Jamie’s Cryin – Episode 3: Wherein Jamie Loses the Debit Swipe Battle & is Forced to Take Bernanke to Task for Raising Capital Requirements from the Floor of a Finance Summit
Update: I want to add that IMO Jamie is the best Bank CEO out there. He is brilliant. He is savvy, he is kewt, he is a capitalist, I dig it. I wanted him for Treasury Secretary and wrote about it in March of ’09. But the TBTF have refused to allow the consumer to deleverage from the crushing weight of their housing debt, and the TBTF helped create this problem.
They are the whiz kids in the room, Mom and Pop Homeowner need a HOLC, and the TBTF blocked it and continue to block it, assuring us a long, slow, slog through a Depression like forced deleveraging as the Fed continues to try to inflate its way out of this massive debt it used to prop the very same TBTF.
All unnecessary pain, if only the TBTF would take some of the responsibility they like to lecture about when they laughingly call principal writedowns moral harazrd after they made the Goddamned loans. (see Meredith Whitney ask Jamie about this on an earnings call in January 2010)
Lost juice Jamie? Have you Lost Hand? Did you think buying the POTUSship for Obama meant a free reign?
Did you think basing all our policies on what is best for a handful of TBTF bankstas was really a good way to GROW the American economy?
Oh woe is me. Cry me a river.
PragmaticCapitalism has it:
(…) his bank was saved from the brink of disaster in 2008. The US government took extraordinary measures to ensure that he did not go down as one of the greatest bank failures of all-time. In fact, the US government did him a huge favor by making his bank the linchpin in the US economy.
Of course, this was done by making Mr. Dimon’s already too big to fail bank too bigger to fail. But none of this is enough. Saving someone’s career and ensuring that their bank is now an instrumental portion of the US economy is not enough. And in a fit of rage Mr. Dimon went and rewarded himself with a monstrous $16MM pay package last year. After all, he deserved it. But this is not enough.
It’s not enough to pay yourself outrageous sums of money when your company should be in a hole in the ground. It’s not enough to have the government by the throat and know that the taxpayers can never let your company fail. It’s not enough to have been a key player in helping the US banking system become the gigantic leach on the world’s largest economy. It’s not enough that you help pull our best and brightest minds out of productive fields and into finance where they will do nothing but think of new ways to help separate the middle class from their savings. It’s not enough that you helped build a banking system that nearly crashed a $15 trillion economy.
No none of this is enough. And when we pass an incredibly weak regulatory bill that does nothing to actually fix what caused the crisis you go and complain that the government is doing too much….
Then today REALLY SUCKED for Jamie when he lost the Debit Card Swipe Fee battle to the retailers despite INSANE LOBBYING and Jon Tester- D-MT, Bob Corker R-TN last minute attempt to stave off the changes for a year.
This is a Fed set cap on swipe fees. Lowering avg fee charged to RETAILERS from .44 a swipe to .12 a swipe. TBTF are babied left and right, the retailers are going out of business left and right let the Fed baby someone else for a change Jamie. I’m sure Obama will give you another bailout any second now anyway.
…The fee cut could cost the card industry and banks billions of dollars, but nobody in the retail business is shedding any tears — it will save them money.
Bank stocks, up earlier in the day, flipped into the red on the news and ended down nearly 1%, making them among the worst performers in the market today….
Video ~ Meredith Whitney talks Banks, States, Munis & Stocks
Video: T-Paw discusses his Economic Plan on Kudlow
Video: Speaker Boehner’s Address to the Economic Club of New York on Jobs, Debt, Gas Prices
1st collector for Video: Speaker Boehner’s Address to the Economi…
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Banksta Bernank takes ‘questions’ from the leashed hounds we call the free press 2:15pm EST
Update: 3:56pm EST: Oh did I say Gold was at 141522? It is now at $1529.40 SLV $48.10 Oil $113. USD down, down, down 73.30. Equities continuing to mainline from the punchbowl Bernanke is clearly not taking away. DOW up 101.15. The TBTF Bankstas are gonna ride the USD right into the ground if TPTB let them.
Update: 3:08pm EST: Foreign Presse France asking about the concerns many nations have about the results of the Fed actions on the sovereign currency..cough, cough, Now Ben spinning the Geithner STRONG DOLLAR TOTAL BS LINE.
Reagan and Clinton had strong dollar in my lifetime. No one else. Hey they had that super growth thing too didn’t they? Don’t try telling the Ivy League Economics Club that though.
Update: 3:06pm EST: An hour in and another nominal record for Goldilocks~ $1526.20. Yowsa. Ben has used the buzz words ‘transitory, moderate’ to describe inflation so many times I would have alcohol posinoning were I playing the drinking game.
