Showing posts with label Timothy Geithner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Timothy Geithner. Show all posts
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Ron Paul Grills Geithner on LIBOR and Bankster Profits
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
US to press China on financial reform: Geithner
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| © AFP/Getty Images/File Justin Sullivan |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will press China to make progress on financial reform at high-level bilateral talks next week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said.
The US is going "to put a little more attention this time on expanding our discussion to the next stage of financial reform in China," he told a US-China Business Council forum in Washington.
"If China's going to be successful in moving the economy away from exports to a more domestic-demand economy, it's going to have to increase the return to savers in China and dismantle the set of protections that are now designed to lower the cost of capital to state-owned enterprises."
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Geithner's Decade of Incremental Austerity
The worst is yet to come
Activist Post
Bangkok, Thailand May 1, 2011 - In a one hour April 26, 2011 talk before the Council on Foreign Relations(CFR), Secretary of the Treasury (and CFR member) Timothy Geithner laid out a frightening picture of America's economic future. Despite a myriad of metrics used to assure the audience that economic disaster had been averted before Geithner took to the podium, Geithner himself would stress the need for Democrats to cut back on programs while Republicans would need to rethink tax cuts as part of the long journey to real recovery.
Geithner specifically said, "this is a war of necessity. There is no alternative. Democrats have to understand that our capacity as a country to finance things Democrats believe in like education, like a minimal guarantee of protection in health care and the safety net, require demonstrating we can live within our means; and Republicans have to understand, of course, that deficits matter, that they are unsustainable and they hurt growth left unaddressed. Tax cuts don't pay for themselves." In other words, more taxes and less services would help repair damage caused by the reckless degenerate gambling dens lining Wall Street who were protected and facilitated by Washington and its band of ineffective, if not entirely nonexistent, regulators.
Geithner would go on to say that the "cuts and reforms" required to repair the economy "have to be phased in over time to avoid damaging the expansion. The biggest mistakes countries make in financial crises, apart from waiting too long to act in the face of the gathering storm, is they put on the brakes too early." Geithner continued, "they shift too prematurely to abrupt contraction-rate strategies that put at risk the incipient expansion. So you have to be -- you have to lock these reforms in, but you have to phase them in to reduce that risk to the economy as a whole."
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
US claims profit on bank bailout program
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| © AFP/File Saul Loeb |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Wednesday its bank bailouts had earned a profit, 30 months after the Treasury committed hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue financial institutions as the economy plunged into crisis.
After enduring deep criticism over the use of taxpayer funds to rescue banks run aground by billionaire executives, the Treasury said bank repayments to the Troubled Asset Relief Program had brought in $251 billion, compared to outlays of $245 billion.
"While our overriding objective with TARP was to break the back of the financial crisis and save American jobs, the fact that our investment in banks has also delivered a significant profit for taxpayers is a welcome development," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Banksters are Coming for Your Retirement Next
Activist Post
First, the banksters hoodwinked an angry public into bailing out their collateralized-debt obligations and derivative Ponzi scheme to the tune of what may turn out to be over $600 Trillion dollars. Derivatives are nothing more than bets on other bets, on other bets, that are all completely worthless. So, we can assume that the taxpayer will be victimized for at least that amount for derivatives alone. That’s about $2 million dollars for every man, woman, and child in America, or $100,000 for every person in the world.
They bet big with your investment money, got fat, then lost thousands of times more than everything real on Earth combined. Then, representatives of the people bailed them out (including bonuses) while they laughed all the way to their respective banks. Since government officials are doing their best to reject transparency, we can also only assume this number is much, much larger.
Sadly, their derivative Ponzi scheme is the least of the public’s current problems regarding the banks. The international banks’ economic hit men have successfully enslaved-by-debt everything from nations, entire industries, state and local governments (who will need their bailout soon), and nearly every person on the planet. Even if an individual doesn't have any bank financing or credit cards, they still pay the private Federal Reserve through inflation. As author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
, John Perkins, would say: the time has come for the banks to collect their “pound of flesh” from average citizens by way of your pensions. For an enlightening explanation of how economic hit men enslave entire countries please watch the video below:oday, the word “austerity” is becoming commonplace in European countries, and America may indeed be next on the chopping block. The IMF is pushing economically-weak European countries into austerity measures that target average citizens for debts their government owes to banks, including slashing and looting pension guarantees. Incidentally, the U.S. national debt, plus unfunded liabilities and personal and private debt, puts America in far worse shape than all European countries combined.
