Financial Reform: Complete Scam

FINANCIAL REFORM

The Continued Comedy of Reform

When it comes to the country's financial system I think it is clear that our lawmakers let us down over the last decade or so. It is easy to point out things that every president and administration has done wrong in the last 30 years but it is impossible to pin this on a single party because both have played a substantial role in the collapse. To see this you don't need to look any further then the two idiot, thieving, lying, cheating, stealing, scumbags that are in control, the retard from Alabama Richard Shelby and the out and out liar from Connecticut Christopher Dodd. Both are criminals, period.

As I've mentioned before here, here and here, our government has limited abilities when it comes to creating or invoking regulation against the financial services industry. This inability was put in place when then President Clinton signed the Financial Services Agreement (FSA) back in 1999 with the World Trade Organization. Effectively, this agreement eliminated, in clear language, the ability for the United States to create any laws or regulations that inhibited the financial services industry's ability to make money. When I read the agreement I was blown away by what it says, we gave up our rights when it comes to financial services!

Bill Clinton was more effective in looking out for corporations than any republican has ever been, many argue that it was Clinton that took the democratic party to the dark side of corporate America and away from the citizen. When you consider all that Clinton did, it becomes extremely difficult to argue against that line of thinking. The creation of NAFTA was clearly a way for the large Agribusinesses to shift their labor to Mexico, how was that good for the country? Right, it wasn't, isn't and won't ever be. It was good for Mexico though, their standard of living increased (slightly) while ours was diminished, at least for a lot of farmers. But I digress.

For those that haven't the previous posts here is a summary of the financial services agreement Clinton signed in 1999, it seems like anyone signing this type of document would either have to be considered a traitor against America or a complete retard, Clinton was a lot of things but not retarded. Check out the bullets below and this post, then after your disbelief go look at the actual document to confirm this criminal action actually took place. One of the by-products of the agreement was the United States formally agreeing to not break up financial services companies that are too big to fail, thanks Mr. Clinton. This is the primary reason why we still have companies that are still too big to fail even though we've all heard the political rhetoric for the last 12 months now, yet nothing has been other than to consciously make the situation worse!

See some of the bullets below from the Financial Services Agreement signed back in 1999:

• No new regulations: We agreed to a standstill provision that disallows us from either creating new regulations or reversing any existing liberalizations, this means that the ability of Congress to make any serious changes is removed and has been for about 10 years.
• Regulation Removal: Remove any regulations that adversely affect financial service members of the WTO in terms of competing or entering a market.
• No Bans on New Financial Service Products: This is the item that setup the worlds largest heist via the TARP funds and various other misdirections of tax revenue. Clearly, this particular rule had teeth that extended directly into our pockets.
• Certain Regulations Banned Outright: Basically, no regulation could apply to any financial services members of the WTO, if such regulations existed they were either removed outright or diluted so as to be useless. Refer to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 that formally eliminated the regulations put in place by Roosevelt in 1933.
• WTO Rules Supersede Laws: That's right, the agreement says that if we pass a law that doesn't comply with the WTOs rules of theft then the law is not applicable to WTO members. By the way, rules of theft is my term.

What is amazing to me is the fact that none of the political or economic pundits have formally addressed this as a major problem, I wonder why? Everyone on the financial services committee, the President and anyone else involved (like Goldman Sachs) understands this and are doing nothing more than dancing around and trying to leverage any political capital from it they can, look at Obama if your unclear. The President has been beating the drum of financial reform for a couple months now, yet the changes HIS administration put in place actually made the situation worse than it was! See this video for a summary of the last piece of financial legislation Dodd and Shelby were responsible for.

To be clear, this isn't a partisan issue but a problem that permeates politics at the core, independent of ideals, principles or even common sense. Let's face it, the corporations drive our country's politics, define our culture and decide how much a loaf of bread costs. We are controlled and manipulated through consumption and debt, refer to Greece as a proxy for all the other countries that signed the FSA, that is our destiny. I've heard many say that America's debt to GDP ratio isn't close to that of Greece or most other countries in the world, of course that is totally irelevant and doesn't drive the decisions made by investors like banks and other countries. China is funding our debt right now, what happens if they stop? It ain't good.