Update: 11:08am AZ Time- GOLD at $1522.80, USD at 3 yr low as Ben takes stage.
ZeroHedge will be liveblogging in case ANYONE asks a REAL question.
I would ask:
Ben do you like the American Middle Class?
What purpose does the Middle Class serve in the American economy?
How has QE and ZIRP ‘helped’ or ‘harmed’ the Middle Class?
If the Middle Class is the largest % population in America, doesn’t your dual mandate for full employment/stable prices apply to this population cohort above all others?
Is it your intention to drive down wages for the Middle Class while allowing prices of food and energy to continue to spike year after year, all while claiming there is no inflation?
WHY ARE YOU KILLING THE MIDDLE CLASS?
PS- Why did the Federal Reserve bailout QADAFFI and leave the American Middle Class to twist in the wind?
Update: Bernanke gets his Joe Cassano on…
Update: 4/17/11~ Question Asked, Question Answered~ (emphasis from original)
…Stunningly, today we learn that to keep long rates low, the Fed may have resorted to nothing short of the same suicidal trade that destroyed AIG FP and brought the entire system to its knees. Namely, Ben Bernanke is now quite possibly the second coming of Joe Cassano, since in order to keep rates low, Bernanke is forced to a last resort action of selling billions upon billions of Treasury puts to “pin” rates low contrary to natural supply-demand mechanics…
Video: Paul Ryan Reacts: Obama continues to shadow dance with America, punts – gives another word fog full of fury, signifying nothing
More Updates at end of post.
Update: Paul Ryan is GREAT here, he is ‘disappointed’ ohhh that is exactly it! They got us all revved up for that dereliction of duty of a speech from a lectern this afternoon? Really, really bad.
What a whiff that was!
As always, Obama votes Present by not coming out and endorsing either Simpson-Bowles or anything else, (he gave them a shout out and a h/t at the end but endorsed none of their plan specifics). He did a word fog full of the same tired lines from ’08. Promises he has ALREADY FAILED TO FULFILL in the past 3 years.
Then he did a pivot to his Dr. No, stern Daddy routine, and laughably, he did it on his ‘trademark issue’ The Bush Tax Cuts!, which is of course the Big Issue he ALREADY CAVED ON!
Yes, audacity and bamboozlement is back for Obamapalooza Tour ’11-’12! All the Hype, None of the Hope!
They really plan to run on the same 6 yr old tired, broken-down trope of Obama being anti-Bush Tax Cut extension and Pro Middle Class American Dream. (and mebbe he is…IN HIS DREAMS!! It’s just his actual POLICIES that let him down? ie protecting TBTF fxckers who have housing on its back, making the TBTF Bigger, and refusing to allow Clinton era tax rates to come back).
Unless Team Obama thought they had pulled off some Total Recall number on all of us last night, uh, WTF are they thinking?
Don’t they know that WE know that he ALREADY CRUMPLED LIKE THE WET PAPER BAG HE IS on the extension of the Bush tax cuts? Did he think we somehow didn’t notice that?
Sure, he gave us the courtesy of a - ‘I was forced to extend them to protect the middle class tax cuts’ BS line again, but again, if he gave his big ‘Hostages could be hurt’ spiel last time, doesn’t he think that WE think that HE WILL CAVE and extend them again when the Big Bad GOP Grandma Eating Wolf at the Door takes we middle class ‘victims’ ‘hostage’ again?
I means seriously, what the fxck? He doesn’t even TRY to spin us anymore? This is the best you;ve got? Man it’s lookin like a Fred Thompson energy level for Obama this time around.
So, it’s official there is for all effects and purposes no functioning POTUS on issues of real import. Congress needs to do what Hillary does on Foreign Policy, try to carry out the job with limited power while a Holier-Than-Thou absentee boss comes in once in a blue moon to pixx and moan about the work accomplished.
Let’s Review the Record on Obama’s Time at the Helm:
Foreign Policy? Has to be pushed HARD for MONTHS to make a decision, often leading to deterioration of circumstances on the ground that would allow mission success. See Af/Pak, Libya.
Update-Bonus- Launch military action unsanctioned by Congress, (previously one of your favorite Boosh! criticisms), go to Brazil to promote their energy independence and offer to make us dependent on them, do not make speech to nation on Libyan action.
Economy in Recession? Outsource a giant spendulus to Congressional Leadership of Pelosi/Reid and ‘Apollo Alliance’. Bonus – Insert unverifiable targets like ‘saving or creating’ jobs, yet attach chart that clearly projects a UE target that goes unmet for THREE YEARS while claiming Success! Escape Velocity! Recovery Summer!.