As we near the End Game
, the banksters and their government accomplices are coming for the last of your wealth -- your retirement money. Recent headlines about the IMF “pressing the U.S.“ to reduce its debt is the first sign of things to come. They have already methodically gutted the assets of most public pension funds by knowingly investing those funds in toxic junk. In late 2009, Mark Brenner wrote an excellent article titled Pensions: The Next Casualty for Wall Street which gave a breakdown of the dismal state of pensions:Nearly $4 trillion worth of retirement savings were wiped out in the first weeks of the 2008 financial freefall. Half of the drop was concentrated in traditional pension plans, also known as defined-benefit plans. While most workers in these plans haven’t had their monthly benefits cut, unlike the 46 million people riding the stock market with 401(k) defined-contribution plans, the storm clouds are gathering.Furthermore, we’ve also seen the captains of “private” industry pump their bottom line for years with their worker’s pension contributions (much like the federal government has done with Social Securityreceivables). When it comes time to pay the pensions they dump the obligation onto the taxpayer through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation which was reported to be $12.9 billion in the red for 2009. Once again, the taxpayers are funding their own servitude while the ownership class pillages on the way up and on the way down.
I can’t help but be reminded that warnings of this day went unheard. This George Carlin clip below sternly warned that the “owners of this country” will ultimately come for your retirement -- but, hey, who was listening to a comedian?
That’s right, the day is rapidly approaching where they’ll come for your retirement. Screw your guarantees you thought you worked your whole life for. Apparently, contractual law does not apply to the servant class. However, we all remember Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner arguing that the reason they must use taxpayer money to pay 100-cents-on-the-dollar for AIG’s rancid obligations was because it would be wrong to break contractual laws. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they only respect contractual law when they are taking from the poor and giving to their elite partners in crime.
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Friday, October 22, 2010
G20 struggles to find common ground on currency war, triggers US push for trade caps
Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations struggled to agree on how to prevent a currency war on Friday, with the United States switching tack to focus on a way to rebalance global trade.
Malcom Moore
Telegraph
With China resolutely refusing to allow the yuan to rise more quickly, the US shifted the debate on the first day of the G20 summit to address trade imbalances, the root issue behind exchange rate clashes.
Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, told G20 members they should commit to specific trade caps, allowing surpluses and deficits on their current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, to be no more than 4pc of gross domestic product.
China's current account surplus was 5.9pc in 2009, having almost halved from its peak of 10.6pc in 2007. The US, by contrast, had a current account deficit of 3pc last year. In a letter to the G20, Mr Geithner called for a "co-operative effort" on the issue, but said there would have to be "some exceptions" for countries that imported large quantities of raw materials.
The US plan, a way of side-stepping a direct spat over currencies, was backed by Korea, Australia and Canada, but immediately opposed by large exporters such as Japan and Germany.
Rainer Bruederle, the German finance minister, rejected a "command economy" approach, while Yoshihiko Noda of Japan said "setting numerical targets would be unrealistic".
India also said the trade caps would be hard to work out, while Russia said there would be no numerical limits set in the summit's final statement.
Mr Geithner also called for G20 countries to refrain from "either weakening their currency or preventing the appreciation of an undervalued currency". Mr Geithner, who also called for the IMF to monitor the G20's commitments, added: "G20 advanced countries will work to ensure against excessive volatility and disorderly movement in exchange rates."
Read Full Article
RELATED ARTICLES:
Will the Dollar Rebound Before Being Dissolved Into Global Currency?
The After-the-Fed Solutions Debate Begins: Greenbackers Vs. Goldbugs
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| G20 Finance Meeting - EPA Photo |
Telegraph
With China resolutely refusing to allow the yuan to rise more quickly, the US shifted the debate on the first day of the G20 summit to address trade imbalances, the root issue behind exchange rate clashes.
Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, told G20 members they should commit to specific trade caps, allowing surpluses and deficits on their current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, to be no more than 4pc of gross domestic product.
China's current account surplus was 5.9pc in 2009, having almost halved from its peak of 10.6pc in 2007. The US, by contrast, had a current account deficit of 3pc last year. In a letter to the G20, Mr Geithner called for a "co-operative effort" on the issue, but said there would have to be "some exceptions" for countries that imported large quantities of raw materials.
The US plan, a way of side-stepping a direct spat over currencies, was backed by Korea, Australia and Canada, but immediately opposed by large exporters such as Japan and Germany.
Rainer Bruederle, the German finance minister, rejected a "command economy" approach, while Yoshihiko Noda of Japan said "setting numerical targets would be unrealistic".
India also said the trade caps would be hard to work out, while Russia said there would be no numerical limits set in the summit's final statement.
Mr Geithner also called for G20 countries to refrain from "either weakening their currency or preventing the appreciation of an undervalued currency". Mr Geithner, who also called for the IMF to monitor the G20's commitments, added: "G20 advanced countries will work to ensure against excessive volatility and disorderly movement in exchange rates."
Read Full Article
RELATED ARTICLES:
Will the Dollar Rebound Before Being Dissolved Into Global Currency?
The After-the-Fed Solutions Debate Begins: Greenbackers Vs. Goldbugs
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Live Superfoods
Print this page
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Why is the White House Against Freezing Foreclosures in the Face of Rampant Fraud?
Treasury and Obama are facing huge financial pressure.
Nomi Prins
Alternet
At first, there was a deafening silence from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the foreclosure front. It was as if they: 1) didn’t read the news; or 2) were afraid someone would notice afresh their incompetence in dealing with the ongoing housing crisis and deteriorating economy, while convincing everyone that the bank bailouts and subsidizations were good for us.
Last week, while Senator Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in Congress were dispensing irate pre-election sound-bites, attorneys general across the country were gearing up for investigations. Banks were reluctantly announcing foreclosure moratoriums because it’s quarterly earnings season and uncertainty is bad for stock prices, and Geithner was defending TARP and mixing it up with China over the dollar. Meanwhile, the Fed was gearing up to buy more Treasuries, like some kind of rapacious alien that eats its progeny, because no one else wants our debt.
But that changed when Geithner came out of hiding yesterday with a stance. (Bernanke is still in hiding, but will support Geithner’s view soon.) Unsurprisingly, Geithner chose to side with the likes of conservatives and CNBC. Thus, his response to Charlie Rose when asked whether he supported banks in declaring a foreclosure moratorium was: “No, I wouldn’t say it that way.”
Why? Geithner’s logic follows the typical blame-the-little-guy-for-taking-on-too-much-debt-to-buy-a-house-he-couldn’t-afford pattern, coupled with old-style fear-mongering: if you wait and analyze what’s really going on, it might be bad for the housing recovery. And, what housing recovery is that? The one in which 25-30 percent of homes being sold are REOs (bank owned real-estate, a.k.a. foreclosed properties). On a trading floor, that’d be considered "churning," not new value.
Read Full Article
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| Economic Hitmen |
Alternet
At first, there was a deafening silence from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the foreclosure front. It was as if they: 1) didn’t read the news; or 2) were afraid someone would notice afresh their incompetence in dealing with the ongoing housing crisis and deteriorating economy, while convincing everyone that the bank bailouts and subsidizations were good for us.
Last week, while Senator Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in Congress were dispensing irate pre-election sound-bites, attorneys general across the country were gearing up for investigations. Banks were reluctantly announcing foreclosure moratoriums because it’s quarterly earnings season and uncertainty is bad for stock prices, and Geithner was defending TARP and mixing it up with China over the dollar. Meanwhile, the Fed was gearing up to buy more Treasuries, like some kind of rapacious alien that eats its progeny, because no one else wants our debt.
