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Thread: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

  1. Link to Post #3361
    Avalon Member Sabrina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    BIX WEIR: ALERT: World’s Largest Derivative Holder…Wobbling!

    Posted on November 18,

    All eyes are on Deutsche Bank’s $75T Derivative portfolio at the moment as they just announced they will be “scaling back” their most profitable nuclear ponzi scheme…Credit Default Swaps!

    Deutsche Bank Scales Back Trading in Credit Derivatives

    http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...t-swap-trading

    “The bank is exiting part of the market as trading linked to swaps protecting against the default of individual companies plunged from as much as $32 trillion before the financial crisis to less than $11 trillion, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. Trading in the market, which was blamed for helping to exacerbate the financial crisis, has become more expensive as regulators across U.S. and Europe have stepped up scrutiny and increased balance-sheet requirements making it harder to carry out trades.”

    “Earlier this month, the company announced that the co-head of its fixed-income trading business was stepping down, leaving Richard Herman to become the sole head of the department, according to the company.”

    END

    Remember…for every derivative written there is a counter-party taking the other side of that bet.

    Keep an eye on this story as it can bring the financial markets to a halt if it starts spreading to other banks.

    My advice – Stay indoors…and not just for the crappy weather!

    May the Road you choose be the Right Road.

    Bix Weir

    www.RoadtoRoota.com
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    Recently read this in Rolling Stone and thought it would fit in rather well here.
    What is so depressing though no longer shocking is the government's collusion in the cover-up.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...tness-20141106

    The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare

    She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore.

    "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'"

    Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower.

    Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

    Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.

    Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. "My closest family and friends don't know what I've been living with," she says. "Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview."

    Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.

    She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says.



    Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...#ixzz3JQPKCZGr

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  5. Link to Post #3363
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    UK PM warns on second global crash
    CNBCBy Matt Clinch | CNBC – Mon, Nov 17, 2014 9:45 PM NZDT

    https://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/uk...084520730.html

    The global economy is again showing worrying signs of an imminent financial crisis, according to British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is warning of a dangerous backdrop of instability and uncertainty.

    Writing in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, he said that this weekend's G-20 summit in Brisbane had further underlined the problems facing the global economy.

    "Six years on from the financial crash that brought the world to its knees, red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global economy," he said in the article published late Sunday.

    Read More Banker pay must stop encouraging misconduct: Carney
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/102190028?__s...&doc=102190211

    Global trade talks have stalled, the euro zone is teetering on the brink of recession and emerging markets are now slowing down, he said. The spread of Ebola, the conflict in the Middle East and Russia's "illegal" actions in Ukraine are all adding to the global insecurity, according to Cameron.

    His words echo those of the Bank of England last week, which said that there were downside risks for the U.K. from weaker euro area activity which could also weigh on exports and be associated with rising market volatility.

    The U.K. is heavily indebted compared to most of its peers but has been praised by organizations like the International Monetary Fund for being the fastest growing G-7 economy since the financial crash of 2008. The government - majority-led by the right-of-center Conservative Party - has followed a path of austerity and fiscal restraint since coming to power in 2010, although it has still missed deficit targets during that period.

    Read More Global markets 'living on borrowed time': Wilbur Ross
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/102190203?__s...&doc=102190211

    Criticized at first, the austerity policies have come at the same time as a significant drop in unemployment in the U.K., with the Bank of England now looking to raise interest rates next year. Opposition policymakers argue the country has become unbalanced, with poorer citizens bearing the brunt of the cuts in spending.

    This thesis gained some backing on Monday with a new report that showed that the poorest groups in U.K. society lost the biggest share of their incomes on average following the benefit and direct tax changes since 2010. The research, by the London School of Economics and the University of Essex, also showed that the changes have not contributed to cutting the deficit and have instead been spent on tax breaks.

    Read More Japan shocks as economy slips into recession
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/102184733?__s...&doc=102190211

    In his article, Cameron said that there had been "difficult decisions" in recent years for the U.K. economy but underlined that it was "vital" that the U.K. stuck to its long-term economic plan. With the country heading towards a general election, set to take place in May next year, Cameron also used the article as an opportunity to put forward his case for re-election. His words highlighted that the economy will be a key battleground for politicians next year.

    "In six months' time, Britain will face a choice: the long-term plan that has seen it prosper, or the easy answers that would surely have seen it fail," he said.

    "By sticking to our long-term plan at home and standing up for Britain's interests abroad, we will do everything possible to protect our economy."

  6. Link to Post #3364
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    I don't follow Poof very much, but he/she is right on all the changes and dynamics happening at the moment...outside UK PM Cameron's control as in his doom mongering comments above. Look at Bank of England chief's proposals on previous page as just one example ....

    http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2014...-17-14-chains/

    POOF SAID: “For today’s message– here is the final scoop for the day……. “Changes are occurring on almost every front. Laws, rules, regulations, protocols, disciplines, levels of privacy, changes in currency values, exchange values, level of precious metals, types of currency backing, use of digital funding, or not, European and Asian exchanges, plus South American exchanges, everything is topsy turby and you wonder why someone like the Zapster, as someone called him– could even put together a review?

    “Every time a change occurs the trickle-down effect gets broadened. It might help to think about the way that humanity is changing as well and to recall that it doesn’t take a majority of changed minds to impact the entire population. the 100th Monkey Experiment comes to mind. Reference: the Cultural Creatives -remember that all along you have been told you are change-agents.

    story at the link
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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  8. Link to Post #3365
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://www.channel4.com/news/south-y...l-exploitation

    18 Nov UK

    Police watchdog probes Rotherham abuse officers

    The independent police watchdog announces 10 South Yorkshire Police officers are to be investigated over their conduct in relation to complaints of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

    The IPCC said the officers were all identified through the Jay report, which found that more than 1,400 children had been subjected to sexual exploitation in the town between 1997 and 2013.

    Professor Alexis Jay's report criticised Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police for not taking action when children as young as 11 were raped by men, beaten, abducted, and regularly trafficked to other cities to be abused.

    'Positive step'
    The watchdog's commissioner Kathryn Stone said: "The amount of public concern across the country about this episode and the impact on confidence in the police means it is important that a fully independent investigation is conducted to establish how South Yorkshire Police dealt with child sexual exploitation.

    "I sincerely hope that victims and their families will see this investigation as a positive step towards answering the many questions they must have. I have met with South Yorkshire Police and am reassured by their commitment to fully cooperate with the investigation."

    Today the IPCC identified seven parts of the report, which was published in August, that could lead to misconduct allegations against the officers under investigation.

    The officers were originally part of a group of 13 referred to the IPCC. Two officers will not face investigation at this time, while the other is still under review.

    and

    http://news.sky.com/story/1375951/vu...e-warns-report

    19 Nov UK

    Vulnerable Kids At Risk Of Abuse, Warns Report

    The Ofsted report says many local authorities are still failing to deal with the threat of child sexual exploitation.


    Vulnerable children at risk of sexual exploitation are being put in danger due to unacceptable failings by social services, health workers and police.

    AdChoices

    A report by the education watchdog Ofsted found local authorities have been "too slow" to face up to their responsibilities in preventing child sexual exploitation.

