Interesting thoughts from advisor to President-elect Donald Trump. Excerpted from BuzzFeed News.
Bannon: That’s a great question. The 2008 crisis, I think the financial crisis — which, by the way, I don’t think we’ve come through — is really driven I believe by the greed, much of it driven by the greed of the investment banks. My old firm, Goldman Sachs — traditionally the best banks are leveraged 8:1. When we had the financial crisis in 2008, the investment banks were leveraged 35:1. Those rules had specifically been changed by a guy named Hank Paulson. He was secretary of Treasury. As chairman of Goldman Sachs, he had gone to Washington years before and asked for those changes. That made the banks not really investment banks, but made them hedge funds — and highly susceptible to changes in liquidity. And so the crisis of 2008 was, quite frankly, really never recovered from in the United States. It’s one of the reasons last quarter you saw 2.9% negative growth in a quarter. So the United States economy is in very, very tough shape.
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Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)And one of the reasons is that we’ve never really gone and dug down and sorted through the problems of 2008. Particularly the fact — think about it — not one criminal charge has ever been brought to any bank executive associated with 2008 crisis. And in fact, it gets worse. No bonuses and none of their equity was taken. So part of the prime drivers of the wealth that they took in the 15 years leading up to the crisis was not hit at all, and I think that’s one of the fuels of this populist revolt that we’re seeing as the tea party. So I think there are many, many measures, particularly about getting the banks on better footing, making them address all the liquid assets they have. I think you need a real clean-up of the banks balance sheets.
In addition, I think you really need to go back and make banks do what they do: Commercial banks lend money, and investment banks invest in entrepreneurs and to get away from this trading — you know, the hedge fund securitization, which they’ve all become basically trading operations and securitizations and not put capital back and really grow businesses and to grow the economy. So I think it’s a whole area that just — and I will tell you, the underpinning of this populist revolt is the financial crisis of 2008. That revolt, the way that it was dealt with, the way that the people who ran the banks and ran the hedge funds have never really been held accountable for what they did, has fueled much of the anger in the tea party movement in the United States.
“I was reading in the paper today that Congress wants to replace the dollar bill with a coin. They’ve already done it. It’s called a nickel.”― Jay Leno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP9H5fADC0E
If you don’t have to “mark to market” and can assign any value you wish to an asset, it’s all good.
Until it isn’t.
It’s a comfort to have Bannon in the white house with this kind of reasoning, aside from the fact he drives the presstitutes insane. We’ll see just how much power he has at the next crash. My bet is that he’s shot, fired or kicked to the curb.
“And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,” Sen. Durbin D IL
Bannon is right. Paulson epitomized the problem. The bank bailout wasn’t TARP, it was 8 years of ZIRP and Dodd-Frank which charges small banks for the sins of the larger ones and enshrines TBTF in law. Paulson also unnecessarily backstopped investors in Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities.
Many crimes were committed, and no one has been held to account.
The bankers laughed in our faces as they received their usual multi-
million $ bonuses. Multiple investment groups were ruined as they
were sold worthless fraudulent mortgage “bundles.” Multiple pensions
and savers are stalled and failing…and we are beginning to see this
happening now as municipalities are failing as well. Notwithstanding
the war machine, the bankers/wall street have collaborated, (certainly
countless other piggies) to commit massive crimes against the American
people, and other countries as well. These scum leaders we have wrote
bail-in agreements in 2014 allowing them to take our bank accounts.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-10/new-laws-allow-government-seize-savings-deposits-during-crisis
I would go today, to my 2 banks, and withdraw everything and bury it in my woods.
But capital controls are in place and I will become a “terrorist” and there will
be violence against me and asset forfeiture will ensue. If I survive, I’ll be eating
bologna on wonder-bread once a day. Yes, this is a free country…we are free to be
smashed. Does the new administration say a word about any of this? They warn
us, v proxies, that everything will collapse in an avalanche “overnight.”
Thanks for nothing.
Suzanna,
Start now by pulling out $1000 (or whatever) and putting it into whatever you want – gold, food, bullets, a sock – and keeping it that way. Do so every month, in regular times / amounts, until your bank deposits are just enough to cover your bills. Pay for a few things in cash, if you like – get away from letting banks and bankers hold all your wealth.
Right now we can trade worthless green toilet paper for things with intrinsic value. Do it as long as you can – and hunker down and wait when the Crunch comes.
Finally, tell NO ONE you are doing this. Not your kids, not your friends, NO ONE. Act like you are living paycheck to paycheck ( or SS check to SS check, whatever). You will have a better chance of surviving (financially) than those who do not. And then the government announces the next Bank Holiday, it will hurt you far less than it hurts them.
When Washington Mutual failed its assets totaled $360 billion which was 6 times bigger than Enron. The CFO is still drawing big corporate paychecks. Current gig is at Lending Tree. He should be behind bars. But justice was denied. The beat goes on.