The "end game" memo from Larry Summers.

[trumad]

Check out this Palast piece about Summers--- pretty much it in a nutshell.

http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/

[skydive forever]

1. Scary.

[questionseverything]

45. from the article

And so on–with every single nation bullied into signing.

Every nation but one, I should say. Brazil's new President, Inacio Lula da Silva, refused. In retaliation, Brazil was threatened with a virtual embargo of its products by the European Union's Trade Commissioner, one Peter Mandelson, according to another confidential memo I got my hands on. But Lula's refusenik stance paid off for Brazil which, alone among Western nations, survived and thrived during the 2007-9 bank crisis.

China signed–but got its pound of flesh in return. It opened its banking sector a crack in return for access and control of the US auto parts and other markets. (Swiftly, two million US jobs shifted to China.)

The new FSA pulled the lid off the Pandora's box of worldwide derivatives trade. Among the notorious transactions legalized: Goldman Sachs (where Treasury Secretary Rubin had been Co-Chairman) worked a secret euro-derivatives swap with Greece which, ultimately, destroyed that nation. Ecuador, its own banking sector de-regulated and demolished, exploded into riots. Argentina had to sell off its oil companies (to the Spanish) and water systems (to Enron) while its teachers hunted for food in garbage cans. Then, Bankers Gone Wild in the Eurozone dove head-first into derivatives pools without knowing how to swim–and the continent is now being sold off in tiny, cheap pieces to Germany.

Of course, it was not just threats that sold the FSA, but temptation as well. After all, every evil starts with one bite of an apple offered by a snake. The apple: The gleaming piles of lucre hidden in the FSA for local elites. The snake was named Larry.

[RC]

2. Read through to the bitter end. It will explain much.

How will the BOG spin that?

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Ignore it most likely

[RC]

35. There are certain things that they can't spin.

That has to be one of them.

[Autumn]

3. Pretty damn vile. But I think this is why Obama will not nominate Summers.

Obama has to know this is out there. Too many people know it. If I'm wrong I'll take care of my red line when I get there.

[sulphurdunn]

6. Obama will nominate

whoever the banksters tell him to nominate.

[Autumn]

8. I'm not too sure of that. Obama has shown that he is willing to change course.

There is no upside for him to nominate Summers. I think it would create one hell of a fight.

[sulphurdunn]

13. If any evidence

exists to suggest Obama has ever crossed Wall Street, I've missed it. I can only recall the bankers whining that he wasn't doing enough for them during his last election campaign. Which, is something. I suppose.

[Autumn]

14. No, I don't have any evidence to that.

I am just giving him the benefit of the doubt because only a fool would nominate Summers to the Fed. And I can not believe Obama is a fool.

[sulphurdunn]

19. Fair enough.

We shall see.

[Divernan]

21. The valid, overwhelming objections to Summers have been laid out for Obama for MONTHS

And yet Obama continues to push for Summers for this post. Summers has just canceled all his Citibank involvements in anticipation of the announcement of the choice for Fed. Reserve Chairman.

You are in denial on this matter, plain and simple. You've watched Obama appoint more and more Wall Street insiders, while insisting Obama is looking out for the working people. Meanwhile the stock market soars and Big Bank profits and executive bonuses are at all time record highs.......while working family incomes have dropped 4.4 percent.
Here are some of the comments from Huff Post - they reflect my opinion:

Deals have been made and Promises must be kept, Obama will be one of the wealthiest Ex-Presidents of all time! Oh, and sorry if you thought I was talking about promises to the American people.

This is the kind of choices that doesn't distinguish the Dems from the Reps. They have grown closer together in every way and use topics like gay marriage and abortion to distract the public from seeing how these fabricated topics only camouflage their very real similarities.

Why is Summers still in this list of maybes? We've clearly, over and over again, voiced our desires that he not even be considered for the position? Is this a test by O and the New York Media to see how long it will take for everyone who's spoken with a resounding NO to SUMMERS, to finally give up and give in? If it is, the answer is still HECK NO to Summers. He is not qualified ethically or intellectually(in my opinion) to do this job. He is not what or whom US citizens want in this role. He is not the right choice. PERIOD. How many more times must we speak out on this? Get it over with, Mr. President. Make a decision now!

