tagged w/ US Treasury
-
15 multiple choice questions to test your knowledge of the basic fuctions of the Federal Reserve.15 multiple choice questions to test your knowledge of the basic fuctions of the... more
-
-
I'm confused...didn't the US's credit rating just get downgraded?
***
The U.S. government has informed Israel that it will recommend that Congress approve a three-year extension of loan guarantees to Israel, worth $3.8 billion. The announcement came after several months of worry in Israel that the loan guarantees would not be extended, despite Israel's request.
Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Nides and Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Neil Wolin announced the American decision at a meeting with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Monday. According to a senior U.S. official, the two emphasized to Ayalon that the recommendation to extend the guarantees through September 2015 would receive wide support from both parties in Congress and would be approved without any problems in the near future
"The U.S. is a true friend and ally of Israel," Ayalon said. "The partnership between the two countries is a natural one. Extending the loan guarantees strengthens the international position of the Israeli economy and will allow the government to continue to raise funds at lower costs."I'm confused...didn't the US's credit rating just get downgraded?... more
-
-
The Treasury has told lawmakers a roughly $2 trillion rise in the legal limit on federal debt would be needed to ensure the government can keep borrowing through the 2012 presidential election, sources with knowledge of the discussions said.
Obama administration officials have repeatedly said that it is up to Congress to decide by how much the $14.3 trillion debt limit should be raised.
But when lawmakers asked how much of an increase would be needed to meet the government's obligations into early 2013, Treasury officials floated the $2 trillion working figure, Senate and administration sources told Reuters.
Former Treasury officials have said it is routine for Congress to ask the Treasury Department for guidance. Republican leaders have asked the White House to provide the size of any proposed increase before the two sides sit down on Thursday to discuss the debt limit face-to-face.
"We have not specified an amount or a time frame. We think that should be left up to Congress," Mary Miller, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial markets, told reporters on Wednesday.
She also said it would be better to raise the debt ceiling enough so that the government does not bump up against it so frequently.
"Obviously, a longer period of time between these activities would be beneficial in terms of the work that goes into preparing for a debt limit increase. But again, you know that's not the Treasury's call," she said.
A Reuters analysis of Treasury's borrowing needs forecast Congress would have to raise the debt ceiling by more than $2 trillion to get through next year's election without having to revisit the issue. According to the Treasury, the government borrows on average about $125 billion per month.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/04/us-usa-budget-limit-idUSTRE7434UG20110504The Treasury has told lawmakers a roughly $2 trillion rise in the legal limit on... more
-
-
Unlike other nations, including the US and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country's banks, whose assets had ballooned to US$209 billion, 11 times gross domestic product.
The crisis almost sank the country. The krona lost 58 per cent of its value by the end of November 2008, inflation reached 19 per cent in January 2009, GDP fell 7 per cent that year and the Prime Minister resigned after nationwide protests.
But with the economy projected to grow 3 per cent this year, Iceland's decision to let the banks fail is looking smart.
"Iceland did the right thing by making sure its payment systems continued to function while creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks," says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University in New York. "Ireland's done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That's probably the worst model."Unlike other nations, including the US and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars... more
-
-
It's been over three years since credit markets started shaking with the early tremors of the subprime crisis, and two years since that spread into a marketwide collapse. Prosecutors, regulators, Congress and journalists have spent the year uncovering the financial shenanigans that brought the market to its knees. It's been marked by a few blockbuster settlements and more revealing investigations -- as well as by some noticeable inaction in the reckoning.
Despite revelations coming up and down the financial spectrum, there have been no major criminal charges and almost no civil charges against executives. And while the SEC and some government prosecutors have been active, federal bank regulators have so far been quiet.
This all comes as Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill this summer, seeking to overhaul the oversight of everything from mortgage securities to how banks make bets with their own money. As regulators hammer out the rules of the reforms, the devil may lie in the hotly contested details.It's been over three years since credit markets started shaking with the early... more
-
-
The $700-billion bank bailout, launched in the final months of the Bush administration, was meant to save US financial institutions from a systemic collapse. But an analysis of banks' earnings statements concludes that nearly 100 bailed-out banks are at risk of collapsing all the same.