    It also said more needed to be done to improve inter-agency co-operation, in the wake of the Rotherham abuse scandal.

    more at link
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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  10. Link to Post #3366
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    All breathtakingly sad. But the main stream media are now getting their teeth into these on-going stories and cover-ups, regardless of high profile names allegedly involved.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...edophiles.html

    18 Nov UK (in the establishment newspaper the Telegraph..)

    Father claims Scotland Yard covered up son's murder by Westminster paedophiles

    Exclusive: The father of murdered eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra says police ignored a tip-off that the boy may have been abducted by a VIP paedophile ring


    The father of an eight-year-old boy murdered in the 1980s claims that his son may have died at the hands of a Westminster paedophile ring - and that Scotland Yard helped “cover up” the crime.

    Vishambar Mehrotra, a retired magistrate, recorded a male prostitute saying in a telephone call that his son may have been abducted and taken to a now notorious guesthouse in 1981.


    He took the recording to police at the time but claims they refused to investigate an allegation implicating “judges and politicians”. Mr Mehrotra said it had been a “huge cover-up”.

    The Metropolitan Police announced last week that they were investigating possible murders linked to the Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London. The new inquiry began when an alleged victim came forward claiming to have witnessed three boys being killed, including one allegedly strangled by a Conservative MP during a depraved sex game.

    He claimed that high-profile paedophiles abused children at locations in London in the 1970s and 1980s.

    Mr Mehrotra’s son Vishal was abducted as he walked home to Putney after watching the Prince of Wales and Diana Spencer ride to their wedding in a carriage on July 29 1981.

    He had gone ahead of other family members for the last few hundred yards. He was last seen less than a mile from the guesthouse.

    Mr Mehrotra claims he received an anonymous call from a male prostitute in the months following. A man he guessed to be in his 20s told him Vishal may have been abducted by “highly placed” paedophiles operating from the Elm Guest House, Mr Mehrotra said.

    He told The Telegraph: “I was contacted by a young man who seemed to be in his 20s. He told me he believed Vishal may have been taken by paedophiles in the Elm Guest House near Barnes Common.

    “He said there were very highly placed people there. He talked about judges and politicians who were abusing little boys.” Mr Mehrotra, a solicitor who was a JP at Wimbledon magistrates’ court until retiring in 2006, claims the man said he had already informed police about activities at the guesthouse, but had received no response.

    He added: “I recorded the whole 15-minute conversation and took it to police. But instead of investigating it, they just pooh-poohed it and I never heard anything about the tape again. The whole thing went cold.

    “At that time I trusted the police. But when nothing happened, I became confused and concerned.

    “Now it is clear to me that there has been a huge cover up. There is no doubt in my mind.”

    In February 1982, part of Vishal’s skeleton was found in woodland in West Sussex. There was no trace of his legs, pelvis or lower spine, nor of his outer clothes, his sleeveless vest or his Superman underpants.

    At the inquest into his death, the West Sussex coroner Mark Calvert Lee recorded an open verdict but said “foul play” was likely.

    Police said 20,000 people had been interviewed, half of them in nearby Putney, and 6,000 properties checked.

    Mr Mehrotra, now 69 and living in West Molesey near Hampton Court, said he had “hardly been contacted” by police in the intervening years.

    He said he had not been spoken to in recent months despite the alleged witness reporting the murder of three boys at the time Vishal vanished.

    Mr Mehrotra said: “This guesthouse was right next to where Vishal disappeared. There were predatory people there who were taking young boys and abusing them.

    “It seems to me that it all adds up, so I can’t understand why the police have again failed to get in contact with me. I think the revelations of Savile and others in recent months have opened up a Pandora’s box. Hopefully everything will all come out soon.”
    In June 1982, four months after Vishal’s remains were found, police raided the Elm Guest House.

    Dozens of men were questioned, reportedly including at least 30 who were prominent in public life and business. It was widely reported at the time that the raids were linked to Vishal’s disappearance. The Times reported that the investigation had included the disappearance of another boy, Martin Allen, 15, missing since Guy Fawkes Night, 1979, whose body has never been discovered. The son of the chauffeur to the Australian High Commissioner, he was last seen waving goodbye to a school friend at King’s Cross Underground station.\

    Police at the time dismissed the reports as “nonsense”. Soon afterwards, lawyers acting on behalf of the guesthouse threatened newspapers with legal action if they continued reporting on its alleged activities.

    Martin’s brother said on Tuesday that police should reopen the investigation into the teenager’s disappearance. Kevin Allen, 51, said he had always suspected a cover-up after police told him all the case files had been lost in a freak flood.

    He said: “I think it’s a new lead. Anything to ensure these people don’t get away with it. I think there are powerful forces involved in this. Years ago I was warned by a policeman that if I looked too deep into this then I might get hurt. I’ve never forgotten that.

    “We have barely heard anything for 20 years, but there are other missing cases where the police barely stopped looking.

    “My dad died never knowing what happened to Martin. We would love to have an answer for my mother before she passes away.”

    In May 1983, as police wound up the inquiry into Vishal Mehrotra’s death, Carole and Harry Kasir, the owners of the Elm Guest House were fined £1,000 each and given suspended nine-month sentences at the Old Bailey for “running a disorderly house”. They were found not guilty of living off immoral earnings and having obscene films.

    Five years later Carole told child protection officers that children from the council-run Grafton Close Children’s Home had been supplied to the brothel. She provided names of people who had frequented the guesthouse.

    The Liberal MP Cyril Smith, now dead, has been widely alleged to have abused children from Grafton Close at The Elm.

    At an inquest into her death in 1990, members of The National Association of Young People in Care said that Kasir had lived in fear of her life since the hotel was exposed. Christopher Fay said: “The reasons for her death are all tied up in this child pornography ring at the hotel.

    “She was hounded and harassed by police and security services. She knew all the top people who had been involved in the ring at the hotel.”

    Scotland Yard launched Operation Fairbank two years ago to look into suggestions that high profile political figures had been involved.

    Officers have set up a new strand of the inquiry, Operation Midland, after being passed information about the three alleged murders.

    The allegations emerged when a man in his 40s came forward claiming to have been one of around 15 boys who were abused by a powerful paedophile network 30 years ago.

    Some of the abuse allegedly took place at flats in the Dolphin Square development in Pimlico, where a number of politicians have had London homes.

    According to the man, a 12-year-old boy was strangled by a Conservative MP at a town house in front of other victims.
    On another occasion, a boy of around 10 was deliberately run down and killed by a car being driven by one of his abusers, the man claimed.

    The Attorney General on Tuesday said he would back an investigation into the allegations if there was evidence to support the claims. Jeremy Wright, speaking in the Commons, said: “My view is that the Crown Prosecution Service should pursue cases where the evidence exists to wherever the evidence leads, and that is regardless of the position held by the person being investigated.

    “And if evidence is brought to light to justify such an investigation, I would expect it to be carried out.”

    A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the force would not comment on an ongoing investigation.

    and

    http://aanirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/...on-crimea.html


    19 Nov

    'CIA CHILD ABUSE'; IDAHO, LONDON, CRIMEA, GERMANY...

    story at link
    Last edited by Sabrina; 19th November 2014 at 09:51.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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  12. Link to Post #3367
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    Another so called banker suicide at the forum thread here:

    https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...banker-suicide

    and more here:

    http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/1...ess-reporting/

    20 Nov

    A Citigroup Banker Dies – Along With Responsible Press Reporting

    By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 20, 2014

    Depending on where and when you got your news yesterday on the tragic death of Shawn D. Miller, a Managing Director of Wall Street mega bank, Citigroup, you were either emphatically told he died of a suicide or you were led to believe he was murdered. By late evening yesterday, the story had disintegrated into wild speculation. The New York Daily News ran this stunning headline, based on anonymous sources, at 9:22 p.m.: “Banker, 42, slashed his own throat in Manhattan bathtub during drug- and booze-filled bender: sources.”