Mr. Summers can run but he can't hide from his past economic failures. His history is a constant line of failing up. Why Mr. Obama can't bring himself to stop this unending career arc is beyond me. President Obama is possibly the only person in this country that thinks Mr. Summers gave him great advice on economic policy during his first term

.
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[Autumn]

32. I read that and I agree. But I think that Summers did that because he wants the job.

I'm not yet convinced that Obama will give it to him. Not yet. Summers can run but he can't hide from his past economic failures and Obama can't give him cover on that . There is no way in hell Obama can cover that. He would lose every ounce of credibility he has.

I may very well be in denial, and there is a part of me that keeps thinking Obama will nominate him but....I push that out because damn, no one can be that stupid. We would never recover from the damage that man would do.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

25. No one has any evidence of that. n/t

[magical thyme]

42. I remember he called them fat-cat bankers once, right before letting them off the hook

for their crimes. And they whined about his name-calling, too. Guess he should have called them fat-cat, crybaby bankers.

[DireStrike]

7. What exactly do you think would happen?

Even if it wound up all over the media. Obama has no more horses in the game personally. I guess you could say it might hurt the democratic party. And it might indeed cost a few years of elections as the disaffected democrats don't turn out to vote.

But the bankers get their way no matter what.

[Autumn]

12. I think Janet Yellen is the easiest choice. Yes I do think Summers

would hurt the Democratic Party and more than likely the economy and I would suspect Obama realizes that. Obama has three years left. Why would he do that? It makes no sense to me. Of course I'm probably wrong, but I sure as hell hope not.

[Divernan]

22. Those three years are the whole point - time to exploit the US for the benefit of the one percent

[magical thyme]

43. What would happen? They wouldn't make him a multi-millionaire after the election.

with a cushy job giving talks in luxury 1%er resort areas.

He stands to lose a lot of moolah if he crosses them.

[Octafish]

4. The Plutocrat's Friend

After you read Palast, more on Summers from Little Sister:

http://blog.littlesis.org/2011/01/10/evidence-of-an-american-plutocracy-the-larry-summers-story/

[heaven05]

33. wow!

I mean the power of these fucks is pervasive. Their power over our system is complete and total. The average joe and josephine stand no chance.

[Octafish]

36. Seeing how they have most of the money and all the big guns, it seems that way...

...In a democracy, what we have is better: The Truth.

That's why the plutocrats spend so much on subverting democracy -- from unconstitutional domestic NSA spying to having taxpayers bail out Wall Street to wars for profit around the world.

People know something's wrong. The problem is translating that understanding into real change. Larry Summers isn't part of the solution.

[malaise]

5. All except the Arab countries that do not allow usury

Forget the religious propaganda, it's always about money.

Excellent read

[iandhr]

9. Is gregpalast a reputable news source?

[marmar]

11. Do a Google search on Greg Palast and Iraq and education etc etc

The answer will become self-evident. He's one of the few journalists worthy of clicking a link for.

[JDPriestly]

37. Don't let the snap in Greg Palast's writing style throw you off. He researches

his sources carefully and is pretty reliable as far as I can tell. He just has a very, very readable writing style.

Our financial sector has overpowered, outmaneuvered and out-politicked the rest of our economy. And we are left with a domestic economy gutted by the plutocracy.

Greg Palast is one of the few who explains how this happened and who is to blame for it.

We either change the balance in our economy so that our real, productive economy leads the financial sector or our economy will collapse and our democracy with it. We already see an experiment in dictatorship imposed on Detroit based on the excise of bankruptcy.

The financial sector has the ability to bankrupt any municipality. Will that be the excuse for ending municipal self-government. Does that then spread to the state level?

This may sound to you like an extreme conspiracy theory, but our trade agreements already threaten the ability of the people to decide for themselves many issues at state and local levels. NAFTA and international trade courts can decide how products are labelled in your supermarket, how our nations natural resources (I'm thinking of Canadian lumber), who can drive in your state and with what license, etc.