Despite receiving a total of $4.2 billion in bailout cash, 98 US banks are at risk of failing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The banks are suffering from “eroding capital levels, a pileup of bad loans and warnings from regulators,” the Journal reports, and the nature of the problem indicates that these banks were in trouble before the 2008 crisis hit -- a sign that the US's regulatory structure for banks may have been insufficient for years or decades before the collapse.
So far, seven bailed-out banks have already collapsed, costing taxpayers $2.7 billion.The $700-billion bank bailout, launched in the final months of the Bush... more
-
-
All the numerous tendrils of financial corruption are starting to re-converge on the core of the scandal. Here is what happened and how you got screwed by the bankers and the US Government in layman's terms.
1. Wall Street created the mortgage-backed security as an investment device, sold them, used ponzi scheme tactics to make them look immensely profitable while the SEC looked the other way.
2. In order to meet the demand for MDS created by the illusion of major profits from the Ponzi activity, the mortgage bundlers pledged the same mortgages over and over and over again into different investment bundles.
3. In late 2008 the fraud started to appear in US financial circles. Congress, itself invested in the financial firms that bought those fraudulent mortgage-backed securities, voted through TARP to save their own fortunes at the expense of the US taxpayer.
4. In 2009, the foreign banks began to realize that Wall Street had screwed them and began to demand the repurchase of the bad paper. The Fed started handing out trillions of dollars borrowed against the American people, mostly to foreign banks, to cover the fraud.
5. But cash was flowing out of the nation faster than the Federal Reserve could print it up. Something needed to be done to balance the loss and put the bankers back into the black, so the only real hard assets left n the nation, Americans' homes, were to be sacrificed for the good of the banks' capital structure.
6. By perpetuating tax credits that encouraged the offshoring of American jobs to other countries, the US Government created a situation in which millions of Americans would no longer be able to make their mortgage payments and lose their homes to the banks. The banks would then add the full value of those homes to their balance sheets to keep themselves appearing solvent.
The US Government deliberately killed your jobs, so the fraudulent bankers could save themselves from prison by taking your homes to cover the buybacks from Europe. That is pretty much the story of the last few years.
Analysis from Mike Rivero at What Really HappenedAll the numerous tendrils of financial corruption are starting to re-converge on the... more
-
-
Quanititative easy is nothing but the prinitng of funny money, the only option that the Federal Reserve has to prop up the US economy. The influx of printed money deminishes the overal value of the dollar, causing the prices of goods and services to rise.
Notice that neither the Democrats nor the Republics have a say on what the Federal Reserve does printing an additional $600 billion in future debt payments.Quanititative easy is nothing but the prinitng of funny money, the only option that... more
-
-
The ACLU recently warned that the Obama Administration was in danger of establishing a "New Normal" by continuing with the WORST policies of the Bush administration.
This includes monitoring our internet use, the recent legalization of what was previously illegal wiretapping, and yet another extension of the police-state loving USAPATRIOT act. Guantanamo bay is still open in blatant violation of international law, 9 years after September 11th.
But now, Obama has exceeded Bush in terms of police-state douchebaggery.
The Bush administration never claimed to have the authority to assassinate US citizens.
The Obama administration, however, has.
And the left has largely been quiet about this. Well hopefully, the left will finally wipe the post-election confetti out of their eyes and wake up to what's really going on in their country. With their president.
The ACLU along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) recently filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration challenging this very claim to authority, on the behalf of the father of an assassination target- and U.S. Citizen.
Or they would have, that is, except for this legal manuver by the US government. From Glenn Greenwald:
...regulations promulgated several years ago by the Treasury Department prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with individuals labeled by the Government as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist," and those regulations specifically bar lawyers from providing legal services to such individuals without a special "license" from the Treasury Department specifically allowing such representation."
So it turns out that the Treasury Dept stepped in two weeks after the suit was filed to label Anwar al-Awalaki a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" which one can only assume was specifically done by the Obama administration to block the suit against them, and retain the authority to assassinate US Citizens.
Well, in response to that, the ACLU has filed a suit agains the US Treasury and Timothy Geithner, saying, that the entire thing is insanely unconstitutional-- that the US Treasury has no constitutional authority to designate people as terrorists, that the US Government has no right to deny US Citizens access to a lawyer.
