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Thread: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

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    United States Avalon Member foreverfan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World


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  3. Link to Post #1002
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    Quote Posted by Sabrina (here)
    Disaster say some commentators - inevitable say others... manufactured say others - this time next month where will we be!

    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/21/bu...ss_igoogle_cnn

    21 May

    A Greece euro exit could make Lehman's collapse 'look like a tea party'

    London (CNN) --
    Some Europe officials have become truly expert at performing this dance. Olli Rehn, the European Union economics chief, reiterated it to me on Friday. And yet, I reason they must be contemplating what happens when the music stops and the euro-dance comes to an end. They read the same economics as the rest of us. They know that the Greek economy is deeply uncompetitive. The reforms need not only to continue, but speed up if Greece is not to remain on euro-life support forever. The only question is whether the Greek people are prepared to put up with the pain.
    "Deeply uncompetitive" is psychopath-speak for people centered. Prepared to "put up with the pain" questions whether will they continue allow themselves to to be buggered.

    Financial news is so septic and weasel worded.
    Last edited by modwiz; 22nd May 2012 at 04:10.

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

    Quote Posted by Paul (here)
    Quote Posted by Sabrina (here)
    BIX Weir: The JP Morgan Derivatives Book is Blowing Up
    This talk appears to be focused on their gold and silver derivatives, but the subtitle "This is what a collapse looks & feels like" suggests it is leading to the final collapse of JP Morgan and/or the current monetary system.
    Would this mean the "Crash JP Morgan" push last year may have actually worked?

  5. Link to Post #1004
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    Secret €100bn aid props up Greek banks
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a7087224-a...#axzz1vZzjgdCS

    There has been no official announcement. No terms or conditions have been disclosed. But Greece’s banking system is being propped up by an estimated €100bn or so of emergency liquidity provided by the country’s central bank – approved secretly by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. If Greece were to leave the eurozone, the immediate cause might be an ECB decision to pull the plug.
    Greek banks rely on ELA

    Extensive use of “emergency liquidity assistance” (ELA) to help banks in the weakest economies has been one of the less-noticed features of the eurozone crisis. Separate from normal supplies of liquidity and meant originally as a temporary facility for national authorities to use when banks hit problems, ELA proved a lifesaver for the financial system Ireland and is now even more so in Greece. As such, it has given the ECB – which has ultimate control over the facility – considerable power to determine countries’ fates.

    Whether that power would ever be exercised is unclear. ELA is a subject on which the ECB is deeply reluctant to provide information – even on where or when it is provided.

    You don’t say when you are in an emergency situation, because then you make the situation worse. So I really don’t see the usefulness of being more transparent,” Luc Coene, Belgium’s central bank governor, explained in a Financial Times interview this month.
    We are playing a virtual reality game, of duality. In the game of choices, align your choices with your ideals. Everything is whole, complete and perfect. Even yourself. Love is the power to change/create.

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  7. Link to Post #1005
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30944

    22 May

    FINANCIAL IMPLOSION: Global Derivatives Market at $1,200 Trillion Dollars … 20 Times the World Economy

    by Washington’s Blog


    Top Derivatives Expert Estimates Size of the Global Derivatives Market at $1,200 Trillion Dollars … 20 Times Larger than the Global Economy

    How Large Is the Derivatives Market?

    Everyone paying attention knows that the size of the derivatives market dwarfs the global economy. But how big is it really?

    For years, there have been rumors that there is over a quadrillion – one thousand trillion – dollars in notional value of outstanding derivatives. But no one really knew.

    Even though the Bank of International Settlements regularly publishes tables showing the amounts of different types of derivatives, some of the categories are ambiguous, and so it has been hard to get a good handle on what’s really out there.

    For example, one blogger wrote last year:

    Estimates of the notional value of the worldwide derivatives market go from $600 trillion all the way up to $1.5 quadrillion.

    Smart guys like bond trader Jeffrey Gundlach said last year that we’ve got a quadrillion dollar derivative overhang, the government hasn’t done anything to fix the basic problems in our economy, and so we’ll have another crash.

    But I’ve now found an estimate from a top derivatives expert who confirms the claim.

    Specifically, Paul Wilmott – who has written numerous books on the subject – estimated the number last year at $1.2 quadrillion:

    The… derivatives market … is 20 times the size of the world economy.

    According to one of the world’s leading derivatives experts, Paul Wilmott, who holds a doctorate in applied mathematics from Oxford University (and whose speaking voice sounds eerily like John Lennon’s), $1.2 quadrillion is the so-called notional value of the worldwide derivatives market. To put that in perspective, the world’s annual gross domestic product is between $50 trillion and $60 trillion.