Right now, the biggest immediate threat is the TPP. That has financial sector dominance written all over it. We have to stop it. Summers will never help us in that regard.

My problem is that I don't know much about Yellin. People of conscience, people who see the problems we face as a nation and who understand that the dominance of the financial sector is one of the basic ones, are opposing Summers. But no one says much about Yellin. Seems to me she could have done a little more to bring our economy back into balance. So if anyone knows about her, I would like to hear more.

But Greg Palast is OK>

From The Economist:

Ms Yellen’s views are an open book. She has written and spoken extensively on monetary policy and the thinking behind the Fed’s current strategy. And she has argued that more could be done to help the jobless given the Fed’s dual mandate: price stability and maximum employment.

A chairman’s greatest challenge is to anticipate—and react to—surprises. Mr Summers’s backers argue that no one can match his nimble mind. Ms Yellen’s partisans contrast Mr Summers’s past enthusiasm for financial engineering with her prescient forecasting record. She was the most accurate of Fed officials between 2009 and 2012, according to a recent survey.

Some wonder whether the net for candidates should have been cast wider. Under Mr Bernanke the Fed has performed well relative to peers but has repeatedly missed its own inflation and unemployment targets. A true outsider is unlikely to be appointed but could be just the thing.

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21583276-what-does-it-take-run-americas-central-bank-summers-v-yellen

So, I digressed from the topic of Greg Palast. But you can pretty much trust him because he used to report for the BBC and may still be doing that.

[KG]

38. fuck yeah.

[bvar22]

39. Greg Palast was the investigtive reporter who ...

...Blew the Whistle on the Stolen Election in Florida 2000.

[malaise]

10. The Citigroup Plutonomy Memos: Two bombshell documents that Citigroup's lawyers try to suppress

http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2011/12/citigroup-plutonomy-memos-two-bombshell.html
<snip>
Citigroup explains how the "non-rich" consumers become increasingly irrelevant within the "plutonomies":

4) In a plutonomy there is no such animal as “the U.S. consumer” or “the UK consumer”, or indeed the “Russian consumer”. There are rich consumers, few in
number, but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of income and consumption they take.

There are the rest, the “non-rich”, the multitudinous many, but only accounting for surprisingly small bites of the national pie. Consensus analyses that do not tease out the profound impact of the plutonomy on spending power, debt loads, savings rates (and hence current account deficits), oil price impacts etc, i.e., focus on the “average”consumer are flawed from the start. It is easy to drown in a lake with an average depth of 4 feet, if one steps into its deeper extremes. Since consumption accounts for 65% of the world economy, and consumer staples and discretionary sectors for 19.8% of the MSCI AC World Index, understanding how the plutonomy impacts consumption is key for equity market participants.


The analysts of Citigroup then invent a new term - "The New Managerial Aristocracy":

THE UNITED STATES PLUTONOMY - THE GILDED AGE, THE ROARING TWENTIES, AND THE NEW MANAGERIAL ARISTOCRACY

Let’s dive into some of the details. As Figure 1 shows the top 1% of households in the U.S., (about 1 million households) accounted for about 20% of overall U.S. income in 2000, slightly smaller than the share of income of the bottom 60% of households put together. That’s about 1 million households compared with 60 million households, both with similar slices of the income pie!

Clearly, the analysis of the top 1% of U.S. households is paramount. The usual analysis of the “average” U.S. consumer is flawed from the start. To continue with the U.S., the top 1% of households also account for 33% of net worth, greater than the bottom 90% of households put together. It gets better(or worse, depending on your political stripe) - the top 1% of households account for 40% of financial net worth, more than the bottom 95% of households put together.

[fasttense]

15. 140 Nations agreed to let Goldman Sachs raid their banks.

Aside from Larry Summer's involvement in creating the crash, the Palast story explains how the WTO has been turned into a tool of the corporations and banks.

No longer is its primary mission to reduce tariffs (as the GATT), now it wants to control ALL trade in the World. It wants to control how much you spend on an apple. It wants to control where you buy diapers. It wants to control how much interest you pay to the corporate bank royals. It wants to control it ALL.

