A Union-Hating Billionaire Bankster Will Develop Trade Agreements that Affect All

[Octafish]

And the guy who's in line to keep the airwaves broadcasting in the public interest, including truth, news and free discussion that make democracy operate, was a corporate lobbyist.



Here are details...

Down the Corporate Rabbit Hole

Obama in Plunderland

by NORMAN SOLOMON
CounterPunch, May 9, 2013

EXCERPT...

A more blunt assessment came from journalist Dennis Bernstein: “Her pioneering sub-prime operations, out of Superior Bank in Chicago, specifically targeted poor and working class people of color across the country. She ended up crashing Superior for a billion-dollar cost to taxpayers, and creating a personal tragedy for the 1,400 people who lost their savings when the bank failed.” Pritzker, whose family controls Hyatt Regency Hotels, has a vile anti-union record.

SNIP...

The choice of Penny Pritzker to run the Commerce Department is a matched set with the simultaneous pick of Tom Wheeler — another mega-fundraiser for candidate Obama — to chair the Federal Communications Commission.

SNIP...

But with countless billions of dollars at stake, the corporate fix was in. As Johnson pointed out, “Wheeler’s background is as a trade association representative for companies appearing before the Commission, a lobbyist in Congress for other FCC customers, and a venture capitalist investing in and profiting from others whose requests he’ll have to pass on. He has no record, of which I am aware, of challenging corporate abuse of power on behalf of consumers and the poor.”

SNIP...

Obama’s recent appointment of Wall Street insider Mary Jo White as SEC chair is playing out in predictable fashion. Days ago, in an editorial, the New York Times faulted her role in an SEC decision on regulating the huge derivatives market: “Last week, in her first commission vote, Ms. White led the commissioners in approving a proposal that, if finalized, could leave investors and taxpayers exposed to the ravages of reckless bank trading.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/09/obama-in-plunderland/

They'll fit right in with an Attorney General who won't go after the trillions in offshore loot, prosecute banks that foreclosed illegally on millions of homeowners, shut down banks that launder drug money.

And that's not the worst of it. Bush and Cheney walk free. And the wars for privatized empire and profit they started continue as if no one gave a damn.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Viva-La-Wall Street,were you expecting

something different? The fix was in before last November. Got played you think!!!!

[Octafish]

12. When he dumped Joseph Stiglitz in favor of Timothy Geithner, I got a clue.

When he listened to Robert Rubin and ignored William K. Black, I was certain.

[HiPointDem]

2. +1

[Octafish]

18. What's Wrong with the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

It would sound good on paper, if any of them were covering it...



EXCERPT...

Why (One) Should Care

TPP raises significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities. In sum, the TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens.

The USTR is pursuing a TPP agreement that will require signatory counties to adopt heightened copyright protection that advances the agenda of the US entertainment and pharmaceutical industries agendas, but omits the flexibilities and exceptions that protect Internet users and technology innovators.

The TPP will affect countries beyond the 11 that are currently involved in negotiations. Like ACTA, the TPP Agreement is a plurilateral agreement that will be used to create new heightened global IP enforcement norms. Countries that are not parties to the negotiation will likely be asked to accede to the TPP as a condition of bilateral trade agreements with the US and other TPP members, or evaluated against the TPP's copyright enforcement standards in the annual Special 301 process administered by the USTR.

CONTINUED w/links to details...

https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

[pa28]

3. Looks like the old revolving door between corporation power and government is history.

It's more like one big, clubby, soundproofed, fully catered room now and as the man said . . . you ain't invited.

[Octafish]

19. Neil Barofsky Gave Us The Best Explanation For Washington's Dysfunction We've Ever Heard

For the non-paupers in spirit, a pot of gold awaits...

Neil Barofsky Gave Us The Best Explanation For Washington's Dysfunction We've Ever Heard

Linette Lopez
Business Insider, Aug. 1, 2012, 2:57 PM

Neil Barofsky was the Inspector General for TARP, and just wrote a book about his time in D.C. called Bailout: An Insider Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.

SNIP...

Bottom line: Barofsky said the incentive structure in our nation's capitol is all wrong. There's a revolving door between bureaucrats in Washington and Wall Street banks, and politicians just want to keep their jobs.

