the last line of Bill Black's famous recipe for Control Fraud, learned while prosecuting the guys who bought & owned the Keating-5. Bill was the featured guest during the third hour of the Coast to Coast AM banking fraud special on Saturday, August 25, 2012

Here's the whole recipe again, because we need to repeat this as many times as it takes for the US electorate to recognize how they're being robbed.

Black's recipe for robbing a bank is simple:

1) If you're a bank, grow like crazy by making really crappy loans

2) Make lots of really crappy loans at a premium interest rate.

3) Employing extreme leverage (a whole lot of debt compared to equity)

4) Set aside next to nothing for loss reserves for the inevitable deluge of losses that are going to be coming.

“If you do those 4 things you are mathematically guaranteed, in the near term, to report record profits. And with modern executive compensation, that means that the controlling officers will be made wealthy... Even if the entity fails, you walk away rich.”

Even paranormal researchers are now hearing Bill's message! So, that's progress. :)

ps: That definition certainly ought to define Geithner and most members of Congress. Maybe we're closer than we imagine?

Or are we further?

We once had the Keating-5 just in the US Senate. Now we have the Geither-535? Or is that number even bigger, and now distributed across gov agencies from the Fed to the DoJ? Not to mention the Presidency of Harvard U and U-Chicago, the preferred sites for either opposing or collaborating fraud camps.

Do today's Control Frauds care if even the entire USA fails? Will they still walk away personally wealthy? To where? And with what form of wealth guarantees?

How about WE walk away from them instead, with OUR nation still wealthy?

Bill Black, wherever you are, we need a simple slogan and plan to mobilize citizens in opposition to Control Frauds and Innocent Frauds alike.  Here's a suggested version.

George Washington's simple recipe for saving a nation from its banks:

1) If you're a citizen, grow your country like crazy by improving the quality and tempo of distributed decision-making!

2) Improve economic tempo by the simple act of de-centralizing decision-making, so we can explore more of our options, and select innovations, faster.

3) Eschew extreme leverage - and invest in generating many small failures, not too few large ones. Decentralize decision-making by distributing resources well enough to explore distributed options. Scalable success will emerge by default, as everything that doesn't work is quickly & cheaply exposed.

4) Don't bet the farm. Instead, invest in resilient systems capable of meeting all the unpredictable challenges, conceivable or inconceivable, that are inevitably coming. Continuously prioritize decentralized decisions by distributing feedback well enough to align all actions with net benefit.

“If WE do those 4 things WE are mathematically guaranteed, in the LONG term, to ACHIEVE record SUCCESS. And with modern AUTOMATIC STABILIZERS, that means that the NATIONS CITIZENS will ACHIEVE SUCCESS... Even if a few frauds fail, our nation will continue generating success.”

Total Fiduciary Failure by Our Entire, Existing Policy Staff

Bill Black skewers the entire story about how representative the ongoing prosecution of Abacus Bank is, and what it implies

As a precedent, this emphatically shows once again that Tim Geithner should be fired, and indicted for crimes against the USA. It also implies that Eric Holder should be replaced with a real Attorney General.

More to the point, Bill's scathing review clearly implies that the electorate of the USA should rise up and replace not just thousands of fraudulent managers at most large banks, but especially the entire Congress, Administration and even political process that has entrenched this degree of Control Fraud throughout all Federal agencies and our entire political process. Our electorate must do this, with deliberate agility.

The supposed inability to regulate our own policy fraud - for "lack of public initiative (i.e., fiat currency)" - is of course a monstrous lie. Reducing policy to discussing how to cap our own fiat can occur only as a consequence of traitorous fraud, this time not just in banking hierarchies, but at the highest levels of political representation.

"The financial sector (and related nonsense like the tax code) is the largest brain drain in the history of the world.

The real losses to aggregate output are staggering beyond imagination."   Warren Mosler

We need either a new political party, or no political parties at all, which is how we made it through George Washington's first two administrations. The USA has grown large enough that it cannot possibly be productively served by any narrow policy outlook whatsoever.

In short, we need a more representative Democracy just to survive. If we're going to create a more perfect union, now that we're past 312 million people, then we need democratic processes able to achieve better/faster/cheaper representation of our many policy outlooks.

There is no point of stability in the natural world that is NOT a dynamic equilibrium between many conflicting forces.

We need more agility yearly from both our policy apparatus and our population.  The very point of democracy is to fashion a "table" from planks, not let any one plank "win."   Victory by any partisan plank defines aggregate failure.  We knew this over 200 years ago.  Why aren't we acting like we know it?

The future beckons. Yet if our democratic methods don't improve, rapidly, we ain't getting there from here.

If our electorate doesn't mobilize over the issues Bill Black exposes, then this electorate cannot shepherd survival of the USA.

OCC admits they're incompetent? Can't afford competence?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency failed to spot widespread problems in the foreclosure practices of major banks between 2008 and 2010 because the agency’s examiners underestimated the mounting risks and were given outdated guidance that did not address how the industry had changed, according to a report issued Friday by the Treasury Department’s inspector general.

What else? Oh yeah. The sun was in their eyes.   And, a cloud of banksters blotted out the sun.   Really!

I've heard better excuses from a 5 year old.

Heck, why not just OpenSource reality? Everyone else knew!

Or were OCC staff instructed not to talk to strangers, aka US citizens?

Is this making Geithner look dumber than dumb, or just downright evil?  Or does he have an airtight alibi?  He don't talk to nobody but his tailor!

As usual, "nobody could have predicted this."

They were too busy not talking to strangers, and using the DHS to make sure that didn't happen.  Why, if Geithner knew what America knows, he'd have to go straight! Don't hold your breath, 'cuz Timmy da Mole ain't givin' up his suit for no one.  And certainly not for no stinkin', lower class electorate!

Our policymakers admit to problems we don't have

Just heard Geithner at a press conference in Europe "admit" that, "The US has a lot of work to do on fiscal reform." Of course this is code for cutting the deficit.

Since Geithner's been at Treasury we've seen:

10yr Treasury yields go from 3.8% to 2%
5yr Treasury yields go from 2.8% to 0.9%
30yr Treasury yields go from 4.5% to 3.0%
The Dow has gone from 6400 to 12000.
US GDP has gone from $13.8T to $15.2T.

Yes, the debt has increased.
The deficit went from $450 bln to $1.5T.
The debt has gone from $12T to $15T.

But if there were really a crisis, then wouldn't we see it manifest in the markets somewhere?

I am sick and tired of our policymakers "admitting" to problems we don't have.

Geithner cuts Congress slack by sticking it to cities and states

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced that the Treasury would take managed steps to extend the time before default into the summer, giving Congress more time for kabuki.

These managed steps begin with curtailing the amount of state and local debt that the federal government will support.

William Alden of the The Huffington Post cautions:

When the "extraordinary measures" begin Friday, the first casualty will be a category of non-marketable bonds known as State and Local Government Series securities, or SLGS (pronounced "slugs"). These securities are tailor-made for state and local governments, designed to help them pay for their debt. (source)

The result is that state and municipalities that are already reeling from reduced tax revenues will be hit first by the kabuki dance in Congress, even though both parties have already assured that the debt limit will be raised. This is dereliction of duty.