If the ACLU and CCR lose this case, we're going to be living in a nation where the government can legally pick out "problem citizens" and kill them on sight. Which is actually the country we're living in right now.
If this doesn't bother you, if this doesn't send up a red flag in the pit of your soul that says, "this is incredibly fucked" then maybe it's because you've already adjusted your psyche to accept the New Normal.
(full post with links to supporting articles after the jump)The ACLU recently warned that the Obama Administration was in danger of establishing a... more
-
-
asherp
-
added this
-
1 year ago
- |
-
Either in anticipation of QE2 which will cut the value of the dollar by another 50% once another $2 trillion in toxic crap becomes the “assets” backing the viability of the dollar, or just because they are sick of Fed policies, mid-Michigan has taken monetary matters into their own hands, and in one simple act, completely bypassed the destabilizing influence of the domestic currency printers. As ConnectMidMichigan reports, “New types of money are popping up across Mid-Michigan and supporters say, it’s not counterfeit, but rather a competing currency. Right now, you can buy a meal or visit a chiropractor without using actual U.S. legal tender.” The plan is so simple, it just may work – after all if one can’t get away from the Fed’s probing and pickpocketing long fingers, all one has to do is learn to live without its parasitic pieces of paper. And not just paper: “I sell three or four every single day and then I get one or two back a week,” said Dave Gillie, owner of Gillies Coney Island Restaurant in Genesee Township. Gillie also accepts silver, gold, copper and other precious metals to pay for food.” So yes, you can eat gold…. and load up your gas tank with it.
More from CMM:
“Do people have to accept dollars or money? No, they don’t,” Gillie said. “They can accept anything they want or they can refuse to accept anything.”
He’s absolutely right.
The U.S. Treasury Department says the Coinage Act of 1965 says “private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash, unless there is a state law which says otherwise.”
hat allows gas stations to say they don’t accept 50- or $100 bills after a certain time of day in hopes of not getting robbed.
A chiropractic office in Lapeer County’s Deerfield Township allows creativity when it comes to payment.
“This establishment accepts any form of silver, gold, chicken, apple pie, if someone works it out with me,” said Jeff Kotchounian of Deerfield Chiropractic. “I’ve taken many things.”
Jeff Kotchounian says he’s used this Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver to get $25 worth of gas from a local station.
While the government and banks don’t accept them, many others do.
So why is there interest in these competing currencies?
Is it just novelty or is there something deeper?
If the ruling kleptocrats, pardon, the Fed, demand on being such an intimate part of everyday life, and procuring all of the population’s real wealth and cash producing assets in the process, said population has a choice of either going with this sheepish approach, and meekly allowing the loaded gun to be parked at its temple, or do what Michigan, with its 99.9% real unemployment, has decided to do.Either in anticipation of QE2 which will cut the value of the dollar by another 50%... more
-
-
By Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire Managing Editor
Americans’ ability to move their money across international borders may become restricted thanks to new legislation passed last week. Buried within Obama’s recent $17.5 billion “H.I.R.E.” Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2487) is a new U.S. Federal restriction on any foreign holdings which exceed the meager amount of $50,000 and leaves the door open for a new 30% transaction or ‘holdings’ tax to be enforced by the IRS. The new law amounts to an unprecedented extension of the US Government into the global sphere.
Why has the White House and its Federal Government decided passed such a law now? We should start by considering the big picture. The ramifications of this new under-the-radar federal move are large and far-reaching. Concerned readers would do well here to question both the fundamental and practical aspects of such a law. Consider for one moment the letter of the law- or the figure of $50,000. For extremely high net-worth individuals, this new regulation over their personal freedom amounts to a mere ’speed-bump’ in financial terms. With their money buried securely into property, foreign investments and strings of shell companies and complexed funds, financial elites will find this new super socialist state control affects only minor liquid cash amounts, or ‘pocket-money’. For the middle class or small investor, the picture is quite different. Fast-forward 12 or 18 months into the future where rising inflation and a severe devaluation of the dollar may occur. The ability for a middle class American to migrate his or her savings into the relative safe haven of a foreign currency or overseas investment is now controlled by the United States Federal Government.