For regulators it's something like this:

"You can play ball and good things can happen to you get a big pot of gold at the end of the Wall Street rainbow or you can do your job be aggressive and face personal ruin...We really need to rethink how we govern and how regulate," Barofsky said.

CONTINUED... http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-barofsky-2012-8

...for the rest of us, it's Austerity Time. Again.

[KoKo]

38. He was on Bloomberg Business live yesterday making those good points.

and it was a good watch. Thanks for posting it here from "Business Insider."

There are more than we think in the Business Community who are horrified by what's been going on since 2007 and before and they try to push back where they can. We need more to wake up...but, it might have to get to another Financial Break Down before the lack of "accountability" finally hits home with those who "do the dealing, lobby and do the revolving door between Wall Street, Congress, White House and the MIC.

They haven't learned yet...and we PEOPLE still have to be awakened to more about what's been going on before it can be corrected..

[JDPriestly]

4. Elizabeth Warren for President in 2016.

[newfie11]

6. +1

We need someone like her to straighten out the corruption running through our government!

[madrchsod]

9. yup..

[cali]

16. sorry, but that's ridiculous.

in order to be President, you have to have the specific skills to get there. She doesn't. And I'd bet almost anything she won't run.

[Octafish]

20. More than one term in the Senate? Community Organize in the South Side?

There must be lots of opportunities for picking up skills and making important contacts.

Penny Pritzker, Barack Obama’s ‘Fairy Godmother’

Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly, TruthDig
Posted on May 4, 2013

Obama was an inconsequential lawmaker in the Illinois Senate when his future pick to be U.S. secretary of Commerce introduced him to titans of the finance industry and raised three-quarters of a billion dollars toward his presidential election, investigative reporter Greg Palast tells us.

As Truthdig wrote this week, Pritzker is worth more than $1.8 billion and has held leadership positions in the Hyatt Hotels Corp. and the now-defunct Chicago-based Superior Bank. Her vast fortune affords her “a heavy magic wand in the world of politics,” Palast writes, an instrument that “would have been heavier ... except that in 2001, the federal government fined her and her family $460 million for the predatory, deceitful, racist tactics and practices of Superior.”

At the time of its collapse, Superior was the costliest bank failure ever and “the first of the deregulated go-go-banks to go bust.” Taxpayers lost nearly half a billion dollars. Depositors lost millions and many poor residents of state Sen. Obama’s South Side of Chicago lost their homes.

SNIP...

In return for Rubin’s help raising campaign money from the major banks, Obama agreed to appoint Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner to the highest economic appointments in his Cabinet, Palast notes. All three of these men had played an executive role in creating the deregulated banking industry that brought the U.S. economy to its knees in 2008.

CONTINUED...

www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/penny_pritzker_barack_obamas_fairy_godmother_20130504/

IMO, we may need someone with a different set of skills. I do know we need people with Integrity. That quality, one can't buy.

[cali]

31. sigh. no.

she didn't run a terribly good campaign for her Senate seat. yes, she got better at it, but it was not impressive. Now that doesn't have anything to do with governing, but you can't govern unless you can get elected.

and btw, I posted the first news about Priztker. I don't need YOU to tell me a thing about her.


Oh, and it's silly to compare Obama's experience in campaigning with Warren's. He'd run for the House. He'd run and won several times for an Illinois state senate campaign. He had a well established network of donors and a base that she just doesn't have.

You seem to be confusing running for office with being in office.

[bvar22]

41. "He had a well established network of donors..."

Well, THAT is obvious.
I would amend that to read, "a well established network of donors
who are VERY happy with the return on their investment."

Look at all these smiling faces:

[HangOnKids]

29. Like the skills of W? n/t

[cali]

32. huh?

[HangOnKids]

36. See Your Post 16

The one claiming a Presidential candidate needed a certain skill set.

[galileoreloaded]

42. w was a smart fucker who knew exactly what he was doing.

not popular but the proof is in the pudding.

[HangOnKids]

44. That he fucked up everything he touched?

Makin' a big load of shit pudding? Is that the proof you speak of?