    It is becoming abundantly clear that if you work for a major Wall Street firm and die a sudden death, it will be shaped, molded, twisted and contorted until it fits with the suicide narrative – no matter how strongly the facts argue otherwise.


    This is what we can reliably report this morning: Police were called to the scene at 120 Greenwich Street at 3:11 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18, a trendy, upscale area of Tribeca in Lower Manhattan. A friend of Miller’s had become concerned when he could not reach him by phone and called the doorman of the building to ask him to check on him. The doorman found Miller in the tub of his bathroom with knife lacerations to the throat and arms and called the police. EMS responders declared Miller dead at the scene.

    All of this occurred on Tuesday afternoon, giving the New York Post plenty of time to check and double check their facts with the New York Police Department. In an on line post at the New York Post web site at 6:30 a.m. yesterday – Wednesday, the day after the death – the New York Post ran the following bold headline: “Banker found dead with throat slit in apparent suicide: cops.” That article reported that the police believed it was a suicide because “a knife was found under his body, sources said.”

    But at 3:14 p.m. yesterday, the international wire service, Reuters, reported that “no weapon was found.”

    At 4:05 p.m. yesterday, the New York Post ran a new headline: “Hunt on for man last seen with dead Citigroup exec.” This article states that “Police have not yet found the weapon used to cut Miller’s throat,” confirming what was reported by Reuters less than an hour earlier.

    But then came the outrageous headline at the New York Daily News at 9:22 p.m. last evening, based on unnamed sources, suggesting that Miller had gone on a drug- and booze-filled bender and killed himself. The newspaper reported: “When crime scene investigators moved Miller’s body, they discovered a knife under him, leading them to believe he slashed his own throat and collapsed into the tub on top of the weapon, sources said.”

    The wild and contradictory reporting instantly reminded us of how the London dailies had reported on the tragic death of JPMorgan Vice President, Gabriel Magee, in January of this year. Magee’s body was found in a pool of blood on a ninth floor landing of JPMorgan’s European headquarters building in London.

    The London Evening Standard tweeted: “Bankers watch JP Morgan IT exec fall to his death from roof of London HQ,” which linked to their article declaring that “A man plunged to his death from a Canary Wharf tower in front of thousands of horrified commuters today.”

    The London Evening Standard’s reporting was flatly contradicted by the Sunday Times, which reported that “Gabriel Magee’s body lay for several hours before it was found at 8am last Tuesday.”

    No single witness was ever identified by the police to say they had observed Magee plunging from the top of the building. The ninth floor landing was accessible from an inside stairway of the building, meaning his body could have arrived there through means other than a fall.

    Both Citigroup and JPMorgan have paid billions of dollars to settle fraud charges by regulators. Both are also under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. In addition, both banks hold life insurance on many of their employees. When an employee dies, the death benefit is paid to the corporation tax free.

    The practice is called Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI). Just four of Wall Street’s largest banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup) hold a total of $68.1 billion in Bank-Owned Life Insurance assets according to their regulatory filings. According to Michael Myers, an expert on BOLI, those assets could potentially mean that just these four banks are holding $681 billion in face amount of life insurance on their workers, or possibly even more.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-1...ring-confident

    20 Nov US

    The Latest Scandal: Goldman, Fed Employees Busted For Illegally Sharing Confidential Information

    On the morning of Friday, September 26, in addition to the shocking news of Bill Gross' departure from Pimco, the world was just as shocked, or not as the case was for many, that a former NY Fed staffer, Carmen Segarra, who had been previously fired for suggesting that Goldman Sachs has an undue influence on the NY Fed and gets a preferential treatment (certainly as a result of NY Fed's president Bill Dudley being working previously at Goldman Sachs), had released nearly 50 hours of tapes confirming her allegations: that the NY Fed was nothing but a branch of the bank that controls every central bank. The full details were presented in "How Goldman Controls The New York Fed: 47.5 Hours Of "The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes" Explain."

    Ironically it was on that very day that another recent Goldman hire from the NY Fed - a classic case of, as the NY Times puts it, the "revolving door, the symbolic portal that connects financial regulators to Wall Street" - a 29-year-old former New York Fed regulator named Rohit Bansal, got into hot water after something "shocking" was revealed: he had an inside source at the NY Fed who was providing him with illegal, confidential information on a regular basis.



    Here is William Dudley, formerly of Goldman Sachs and president
    of the New York Fed, saying "I don’t think anyone should question
    our motives." It may have been an order.

    As Bloomberg notes, following the re-escalation of the Segarra scandal, Bansal was promptly fired. Of course, had Carmen not revealed to the world just how extensive Goldman's domination of the NY Fed is, as Bansal's action demonstrated, he would still be fed confidential information from the New York Fed itself.

    more at the link

    ¤=[Post Update]=¤

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...y-charged.html


    20 Nov Australia

    Australia’s 'most corrupt politician', is finally charged

    Eddie “The Godfather” Obeid will finally face court after daring prosecutors to charge him


    One of the most corrupt politicians in Australian history – former state minister Eddie Obeid, known as “he who must be obeyed” - will finally be prosecuted after an inquiry found he lobbied colleagues over leases for restaurants without revealing that his family owned them.

    Mr Obeid and fellow minister Ian Macdonald, who has also been charged, practiced corruption in the state of New South Wales that was “on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps [a colonial-era corps that had a monopoly on the liquor trade]", a corruption inquiry heard in 2012.

    Mr Macdonald, known as “Sir Lunchalot”, has been charged over the granting of a lucrative mining licence but may face further charges after receiving the services of a prostitute as apparent payment for assisting a property developer. The prostitute, named Tiffanie, told the inquiry the encounter was so repulsive she wanted to vomit.
    Mr Obeid has previously dared prosecutors to charge him and appeared defiant outside his sandstone mansion in Sydney. Branded “The Godfather” by the media, he has insisted he is the victim of a political witch-hunt.

    "I have no concern whatsoever that in a court of law we'll be able to fight the evidence, and I'm very confident."

    Mr Obeid, 71, a long-serving Labor MP in the New South Wales state government, was born in Lebanon and worked in Sydney as a taxi driver before taking control of a local Arabic newspaper. He served as an MP from 1991 to 2011, while he and his family built up a sizable portfolio of businesses and properties. During his time in parliament, he became a factional kingpin and exercised influence over numerous MPs and ministers, who relied on him for their positions.

    “[He] treated the state as his personal fiefdom,” historian Ross Fitzgerald wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald in August.

    Mr Obeid’s influence is said to extend to his small hometown of Matrite in north Lebanon, where he reportedly owns a $US1 million palace.

    A corruption inquiry in June found that Mr Obeid “misused his position as an MP” and sought to lobby other MPs and public servants for favourable decisions affecting his family’s restaurant leases in Circular Quay, a popular harbour-side tourist district. He could still face charges over other corrupt dealings investigated by the inquiry.

    Mr Obeid said the corruption inquiries were “nothing but sham inquiries”.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://www.channel4.com/news/spy-cab...rked-with-gchq

    20 Nov

    Spy cable revealed: how telecoms firm worked with GCHQ

    One of the UK's largest communications firms had a leading role in creating the surveillance system exposed by Edward Snowden, it can be revealed.