    A Clear and Present Danger to the World Economy

    The size of the derivatives market is a huge threat to the world economy:

    One of the biggest risks to the world’s financial health is the $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market. It’s complex, it’s unregulated, and it ought to be of concern to world leaders ….

    ***

    How big is the risk to the world economy from these derivatives? According to Wilmott, it’s impossible to know unless you understand the details of the derivatives contracts. But since they’re unregulated and likely to remain so, it is hard to gauge the risk.

    But Wilmott gives an example of an over-the-counter “customized” derivative that could be very risky indeed, and could also put its practitioners in a position of what he called “moral hazard.”

    ***

    Another kind of market conduct that makes markets volatile is what Wilmott calls positive and negative feedback loops. These relatively bland-sounding terms mask some really scary behavior for investors who are not clued into it. Wilmott argues that a positive feedback loop contributed to the 22.6% crash in the Dow back in October 1987.

    As we noted last year:

    Bloomberg reported in May:

    Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s emerging markets group, said another financial crisis is inevitable because the causes of the previous one haven’t been resolved.

    “There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis,” Mobius said …“Are the derivatives regulated? No. Are you still getting growth in derivatives? Yes.”

    ***

    The global financial crisis three years ago was caused in part by the proliferation of derivative products tied to U.S. home loans that ceased performing, triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in writedowns and leading to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.

    Credit default swaps were largely responsible for bringing down Bear Stearns, AIG (and see this), WaMu and other mammoth corporations.

    And unexpected changes in interest rates could cause a major bloodbath in interest rate derivatives.

    And, no, there have not been any reforms or attempts to rein in derivatives, and the Dodd-Frank financial legislation was really just a p.r. stunt which didn’t really change anything.

    But the big banks and their minions claim that the huge amounts of derivatives themselves is unimportant because these are only “notional” values, and – after netting – the notional values are deflated to much more modest numbers.

    But as [Tyler] Durden – who has a solid background in derivatives – notes:

    At this point the economist PhD readers will scream: “this is total BS – after all you have bilateral netting which eliminates net bank exposure almost entirely.” True: that is precisely what the OCC will say too. As the chart below shows, according to the chief regulator of the derivative space in Q2 netting benefits amounted to an almost record 90.8% of gross exposure, so while seemingly massive, those XXX trillion numbers are really quite, quite small… Right?

    …Wrong. The problem with bilateral netting is that it is based on one massively flawed assumption, namely that in an orderly collapse all derivative contracts will be honored by the issuing bank (in this case the company that has sold the protection, and which the buyer of protection hopes will offset the protection it in turn has sold). The best example of how the flaw behind bilateral netting almost destroyed the system is AIG: the insurance company was hours away from making trillions of derivative contracts worthless if it were to implode, leaving all those who had bought protection from the firm worthless, a contingency only Goldman hedged by buying protection on AIG. And while the argument can further be extended that in bankruptcy a perfectly netted bankrupt entity would make someone else whole on claims they have written, this is not true, as the bankrupt estate will pursue 100 cent recovery on its claims even under Chapter 11, while claims the estate had written end up as General Unsecured Claims which as Lehman has demonstrated will collect 20 cents on the dollar if they are lucky.

    The point of this detour being that if any of these four banks fails, the repercussions would be disastrous. And no, Frank Dodd’s bank “resolution” provision would do absolutely nothing to prevent an epic systemic collapse.




    Washington’s Blog is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Washington’s Blog
    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

    Well


    Bush and Blair’s Pre-Iraq Conversation Must be Disclosed, UK Tribunal Rules
    UK Foreign Office loses appeal against release of extracts from phone call that took place a few days before invasion


    By Richard Norton Taylor – The Guardian – May 21, 2012

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...on?INTCMP=SRCH

    Extracts of a phone conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush a few days before the invasion of Iraq must be disclosed, a tribunal has ruled.

    The (UK) Foreign Office lost an appeal against an order by the information commissioner, Christopher Graham, to disclose records of the conversation between the two leaders on 12 March 2003. Graham’s order was made in response to a freedom of information request by Stephen Plowden, a private individual who demanded disclosure of the entire record of the conversation.

    “Accountability for the decision to take military action against another country is paramount,” Graham had said in his original order.

    Upholding that ruling on Monday, Judge John Angel, president of the information tribunal, said Foreign Office witnesses had downplayed the importance of a decision to go to war, a view the tribunal found “difficult to accept”.

    The tribunal added: “Also in our view, particularly from the evidence in this case, the circumstances surrounding a decision by a UK government to go to war with another country is always likely to be of very significant public interest, even more so with the consequences of this war.