[galileoreloaded]

48. lozlol. nt

[HangOnKids]

49. Does that mean something?

Try English next time. Thanks.

[pa28]

43. The appearance of sincerity and being a polished liar helps.

Her skill set is really lacking in that regard.

[warrant46]

5. Money Talks

Disgusting

[GreenStormCloud]

7. Always has, always will. N/T

[byeya]

17. Money Talks - Kinks

Show me a man who says he can live without bread
And I'll show you a man who's a liar and in debt.
There's no one alive who can't be purchased or enticed
There's no man alive who wouldn't sell for a price,
Money talks and we're the living proof,
There ain't no limit to what money can do
Money talks, money talks.

Money can't breathe and money can't see,
But when I pull out a fiver people listen to me.
Money can't run and money can't walk,
But when I write out a check I swear to God I hear money talk.
Money talks and, baby, when you've been bought
You pay attention every time money talks.
Money talks, money talks.

Money talks and there's no doubt about it
Money talks and we can't live without it,
What's the point of living unless you've got money?
I just couldn't function without money.
Money talks, money talks,
Money talks, money talks.

Show me an upright respected man
And I'll have him licking my boots when I put money in his hand.
It rots your heart, it gets to your soul,
Before you know where you are you're a slave to the green gold.
Money talks and we're the living proof
There ain't no limit to what money can do.
Money talks you out of your self-respect,
The more you crave it the cheaper you get.
Money talks, money talks.

Money buys you time and people listen,
Money can buy a smile and make life worth living.
If you're ugly money can improve you.
I just couldn't face the world without mazuma.
Money talks, money talks

[L0oniX]

27. Didn't work with FDR. n/t

[GreenStormCloud]

28. He was already rich. N/T

[L0oniX]

34. "the FDR family wealth was well established before the president was born"

Yea ...it was a good thing he didn't need their money. You think he would have been won over by corporate money if he were not already well off? On the other hand today we have those who seemingly can never get enough money and the power that can come with it.

[Octafish]

21. A boatload of money. Moved offshore. Where it's now A-OK (for the connected) to keep.

Interesting things that never seem to make it onto the nightly news:

Penny Pritzker's Commerce (Part Two)

Rick Perlstein
The Nation on May 6, 2013 - 2:12 PM ET

Did you know that in the early 1970s, the Internal Revenue Service investigated the Pritzker family, whose scion Penny Pritzker has just been tapped by President Obama to become Secretary of Commerce, because their Hyatt Corporation was paying no taxes? And that in the course of the inquiry, an IRS statement quoted an informant with access to the records of the offshore bank where they hid their assets that the family, “through their Hyatt Corporation, received their initial backing from organized crime”?

Did you know that this particular financial institution, Castle Bank & Trust of the Bahamas, was founded by a veteran of the wartime spy agency the Office of Strategic Services who specialized in creating front organizations for the CIA, and helped launder funds for attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro? That Castle operated by arranging for a Miami bank controlled by associates of mobster Meyer Lansky to accept the original deposits, which it then passed on to Castle with only code numbers, but not names, attached?

Did you know that the IRS dropped a major investigation of Castle in 1977, according to The Wall Street Journal, at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency?

And did you know one of the bank’s cofounders, the late Burton Kanter, was on the board of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and that—as The Kansas City Times discovered in a 1982 Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation following the collapse of a shoddily constructed skywalk that killed 114 at a Hyatt in 1981—the Pritzkers were Castle Bank’s largest depositors?

CONTINUED...

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174197/penny-pritzkers-commerce-part-two#

Yeah. See. We got a plan, see.



Empty the banks legal like, see. Yeah.

It's like running breathlessly into the police department to report just witnessing a theft from the Treasury and then finding out the guy in a sergeant's uniform at the desk is the same guy you saw loading loot into the trunk of the getaway car.

[madrchsod]

8. yup...he`s completely sold out the american people....

as the saying goes..."smiling faces sometimes they don't tell the truth"

[Octafish]

25. Jacob Lew: Another Brick in the Wall Street on the Potomac (William K. Black)

Dr. Black explains how Dr. Wall Street will continue bleeding the patient with leaches to health through austerity.



President Obama and Jacob L. "Jack" Lew walk near Marine One.