But that changed when Geithner came out of hiding yesterday with a stance. (Bernanke is still in hiding, but will support Geithner’s view soon.) Unsurprisingly, Geithner chose to side with the likes of conservatives and CNBC. Thus, his response to Charlie Rose when asked whether he supported banks in declaring a foreclosure moratorium was: “No, I wouldn’t say it that way.”
Why? Geithner’s logic follows the typical blame-the-little-guy-for-taking-on-too-much-debt-to-buy-a-house-he-couldn’t-afford pattern, coupled with old-style fear-mongering: if you wait and analyze what’s really going on, it might be bad for the housing recovery. And, what housing recovery is that? The one in which 25-30 percent of homes being sold are REOs (bank owned real-estate, a.k.a. foreclosed properties). On a trading floor, that’d be considered "churning," not new value.
Read Full Article
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Government Prepares To Seize Private Pensions
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 12, 2010
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Infowars.com
October 12, 2010
The government is preparing to seize the private 401(k) pensions of millions of Americans while enforcing an additional 5 per cent payroll tax as part of a new bailout program that will empower the Social Security Administration to redistribute pension funds in a frightening example of big government gone wild.
Public pension plans have been so aggressively looted already by the government that cities and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, according to a CNBC report.
That black hole is set to be filled by a new proposal that will “fairly” distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone, by confiscating the private wealth of millions of Americans. Its proponents express staggering arrogance in thinking that they can just steal money people have worked for decades to accrue as if it’s their own.
Not only would the government confiscate 401(k) pensions, it would also impose a mandatory 5 per cent payroll tax payable by everyone, according to a hearing chaired last week by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
“This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending,” writes Connie Hair.
The hearing was a platform for advocates of Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), a program authored by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York. Back in November 2008, Ghilarducci testified to Congress that 401(k)s and IRAs should be confiscated and converted into universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.
“You don’t hold hearings on something you don’t intend to do,” points out the Market Ticker blog. “I hate it when I’m right. I hate it even more when tens of millions of Americans are going to get reamed to pay for the crimes of the handful on Wall Street, and their crony enablers in Washington DC.”
The GRAs would be enforced by means of a mandatory savings tax equating to 5 per cent of an individual’s annual paycheck deposited to the GRA. Social Security and Medicare taxes would still be payable, employers would no longer would be able to write off their contributions and capital gains would be taxable year-on-year. In addition, workers could bequeath only half of their account balances to their heirs, unlike full balances from existing 401(k) and IRA accounts.
During a Seattle radio interview in October 2008, Ghilarducci explained the motive behind the plan, stating, “I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading – spreading the wealth” (emphasis mine).
However, as we painfully learned in the immediate aftermath of the original $700 million dollar bailout, which was originally sold on the basis that it would be used to pay off bad debt, governments that propose “spreading the wealth” under socialist-style financial reforms almost always collect the wealth under the pretext of being the saviors before greedily hoarding it all for themselves.
The GRA program is being pushed by the Economic Policy Institute, an organization housed on the third floor of the building occupied by the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is a think tank headed by Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff John D. Podesta, who was also head of Barack Obama’s presidential transition team after the 2008 election.
In preparing to seize private pensions, the United States is going the same way as Argentinean government, which in 2008 nationalized the country’s private pension plans, known as AFJPs, confiscating the wealth of millions.
“We have no doubt that here the right to private property is being violated. Not just for us but for society and the world, this is a clear confiscation,” said opposition Radical Party’s Ernesto Sanz at the time.
How will Americans react to having not only their wealth but their nest egg for future generations brazenly confiscated by the government in one fell swoop? If this doesn’t prompt widespread rioting and civil disobedience in America on behalf of the besieged middle class then nothing will.
Don’t be under any illusions, if you don’t have a private pension and think this won’t affect you – think again. Once the pretext has been created that the state can simply confiscate privately earned wealth, they can then come after anything, your gold, your home, your kids and eventually your very freedom. Once the vampire of big government gets a taste for blood, the teeth will only sink in further, and America’s resemblance to third world tyrannies will rapidly accelerate.
—
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos
. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.
. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.RELATED ARTICLES:
The Neoliberal Experiment and Europe's anti-Austerity Strikes: Governments must Lower Wages or Suffer Financial Blackmail
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