    ”It said parts of the phone call between Blair and Bush recording what the former British Prime Minister said must be disclosed. The two men are believed to have discussed UN resolutions on Iraq and a television interview given by Jacques Chirac, then French president, on 10 March 2003. Blair repeatedly blamed Chirac for the failure to get a second UN security council resolution backing an invasion of Iraq.

    Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, claimed in evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war that Chirac made it clear France would not back a fresh UN resolution “whatever the circumstances”.

    Straw added: “I don’t think there was any ambiguity.”

    The issue is important because the Blair government claimed Chirac’s interview killed off all hope of a diplomatic solution. Straw’s claims were contradicted by Sir John Holmes, then UK ambassador to France. He told Chilcot that Chirac’s words were “clearly ambiguous”. One interpretation, Holmes said, was that Chirac was simply warning that France would veto a fresh UN resolution at that time as UN weapons inspectors had not been given a proper chance to do their job.

    Clare Short, international development secretary at the time, accused Blair in the tribunal hearing of “clearly, deliberately misleading the French position”.

    Angus Lapsley, a Foreign Office official responsible for US-UK relations, argued against disclosure on the grounds that Britain had “a uniquely close and privileged relationship with the US”. He added that there was “no comparator” in terms of the “breadth and depth” of the UK’s relationship with the US, which was vital to Britain’s national interests.

    A spokesman for the Foreign Office, which has 30 days to disclose the information or appeal, said it was “obviously disappointed by the decision of the tribunal”. He added: “We will want to study the terms of the judgment more closely over the coming days.”
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Avalon Member Sabrina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://americankabuki.blogspot.com.a...anne-barr.html

    The Remarkable Comments by Roseanne Barr About the FED, Debt Forgiveness and NATO Wars

    Roseanne talks about running for President of the USA. CNN commentator's face is a picture as she talks about wanting a debt jubilee from the banks of the Fed who control everything - and that they are in cahoots with the people who control everything in the world. Good on you Roseanne! She said she'd look at debt forgiveness for US student loans and ask bankers to put patriotism above profits.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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  13. Link to Post #1008
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...s-7771441.html

    22 May

    Ex-Goldman man faces insider dealing charges


    The great and the good of the Indian business community may be fiercely protesting his innocence on the web and in interviews, but a jury of ordinary New Yorkers will decide the fate of Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs board member whose trial for insider trading got under way yesterday.

    Mr Gupta, right, is the most senior businessman to face charges after a huge sweep of insider trading arrests in the US, and prosecutors signalled they will rely on wiretapped conversations in which he is alleged to have passed on boardroom secrets to the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who is already serving 11 years for insider dealing.

    Jury selection began in a Manhattan courthouse yesterday, and potential jurors were told the case could last up to a month. Mr Gupta was accompanied to court by his wife, Anita, and their four adult daughters. They heard him described by Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky as having "violated his duties and abused his position as a corporate insider".

    In its opening statement, the defence said the case against Mr Gupta was "based on speculation, guesswork and suspicion of what might have happened".

    Potential witnesses include other Goldman directors, including the chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, and A G Lafley, the former chairman of Procter & Gamble, where Mr Gupta was also a board member.

    Mr Blankfein testified last year at the trial of Rajaratnam that Mr Gupta had violated Goldman's ethics policies by passing details of board discussions in 2008. Once, Mr Gupta called Rajaratnam 23 seconds after the end of a board meeting to reveal details about unexpectedly poor quarterly results the bank was about to publish. Galleon, Rajaratnam's hedge fund, sold all of its Goldman shares. Also played at trial was the tape of Rajaratnam grilling Mr Gupta about whether the Goldman board had discussed acquiring the bank Wachovia or an insurance company. "Have you heard anything along that line?" Rajaratnam asked. "Yeah," Mr Gupta responded. "This was a big discussion at the board meeting."

    Mr Gupta's arrest last year was an extraordinary reversal for a man with impeccable business credentials. Now 63, he has been in the US since the Seventies. He rose to lead the consulting powerhouse McKinsey as managing director. He has denied the charges.
    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.telegraph.co.uk/finance/e...ebt-fears.html
    22 May

    Japan's credit rating cut by Fitch on debt fears
    Japan's sovereign rating was cut by one notch by Fitch on Tuesday as a political stalemate dims the chance that the country can curb its snowballing debt.


    Fitch lowered Japan's long-term foreign currency rating to A plus from AA. It cut the local currency ratings to A plus from AA minus. Both were cut with a negative outlook.

    Fitch warned that further downgrades are possible unless the government takes new fiscal policy measures to stabilise public finances and its ratio of debt to gross domestic product.

    The yen fell after the move, taking the dollar to a session high of 79.85 yen (63.5p).

