A U.S. judge said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should be required to testify in the lawsuit by the former chief of American International Group Inc., Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, against the United States over the insurer's 2008 bailout.
Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Monday rejected the government's effort to keep Bernanke from being subjected to a deposition by Greenberg's Starr International Co.
Wheeler called Bernanke a "key witness" who can provide highly relevant testimony, given that he was a "central figure" in the decision to bail out AIG.
"Indeed, the court cannot fathom having to decide this multi-billion dollar claim without the testimony of such a key government decision maker," Wheeler wrote. "These facts constitute 'extraordinary circumstances' for the taking of Mr. Bernanke's deposition," which Wheeler said he plans to attend.
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JPMorgan Accused By FERC Of Manipulating Power Market, To Be Fined $400 Million
July 29, 2013
Source: Zero Hedge
Just flashing red headlines for now:
- JPMORGAN ACCUSED BY U.S. REGULATOR OF MANIPULATING POWER MARKET
- JPMORGAN ACCUSED OF MANIPULATIVE ENERGY-BIDDING STRATEGIES
- JPMORGAN ACCUSED OF ENERGY-MARKET MANIPULATION IN 2010 AND 2011
- U.S. FERC ANNOUNCES JPMORGAN ALLEGED VIOLATIONS IN E-MAIL
JPMorgan Chase & Co. manipulated power markets in California and the Midwest from September 2010 and June 2011, according to allegations unveiled today by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.And there you have it: a $400MM fine (on $99.5 billion in projected 2013 revenues, or about 0.4%) and all is well - for the SAC watchers, this is roughly how much worth of tuna (and sometime whale) the firm orders for its Hamptons' parties.
The bank has agreed to sanctions that include a fine of about $400 million, to settle the investigation in a deal that may be announced as early tomorrow, according to a person familiar with the case who asked not to be identified because the terms aren’t yet public. Other claims may include forfeiting or forgoing excess profits, this person said.
The federal agency, which announced the allegations today in an e-mail, has been investigating a JPMorgan trading unit’s market activities for more than a year, separate regulatory and court filings have revealed.
Also, while JPM may now officially have been charged and admitted to manipulating the power market, it never, EVER, manipulated the gold or other previous metal markets. EVER.
Source: Reuters
Hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen did not let the filing of criminal charges against his $14 billion SAC Capital Advisors get in the way of a party this weekend at his vacation estate in tony East Hampton, New York.
The Saturday night party at Cohen’s 10-bedroom home on Further Lane took place two days after federal prosecutors in New York announced a five-count criminal indictment against SAC Capital that portrayed the 21-year-old Stamford, Conn.-based fund as a breeding ground for unlawful insider trading.
The lavish affair, which one source said included delivery of $2,000 worth of tuna from a local fish store to Cohen’s home, was planned before the charges were filed. A person familiar with the event said the party, attended by a few dozen people, was intended by the 57-year-old manager.
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The Federal Reserve Is Bailing Out FOREIGN Banks … More than the American People or Economy
Federal Reserve Policy Mainly Benefits Big Foreign Banks
We’ve extensively documented that the Federal Reserve is intentionally locking up bank money so that it is not loaned out to Main Street. Specifically – due to Fed policy – 81.5% of all money created by quantitative easing is sitting there gathering dust in the form of “excess reserves” … instead of being loaned out to help Main Street or the American economy.
And we’ve extensively documented that a large percentage of the bailouts went to foreign banks (and see this and this). (A 2010 Fed audit also revealed that of the $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities the central bank purchased after the housing bubble popped, some $442.7 billion - more than 35% – were bought from foreign banks.)
It turns out that these themes are all connected.
Specifically, most of the Fed-created money which is gathering dust is actually being held by foreign banks.
The Levy Economics Institute noted in May:
Excess reserves are the surplus of reserves against deposits and certain other liabilities that depository institutions (loosely called “banks”) hold above the amounts that the Board requires within ranges set by federal law. The general requirement is that covered institutions maintain reserves at least equal to ten percent of liabilities payable on demand. For the first time in history, there is statistical evidence that as much as one-half or more of excess reserves are held for United States banking offices offoreign banks.
Zero Hedge reports today:
As per last night’s [Federal Reserve] H.8 update, commercial bank deposits rose by $94 billion in the week ended July 17: the fourth largest weekly increase in history …. This took total commercial bank deposits to an all-time high of $9.54 trillion.***The entire difference can be attributed to the $2+ trillion in excess reserves created by the Fed since the start of the [global financial crisis] .Speaking of Fed reserves with banks, the most recent number was $2.1 trillion, and its allocation breakdown by Domestic (small and large) and Foreign banks operating in the US is as follows:Foreign banks continue to be the biggest beneficiary of the Fed’s monthly $85 billion liquidity largesse, just as they were the biggest winners during QE2.To nobody’s surprise, global liquidity (as created by the Fed) continues to be infinitely fungible, and increasingly benefits offshore-based (mainly European) banks.(And see this earlier report from Zero Hedge).The Fed pays huge amounts of money to the big banks to encourage them to park their money in excess reserves, which are stored at the Fed. In other words, the swelling excess reserves of foreign banks are yet another type of bailout of foreign banks.We’ve repeatedly noted that loose Federal Reserve policy benefits of the super-elite at the expense ofMain Street, the U.S. economy or the average American.It now appears that the policy benefits foreign super-elite even more than the elites in the U.S.The Federal Reserve – like many parts of the U.S. government – are sucking the prosperity out of America … and shipping it abroad.
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