So, you can scream about Clinton passing the repeal of Glass-Steagall but the agreement had already been signed. The WTO had already made the repeal of the law a requirement for ALL WTO nation members. AND there is more, much more.

Some of those WTO agreements, agreement the US has pushed and has already agreed to, have fines, penalties and tribunal decisions if countries promote their local grown, manufactured or made products over an international corporation's products. It's just a matter of time before some greedy international corporation files a complaint with the WTO's tribunal (of which there is no appeal) that the US is promoting American, locally grown, agriculture products over imported poisoned crap. I'm sure China would like an outlet for all its vegetables farmed with human waste. They could label it Organic.

We no longer have sovereignty of our nation when a group of international banksters and corporations can say what you will get to eat.

[sulphurdunn]

20. 666

It forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name: Revelations 13:16-17

[fasttense]

40. I don't know about any mark

There's no requirement by the WTO for a mark but it does put small businesses and farmers out of business by giving preference to multinational corporations.

[sulphurdunn]

47. The "mark of the beast"

is a metaphor for the branding of slaves and is often alluded to when describing global capitalism.

[Vanje]

50. This is really weird but

the post count under your user name right now is 666.

[sulphurdunn]

54. I'm sorry you noticed that.

[L0oniX]

28. No need to wonder what all the WTO protestors from the past were protesting about.

"vegetables farmed with human waste" ...and then there is all those talapia farms where they have chicken coops over the fish ponds ...because the talapia are chicken shit fed.

[Zorra]

16. Thanks, trumad. We should expel these creeps from our country forever and confiscate

whatever assets of theirs that we can get. At the very least.

These people are fucking totally evil, yet we allow them to run our lives and our government.

Greg Palast is an awesome investigative journalist.

[theaocp]

17. Good analogies by Lee Camp

[Baitball Blogger]

18. Sounds like Obama should expatriate Summers, not promote him.

On edit: I think the correct terminology is strip him of his naturalization papers and deport him.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

23. There is no stopping this. No wonder Obama's NSA is spying upon all of us.

[underpants]

24. Marking for later read

What I read was chilling

[L0oniX]

26. Good read and I believe it ...inspite of Greg Palast being thrown under the bus here at DU.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. So Summers talks to bank CEOs about international negotiations about banking

Is this remotely surprising? The memo doesn't say what they said. If that's "it in a nutshell", then there's nothing to worry about. Perhaps Summers did try to negotiate a good deal for them; but this isn't evidence of it.

Did you really think that the Treasury, under Clinton, was working to restrict the banks? I don't think they claimed that at the time, and it's been obvious ever since that they didn't.

[grahamhgreen]

29. And the memo reveals a lot about Summers and.....

And the memo reveals a lot about Summers and Obama.

While billions of sorry souls are still hurting from worldwide banker-made disaster, Rubin and Summers didn't do too badly. Rubin's deregulation of banks had permitted the creation of a financial monstrosity called "Citigroup." Within weeks of leaving office, Rubin was named director, then Chairman of Citigroup—which went bankrupt while managing to pay Rubin a total of $126 million.

Then Rubin took on another post: as key campaign benefactor to a young State Senator, Barack Obama. Only days after his election as President, Obama, at Rubin's insistence, gave Summers the odd post of US "Economics Tsar" and made Geithner his Tsarina (that is, Secretary of Treasury). In 2010, Summers gave up his royalist robes to return to "consulting" for Citibank and other creatures of bank deregulation whose payments have raised Summers' net worth by $31 million since the "end-game" memo.

That Obama would, at Robert Rubin's demand, now choose Summers to run the Federal Reserve Board means that, unfortunately, we are far from the end of the game.

[Berlum]

30. Summers is a mysogynistic Corporatist crony

Up the wazoo.

His nomination, and the nomination of a Monsanto lackey to the occult TPP negotiations, WAY lowers my estimation of Obama.