    The downgrade could serve as a chilling reminder to highly indebted countries in Europe that urgent action is needed to trim public debt and prevent concerns about sovereign debt from weighing further on the global economy.

    "The downgrades and negative outlooks reflect growing risks for Japan's sovereign credit profile as a result of high and rising public debt ratios," Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereigns at Fitch said in a statement.

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

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  17. Link to Post #1010
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    AMAZING job you've done with this thread Sabrina........by tomorrow it will certainly have reached 50,000 views!! Thank you so much for all the work and effort you've put into this for all of us!

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  19. Link to Post #1011
    Avalon Member Sabrina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    This is an excellent interview on Red Ice Radio with Ian Crane on the scam of the financial world. He also talks about meetings coming up in Ireland, Manchester and London to educate the public about the sheer criminality of it all. I'll post info. on these under a different link. There's a big awakening going at the moment, and a lot of groups helping get the information out at grass root level. S

    http://www.redicecreations.com/radio...RIR-120520.php

    Ian Crane - Hour 1 - Financial Terrorism
    May 20, 2012

    Ian R Crane is an ex-oilfield executive who now lectures, writes and broadcasts on the geo-political webs that are being spun; with particular focus on US Hegemony and the NWO agenda for control of global resources. Primarily Ian focuses his attention and research on the geopolitical arena but has a deep personal interest in folklore, mythology and the cosmological belief systems of ancient and indigenous cultures. Ian returns to Red Ice to discuss the elite's game plan to destroy the world economy. We'll also discuss the culture of Goldman Sachs, which is focused on locking the masses into a materialistic mindset so they don't remember who they truly are. Ian explains the ultimate drive behind the scenes in this global game of monopoly. Later we talk about Iceland, Russia and Greece. Ian says the days of the private banking system are coming to an end.


    Notes on the Red Ice Radio website re: this interview:


    Relevant links
    ianrcrane.com
    alternativeview.co.uk
    economichitman.co.uk
    uncensoredmag.co.uk
    nznaturalmed.co.uk
    World’s powers will fake alien invasion at the Olympics closing ceremony to keep us living in fear
    `Tectonic' Shift on Wall Street as Lehman Fails, Merrill Sold - "A New Financial World Order"
    Is testosterone the new drug of choice on Wall Street? How traders are using male hormone booster shots to maintain a competitive edge
    Iceland votes to reject debt slavery, is threatened with reprisals
    Goldman Sachs boss says banks do "God's work"
    Who got the Bailout Money? Trillions Down the Drain
    "Vampire Squid" Goldman Sachs confesses it is being investigated for helping Greece hide its debts
    European Stability Mechanism = Debt Slavery
    European Stability Mechanism
    Illuminati Board Game Predicts Japan Disaster
    Guy uses Illuminati card to predict the exact date and hour of the tsunami in Japan
    Sonic device deployed in London during Olympics
    1984 Summer Olympics
    ArcelorMittal Orbit
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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  21. Link to Post #1012
    Avalon Member Sabrina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    FINANCIAL TERRORISM EXPOSED conferences coming up in UK and Ireland (as mentioned by Ian Crane on the Red Ice Radio interview as above).



    http://www.alternativeview.co.uk/

    Dublin - 27 May
    Manchester - 2 June
    London - 3 June


    Any UK Avalonians interested in coming to the London event? It costs - but I reckon this one is worth it. Sab.
    The Dublin event is five days before the next Irish referendum. The Irish press are invited. Let's see what coverage gets out - but grass roots groups such as Awake in Ireland and One World Scam are supporting the event.

    Here's some info. on the Irish referendum. Well the official propaganda version anyway .

    http://www.europeaninstitute.org/Mar...ations-35.html

    IRISH REFERENDUM ON EU FISCAL PACT COULD CAUSE COMPLICATIONS (3/5)
    By Garret Martin

    All but two (the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic) of the twenty seven EU member states signed the new fiscal compact on 2 March. This inter-governmental agreement, aiming to prevent a recurrence of the serious debt woes that have plagued Europe, will come into effect once it is ratified by 12 of the 17 states of the Eurozone, as most are expected to do via their respective parliaments.

    But a possible fly in the ointment exists because Ireland will put the fiscal pact to a national referendum. Prime Minister Enda Kenny had hoped to avoid a popular vote and proceed with ratification by parliament. But his attorney general ruled that because the pact is an “inter-governmental agreement” and not an EU Treaty, it is not covered by the section of the Irish Constitution that accepts the validity of full-fledged EU treaty obligations.

    Ireland will hold a referendum in May or June, under the shadow of the memory that the Irish electorate has twice rejected EU treaties in the past, most recently the Lisbon Treaty in June 2008, before assenting in a second ballot. (referendum is now June).