    Cable and Wireless even went as far as providing traffic from a rival foreign communications company, handing information sent by millions of internet users worldwide over to spies.

    The firm, which was bought by Vodafone in July 2012, was part of a programme called Mastering the Internet, under which British spies used private companies to help them gather and store swathes of internet traffic; a quarter of which passes through the UK. Top secret documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and seen by Channel 4 News show that GCHQ developed what it called "partnerships" with private companies under codenames. Cable and Wireless was called Gerontic.

    A company such as Vodafone, which has responsibility for so many customers, has to take a clear stand against these data grabs

    German Green Party MP
    Under the moniker, the company carried out tests on equipment used to carry out the surveillance, it came up with suggestions on how the spies could go about tapping its network, and even had a GCHQ employee working full-time within the company.

    And a 2011 document reveals that Cable and Wireless went further. The company rented space on a cable owned by Indian telecoms company Reliance Communications that stretched from Asia across the Middle East and landed in Porthcurno in Cornwall. Reliance's transatlantic cable lands in Sennen Cove six miles to the north. And the two cables come together at nearby Skewjack Farm. Documents show that in 2011, this allowed Britain's spies to access all traffic from Reliance's main cable and send it to the GCHQ base up the coast in Bude.

    Surveillance
    Top secret documents from GCHQ show it was this access point, codenamed Nigella and run by Cable and Wireless, that allowed Britain's spies to gather the private communications of millions of internet users worldwide.

    Channel 4 News has been unable to establish whether Reliance Communications was served with a warrant to authorise this and the company has not responded to our calls. Either way, from having no access to the cable at all, GCHQ planned to take in a trillion gigabytes of data per second.

    The documents show an increasingly close relationship between the spy agency and Cable and Wireless, which has been operating submarine cables from the UK for more than a century. From 2008 until at least 2010, Cable and Wireless held regular meetings with GCHQ and was paid tens of millions of pounds to establish surveillance on web traffic as it flowed through its networks. At one point, the Mastering the Internet programme was costing £1m per month.

    Cable and Wireless was bought by Vodafone in a billion-pound takeover. Documents seen by this programme appear to show that the Nigella access point was still feeding GCHQ's interception programmes as late as April 2013 - long after Vodafone's takeover had been completed. And GCHQ's partner company was still codenamed Gerontic.

    'Consequences'
    Vodafone insists GCHQ was never given direct access to its network and that any interception could only take place with a warrant. It also said GCHQ can only access the customer data of other telecoms companies if it serves them with a warrant too.

    The damage has not only affected private citizens. In Germany, a key market where Vodafone has 30 million customers, has already been rocked after the Snowden documents showed that Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone was intercepted. And now, leaked documents from government cyber security experts have singled out Vodafone uniquely for criticism, questioning its ability to protect officials' data. Some politicians are now calling for Vodafone's contract with the German government to be pulled.

    German Green Party MP Florian von Notz said: "the consequences would be to immediately suspend the contract, or cancel it. I believe cancellation is possible and legal. A company such as Vodafone, which has responsibility for so many customers, has to take a clear stand against these data grabs."

    A Vodafone spokesman said: "the law in Germany governing all these areas of privacy and data protection are essentially the same as the laws in the UK. What we have in the UK is a system based on warrants, where we receive a lawful instruction from an agency or authority to allow them to have access to communications data on our network. We have to comply with that warrant and we do and there are processes for us to do that which we're not allowed to talk about because the law constrains us from revealing these things. We don't go beyond what the law requires.

    A GCHQ spokesman said: "it is longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters; Furthermore, all of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight."
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    from ECETI 20 Nov

    Mexico, Sign of the Times

    Today is Revolution Day in Mexico. Just recently according to the press and the locals 43 students were killed on the way to a protest. There were six others including the bus driver with a total of 49. They were on their way to protest a party and speech by the governor's wife who decided to have them what seems to be permanently removed. She tried to escape the country but was apprehended. Today people are coming out all over Mexico in demonstrations. Mexico City may have as many as a million people which in a grand understatement are not happy campers. This could turn into an Arab spring in Mexico. It seems events like these are transpiring all over the world. People are finished with the corruption and tyranny. It is part of the awakening and healing process. Iceland lead the way as a solution to the problem which always boils down to the banksters, installed puppets and behind the scenes manipulation having nothing to do with the will of the people.

    I believe Revolution Day will come to America after it has its own Arab spring. It will take a trigger point like in Mexico that will generate a mass uprising. The door is always open to peaceful solutions, many of which are already in place and well underway. You will not hear about them in the mainstream corporate owned media. It will come through alternative media. Statistics have proven people have lost faith in the main stream media and are fast awakening to the propaganda machine it has become. The transformation cannot come without a transformation in consciousness and the will of the people demonstrated in mass.

    We are fast approaching critical mass, what some call the hundred monkey effect. Resistance is futile. We either flow with and align ourselves with the new energies which are exponentially rising or take the downward spiral. Everything is being accelerated. Action/Reaction, karma as well as the positive attitudes, emotions, and deeds. It is time to choose wisdom over cleverness. You cannot outsmart your soul and spirit. Right thought and right action will be necessary in the days to come. Universal Law is coming to humanity and the Earth. We cannot hide from our selves, our karma or outwit the Source.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World





    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/11...-bankers-wars/

    All Wars are Bankers’ Wars

    Michael Rivero’s 2013 Documentary

    By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall


    The purpose of war, according to radio host Michael Rivero, is to force central banks on countries that try to issue their own money. He makes a compelling argument, illustrated by numerous historical examples. The film’s main value, in my view, is in dispelling common misconceptions about where money comes from. Contrary to popular belief, western democracies don’t issue the money they use to run government services. They borrow the money at interest from privately owned central banks. In the US, this private central bank is called the Federal Reserve.


    story at link
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/...s-new-york-fed

    21 Nov US

    New York Fed chief gets grilled at Senate hearing on oversight failures

    Pointed questions and plenty of ire were put to William Dudley regarding alleged coziness between his investigators and the banks they supervise


    A Senate hearing on the Federal Reserve’s oversight of banks turned into a roast of New York Federal Reserve president William Dudley, who tried to fend off complaints from several angry senators and counted not one supporter on his side.

    The surprisingly fiery Friday hearing – entitled Improving Financial Institution Supervision: Examining and Addressing Regulatory Capture – was held to examine whether the Fed was overlooking conflicts of interest between its investigators and the banks they supervise.


    The hearing was inspired by complaints from the whistleblower Carmen Segarra, a former Fed bank examiner who has claimed she was silenced by her bosses at the New York Fed during her supervision of Goldman Sachs. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said during the hearing that Segarra had done “a public service in bringing [these problems] to light”.

    Segarra’s complaints highlighted the revolving door problem at the Fed, whereby many examiners go to work for banks they once disciplined. That opens the door for Fed employees to leak information to banks. One such case, highlighted this week, caused Goldman Sachs to fire a young banker who had come from the Fed.

    “The Fed is too cozy with the very banks where its oversight was needed,” Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said during the hearing.

    “It’s not surprising that Wall Street always manages to stay one step ahead of the sheriff,” Brown said. Brown said the Fed’s problems showed that “the agencies handcuff themselves or public servants curry favor with the banks they supervise”.

