Morgan Stanley // Current

Money as Debt

This film explores the theory of money, and how today's monetary policies were formed.

asherp
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Morgan Stanley to pay $2.3M to Fla. for gas-price gouging during hurricane

Florida will receive a record $2.3 million settlement from a Morgan Stanley subsidiary... more

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Corporate Bonuses Now Called 'Retention Fees'

If you call a spade a pitchfork, does it make the spade a pitchfork? No. If you... more

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9 months ago
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Some Banks Want to Return Government Money

Wall Street banks have taken billions of taxpayer dollars. Now some of them are... more

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10 months ago
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Citigroup Going Back to Basics

The original financial supermarket is dead.

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10 months ago
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Smith Barney-Morgan Stanley Talks Confirmed

Citigroup Inc. is confirming it is talking with Morgan Stanley about combining their... more

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Freddie Mac, AIG, JPMorgan Helped Stage Republican Convention

Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc., two companies bailed out by the U.S. government as the financial crisis unfolded, each contributed $250,000 for last month's Republican National Convention, Federal Election Commission filings show.

The money went to the local host committee for the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, which raised $50 million. The committees can accept unlimited amounts from corporations, unions and individuals. While the donors' names were posted on the committee's Web site, the amounts they gave were not released until the FEC reports. The host committee for the Democratic National Convention in Denver has yet to file.

The U.S. government took over McLean, Virginia-based Freddie and Washington-based Fannie Mae last month, saying that a rise in mortgage defaults threatened the two companies. That same month, federal officials took control of New York-based AIG in exchange for an $85 billion loan to prevent the bankruptcy of the nation's biggest insurer.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, New York investment banks that changed to bank holding companies and therefore put themselves under increased federal regulation, also contributed money for the Republican convention. Goldman Sachs gave $255,000, and Morgan Stanley donated $100,000. New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., which bought Bear Stearns Cos., contributed $100,000.

Target, Qwest, Best Buy

The largest corporate donors to the host committee were Minneapolis-based Target Corp., which gave $3 million; Denver- based Qwest Communications International Inc., with $2.9 million; and Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy Co. Inc., with $2.7 million.

Other big corporate givers included San Jose, California- based Cisco Systems Inc., $1.8 million; Minnetonka, Minnesota- based UnitedHealth Group Inc., $1.5 million; San Antonio-based AT&T Inc., $1.4 million; and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp., $1.3 million.

New York Jets owner Robert Johnson IV, who has raised more than $500,000 for Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign, contributed $500,000. The host committee also received $25,000 from the Saginaw Chippewa, an Indian tribe formerly represented by ex-Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is now in prison. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, then chaired by McCain, a senator from Arizona, held a series of hearings on Abramoff's representation of Indian tribes. Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc., two companies bailed out by the... more

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Behind the Bailout...what we SHOULD have known in JUNE and need to know NOW.

Almost 4 months ago, the handwriting was on the wall. And throwing useless liquidity at the problem will only make it worse. To make matters worse, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been speculating in commodities, driving the prices up.

Please read the whole article!

Excerpts from the article by Mike Whitney dated 6/17/2008:

The Fed is currently in panic-mode because it doesn't have the tools or resources to fix the problems its facing. Its already eaten through more than half of its $900 billion balance sheet and has traded away hundreds of billions in US Treasuries for worthless MBS and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) which are steadily losing value every month. The Fed is trying to revive the moribund banking system which has lost its main sources of revenue (structured financial investments) and is teetering on the brink of insolvency from its steadily wilting assets, a collapse in commercial and residential real estate, and a rise in corporate defaults...

...Now the underlying collateral (housing) is quickly deteriorating causing a system-wide deleveraging and a flight to safety (US Treasuries, foreign bonds). The dollar is in free fall, credit is tightening, and the banks are only able to stay open due to the generosity of the Federal Reserve...

...The larger question is whether the investment banks---faced with a frozen bond market and ravaged balance sheets---are diverting the money they're getting from the Fed into commodities (via the hedge funds) driving the prices upward and triggering political turmoil around the world?...

...According to economist and author Henry Liu, the same thing happened just prior to the Great Depression:

"The problem in 1929 was, as it is in 2008, that asset prices buoyant by speculation had outstripped the purchasing power of stagnant income of consumers. Assets and commodities in the economy were valued at price levels that aggregate wage income could not sustain. The solution was not to inject more useless liquidity to sustain inoperative price levels, which will only make the problem worse, but to INTRODUCE DEMAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH FULL EMPLOYMENT AND LET WAGES QUICKLY RISE BACK UP TO THE LEVEL OF WAGE-PRICE EQUILIBRIUM. This was the policy objective of Roosevelt's New Deal Program, an objective not yet recognized by policymakers in 2008 even amid a revival of populist rhetoric....

...There is no way to escape the day of reckoning now facing the financial system; the hundreds of bank failures, the corporate defaults, the meltdown in real estate, the massive loss of jobs, the dreary contraction of credit, the tumbling stock market, and the blow to our national confidence. But there is a way to rebuild, to reassert control over our own currency; to "even the playing field" and recommit to a strong middle class; to smash the system that diverts the greatest portion of the nation's wealth to a handful of unelected oligarchs whose main objectives are to expand their own personal power and subvert the democratic process. The existing system cannot meet the challenges of the new century. It's gotta go.Almost 4 months ago, the handwriting was on the wall. And throwing useless liquidity... more