    The fiscal compact will move ahead irrespective of the results of the Irish vote, but a “no” vote would have important economic consequences for Ireland and beyond. Not only could it jeopardize its membership in the Eurozone but, as reported by the BBC, it would also mean that “Dublin would be prevented from accessing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)” that is due to come into force this summer and will provide substantial assistance to member states threatened by a debt crisis.
    Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!

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    Avalon Member Sabrina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

    Morning Song has posted an interesting piece about the Swiss Parliament examining a gold franc currency.... can't imagine what excitement and hysteria must be happening behind the scenes - but perhaps the clones don't do excitement..

    https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...--May-22-2012-
    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

    This is an interesting one!

    Vatican, Italy


    Vatican Bank Head Ousted as Holy See Fights Sandal
    By Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere (AFP) –

    VATICAN CITY — The Vatican Bank ousted its president on Thursday after he failed to clean up the image of an institution that has come to symbolise the opacity and scandal gripping the Holy See's administration.

    Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was forced to resign "for failing to carry out duties of primary importance," the Holy See said in a statement.

    The president was ousted in the wake of a series of financial scandals as the Vatican tries to clean up its image and put a stop to a leak of documents.

    "The board passed a unanimous no-confidence vote against the president... and believes the action is important to maintain the vitality" of the bank, the Vatican said, as internal divisions over transparency came to a head.

    Gotti Tedeschi, an expert on financial ethics, was put in charge of the bank -- also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) -- in 2009, in an effort on the part of the Vatican to rid the institution of scandal.

    Moneyval, the Council of Europe's experts on anti-money laundering, is due to rule at the beginning of July on the whether the Holy See has managed to clean up its act and meet international monetary standards.

    But the former head of Spanish bank Santander's Italian operations tasked with bringing transparency to the bank came under suspicion in 2010 when he was investigated as part of an inquiry by magistrates into money-laundering.

    Gotti Tedeschi, 67, was accused of violating laws set up in 2007 that tightened rules on disclosure of financial operations to the Italian central bank in a bid to stamp out money laundering.

    He was more recently also suspected of leaking documents and accused in some quarters of serving his own interests.

    The board said it would seek a president who could "help the institute establish efficient and extensive relations between it and the financial community based on mutual respect of accepted international banking standards."

    For now, Deputy President Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz will take over the reigns.

    Gotti Tedeschi's exit comes at a tense time for the Vatican, which has had to deal over the past months with a series of leaks of sensitive documents and accusations of corruption and fraud splashed over the Italian press.

    In the wake of the 2010 scandal -- which saw an Italian court temporarily seize 23 million euros ($33 million) from the IOR -- Pope Benedict XVI created a new financial authority to "prevent and oppose illegal financial activity."

    The aim was to get the Vatican on to the "white list" of financially virtuous countries, but internal tensions sprang up after the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone pushed for the new transparency law to be watered down.

    It is not the first time that the IOR, which administers accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns, has made the headlines.

    In 1982 IOR was caught up in one of Italy's biggest fraud cases when Milan's Banco Ambrosiano -- of which it was the main shareholder -- collapsed.

    Banco Ambrosiano's chairman Roberto Calvi, known as "God's Banker" because of his ties with the Vatican, was found hanging from a London bridge.



    Director of Vatican Bank resigns under pressure
    By Alessandro Speciale
    Religion News Service, Updated: Thursday, May 24, 3:11 PM

    VATICAN CITY — In an unprecedented move, the board of the Vatican Bank on Thursday (May 24) forced its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, to resign.

    According to a Vatican statement, the bank’s supervisory council unanimously passed a no-confidence motion in Gotti Tedeschi for his “failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office.” Carl A. Anderson, the supreme knight of the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, is one of the council’s four members.

    The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, declined to give more details on the reasons for the dismissal, but analysts say the move should be read in the context of an internal Vatican struggle over controversial new rules for financial transparency.

    Since 2010, Gotti Tedeschi, together with the bank’s director general, Paolo Cipriani, has been under investigation for alleged money laundering.

    In the past, the Vatican Bank, which operates under the protection of the Vatican’s status as a sovereign nation, has been often accused of involvement in shady financial operations, such as money laundering for Italian politicians and even mafia bosses.

    According to Giuseppe Di Taranto, professor of finance with LUISS University in Rome, in recent years “Pope Benedict XVI has spearheaded an effort to bring more transparency to the Vatican,” seeking its entry into an international list of financially transparent countries.

    A key step in this direction was the creation of an independent financial watchdog in December 2010. But according to internal Vatican documents leaked in recent months to the Italian press, the watchdog panel’s effective powers have been at the center of a heated Vatican power struggle.