    It was the second hearing in as many days to slam the Fed, putting pressure on the central bank to examine its oversight of the US financial system. A Senate investigation found on Thursday that the Fed put the financial system at risk by allowing banks to get away with gaining an unfair advantage in the commodities markets.

    Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, reiterated that point to Dudley: “Until you’re willing to take meaningful action, our financial system and our whole economy remain at risk.”

    Dudley was a target for several senators, including Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who complained that the nation’s central bank had gone too easy on wrongdoers in banking. Brown expressed concern about “Americans who lost their jobs, who lost their pensions, who lost their savings” because of wrongdoing at banks.

    Dudley found no allies. The senators grilled him for not spotting failures ranging from the Libor rate-fixing scandal to the London Whale mess at JP Morgan. Dudley countered that the London Whale problems originated mostly out of the firm’s London office. However, a Senate investigation last year drew testimony from American bank examiners at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency who said that JP Morgan had defied their attempts to gain understanding of the bank’s workings.

    Dudley, a former Goldman Sachs economist, took over leadership of the New York Fed in 2009 when his predecessor, Tim Geithner, became US treasury secretary. His Goldman Sachs experience drew some grumbling from Brown, who said of the commodities hearing the day before: “Goldman Sachs was defended by some of my colleagues, as they always are around here.”

    Warren landed the sharpest punches against Dudley, interrupting him in hopes of forcing him to acknowledge the Fed had failed, as she saw it, in supervising banks.

    Warren also pressed the issue on Libor, an international interest rate that according to regulators was manipulated by traders for years. “Do you wish you had looked at it earlier, investigated it before they had cheated people for years?” Warren asked Dudley.

    Warren, more than the other senators, asked Dudley to account for his behavior as leader of the New York Fed.

    “I think there’s a terrible cultural problem at banks,” Warren said, “but given the long list of supervisory failures at the New York Fed, both before and during your tenure, would you say that the Fed has its own cultural problems?”

    Dudley objected that the Fed had not failed, but Warren disagreed.

    “Change has to come from the top and it has to go all the way through the institution,” Warren said, following up with the pointed response that “either you need to fix it, Mr Dudley, or we need to get someone who will”.

    Dudley, trained as an economist rather than a bank regulator, fended off the abuse by objecting: “I’m more of a fire warden, not a cop on the beat.” He also countered the senators’ points by saying the bank commissioned a 2009 examination of its own supervisory policies and has helped jail executives at BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse.

    ¤=[Post Update]=¤

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/...uction-rigging

    21 Nov UK

    Bank of England investigates staff over possible auction rigging

    Investigation by lawyer looks into possible manipulation of money market auctions in 2007 and 2008


    The Bank of England is investigating whether staff knew or even aided possible manipulation of auctions it held at the onset of the financial crisis to pump liquidity into the banking system, the Financial Times has reported.

    The newspaper said the formal inquiry began during the summer and the central bank asked the British lawyer who looked into the Bank’s role in a foreign exchange scandal to head the new investigation.

    A spokesman for the bank said he could not comment on the details in the report.

    “If the bank were conducting an investigation or review of any of its activities, as it does from time to time, it would be wholly inappropriate to provide a running commentary via the press,” the spokesman said.

    “I can tell you that no actions have been taken or are currently being contemplated against any employee of the bank.“

    The FT, quoting people familiar with the situation, said the investigation would look into whether Bank of England money market auctions in late 2007 and early 2008 were rigged, and whether officials were party to any manipulation.

    About 10 Bank staff have been interviewed as part of the inquiry and have been provided with defence lawyers at the expense of the Bank, the FT said.

    The report comes little more than a week after an investigation, headed by lawyer Anthony Grabiner and commissioned by the Bank’s oversight committee, found no evidence that any of its official had been involved in improper behaviour in relation to a foreign exchange trading scandal.

    The FT said Grabiner had been asked to conduct the new investigation.

    The Bank dismissed its chief foreign exchange dealer last week, saying it found information about serious misconduct but it stressed the case was unrelated to the foreign exchange scandal.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    http://www.theguardian.com/business/...ing-regulators

    21 Nov UK

    RBS admits mistake led to overstating financial strength to regulators

    Shares in RBS fell by almost 3% as it emerged bank has least margin for error among UK rivals


    Royal Bank of Scotland has admitted it made a mistake that led to it overstating its financial strength to banking regulators.

    Shares in RBS tumbled by almost 3% at one point on Friday as investors digested the bank’s announcement that it is less able to withstand an economic crisis than previously thought.


    The bank, which is 80% owned by the British taxpayer, has still passed the stress test exercise designed by European banking regulators, but among UK banks it has the least margin for error. An RBS spokesperson said the stress tests were a “theoretical” exercise that had no impact on its most recent capital position.

    One in five European banks failed the stress tests that were published last month by the European Banking Authority. The tests were intended to prevent a rerun of the economic crisis, with banks required to show they had enough capital to withstand a series of economic shocks such as a sudden rise in unemployment, a sharp fall in house prices and decline in economic growth. The banks were asked to model how a slide into recession imposing £20bn of losses would affect their common equity tier 1 ratio – a key measure of financial strength based on its earnings.

    Under Friday’s revised results, RBS has found that its capital position in a crisis would be weaker than it previously thought: it would have a common equity tier 1 ratio of 5.7%, scraping above the EBA pass rate of 5.5%, but significantly less comfortable than the 6.7% it reported last month.

    The revised results mean that RBS beat the threshold by the narrowest margin among UK banks: Lloyds came in at 6.2%, followed by Barclays at 7.1% and HSBC at 9.3%. RBS said that if it was repeating the stress-test exercise based on its latest earnings figures, it would have a stronger financial cushion. The bank said it had improved its CET 1 ratio by 220 basis points to 10.8% by 30 September, compared to 8.6% at the end of last year.

    The mistake was discovered by officials at the Bank of England, who spotted an anomaly in RBS’s figures after the pan-European results were published in late October. Officials at Threadneedle Street contacted RBS, which amended the figures and filed the results to the EBA on Friday. No errors were uncovered at any other UK bank, although Deutsche Bank amended one of its figures shortly after the stress test results were published.

    A spokesperson for RBS said the bank would be looking into how the mistake was made: “The result remains a pass under the most stressed scenario, and there is no impact on our last reported capital position of 10.8% or our 2016 capital target of at least 12%. We are examining how this mistake was made, and will be working with our regulators as we do so.”

    The Bank of England will publish the results of its own stress tests on UK banks on 16 December and RBS is likely to come under even closer scutiny after this latest error.

    The bailed-out bank is still reeling from a £56m fine imposed by banking regulators this week, in response to an IT breakdown in 2012 that saw 6.5m people, 10% of the population, locked out of their accounts. RBS issued an apology for the “unacceptable weakness” and said it had docked £6m in bonuses from staff after the IT collapse which affected customers at RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    One take on the recent meetings:

    http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle40239.htm

    What Really Happened in Beijing: Putin, Obama, Xi And The Back Story The Media Won’t Tell You

    Ukraine, Iran's nukes, the price of oil: There are ties worthy of a Bourne film, if the media connected the dots

    By Patrick L. Smith

    November 16, 2014 "ICH" - "Salon"- By way of events on the foreign side, the past few weeks start to resemble some once-in-a-while event in the heavens when everyone is supposed to go out and watch as the sun, moon and stars align. There are lots of things happening, and if we put them all together, the way Greek shepherds imagined constellations, a picture emerges. Time to draw the picture.