Jacob Lew: Another Brick in the Wall Street on the Potomac

William K. Black
Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; Sr. regulator during S&L debacle

EXCERPT...

The unobvious aspects of the pattern compound these problems. First, Obama likes to surround himself with failures. Geithner set the pattern. He was supposed to be the principal regulator of most of the largest U.S. bank holding companies. He was an abject failure. His speeches and his statements at the Federal Reserve System's FOMC meetings during the crisis demonstrate that he remained clueless to the end. For reasons of brevity, I discuss only three of his failures as Treasury Secretary below.

Lew has gone from failure to failure. He was one of the architects of both of the Clinton administration's disastrous statutory deregulatory actions that helped produce the epidemic of accounting control fraud that drove the Great Recession.

Emanuel and Daley were failures as directors of Fannie and Freddie. Lew was a failure at Citicorp's proprietary derivatives trading arm. That failure is particularly dangerous because the purpose of the Volcker rule was to ensure that federally insured banks did not take proprietary positions in derivatives. Obama has put failed anti-regulators in positions where they can best undermine the reregulatory effort that is essential to reduce the risk and harm of future crises.

Obama's senior financial advisors have also failed ethically. Lew's great moral challenge was whether he would be honest about his errors. Honesty is essential to preventing future harm. Lew failed this second, less obvious, test as well. The CBS special notes:

During a 2010 Senate hearing to confirm him as White House budget chief, Lew seemed to soft-pedal the role of financial deregulation in the housing crash, saying, &quot I don't) personally know the extent to which deregulation drove it, but I don't believe that deregulation was the proximate cause."

CONTINUED w/Links...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/jacob-lew-another-brick-i_b_2446848.html

How many hard working, sincere people have been tossed from their homes over the last five years? Some lost a job and couldn't make the mortgage. Others had sickness in the family that bankrupted them. Some just got shafted for no reason other than the bank wanted to. Yet, the bailouts amounted to TRILLIONS for the people and institutions that gambled away the money in the first place. Certainly, billions were earmarked to go to injured homeowners, but that has amounted to a drop in the ocean.

[xchrom]

10. du rec. nt

[Octafish]

45. We don't have to haul out the tumbrils. We can go after their OFFSHORE accounts.

A kinder gentler alternative to the guillotine might be taxing, if not seizing entirely, the offshore loot. We have the technology. We know what they have and where they have the absconded cash. It can be done.

On My Mind

Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting In First World Banks

James S. Henry
07.01.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated July 19, 2010

Let's tax offshore privstr wealth.

How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels--arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders--to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change and development? Simple: Levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot.

Many aboveground economies around the world are struggling, but the economic underground is booming. By my estimate, there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.

Much offshore wealth derives from capital flight and the proceeds of past and present tax evasion. Another source is crime. At least a third comes from developing countries--more than their outstanding net foreign debt.

This wealth is concentrated. Nearly half of it is owned by 91,000 people--0.001% of the world's population. Ninety-five percent is owned by the planet's wealthiest 10 million people.

Let's tax it. The pile of offshore anonymous loot is now large enough so that even a very modest 0.5% wealth tax would yield at least $75 billion a year.

SNIP...

Is it feasible? Yes. The majority of offshore wealth is managed by 50 banks. As of September 2009 these banks accounted for $10.8 trillion of offshore assets--72% of the industry's total. The busiest 10 of them manage 40%.

CONTINUED....

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html

All we lack is the cough political will to do so.

[rhett o rick]

11. Well, well at least we dont have pesky medical marijuana users on our streets.

The revolution is waiting for the spark.

[byeya]

14. Yes pain and suffering is the lot of the majority - need to fill those private prisons and need

to keep battalions of DEA agents employed.

[Octafish]

46. How Punching Hippies became a national security pastime.

Hippie Punching 101: The Real Story

By Susie Madrak
September 24, 2010 06:00 AM

To say I'm blunt would be an understatement (although if I were a man, I like to think that people would call me "refreshingly direct", like John McCain)! So when I got to ask the last question on a White House conference call yesterday, I asked two things.