    A senior Vatican source quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA said this so-called “Vatileaks” scandal was one of the reasons that led to Gotti Tedeschi’s ousting.

    In a statement, the Vatican Bank — officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion — said it hoped to find a new president who would “rebuild relationships between the Institute and the financial community, based on mutual respect of internationally accepted banking standards.”

    A cardinal’s commission overseeing the bank’s activities, headed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will meet tomorrow to discuss the bank’s “future steps.”

    An outspoken economist, Gotti Tedeschi had been at the helm of the Vatican Bank since 2009. His provocative analyses of the global economic crisis often appeared in the pages of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper.

    According to Di Taranto, even if the precise reasons for Gotti Tedeschi’s dismissal remain unclear, to comply with European standards “there is a need for a further modernization and restructuring” of the Vatican Bank. “After all, the Vatican is a very rich country.”


    May 24, 2012 - 22:10
    Vatican bank sacks president in no-confidence vote

    By Philip Pullella

    VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The president of the Vatican bank has been ousted by the board of directors, the Vatican said on Thursday, blaming him for a deterioration in standards of governance.

    The board unanimously passed a no-confidence vote in Italian Ettore Gotti Tedeschi for failing to carry out "various fundamentally important functions of his office", the Vatican statement said.

    The bank will seek a new president who can "re-establish full and effective relations between the Institute and the financial community, based on mutual respect of internationally accepted banking standards", it said.

    The Vatican bank, founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII, has been in the spotlight since September 2010 when Italian investigators froze 23 million euros ($33 million) of its funds in Italian banks after opening an investigation into possible money-laundering.

    Gotti Tedeschi told Reuters that he had been ousted because the bank did not like his honest way of doing things.

    "I don't want to speak or give interviews, I have paid for my transparency," he said.

    The Vatican recently adopted new financial transparency laws and set up internal regulations to make sure its bank and all other departments adhere to international regulations and standards, and cooperate with foreign authorities.

    But in January Italian newspapers published leaked internal letters that appeared to show a conflict among top Vatican officials about just how transparent the bank should be about dealings that took place before it enacted its new laws.

    In response to the money-laundering probe the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion, said it did nothing wrong and was just transferring the funds between its own accounts. The money was released in June 2011, but the investigation is continuing.

    In March, the U.S. State Department for the first time put the Vatican on its list of countries considered vulnerable to money laundering.

    That decision dealt a blow to the Vatican's bid to be included in the European Commission's "white list" of states which comply with international standards against tax fraud and money-laundering. A decision on its inclusion is expected next month.

    (Additional reporting by Paolo Biondi,; writing by Gavin Jones; editing by Pravin Char)

    Reuters
    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

    Published on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 by Alternet

    The Rise of the New Economy Movement
    Activists, theorists, organizations and ordinary citizens are rebuilding the American political-economic system from the ground up

    by Gar Alperovitz
    Just beneath the surface of traditional media attention, something vital has been gathering force and is about to explode into public consciousness. The “New Economy Movement” is a far-ranging coming together of organizations, projects, activists, theorists and ordinary citizens committed to rebuilding the American political-economic system from the ground

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

    Have been feeling that this was a very odd story unfolding.

    http://the2012scenario.com/2012/05/f...t/#more-122212

    Facebook IPO: From “In Trouble” to Court

    Facebook IPO: From “In Trouble” to Court
    Stephen: This whole Facebook IPO is very, very odd. Not even with what is the world’s largest customer base and the world’s most invasive marketing tools has the social networking site been able to fulfill the original public offering price.

    The questions keep coming about the concealment of important information by Facebook and the underwriters as shareholders’ losses – which are in the billions – continue to rise. As does their anger and the number of calls they are making to their lawyers…

    Facebook, Wall Street Banks Under Fire from Lawmakers and Lawyers
    Two US congressional committees said they would conduct preliminary inquiries into Facebook’s IPO, and attorneys filed two separate lawsuits alleging that average investors were misled.


    By Jim Puzzanghera and Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times - May 23, 2012

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...314,full.story

    WASHINGTON — Already grappling with regulatory reviews of its troubled initial public offering, Facebook Inc. and the Wall Street banks that shepherded the deal are now under fire from lawmakers and lawyers.

    Two congressional committees said Wednesday that they would conduct preliminary inquiries into the IPO. And attorneys filed two separate lawsuits alleging that average investors were misled in the days before Facebook shares began trading Friday.

    “Shareholders suffered billions of dollars in losses,” said Darren Robbins, a partner in the San Diego law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dow, which filed one of the suits. “To have what was perceived as a watershed IPO result in this kind of harm is deeply troubling.”

    Facebook has vowed to defend itself vigorously against shareholder suits.