    The situation on the ground in Ukraine is getting messy again. Equally, events of the past year now leave Ukraine’s economy not far from sheer extinction. You have not read of this because it does not fit the approved story, but Ukraine’s heart barely beats. Further east, we hear in the financial markets that the ruble’s decline brings Russia to the brink of another financial collapse.

    Let’s see. Oil prices are now below $80 a barrel. It costs me nearly $20 less to put gasoline in my car than it did a year ago, and good enough. But why has the price of crude tumbled in so short an interval? It makes little sense when you gather the facts, and — goes without saying — you get no help with that from our media.

    Let’s keep on trucking. Secretary of State Kerry went to Oman for another round of talks on the Iranian nuclear question last weekend. Russia recently emerged as a potentially key part of a deal, which will be the make-or-break of Kerry’s record. In effect, he now greets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with one hand and punches him well below the belt with the other. Somewhere beyond our view this must make sense.

    En avant! Obama went to Beijing last week for a sit-down with Xi Jinping, who makes Vladimir Putin look like George McGovern when he wants to, which is not infrequently. Still in the Chinese capital, our president then attended a meeting with other Asian leaders to push a trade agreement, one primary purpose of which is to isolate China by bringing the rest of the region into the neoliberal fold. (Or trying to. Washington will never get the overladen, overimposing Trans-Pacific Partnership off the ground, in my view.)

    A big item on Xi’s agenda — he was in on the Pacific economic forum, too — was the recent launch of an Asians-only lending institution intended to rival the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank affiliate doing the West’s work in the East. Being entirely opposed to people helping themselves advance without American assistance and all that goes with it, Washington used all means possible to sink this ship. When Obama got off the plane in Beijing, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank had $50 billion in capital and 20 members, more to come in both categories.

    Xi, meantime, had a productive encounter — another — with the formidable Vlad. My sources in attendance tell me both put in strong performances. In short order, Russia will send enough natural gas eastward to meet much of China’s demand and — miss this not — in the long run could price out American supplies in other Pacific markets, which are key to the success of the current production boom out West.

    This is a lot of dots to connect. As I see it, the running themes in all this are two: There is constructive activity and there is the destructive. Readers may think this oversimplifies, but for this there is the ever-lively comment box below. I am willing to listen.

    story at link
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    https://www.minds.com/blog/view/3706...-living-system

    Bolivia passes "Law of Mother Earth" which gives rights to our planet as a living system

    The Law of Mother Earth ("Ley de Derechos de La Madre Tierra") holds the land as sacred and holds it as a living system with rights to be protected from exploitation, and creates 11 distinguished rights for the environment. It was passed by Bolivia's Plurinational Legislative Assembly. This 10 article law is derived from the first part of a longer draft bill, drafted and released by the Pact of Unity by November 2010. Can we please spread this law? There has to be a way for the free market to interoperate with reverence for this planet. Period.

    In accordance with the philosophy of Pachamama, it states, "She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation."

    "It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all," said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."

    The law enumerates seven specific rights to which Mother Earth and her constituent life systems, including human communities, are entitled to:

    To life: It is the right to the maintenance of the integrity of life systems and natural processes which sustain them, as well as the capacities and conditions for their renewal

    To the Diversity of Life: It is the right to the preservation of the differentiation and variety of the beings that comprise Mother Earth, without being genetically altered, nor artificially modified in their structure, in such a manner that threatens their existence, functioning and future potential
    To water: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of water to sustain life systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components
    To clean air: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of air to sustain life systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components
    To equilibrium: It is the right to maintenance or restoration of the inter-relation, interdependence, ability to complement and functionality of the components of Mother Earth, in a balanced manner for the continuation of its cycles and the renewal of its vital processes
    To restoration: It is the right to the effective and opportune restoration of life systems affected by direct or indirect human activities
    To live free of contamination: It is the right for preservation of Mother Earth and any of its components with regards to toxic and radioactive waste generated by human activities

    Sources:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_...f_Mother_Earth

    http://www.theguardian.com/environme...-worlds-rights

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_848966.html

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/sc...14bolivia.html

    http://www.newser.com/story/116229/b...as-humans.html

    19 Oct
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://investmentwatchblog.com/not-j...is-even-worse/

    26 Nov (graphs at the link)

    Not just gold and silver… New lawsuit says precious metals manipulation is even worse




    From Bloomberg:

    Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) were sued in New York over claims they conspired for eight years to manipulate prices for the precious metals platinum and palladium in what plaintiffs’ lawyers say is the first class-action lawsuit of its kind in the U.S.

    Standard Bank Group Ltd. and a metals unit of BASF SE (BAS), the world’s largest chemical company, were also sued. The four companies used inside information about client purchases and sale orders to profit from price movements for the metals used in products ranging from jewelry to cars, according to a complaint filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court.


    The lawsuit by Modern Settings LLC, a jeweler that buys precious metals and derivatives set on their prices, claims the companies “were privy to and shared confidential, non-public information about client purchase and sale orders that allowed them to glean information about the direction” of prices.

    Similar lawsuits have been filed this year in Manhattan accusing banks of rigging the benchmark price for gold. Authorities around the world are examining the gold market for signs of wrongdoing.

    Regulators tightened scrutiny of benchmarks after uncovering price-rigging in interbank-loan rates and currencies. Silver became the first precious metal to change its traditional procedure in August, and Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) will run the replacement for the 95-year-old London gold fixing. A new mechanism for platinum and palladium starts Dec. 1.

    Read more:

    http://thecrux.com/not-just-gold-and...palladium-too/

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...suit-says.html

    Big Banks Busted Massively Manipulating Foreign Exchange, Precious Metals … And Every Other Market


    Currency markets are massively rigged. And see this and this.

    Reuters notes today:

    Regulators fined six major banks including Citigroup (C.N) and UBS (UBSN.VX) a total of $4.3 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, following a year-long global investigation.

    HSBC (HSBA.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), JP Morgan (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) also face penalties resulting from the inquiry that has put the largely unregulated $5 trillion-a-day market on a tighter leash, accelerated the push to automate trading and ensnared the Bank of England.

    In the latest scandal to hit the financial services industry, dealers shared confidential information about client orders and coordinated trades to make money from a foreign exchange benchmark used by asset managers and corporate treasurers to value their holdings. Dozens of traders have been fired or suspended.

    ***

    Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined five lenders $1.77 billion, the biggest penalty in the history of the City of London, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered them to pay a further $1.48 billion.

    ***

    The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates banks, also fined the U.S. lenders $950 million and was the only authority to penalise Bank of America.

    Gold and Silver Are Manipulated

    Today, Switzerland’s financial regulator (FINMA) found “serious misconduct” and a “clear attempt to manipulate precious metals benchmarks” by UBS employees in precious metals trading, particularly with silver.

    Reuters reports:

    Swiss regulator FINMA said on Wednesday that it found a “clear attempt” to manipulate precious metals benchmarks during its investigation into precious metals and foreign exchange trading at UBS …

    Gold and silver prices have been “fixed” in daily conference calls by the powers-that-be.

    Bloomberg reported last December:

    It is the participating banks themselves that administer the gold and silver benchmarks.


