The Regulator Who was Prohibited from Stopping the Crisis

FRONTLINE's "The Warning" unearths the hidden history of the nation's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. At the center of it all he finds Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC], who speaks for the first time on television about her failed campaign to regulate the secretive, multitrillion-dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008.

"Greenspan did not believe fraud was something that should be regulated."

Greenspan, Rubin and Summers ultimately prevailed on Congress to stop Born and limit future regulation of derivatives.

The Difference Between Bankers and Pirates (Cartoon)

The economy stinks

Video: The Power of Bank Lobbies.
Video: Michael Moore on modern capitalism.

HR1207 Hearing: Audit the Fed Bill, 3 hrs long

The Crime of Our Time: Was the Economic Collapse 'Indeed, Criminal?'

Danny Schechter's latest book "The Crime of Our Time: Was the Economic Collapse 'Indeed, Criminal?'"

The Crimes of Wall Street includes:
Fraud and control frauds;
Insider trading;
Theft and conspiracy;
Misrepresentation;
Ponzi schemes;
False accounting;
Embezzling;
Diverting funds into obscenely high salaries and obscene bonuses;
Bilking investors, customers and homeowners;
Conflicts of interest;
Mesmerizing regulators;
Manipulating markets;
Tax frauds;
Making loans and then arranging that they fail;
Engineering phony financial products;
Misleading the public;
Buying a controlling stake in Washington;
Assuring their own officials run the Treasury, Fed, and all functions related to the economy and finance, including the regulatory bodies; and
Writing laws and regulations that govern their industry and activities.

Book review.

The people vs Wall Street.
Geithner aides made millions on Wall Street.

Naked Counterfeiting of Gold

On Sept. 30, 2009, market participants “bought” substantial tonnage worth of gold futures on the London Bullion Market [LBMA] and immediately told their counterparties they wanted to take instantaneous delivery of the underlying physical bullion. The unexpected immediate demand for substantial tonnage of gold bullion created utter panic in at least two banks who were counterparties to this trade – J.P. Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank – because they simply did not posses the gold bullion which they had sold short [an illegal act which in trading parlance is referred to as a “naked short”]. Read details.

Matt Taibbi collection

You just have to go buy the October 15 Rolling Stone magazine and read the article starting on page 50, "Wall Street’s Naked Swindle".

Taibbi demonstrates naked short selling. Another video.
The Great American Bubble Machine and Inside The Great American Bubble Machine.
The Big Takeover and The Dirty Dozen.

Latest on US Dollar and Gold Trends

Robert Fisk responds to the denials of ‘dollar demise’ report:

The demise of the dollar

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

Ron Paul on Daily Show - End the Fed

Are Credit Defaul Swaps making a comeback?