Tag: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

Sheila Bair, Former Chair of the FDIC, Is Now an “Organizer/Director” of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that Got a U.S. National Bank Charter Last Year

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

On November 17, Sheila Bair, the former Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) during the financial crisis of 2008, went on CNBC to lament the lack of controls leading to the collapse of the crypto currency exchange, FTX. During the interview, Bair used the phrase “nobody looking behind the curtain.”

Sheila Bair, Former Chair of the FDIC, Is Now an “Organizer/Director” of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that Got a U.S. National Bank Charter Last Year

Related (why no one was prosecuted for the financial crisis of 2007–2008 + another comment):

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Evidence Grows that Crypto and Federally-Insured Banks Are a Combustible Mixture

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The fallout from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and its missing billions of dollars of customer funds has, finally, galvanized some members of Congress to push back against the swarms of crypto lobbyists whose activities are clearly impacting the safety and soundness of U.S. banks.

Evidence Grows that Crypto and Federally-Insured Banks Are a Combustible Mixture

The Latest Digital Token Scheme from Hell: New York Fed Teams Up with Citigroup and Sullivan & Cromwell

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Just two business days after the crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy and headlines swirled around the world suggesting it had used its crypto token to perpetuate a massive fraud reminiscent of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the New York Fed thought this would be an ideal time to announce it was launching a digital token pilot with the serial fraudster, Citigroup. (See here for the unintelligible, jargonized version from the New York Fed; here for the decrypted translation from CoinDesk; and here for a sampling of Citigroup’s rap sheet.)

The Latest Digital Token Scheme from Hell: New York Fed Teams Up with Citigroup and Sullivan & Cromwell

Fed’s Powell Calls U.S. Economy “Robust” as Personal Savings Rate Collapses to Same Level as in Financial Crisis of 2008

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 27, 2022

At Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference on September 21, he made a remark that went unchallenged by the bevy of reporters in attendance. Powell said this:

Fed’s Powell Calls U.S. Economy “Robust” as Personal Savings Rate Collapses to Same Level as in Financial Crisis of 2008

There Is No Such Thing As Wage-Driven Inflation

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Few know the name of Walter Heller, one of the first Chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, and an adviser to President Kennedy. In 1968, however, he was a giant in economics who published in all the top journals. Fresh from his years in the Kennedy White House, he was invited to debate the relative importance of fiscal and monetary policy with another giant in economics, Milton Friedman, in a small book published by W.W. Norton & Company. Rarely do such debates interest more than a few thousand individuals. This is an exception, as a decade later PBS invited Heller and Friedman to debate their views on inflation.

There Is No Such Thing As Wage-Driven Inflation

Related:

Debunking: “If You Raise The Minimum Wage, It Will Cause Inflation”

What the 2022 Midterm Election Charade Offers Us

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

That neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are offering anything to alleviate the problems working people face is illustrated by their campaign fear-mongering – the former over “fascism” and the latter over “socialists” and “radicals.” No matter which party dominates the midterm elections, do not expect either will herald in fascism or socialism.

What the 2022 Midterm Election Charade Offers Us

Liz Truss Quits as British Prime Minister After Just 44 Days in Office + Daily pictures: Long Live the Lettuce!

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

It’s official—Liz Truss had the shortest tenure of any prime minister in British history. Just 44 days after arriving in Downing Street, Truss’ regime was officially killed off on Thursday along with the United Kingdom’s ability to pretend any longer that it hasn’t fallen into absolute kakistocracy.

Liz Truss Quits as British Prime Minister After Just 44 Days in Office

Related:

Daily pictures: Long Live Larry!

Source: Nicolas Cinquini.

The lettuce won! 🥳

Brazilian Anarchist expert reveals Social War behind key Lula / Bolsonaro Vote

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Brazilian Anarchist expert reveals Social War behind key Lula / Bolsonaro Vote

Despite the glowing picture that progressives and social democrats paint of Lula, it was under the PT (Worker’s Party) that Brazil’s government made its turn toward austerity. Given that this will likely be a second term in office for him, how effective do you think left organizations and movements will be at wringing concessions from a Lula-led PT government?

NPR is Not Your Friend

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

NPR is a problem. Good and proper leftists who read Current Affairs may already realize this. “Of course. NPR (Neoliberal Propaganda Radio) is a bastion of establishment groupthink and orthodoxy that gives cover to imperialism and corporate capitalism.” By contrast, readers on the Right who find themselves consuming Current Affairs may have an equally disdainful but entirely different critique. “Of course. NPR is an elitist liberal propaganda cult that serves as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, is openly hostile to any conservative voices, and ought to be defunded!”

NPR is Not Your Friend

The United States Wants to Prevent a Historical Fact: Eurasian Integration

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

by Vijay Prashad / July 7th, 2022

Over the course of the past fifteen years, European countries have found themselves with both great opportunities to seize and complex choices to make. Unsustainable reliance on the United States for trade and investment, as well as the curious distraction of Brexit, led to the steady integration of European countries with Russian energy markets and more uptake of Chinese investment opportunities and its manufacturing prowess.

The United States Wants to Prevent a Historical Fact: Eurasian Integration

Related video:

Vijay Prashad – Why the United States Opposed the Historical Integration of Eurasia