    So are prices being manipulated? Let’s take a look at the evidence. In his book “The Gold Cartel,” commodity analyst Dimitri Speck combines minute-by-minute data from most of 1993 through 2012 to show how gold prices move on an average day (see attached charts). He finds that the spot price of gold tends to drop sharply around the Londonevening fixing (10 a.m. New York time). A similar, if less pronounced, drop in price occurs around the London morning fixing. The same daily declines can be seen in silver prices from 1998 through 2012.


    For both commodities there were, on average, no comparable price changes at any other time of the day. These patterns are consistent with manipulation in both markets.

    Derivatives Are Manipulated
    Runaway derivatives – especially credit default swaps (CDS) – were one of the main causes of the 2008 financial crisis. Congress never fixed the problem, and actually made it worse.

    The big banks have long manipulated derivatives … a $1,200 Trillion Dollar market.

    Indeed, many trillions of dollars of derivatives are being manipulated in the exact same same way that interest rates are fixed (see below) … through gamed self-reporting.

    Reuters noted in September:

    A Manhattan federal judge said on Thursday that investors may pursue a lawsuit accusing 12 major banks of violating antitrust law by fixing prices and restraining competition in the roughly $21 trillion market for credit default swaps.

    ***

    “The complaint provides a chronology of behavior that would probably not result from chance, coincidence, independent responses to common stimuli, or mere interdependence,” [Judge] Cote said.

    The defendants include Bank of America Corp, Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc , Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG , Goldman Sachs Group Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc , JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG.

    Other defendants are the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and Markit Ltd, which provides credit derivative pricing services.

    ***

    U.S. and European regulators have probed potential anticompetitive activity in CDS. In July 2013, the European Commission accused many of the defendants of colluding to block new CDS exchanges from entering the market.

    ***

    “The financial crisis hardly explains the alleged secret meetings and coordinated actions,” the judge wrote. “Nor does it explain why ISDA and Markit simultaneously reversed course.”

    In other words, the big banks are continuing to fix prices for CDS in secret meetings … and have torpedoed the more open and transparent CDS exchanges that Congress mandated.

    Interest Rates Are Manipulated
    Bloomberg reported in January:

    Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc was ordered to pay $50 million by a federal judge in Connecticut over claims that it rigged the London interbank offered rate.

    RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in April pleaded guilty to wire frauda s part of a settlement of more than $600 million with U.S and U.K. regulators over Libor manipulation, according to court filings. U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in New Haventoday sentenced the Tokyo-based unit of RBS, Britain’s biggest publicly owned lender, to pay the agreed-upon fine, according to a Justice Department Justice Department.

    Global investigations into banks’ attempts to manipulate the benchmarks for profit have led to fines and settlements for lenders including RBS, Barclays Plc, UBS AG and Rabobank Groep.

    RBS was among six companies fined a record 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) by the European Union last month for rigging interest rates linked to Libor. The combined fines for manipulating yen Libor and Euribor, the benchmark money-market rate for the euro, are the largest-ever EU cartel penalties.

    Global fines for rate-rigging have reached $6 billion since June 2012 as authorities around the world probe whether traders worked together to fix Libor, meant to reflect the interest rate at which banks lend to each other, to benefit their own trading positions.

    To put the Libor interest rate scandal in perspective:

    The big banks have conspired for years to rig interest rates … upon which $800 trillion in assets are pegged
    This was the largest insider trading scandal ever … and the largest financial scam in world history
    Local governments got ripped off bigtime by the Libor manipulation
    Even though RBS and a handful of other banks have been fined for interest rate manipulation, Libor is still being manipulated. No wonder … the fines are pocket change – the cost of doing business – for the big banks
    Energy Prices Manipulated
    The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says that JP Morgan has massively manipulated energy markets in California and the Midwest, obtaining tens of millions of dollars in overpayments from grid operators between September 2010 and June 2011.

    Pulitzer prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston noted in May that Wall Street is trying to launch Enron 2.0.

    Oil Prices Are Manipulated
    Oil prices are manipulated as well.

    Commodities Are Manipulated
    The big banks and government agencies have been conspiring to manipulate commodities prices for decades.

    The big banks are taking over important aspects of the physical economy, including uranium mining, petroleum products, aluminum, ownership and operation of airports, toll roads, ports, and electricity.

    And they are using these physical assets to massively manipulate commodities prices … scalping consumers of many billions of dollars each year. More from Matt Taibbi, FDL and Elizabeth Warren.

    Everything Can Be Manipulated through High-Frequency Trading
    Traders with high-tech computers can manipulate stocks, bonds, options, currencies and commodities. And see this.

    Manipulating Numerous Markets In Myriad Ways
    The big banks and other giants manipulate numerous markets in myriad ways, for example:

    Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this
    Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here and here
    Charging “storage fees” to store gold bullion … without even buying or storing any gold . And raiding allocated gold accounts
    Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this)
    Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this, this, this, this and this. This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car
    Cheating homeowners by gaming laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure
    Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this
    Engaging in unlawful “frontrunning” to manipulate markets. See this, this, this, this, this and this
    Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this and this
    Otherwise manipulating markets. And see this
    Participating in various Ponzi schemes
    Charging veterans unlawful mortgage fees
    Cooking their books (and see this)
    Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments
    The Big Picture
    The experts say that big banks will keep manipulating markets unless and until their executives are thrown in jail for fraud.

    Why? Because the system is rigged to allow the big banks to commit continuous and massive fraud, and then to pay small fines as the “cost of doing business”. As Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitznoted years ago:

    “The system is set so that even if you’re caught, the penalty is just a small number relative to what you walk home with.

    The fine is just a cost of doing business. It’s like a parking fine. Sometimes you make a decision to park knowing that you might get a fine because going around the corner to the parking lot takes you too much time.”

    Indeed, Reuters points out today:

    Switzerland’s regulator FINMA ordered UBS, the country’s biggest bank, to pay 134 million francs ($139 million) after it found serious misconduct in both foreign exchange and precious metals trading. It also capped bonuses for dealers in both units at twice their basic salary for two years.

    Capping bonuses at twice base salary? That’s not a punishment … it’s an incentive.

    Experts say that we have to prosecute fraud or else the economy won’t ever really stabilize.

    But the government is doing the exact opposite. Indeed, the Justice Department has announced it will go easy on big banks, and always settles prosecutions for pennies on the dollar (a form of stealth bailout. It is also arguably one of the main causes of the double dip in housing. And there is no change in the air.)

    Indeed, the government doesn’t even force the banks to admit any guilt as part of their settlements. In fact:

    “The banks have been allowed to investigate themselves,” one source familiar with the investigation told Reuters. “The investigated decide what they want to investigate, what they admit to, and how much they will pay.

    Wall Street has manipulated virtually every other market as well – both in the financial sector and thereal economy – and broken virtually every law on the books.

    And they will keep on doing so until the Department of Justice grows a pair.

    The criminality and blatant manipulation will grow and spread and metastasize – taking over and killing off more and more of the economy – until Wall Street executives are finally thrown in jail.

    It’s that simple …

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/...l-markets.html


    Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/not-j...WJXlbEwepHQ.99
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://yournewswire.com/former-surre...edophile-ring/

    25 Nov UK

    Former Surrey Comet news editor gagged over reporting of alleged paedophile ring -

    ‘A former Surrey Comet news editor was gagged by the Government over the reporting of an alleged Westminster paedophile ring operating out of Elm Guest House in Barnes.

    Hilton Tims, 82, the paper’s news editor between 1980 and 1988, revealed at the weekend he had been handed a D-notice preventing the reporting of sex allegations in 1984.

