Economic Warfare? Europe versus Wall Street.

[formercia]

So, you think if we prosecute the Wall Street criminals, that they will just move to Europe to ply their scams? Perhaps not.


Michael Collins

(March 10) Wall Streets
is headed toward international pariah status thanks to two recent actions by the European Union (EU).

On Tuesday, the EU announced that it was banning Wall Street banks from the lucrative government bond business in Europe. They didn't express official concern or fire off a warning shot. They simply banned Wall Street from financing
government bond deals like the one Goldman Sachs sold to Greece. The Guardian pointed out that Wall Street bond business from European governments has gone down over the last two years. Now the business is gone period. In effect, the EU has labeled Wall Streets business tactics as too dangerous for their governments to handle.

Then on Wednesday, the President of the European Commission said that the EU was considering a ban on government debt speculation through Credit Default Swaps (CDS) President José Manuel Barroso announced that, "the Commission will examine closely the relevance of banning purely speculative naked sales on Credit Default Swaps of sovereign debt." While not an outright ban, the threat of banning CDS on national debt would be a major loss for the world's financial speculators, particularly those in the United States and Great Britain.

These two hostile moves toward Wall Street by Europe were discussed by officials in the context of the current Greek debt crisis. Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs has been implicated in helping the Greek government hide the true nature and size of the debt. Discovery of this sleight-of-hand action exacerbated an already challenging crisis.

While the Greek crisis was presented as the proximate cause of the anti Wall Street actions, these announcements follow a March 6 national referendum in Iceland. Citizens voted overwhelmingly, 93% to 2%, to reject their government’s plan to have citizens to cover the losses of Iceland’s second largest private bank, around $6 billion.

In January, public opinion polls showed opposition to the bailout in the mid 50% range. The 93% opposition vote Saturday was a startling and bold statement of citizen opposition to subsidies for the private sector.

A few days before the vote, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said:

"The debt that had to be accumulated, when it’s going badly, is now becoming the object of speculation by precisely those institutions that we saved a year-and-a-half ago. That’s very difficult to explain to people in a democracy who should trust us." Business Week, February 23

--snip--

More at the link:

http://agonist.org/michael_collins/20100310/economic_warfare_europe_versus_wall_street

[eridani]

1. BAN those mofo swaps NOW!

Good on 'em!

[dkf]

2. Now they will have to ply their wares in the US only.

That is just great.

[AllentownJake]

4. I'm sure they have an idea of attacking California or New York

However, if they attack New York, they will have to deal with Andrew Cuomo, and if they attack California, the reaction from congress will be not pleasant because it will push California into looking for a bailout.

[dkf]

5. I was thinking that munis need to be worried.

Also it is not a good idea to let Goldman know all the INS and outs of your situation lest you attract their interest.

[Octafish]

15. Worked for ENRON.

Heh heh.

[formercia]

17. Where is Enron now?

Sic Semper Tyrannis.

[AllentownJake]

3. This will pretty much end the WTO treaty in financial markets

It essentially prevents sovereign nations from having their own set of financial regulations.

It is a very good thing.

[dkf]

6. I wonder how much Goldman lobbied that crew to get those provisions in there.

[AllentownJake]

8. Don't know but the Germans are pissed right now.

[dkf]

9. Let's make them do the heavy lifting on exposing Goldman since our own pols are too chicken

[AllentownJake]

10. They'll kick them out of Germany

The Germans gave up their plans for world domination in 1945 when we picked them up.

[formercia]

11. and used to the Vig.

Why should they lower their standard of living for us?

[formercia]

18. That crew was already bought and paid for.

It didn't take much persuading.

[formercia]

20. The WTO was a setup for Organized Crime

A worldwide criminal enterprise.

[depakid]

7. Since America is too corrupt to clean up its own house and rid the world of this threat

It's time for other nations to start taking matters into their own hands.

[autorank]

14. It's an "intervention" - not military though.

One of those Dr. Drew "interventions." They're telling Wall Street that it has no control over people,
places, or things anymore; helpless to the damage done by its own greed.

Time to get rid of the crooks and let the hardest working people in the world rise to their true
standard, absent a bunch of crooks who make money of of vaporware.

[autorank]

12. THNX formercia for posting this.

Wall Street and the militarists have worn our our welcome. Europe and now apparently, Brazil are just saying NO to the financial scams from The Money Party.

Too much, too often, too toxic!

[formercia]

16. Blood sucking parasites.

They totally perverted the system.

You're very welcome.

[autorank]

19. You're too kind. They can't stop themselves

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

NEW YORK — When financial titan Goldman Sachs joined some of its Wall Street rivals in late 2005 in secretly packaging a new breed of offshore securities, it gave prospective investors little hint that many of the deals were so risky that they could end up losing hundreds of millions of dollars on them.

McClatchy has obtained previously undisclosed documents that provide a closer look at the shadowy $1.3 trillion market since 2002 for complex offshore deals, which Chicago financial consultant and frequent Goldman critic Janet Tavakoli said at times met "every definition of a Ponzi scheme."

The documents include the offering circulars for 40 of Goldman's estimated 148 deals in the Cayman Islands over a seven-year period, including a dozen of its more exotic transactions tied to mortgages and consumer loans that it marketed in 2006 and 2007, at the crest of the booming market for subprime mortgages to marginally qualified borrowers.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/12/30/81465/goldmans-offshore-deals-deepened.html#ixzz0hwCzyz4Y

[leftstreet]

13. K&R

Thanks for posting this