[heaven05]

31. glass-steagall act

repeal, clinton's contribution to american people and their financial welfare. I voted for clinton, with reservation. He may have, in a back handed way, apologized for that screwing we got, but that doesn't change the outcome. Millions of average, hard working citizens bankrupt and in foreclosure. Link also should be read by everyone. I bet Dr. Warren has read it.

[fasttense]

41. But Clinton was just putting the icing on the cake

the repeal of Glass-Steagall was already baked into the cake in a WTO agreement (The bulk of the WTO's current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)) the US is/was a member of.

[magical thyme]

44. bookmarked for future use. It's another red line of mine.

He nominates Summers and I'm writing another nice email to my senators and rep. Similar to my email re: Syria vote.

[riderinthestorm]

46. Bookmarked. Really important must-read for ALL Americans (not just DU) nt

[freshwest]

48. A Randian psycho from Nixon and Reagan's legacy like Alan Greenspan:

Alan Greenspan

In the early 1950s, Greenspan began an association with famed novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand.[44] Greenspan was introduced to Rand by his first wife, Joan Mitchell. Rand nicknamed Greenspan "the undertaker" because of his penchant for dark clothing and reserved demeanor. Although Greenspan was initially a logical positivist,[52] he was converted to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism by her associate Nathaniel Branden. He became one of the members of Rand's inner circle, the Ayn Rand Collective, who read Atlas Shrugged while it was being written. During the 1950s and 1960s Greenspan was a proponent of Objectivism, writing articles for Objectivist newsletters and contributing several essays for Rand's 1966 book Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal including an essay supporting the gold standard.[53][54] Rand stood beside him at his 1974 swearing-in as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Greenspan and Rand remained friends until her death in 1982.[44]

He has come under criticism from Harry Binswanger,[55] who believes his actions while at work for the Federal Reserve and his publicly expressed opinions on other issues show abandonment of Objectivist and free market principles. However, when questioned in relation to this, he has said that in a democratic society individuals have to make compromises with each other over conflicting ideas of how money should be handled. He said he himself had to make such compromises, because he believes that "we did extremely well" without a central bank and with a gold standard.[56] In a Congressional hearing on October 23, 2008, Greenspan admitted that his free-market ideology shunning certain regulations was flawed.[57] However, when asked about free markets and Rand's ideas in an interview on April 4, 2010, Greenspan clarified his stance on laissez faire capitalism and asserted that in a democratic society there could be no better alternative. He stated that the errors that were made stemmed not from the principle, but from the application of competitive markets in "assuming what the nature of risks would be."[58]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Greenspan#Objectivism

Just like the insurance adjuster deciding how much your life is worth in monetary terms...This shit sounds familiar, doesn't it.

We've been living with Libertarians running our economic and social policies as the working class lost everything. But then, Ayn Rand thought most of us should be dead anyway.

Her hero was William Hickman the kidnapper and murderer, her perfect 'Superman.' Here's the Tea Party hero, if you have the stomach for reading it (not nice):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_Hickman

Thinks they wouldn't shoot us 'statists?' Then Paul Ryan and the rest of the gang are still trying to run things. There should be no surprises. None of these sociopaths should be free but they've got half the country thinking the same way.

Dangerous times and only going to get rougher. No tears over Summers. Don't let the screendoor hit you on the way out of town, you worthless scum.

And they run the media, teaching us to think just like they do. Sorry, I can't be nice about these guys.

[Isoldeblue]

51. When I grew up,

I realized Ayn Rand was full of shit. I've read Atlas Shrugged three times and each time realized how unrealistic her philosophy was.

I researched her and found she was a hypocrite, as well. She stayed in an abusive relationship and was a screaming co-dependent..... She was no independent woman in the least, nor did she walk her talk.

And this who the right hold up as their ideal?? Talk about living in fantasy land.....

Love the cat pic, fresh! Totally apt!
.

[freshwest]

52. A lot better than cussing like a sailor, which I know how to do...

[Isoldeblue]

53. Well then, we have much in common

I've been told I could curl a truck driver's ear.....

[Vanje]

49. Thank you!

I'm so relieved he wont be Fed chair, but still very disappointed,( yes, even OUTRAGED) that he is and has been a member of Obamas economic team.