I asked David Axelrod if he knew what I meant by "hippie punching," and I also mentioned the Mike Lux article on Open Left this week. (Mike says voters are more easily persuaded by ads run by outside groups, but that Obama for America - later to be Organizing for America -- starved the liberal groups of needed cash by telling big donors to give them the money instead. That position apparently continued after the election, too).

SNIP...

It was kind of funny to ask a White House advisor if he understood what I meant by "hippie punching", it amused me. (I needed a diversion, because a dear friend had surgery to remove a brain tumor yesterday and I hadn't heard from her family yet.)

But I was also trying to help. You know, as in: "If you want help from people, you need to stop bad mouthing them."

CONTINUED...

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/hippie-punching-101-real-story

[byeya]

13. We don't have a democracy but rather have a system of organized corruption. If some behavior

Last edited Fri May 10, 2013, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)

of the Ultras gets too close to illegality, then a law is passed making that activity legit. (I wonder if 0bama and the .1% talk like 1930s movie hoodlums at their clatches?)

[forestpath]

23. +1000

[HangOnKids]

30. The Sopranos Are Alive And Well.

Same as it ever was.

[KoKo]

39. well....

have you ever wondered why we don't hear about "Organized Crime" anymore?

I did read a good article (sorry...can't remember where) that Wall Street, Lobbyists and Congress had followed the "Old Mafia Model" and adopted it for their own. Payoffs, Bribes of Congress Critters, Gambling with folks money, Intimidation, Threats....etc.

If I ever find the article I will post it. And NO ...it wasn't from a CT site...but a legit business blog...Just can't remember which one.

[Octafish]

47. "Remember, Uncle: We make the laws."

A hard-working man I know asked his nephew, a former Michigan state representative, about keeping unused campaign contributions after the nephew left state office due to term limits.

"You must have $100,000 in your war chest," he asked.

"Uncle, keep going," the former state senator told him.

"200,000?"

"Keep going."

They got up to around $500,000.

"What are you going to do with it? Give it to the (GOP) party?"

"No, uncle, I'm going to keep it."

"What?" my friend asked. "Isn't that illegal?"

"No, it's legal," the nephew replied, laughing. "Remember, Uncle: We make the laws."

True. Story.

The uncle is an old-line Michigan Republican, a guy who believes in democracy and that the law should apply to everybody.

The nephew is one of the new breed pukes, brought in by former Speaker of the State House and later governor and now head of the National Association of Manufacturers, John Engler, perhaps the most cold-hearted bastards to ever lead the Great Lakes State -- that is, until now, when we have Rick Snyder, tool of the Koch Brothers and the Mackinac Center.

[bobduca]

15. Quick light the blue link shaped beacon!

this thread needs some bolded blue links, stat!

[forestpath]

24. ROFL.

[forestpath]

22. If anyone has ANY doubts that Obama EVER plans to help workers....

his choice of this sleazy, corrupt, corporate crook should put them to rest.

[byeya]

26. Workers? Depends on the country, I guess. The USA, perhaps not but think of the happy Burmese!

[Initech]

33. When does the revolution start? We can't allow them to keep getting away with this.

[GreenStormCloud]

35. Most revolutions make things worse for ordinary folks.

Examples would be the French revolution, Russian revolution of 1917, and the recent Egyptian revolution. Most revolutions turn into dictatorships.

[KoKo]

40. Not true...Reforms are made that are unpopular with those who got Overthrown in Revolution

and they strike back...leading to a perious of retaliations and uncertainty. But, reforms are put in place...and it's up to the PEOPLE to keep the reforms going.

Magna Charta is one huge success which is being dismantled these days...but your examples did make change for the people. There is always a "Counter Revolution" that begins afterwards ...but at least "THE PEOPLE" have a break for awhile and a foundation to fight back with.

We here in America these days are on the cusp of something....that will turn tide. Because the "Counter" has taken over and "The People" will fight back...because they have a base of their own to do it. America is "Out of Balance."

[KoKo]

37. The whole article is a worthwhile read. Thanks for posting this...

Read it earlier today and it was nice to see Solomon address these latest "picks" for high level in our President's Second Term. It's not just Prtizker...but, the others.

Nice job in putting it into context when we are so limited by copyright to try to get info out.