dimelab dimelab: shrinking the gap between talk and action.

sham Topic in The Credit Debacle Catalog

sham democracy (3); sham institutions holding predominantly toxic assets (1).

zero hedge Tue 2010-04-27 07:50 EDT

Janet Tavakoli: "President Obama - Bring Back Black"

William K. Black, a regulator during the dark days of the Savings & Loan Crisis, gave the most sensible testimony about the financial crisis heard in Washington so far.* Fraud thrives and spreads in a regulatory free, highly paid, criminogenic environment. Cheaters prosper driving honesty out of the market...It's time to bring back Black and resolute regulators like him. Our proposed "financial reform" bill is a sham, and the health of our society and our economy is at stake...

Black; bringing; Janet Tavakoli; President Obama; Zero Hedge.

zero hedge Fri 2010-04-23 20:02 EDT

How Lehman, With The Fed's Complicity, Created Another Illegal Precedent In Abusing The Primary Dealer Credit Facility

Five months ago, Zero Hedge observed the nuances of the Federal Reserve's Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) and concluded that this artificial liquidity boosting construct was nothing more than yet another scam to allow banks to extract ever more money from taxpayers, with the complicit blessing of the Federal Reserve Board Of New York (as the original piece also provided an in-depth discussion of the triparty repo market which is now a parallel to the buzzword of the day in the form of Lehman's "Repo 105" off balance sheet contraption, it should serve as a useful refresher course to anyone who wishes to understand why while Repo 105 with its $50 billion in liability contingency may have been an issue, the true Repo market, with over $3 trillion of likely just as toxic assets, is where the real pain in the future will come from). The PDCF would allow assets of declining and even inexistent value to be pledged as collateral, thus making sure that taxpayer cash was funneled into sham institutions holding predominantly toxic assets, and whose viability was and is limited, yet still is backed by the Fed, which to this day continues to pour our money into them. Today, with a tip from the NYT's Eric Dash, we demonstrate just how grossly negligent the Federal Reserve was when it came to Lehman's abuse of the PDCF, and how the trail of slime of Lehman's increasingly obvious manipulation of its books goes to the very top of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and its then governor - a very much complicit Tim Geithner...

abuse; created; Fed's Complicity; Illegal Precedent; Lehman; Primary Dealers Credit Facility; Zero Hedge.

Mon 2010-03-08 09:41 EST

Truthdig - Calling All Rebels

There are no constraints left to halt America's slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power. And any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police. The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself. The American empire is over. And the descent is going to be horrifying...

called; rebel; Truthdig.

Thu 2009-07-30 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: TARP Beneficiary Says "Sham" Bailouts Help Speculators

-- Mark Patterson: US Treasury is out of its depth and seems to be trying to put off drastic action by pretending that the banking system is still viable ``Its a sham. The banks are insolvent. The US government is trying to sedate the public...''

Bailouts Help Speculators; naked capitalism; sham; TARP Beneficiary Says.

Tue 2008-09-02 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: GDP Release Signals Further Decline into Banana Republic Status

overstating GDP, understating inflation; ``taking steps towards being a small-minded, elite-dominated, sham democracy...I wonder if there is some unconscious mass desire to give up on the messiness and ambiguity of an open society and surrender to the certainty of one with institutionalized inequality, more authoritarianism, but more predictability, and perhaps an illusion of greater security.''

Banana Republic Status; GDP Release Signals Further Decline; naked capitalism.

Sun 2008-03-30 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: America: Banana Republic Watch

2007-05-06; "taking steps towards being a small-minded, elite-dominated, sham democracy"

America; Banana Republic Watch; naked capitalism.

Fri 2008-03-28 00:00 EDT

10 days That Changed Capitalism

by Rob Johnson and Robert Borosage; "market fundamentalism that has dominated our economics over last three decades has been unmasked as a sham"

10 day; changing capital.

Tue 2007-08-28 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: America: Banana Republic Watch

(2007-05-06); "taking steps towards being a small-minded, elite-dominated, sham democracy"; overstating employment; ministry of truth; overstating GDP by hedonic adjustment; birth/death adjustments to employment; "Banana Republic Indicators"

America; Banana Republic Watch; naked capitalism.