Economists and historians will note that such “Capital Controls” are part and parcel of super-socialist states like the Soviet Union and its former satellite states. Even today, it’s common practice for struggling socialist governments located in regions like South America, Central America and Africa to impose periodic restrictions on cash leaving those countries- a sure sign of a currency and economy in decline. This practice also characterizes foreign states who are under the economic restructuring administration of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). One could also speculate that such restrictions imposed on Americans would certainly pave the way for a future IMF-type administration of the USA, making it markedly easier to manage for the World Bank.
Putting all speculation aside though, this new law amounts to a dangerous precedent where the Federal Government can, with the full enforcement of the IRS, lay down Capital Controls on any dollar amount- regardless of its size. In the event of a US currency devaluation(see US ‘Bank Holiday’) of the dollar, the said figure in the new bill- $50,000, could become a rather nominal sum amounting to only 2/3’s or 1/3 of it’s previous value. Do not count on the Federal Government to adjust its printed figure of “$50,000″ for inflation or devaluation, leaving a Capital Control on relatively smaller holdings, leaving no safe haven for the average American.
Throughout history, in countries where such Capital Controls are administered by the state, large black market cash courier industries have thrived. When a foreign currency is difficult or illegal for local citizens to acquire, they will either pay a tax to the government or a smaller black market premium to acquire it. If government transaction taxes are high enough(like the new 30% tax set by US law), punters may opt the black market. This certainly was the case in fledgling socialist countries like Italy in the 1960’s where organized networks of independent couriers amassed large fortunes by smuggling cash over the border. Of course, new border restrictions and TSA surveillance technologies will make it almost impossible for an individual to move substantial amounts of cash through airports. Through color of law, such activities might already be considered illegal and deemed as tax evasion by the IRS. Read a full analysis on Obama’s new law here, courtesy of our friends at Zero Hedge:
It’s Official – America Now Enforces Capital Controls
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer country. On March 18, with very little pomp and circumstance, president Obama passed the most recent stimulus act, the $17.5 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2487), brilliantly goalseeked by the administration’s millionaire cronies to abbreviate as HIRE. As it was merely the latest in an endless stream of acts destined to expand the government payroll to infinity, nobody cared about it, or actually read it. Because if anyone had read it, the act would have been known as the Capital Controls Act, as one of the lesser, but infinitely more important provisions on page 27, known as Offset Provisions – Subtitle A—Foreign Account Tax Compliance, institutes just that. In brief, the Provision requires that foreign banks not only withhold 30% of all outgoing capital flows (likely remitting the collection promptly back to the US Treasury) but also disclose the full details of non-exempt account-holders to the US and the IRS. And should this provision be deemed illegal by a given foreign nation’s domestic laws (think Switzerland), well the foreign financial institution is required to close the account. It’s the law. If you thought you could move your capital to the non-sequestration safety of non-US financial institutions, sorry you lose – the law now says so. Capital Controls are now here and are now fully enforced by the law.
Let’s parse through the just passed law, which has been mentioned by exactly ZERO mainstream media outlets (HERE).By Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire Managing Editor
Americans’ ability... more
-
-
China has ordered managers of its vast currency reserves to withdraw from risky dollar assets and retreat to core debt guaranteed by the US government, a clear sign that Beijing is battening down the hatches for fresh trouble on global markets.China has ordered managers of its vast currency reserves to withdraw from risky dollar... more
-
-
From the Department of the Treasury:
"The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the United States will work with its partners around the world to relieve all debts owed by Haiti to international institutions and to ensure grant financing to support Haiti's reconstruction and recovery from the devastating earthquake in January."
Geithner also supports the relief of Haiti's debt to the IMF.
Great news for Haiti.
The full statement: http://ustreas.gov/press/releases/tfg537.htm
Image:From the Department of the Treasury:
"The U.S. Department of the Treasury today... more
-
-
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York told bailed-out insurance giant AIG to withhold details from the public about overpayments that gave billions of extra tax dollars to major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs. The head of the New York Fed at the time was current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.The Federal Reserve Bank of New York told bailed-out insurance giant AIG to withhold... more
-
-
If a bank is too big to fail, then it is too big.
We need separation of state and capitalism!
The Fed and the Treasury are lending our money so banks can make big bucks and the rest of us linger in uncertainty.
The Federal Government is to "provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare".
Our elected representatives need to check their conscious and check their job description. Oh, yes, I see, they make more money from bribes than they do at their job.