The primary purpose of signing the Financial Services Agreement was to eliminate the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that Roosevelt put in place to keep banks from doing exactly what they did. Certain parts of the act were talked about as being brought back by Volcker, Obama's advisor, but of course that didn't happen. There was also a discussion of setting up a separate entity to guard and protect consumers, conveniently it was decided not to create a separate entity but to house it under the Treasury, what a joke! This is shaping up to be a shell game or a bait and switch activity where we are led to believe one thing when in fact something else is actually happening.

I fundamentally believe that things will actually get worse for consumers and citizens all over the world, this recent catastrophe was orchestrated to start a process of increased dependency on debt, effectively putting the bankers in control for the long term. As I said, look at Greece as a proxy for what is to come to all of the member countries of the WTO and signers of the Financial Services Agreement. The world isn't controlled though money because the richest 3-5% percent have it all, instead it is controlled though debt which is controlled by the banks and bankers which are controlled by the 3-5%. Let me take my tin foil hat off now :)

I need to recap the efforts of our illustrious congressmen, Senator's Dodd and Shelby. These are the two people responsible for the operation, regulation and oversight of the financial services industry in this country, they have been in these roles since before the crisis. You might ask how could this have happened when we have a dedicated government agency to make sure it doesn't, the answer is actually simple and probably not very surprising, they are corrupt! But, to be fair it isn't only them, it includes everyone on the committee and sub-committees, let's identify who those people are. First, here are all the members of Congress involved:

Here are the various and useless sub-committees:

Take notice of the consituents, how are states like Montana, Idaho and South Dakota represented on a financial committee? I think they call it the good ole boy (and girl) network where the consituents are selected based on their willingness to cooperate with the ranking members wishes, this is true of most committees regardless of how it is positioned through political rhetoric. I'm not suggesting that someone from Montana wouldn't be valuable, I'm suggesting that the committees are hand picked to guarentee compliance.

Unfortunately for the baseball fans, especially Phillies phans, it turns out the Jim Bunning is right in the middle of the conspiracy and is no different than Dodd or Shelby. This makes it clear why Bunning thought it would be a good idea to get dramatic with the unemployment extension a few weeks back, what a piece of shit. I knew he was doing it for a reason, he obviously doesn't care about our debt, as a Senator for the last forever he is a big part of the problem. Did I mention he was a piece of shit?

What is coming? Reform is coming, that's for sure. How will it work? It won't. The most likely scenario is that more government infrastructure will be built as part of the Treasury department (translated to Goldman Sachs) to manage financial services risk as it relates to the consumer, this will of course be a joke as it has been for the last two decades. The more things change the more they stay the same, that's the motto on the hill.

Expect continued big talk from Obama and the rest of Congress, scolding Wall Street in the news while shifting more and more tax dollars directly into their pockets. The next few months will represent a well conceived, long time scripted play in which the politicians act like they hate Wall Street and the Bankers but in the end do exactly what they want. Obama and the democrats will lead this charge because they know Americans are sick of it, this is the best kind of political capital where strong rhetoric will get you votes.

One of the biggest changes that occurred, albeit subtle, was the elimination of day trading as a viable activity. This was done intentionally because it reduced the ability of the market makers to manipulate the market and specific stock prices. Believe it or not, the day traders were connected to what was happening because of their diligence, so when a stock was in play they were all over it. This didn't help the market makers, in fact it increased the amount of required capital to perform the manipulation. I've had this debate before and many people disagree with me, do the research and form your own opinion.

Summary

To summarize, both the majority and minority players in these committees and sub-committees either didn't do their job or they committed criminal actions, one of the two or both. It is clear that Americans are tired of corporations running our politics and defining our lives (see here, here and here) but it isn't likely that we will fix it, the odds are stacked against us. The candidates, regardless of party affiliation, are all ultimately selected by the corporations through their donations and contributions, we don't have a chance against that. Basically, anyone that is running for a high level political office is more than likely in the pockets of corporate sponsorship, how depressing is that?

My motto has been "don't vote for the incumbent" but it really doesn't matter who we vote for, the game is completely rigged anyway. At this point even term limits wouldn't be effective, it will take a radical set of circumstances to change our destiny now. Greece will (or has already) lost its sovereignty, whatever was left of it. A proud nation and good people destroyed by bankers and greed, this is a future we can all expect if something isn't done soon.