    And the Menlo Park, Calif., company reportedly was considering moving its stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange from the Nasdaq Stock Market, whose technical glitches executing trades Friday added to the IPO’s woes.

    Facebook shares rose $1 on Wednesday to close at $32, a 3.2% gain. But the shares still were trading well below the IPO price of $38.

    A revised revenue forecast issued by Facebook only days before its initial public offering has become a flash point for investors, regulators and lawyers.

    Robbins Geller, which recovered $7.2 billion for Enron shareholders in 2008 in the largest-ever class-action settlement, sued on behalf of three Facebook shareholders. It was the most high-profile of at least three suits seeking class-action status filed this week.

    The suits alleged that Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and the banks underwriting the IPO concealed crucial information shortly before the social networking company went public.

    The Robbins Geller lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accused the defendants of failing to disclose fully before last Friday’s IPO a revised forecast showing that revenue would not be growing as anticipated because users were moving to mobile devices that can’t display as many ads.

    Meanwhile, regulators are examining whether investment banker Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter, selectively informed clients of an analyst’s negative report about the company before the stock started trading.

    The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-policing body for the securities industry, said their agencies are looking into the events surrounding the IPO. Rick Ketchum, the head of FINRA, said Tuesday that the question is “a matter of regulatory concern.”

    Neither the SEC nor FINRA would provide additional details.

    “Until we unwind the facts and circumstances surrounding this situation, it is inappropriate to speculate about what potential violations may have occurred,” a FINRA spokesperson said Wednesday.

    The Robbins Geller suit focuses on what it alleged was the failure of the companies to disclose to all investors that Facebook was “experiencing a severe and pronounced reduction in revenue growth due to an increase of users of its Facebook app or website through mobile devices rather than a traditional PC.”

    The suit alleges that Facebook had told the lead underwriters of the IPO to reduce their 2012 estimates for the company and that information was “selectively disclosed” to preferred investors and left out of the prospectus and registration statement.

    “The notion that the lead underwriters would contemporaneous with a road show and a filing of the registration statement receive information and thereafter materially reduce revenue projections for the very period the IPO occurred is nothing less than shocking,” Robbins said.

    “You’re telling one group of folks and giving them access to one thing while people are putting up more than $15 billion worth of cash,” he said. “There’s a reason why you have multiple investigations.”

    Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company would fight the suit. “We believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously,” he said.

    A spokesman for Morgan Stanley, which has taken the most heat for the IPO’s problems, declined to comment on the suit.

    But the firm addressed the suit’s main issue in a statement Tuesday, saying its procedures complied “with all applicable regulations.”

    Morgan Stanley said that after Facebook released a revised securities filing May 9 “providing additional guidance with respect to business trends,” a copy was forwarded to all of the bank’s institutional and retail investors and “was widely publicized in the press at the time.”

    Jill Fisch, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said underwriting an IPO and analyzing its stock are supposed to be separate. But there’s no obligation for analysts to share their conclusions with everyone and often provide better information to their favored clients.

    “That’s standard operating practice on Wall Street,” she said. “That’s why analysts provide information to the big institutional investors. Those are the preferred customers.”

    Plaintiff attorneys may have a difficult time prevailing in the lawsuit, in part because Facebook’s registration statement disclosed that revenues were down because of customers’ increasing use of mobile devices, said Thomas Hall, who is co-head of litigation at the New York law firm Chadbourne & Parke.

    “The issue in the case will be: Was that enough or do they have to make more specific disclosures?” Hall said. “It certainly is not on its face what I would call a very strong case.”

    The Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee are both looking into the

    Facebook IPO, though neither has started a formal investigation or set hearings, aides said.

    “Effective capital markets require transparency and accountability, not one set of rules for insiders and another for the rest of us,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chairman of the Senate Banking subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer protection.

    Brown said the SEC “must fully investigate and take appropriate action if it discovers any violations.”

    SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said Tuesday that there are issues related to the Facebook IPO that the agency needed to look into.

    Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) said his staff is setting up briefings with Facebook, regulators and other stakeholders.

    The House Financial Services Committee staff also is gathering information about Facebook’s IPO, said Marisol Garibay, a committee spokesperson.

    and

    http://www.businessinsider.com/faceb...trading-2012-5

    Facebook's Bankers Made $100 Million As They Helped The Stock Find Its
    Feet
    Last edited by Sabrina; 25th May 2012 at 07:04.
    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.rollingstone.com/politics...alism-20120523

    23 May


    Why Private Equity Firms Like Bain Really Are the Worst of Capitalism


    career at Bain Capital at the center of his presidential campaign, former buyout artist Mitt Romney has put the private equity industry on trial.