Explosion of Entitlement Spending to Drown us in Debt? Outsource to a Commission for some mythical ‘consensus’, ignore said Commission report except to use as prop/tool when helpful. See Simpson/Bowles Commission,
Budget Presentation to Congress and the Nation? Whiff. Jack up spending then present ‘Budget Freeze’. Get Budget Do-Over Pass from Media. Nevermind, it’s just another whiff.
Tax Debate? Your biggest campaign promise: An End to the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich! Your raison d’être. Your ‘most deeply held political value’, the ‘shared sacrifice’, the ‘fairness rule’. You claim ‘hostages were taken, I couldn’t let people get hurt’ and position yourself, the President of the United States, as a hostage to the opposing party. You extend the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich!
Bonus- You continue to claim this is exactly the wrong policy, that it is hurting the nation but you sign the bill anyway.
Double Bonus- Bring out the last successful Democratic president to sell your plan to country, leave him alone at lectern with media. Added points since you called this man a ‘racist!’ during ’08 campaign.
Double Triple Toe-Loop Bonus - You run for a second term on same promise to End the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich! that you just extended, but give no explanation of how you can avoid the ‘hostage situation’ and accomplish this.
I can’t EVEN get into the National Security issues, it is frightening to consider NSC Advisers who do not know of Averted Terror Attacks on Large Scale in London,( TSA is FRISKING children and the left is quiescent~)Janet Napolitano claiming the border is more secure than ever, (170 bodies found in mass graves THIS WEEK just over the border), the incredible volte-face he has done on EVERY, SINGLE Bush anti-Terrorism policy he lectured about since 2006. It goes on and on.
Update to list: How could we forget-
Natural Disasters: BP Oil Spill in Gulf. Stern language against BP ‘boot on throat!’. Photo op- unlike Boosh! don’t do flyover, get down and pick up tiny tarballs. Then fly away home. Oil spill continues, unchecked, leave company who caused spill in charge of ending it. CONVENE PANEL! Oil continues to spill, unchecked. 40 Days+ later BP finally stops spill. Sidle up to lectern declare success!
Bonus - Set up ‘pot o’dough’ the go-to method of ‘solving problems’ for Community Organizers, see Al Sharpton.
Energy Policy: Allow Boosh! Era lax regulation( another of your campaign talking points) /certification/oversight of permits to continue under your Change!(d) DOE. This leads to worst oil spill in history. Convene panel! Stop all oil permits. Everywhere, land or sea.
Bonus- Give more grants to campaign supporter GE for ‘windmills’.
Double Bonus- Continue to snark at hard-working Americans who drive large vehicles, infer it is their fault as gas DOUBLES in your first 3 years. Propose new gas tax!
Triple Lutz Bonus: Fund off shore oil drilling IN BRAZIL. Announce to Brazilians you want America to be their customer. (Make announcement in Brazil while launching a military action that has not been sanctioned by Congress, leaving the American people to figure out what is happening without you.)
Conclusion- I don’t see how he has any chance of winning, even if Katie Couric and Brian Williams pick him up and carry him between his Arena Circuit Tour of College Campuses this time.
Unless of course, the conservatives within the GOP decide to sit the election out as they did in ’087. Really disappointing. I don’t think our economy will achieve Larry Summer’s vaunted ‘escape velocity’ if we get another 4 years of Obama.
Please vote. No matter who it is, please please vote.
Update 3: Jim DeMint calls Obama a ‘Bitter Clinger’!!!! BWAAAHAAA! (emphasis mine)~
“The President made it absolutely clear today that Democrats will cling bitterly to deficit spending until our nation is bankrupt. After offering an unserious budget just a few months ago, the President offered new platitudes but the same old policies. He’s still pushing for trillion dollar tax increases that would destroy jobs and cripple our economy. He still wants to add trillions in new spending to our $14 trillion mountain of debt without a credible plan to ever balance the budget….”
Update 2: AllahPundit at HotAir has more Ryan goodness from Levin.
“He’s basically a pyromaniac in a field of straw men”
Iceland Roolz, Bankstas Drool: Voters reject Banksta chains for 2nd time
Yay Iceland! Show us how it’s done :0) Kronor baby.
jokulsarlon glacier lagoon south iceland
…State television said almost 60 percent of voters had rejected the agreement, based on results from five out of six voting districts, including capital Reykjavik. Many voters were against taxpayers footing the bill for irresponsible bankers….
Tyler notes that the Fear Mongering of the Banksta owned politicians is directly contradicted by the facts-Iceland is doing BETTER since it tossed off the international banksta chains:
…Ever since Iceland decided to stop pandering to banker interests, and transfer its country’s wealth to banks from Europe and Holland, its economy has in fact been on a constant upward trajectory….
Thank you Iceland for setting an example of True Independence and allowing the bankstas who took the risks to take the pain. Our children should not be enslaved to repay bankstas bad bets folks.
ginaswo