    Elm Guest House, in Rocks Lane, is at the centre of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Fernbridge, which is investigating claims of sexual abuse and grooming of children by Government ministers, MPs and senior police officers in the late 1970s and early 80s.’



    and





    Published on Nov 27, 2014
    Bringing the debate on child abuse to a close MP Zac Goldsmith pays tribute to the survivors of abuse, to Labour MPs Tom Watson and Simon Danczuk, “and above all to the extraordinary work by the investigative journalists at Exaro and David Hencke in particular. This is an organisation that has really led the campaign on so many fronts, and I know that the mainstream press who’ve been so slow to pick up on what’s really happening in this scandal, have become heavily dependent and rightly so on Exaro.
    And I sometimes feel that because they are online, they don’t have the magazine on your desk, they are somehow invisible to people who are not paying attention, but they are absolutely crucial and David Hencke has an encyclopaedic knowledge of something which I don’t ever want to have encyclopaedic knowledge on frankly, but he’s an extraordinary figure. There can be no doubt at all that people have done terrible things and that they have been protected by the establishment. And I’m sure that some of the key figures are alive today, and the measure of success for the police investigation is that those people face justice before they die. This process really needs to happen now. Justice must be done and it must be seen to be done. And it’s no good waiting years and years for some of these people to fade away and be punished in their absence it’s not good enough.
    The measure of the success for the inquiry is that we and the wider public understand how these conspiracies and cover ups have been able to happen, it’s only by understanding how they formed that we will have any hope at all of preventing them from happening again.
    Category
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://theantimedia.org/veterans-nat...d-in-ferguson/

    24 Nov US

    Military Veterans Send Urgent Letter to National Guard in Ferguson Telling them to Stand Down

    (TheAntiMedia) Hundreds of active duty US military and veterans have sent an open letter to Missouri National Guard members urging them to join Ferguson protesters, not fight against them.


    The letter, signed by many veterans including dozens who fought in the Iraq war, was published on MarchForward.org and can be viewed below:

    Text

    To our brothers and sisters in the Missouri National Guard:

    We are writing to you as active-duty U.S. service members and veterans, most of us having served in the Iraq war.

    You have a choice you can make right now.

    The whole world is watching the Ferguson police with disgust. They killed an unarmed, college-bound Black youth in broad daylight, and subsequently responded to peaceful, constitutionally-protected protests with extreme violence and repression.

    Countless constitutional and human rights violations by these police have been documented over the course of the Ferguson protests; from attacking and threatening journalists, to using tear gas against peaceful protesters, including children.

    Now, Governor Nixon has again activated the National Guard to “support law enforcement.” But you don’t have to follow their orders—you can stand with the protesters instead.

    Our true duty
    When we signed up, we swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

    The police in Ferguson are violating that Constitution.
    The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press.

    These laws are, as we are taught our entire lives, our most cherished Constitutional rights—the whole basis for the “freedom” we are told makes us the greatest country on Earth.

    more at the link
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://rt.com/business/209023-metals...ixing-lawsuit/

    more on this story

    26 Nov

    Goldman Sachs, HSBC, BASF sued in first US metals price manipulation case

    Four major global firms are to appear in a New York court accused of manipulating platinum and palladium prices for eight years. The law suit is the first of its kind in US history.

    Those accused include units of Goldman Sachs Group, the world’s biggest global investment bank, HSBC Holdings, Europe's largest bank by market value, the metals unit of BASF SE (BAS) ), the world’s largest chemical company, and Standard Bank Group from South Africa, the world’s largest producer of platinum and second largest producer of palladium after Russia.

    The plaintiffs claim the manipulations of precious metals prices, which is believed to have started in 2007, have cost purchasers millions of dollars, Reuters reports.

    The companies have been sued for using insider information about client purchases and sale orders to profit from slight movements in the price of platinum group metals, be they used for jewelry or for industrial use, such as the production of automotive catalytic converters, fuel cells, etc.

    The illegal sharing of customers’ data enabled the banks to undertake a “front-running” price manipulation, with the help of fabricating “spoof” orders, which is claimed violates US antitrust and commodities laws.

    The suit was filed in the Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday by Modern Settings LLC, a Florida-based maker of jewelry and police badges. All four defendant companies refused to comment on the issue.

    Last year BASF’s metal unit generated €2.36 billion ($2.95 billion) revenue in precious metals trading, according to Reuters.

    READ MORE: Banking breeds cheating for financial gain - Swiss researchers

    Regulators around the world have been tightening the screws on the global banks over the manipulation with some of benchmark rates, such as rates on the foreign exchange markets and the inter-bank London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

    In spring 2014 the Swiss regulator became the first to confirm it had uncovered illegal currency rate rigging by world’s leading financial organizations, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC included.

    By November the world’s biggest banks had agreed to pay out $4.3 billion to settle an investigation into their alleged rigging of foreign exchange rates.

    READ MORE: Banks fined record $4.3 bn for corrupting integrity of currency trading
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://rt.com/business/209591-gold-e...-repatriation/

    28 Nov

    Swiss, French call to bring home gold reserves as Dutch move 122 tons out of US

    The financial crisis in Europe is prompting some nations to repatriate their gold reserves to national vaults. The Netherlands has moved $5 billion worth of gold from New York, and some are calling for similar action from France, Switzerland, and Germany.

    An unmatched pace of money printing by major central banks has boosted concerns in European countries over the safety of their gold reserves abroad.

    The Dutch central bank – De Nederlandsche Bank – was one of the latest to make the move. The bank announced last Friday that it moved a fifth of its total 612.5-metric-ton gold reserve from New York to Amsterdam earlier in November.

    It was done in an effort to redistribute the gold stock in “a more balanced way,” and to boost public confidence, the bank explained.

    “With this adjustment the Dutch Central Bank joins other banks that are keeping a larger share of their gold supply in their own country,” the bank said in a statement. “In addition to a more balanced division of the gold reserves...this may also contribute to a positive confidence effect with the public.”

    Dutch gold reserves are now divided as follows: 31 percent in Amsterdam, 31 percent in New York, 20 percent in Ottawa, Canada and 18 percent in London.

    Meanwhile, Switzerland has organized the ‘Save Our Swiss Gold’ referendum, which is taking place on November 30. If passed, it would force the Swiss National Bank to convert a fifth of its assets into gold and repatriate all of its reserves from vaults in the UK and Canada.

    “The Swiss initiative is merely part of an increasing global scramble towards gold and away from the endless printing of money. Huge movements of gold are going on right now,” Koos Jansen, an Amsterdam-based gold analyst for the Singaporean precious metal dealer BullionStar, told the Guardian.

    France has also recently joined in on the trend, with the leader of the far-right National Front party Marine Le Pen calling on the central bank to repatriate the country’s gold reserves.

    In an open letter to the governor of the Banque de France, Christian Noyer, Le Pen also demanded an audit of 2,435 tons of physical gold inventory.

    Germany tried and failed to adopt a similar path in early 2013 by announcing a plan to repatriate some of its gold reserves back from the US and France.

    READ MORE: No ‘gold rush’: Germany keeps reserves in the US

    The efforts fizzled out this summer, when it was announced that Germany decided to leave $635 billion worth of gold in US vaults.

    Germany only keeps about a third of its gold at home. Forty-five percent is held in New York, 13 percent in London, 11 percent in Paris, and only 31 percent in the Bundesbank in Frankfurt.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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