    About time.

    Romney wants us to believe that critics of private equity are against capitalism. They’re not. They’re against a predatory system created and perpetuated by Wall Street solely to pump its own profits.

    Defenders of private equity say firms like Bain, which Romney co-founded in 1984, exist to build businesses, creating jobs and prosperity all the while. "We started Staples, we started the Sports Authority, we started Bright Horizons children centers," Romney said at one of the GOP presidential debates last year. "Heck, we even started a steel mill in a farm field in Indiana. And that steel mill operates today and employs a lot of people."

    And Romney also touts Bain's success at taking struggling companies and putting them on a path to profitability. "Sometimes we acquired businesses and tried to turn them around — typically effectively — and created tens of thousands of new jobs," he said at the same debate.

    Romney’s whole election pitch turns on the story he tells about his time at Bain, which goes like this: I, Mitt, have a record of building businesses and creating jobs, and what I did for floundering companies, I'll do for the U.S. economy.

    There's only one problem with Romney's story: It doesn’t describe most of what private equity firms actually do. The companies Romney holds up as successes – Staples, Sports Authority et al. – were not Bain private equity deals; they were venture capital investments in companies that Bain neither owned nor ran. All well and good: Venture capital is a good thing – essential for funding the growth of new and developing companies. But Romney didn't make his fortune through venture capital­; he made it through private equity – and private equity, as President Obama pointed out this week, is a very different proposition. "Their priority is to maximize profits," the president said of PE firms, and "that’s not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers."




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

    From Mass Resignations on Facebook

    Goldman Sachs has joined Twitter: @GoldmanSachs.

    Feel free to use that information however you please.
    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

    So predictable .....

    25 May UK




    Is this the end of free banking? Watchdog calls for a monthly fee for ALL accounts


    Bank customers should be charged a monthly fee on current accounts even if they are in credit, according to a finance industry watchdog.

    Charges of £15 a month could be applied, allowing a fixed number of cash machine withdrawals, direct debits, standing orders and cheques. Any transactions beyond these caps would attract extra charges.
    The idea comes from Andrew Bailey, executive director of the Bank of England and the chief executive-elect of the Government's Prudential Regulatory Authority, set up to police the banks.

    He said up-front fees should form part of a radical shake-up of the current system in which the 'myth' of free banking is perpetuated.

    He suggested that the fees would replace a regime of back-door charges which banks use to make money from ordinary customers.

    The fact that banks pay little or no interest on credit balances in current accounts amounts to a stealth charge.

    Separately, customers are stung with high interest rates and penalty charges on credit cards, loans and mortgages.

    Mr Bailey suggested one benefit of the fees would be that banks would be less inclined to rip off customers through the mis-selling of products and services such as payment protection insurance.

    In a speech to the Westminster Business Forum, he said it would be difficult for banks to introduce monthly charges 'without appearing to collude'.

    Consequently, he said, the Government or its agencies may need to take action.
    'It may require intervention in the public interest, not least because it is a way to encourage greater competition,' he said. But Labour Treasury spokesman Chris Leslie MP said: 'It's vital that George Osborne's new regulator is on the side of ordinary savers, who trust the banks with their money and allow the banks to use their deposits to make a profit to cover the costs of their accounts.'
    Official customer body Consumer Focus said: 'What mustn't happen is that consumers end up with the worst of both worlds – paying for accounts but still enduring unfair charges, opaque products, mis-selling and poor customer service.'

    Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: 'It's a complete myth that banking is free now – consumers pay more than £9billion a year in fees and lost interest on their accounts.

    'The idea that if banks charged more, they would stop trying to mis-sell other financial products is completely unfounded.'



    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1vra0e0CS
    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

    25 May UK

    Hunt, BSkyB and a damning memo to Mr Cameron: Email reveals PM knew Culture Secretary backed Murdoch bid a month before he gave him control

    'If we block it our media sector will suffer for years,' Mr Hunt told him

    The document also adds James Murdoch was 'furious' with Vince Cable over his handling of the bid
    A source close to Mr Hunt said the memo did not mean he couldn't make an independent decision


    Jeremy Hunt privately urged David Cameron to back Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB takeover bid just weeks before the Prime Minister put him in charge of ruling on the issue, it emerged last night.
    In a bombshell email, the Culture Secretary lavished praise on the £8billion bid.

    Mr Hunt said it would allow Mr Murdoch’s son James to create ‘the world’s first multi-platform media operator’ and insisted that if it was blocked the ‘media sector will suffer for years’.

    The Premier will now face tough questions over why he gave Mr Hunt responsibility for the bid, despite knowing that he had been privately cheerleading for the Murdochs.

    full story at link

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1vrbIiYKX
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