God help us.If a bank is too big to fail, then it is too big.
We need separation of state and... more
-
-
Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has criticised US Treasury officials for making optimistic statements last September, at the height of the financial crisis.
The US Treasury misled the public over the health of struggling Wall Street banks receiving emergency funds at the height of the financial crisis, creating unrealistic expectations and undermining popular trust in bailout efforts, according to an official audit.
An inspector general appointed to oversee the US government's banking bailout has singled out president Bush's treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, for painting an excessively rosy picture of the condition of institutions such as Bank of America, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch when the government pumped $125bn (£70bn) into America's ten top banks in September last year.
At the time, Paulson described the banks as "healthy institutions" and said that an injection of government cash would kick-start lending in the economy. But officials in both the Treasury and the Federal Reserve had private concerns that some of them were teetering close to a financial collapse.
"The Treasury may have created unrealistic expectations about the institutions' condition and their ability to increase lending," says a report today by the inspector general, Neil Barofsky, who adds that the Treasury and the bail-out program "lost credibility when lending at those institutions did not in fact increase".
He continues: "Accuracy and transparency will enhance the credibility of government programs like TARP [the troubled asset repurchase plan] and restore taxpayer confidence in the policy makers who manage them; inaccurate statements, on the other hand, could have unintended long-term consequences that could damage the trust that the American people have in their government."Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has... more
-
-
After almost a half-century of restrictions, barriers, and tensions two changes this September have signaled changes foreshadowing a possible new future in the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.After almost a half-century of restrictions, barriers, and tensions two changes this... more
-
-
The top watchdog over the financial bailout package said the Treasury Department is rejecting "common sense" by not requiring banks receiving billions of dollars in government money to say how they are using the money.
In a report to be released on Monday, Neil Barofsky said banks that have received money from the $700 billion bailout package passed last year are able to indicate how they are using taxpayer money and that Treasury should require banks to be more transparent.
"The fact that there may be some limitations on the precision of the data that could be collected," Barofsky said in the report, "does not mean that such reporting could not generate meaningful information."
Barofsky is the Special Inspector General over the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) that was passed by Congress in October. The report is based on a survey of 360 banks receiving government aid and is meant to bolster Barofsky's recommendation that the Obama administration should mandate that banks supply more information about how they are using the money, whether for lending, additional capital or other purposes.
The report indicates that banks can give "at least a general indication" about how the money is used and what they were able to do had it not been for the government help.
"Treasury's decision to reject this information just because the bank may not be able to trace the exact dollars ignores this common sense view," Barofksy said.The top watchdog over the financial bailout package said the Treasury Department is... more
-
-
DETROIT — The government will hold a large share of General Motors after the company emerges from bankruptcy protection, and will provide G.M. with about $50 billion in financing so that it can reorganize, people with direct knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.
The Treasury Department will receive about 70 percent of the new G.M., while the United Automobile Workers union will hold 17.5 percent through its retiree health care fund. The fund also would receive warrants for an additional 2.5 percent of stock in the new G.M., with a price to be determined later, potentially giving it a total of 20 percent.
That is about half of the stock that the U.A.W.’s fund, called a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, was expected to receive under plans drafted this spring.
The figures were outlined to union leaders in Detroit, who met Tuesday to consider a new agreement between the U.A.W. and G.M.
Bondholders will receive a 9 percent stake of the new company and existing shareholders 1 percent.
G.M., which has already received $19.4 billion in financing from Treasury, would get an additional $50 billion or slightly more in debtor-in-possession financing, which it would draw upon during its reorganization.
End of Excerpt
Source: The New York Times Online
Photo is of US Treasury Dept.DETROIT — The government will hold a large share of General Motors after the... more
-
-
The US government threatened to eject the entire board of Bank of America if the firm pulled out of a $50bn (£34bn) take over of troubled Merrill Lynch in December, according to new documents set to inflame a bitter shareholder dispute at America's wealthiest bank.
In potentially explosive testimony to regulators, Bank of America's chief executive, Ken Lewis, has claimed the US treasury ordered him to press ahead with a buyout of Merrill and to keep quiet about the Wall Street brokerage's mounting losses.The US government threatened to eject the entire board of Bank of America if the firm... more
-
