It what can only be called as the most pathetic dog and pony show of the decade, the recent confirmation hearings of December 3rd, 2009 for the incompetent arsonist who allowed our national economic house to burn down while he looked the other way (so his pals on Wall Street could make a killing) Ben Bernanke is far from out of the woods.
God bless Senator Bernie Sanders for standing up (first) for the American people, and placing a hold on Bernanke's confirmation. At least, I thought to myself, there is one decent man left in Congress willing to stand up and shout 'Bernanke, you are utterly incompetent, you screwed the pooch, and I'm not letting you get away with it.'
Those of course are not the words of Senator Sanders, but that is without a doubt what he was saying, and saying it loud enough, with action behind his 'words' (something you don't see much of in Washington DC these days) and other Senators have followed suit.
What is more important than our nation's finances? What has more significance than empowering the Federal Reserve with virtually unlimited access and power from the top to the bottom with our nation's fiscal responsibilities, oversight, international reputation and the entire well being our over 330,000,000 million citizens of our country? If our financial 'house' falls then so goes the nation, and that is exactly what has occurred. There are many reasons that this happened, but it was the direct responsibility of the Federal Reserve to ensure that this kind of chaos and mayhem thanks literally tanked our entire economy and ruined people's lives, would never happen if Bernanke was doing his job in the first place.
Yes, while the 'Captain' of our Sinking Ship was being questioned about the greatest financial disaster and greatest transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to Wall Street and the Banks, there was not even one story on the main stream media to speak of - instead we heard all about Tiger Woods, the Salahis couple who either did or did not receive an invitation to the White House State dinner, or Sarah Palin's endless book tour that just never seems to end.
But that doesn't surprise me. The main stream media doesn't want to clutter our 'brains' up with anything significant, and financial terrorism just isn't sexy enough for the idiots we pretend to call journalists these days. What did surprise me, was just how pathetic the hearing for Bernanke turned out to be. This description just about covers it:
What, No Question About the Salahis?
With only a couple of exceptions, Bernanke's hearing today was a frightening abdication of responsibility even by contemporary DC standards. Most of the senators seemed oblivious to the purpose of the hearing, which was to consider an individual's past performance and current suitability for a specific job. Instead there was question after question about the Fed's organizational structure, the federal budget, and bank lending and supervision -- topics that had no place in this type of hearing. Bernanke was cordially invited to opine almost on whatever he wanted, with softball questions on healthcare reform, ATM fees, and financial literacy. I was waiting for one about the White House party crashers. About thirty minutes in, Bernanke knew the score and was comfortable enough to start grinning.
It took almost an hour and a half before anyone bothered to get to AIG. I think the dollar was mentioned once all day. Bernanke's use of the output gap, which currently underpins the largest monetary experiment in history and is the target of important new criticism from the Fed's own researchers? Not mentioned once. Gold? Schmold.
Outside of those two senators, almost everyone else was either a waste of time or an embarrassment to their constituents. I was stunned by how little of the public's outrage came through in the tone and substance of the questions. Bunning and Bernie Sanders have now announced holds on Bernanke's nomination, and there's post-hearing chatter that others may join them. Again, if this issue is important to you, I urge you to contact your senators.
http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/
The hearings were not 'just' a frightening abdication of responsibility by our Whore Mongering Lobbyist Owned Senators, it was a yet another 'business as usual' and continuing 'cover up' of the greatest rip off of taxpayers in the history of our country:
The AIG rescue was the biggest taxpayer rip-off of all time. Worse, it was the master seed that sprouted a whole series of similar taxpayer rip-offs on Wall Street.
Just connect a few of the dots, and you’ll see what I mean:
1. The U.S. Treasury rushes to bail out AIG. That alone helps protect AIG’s counterparties from the direct losses they’d otherwise suffer in an AIG failure.
2. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York creates a special entity to pay off AIG’s creditors in full. While ordinary U.S. investors lose fortunes even in companies that are financially viable, 16 major banks don’t lose a penny even in a company that would otherwise be bankrupt — all thanks to the Fed’s largesse.
3. Prominent among these government-blessed banks is Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s most extravagant giver of executive bonuses in 2006 and 2007 ... and also Wall Street’s most lavish payer of employee bonuses in 2009.
The money flow is clear:
* From taxpayers to AIG ...
* From AIG and the Fed to big Wall Street investment banks like Goldman Sachs, and then ...
* From Goldman Sachs to its employees in the form of lavish bonuses.
It is, by far, the greatest taxpayer rip-off off all time!
http://jutiagroup.com/...
$85 Billion dollars of taxpayer money went out the door for AIG alone, and that was just the tip of the iceberg that Ben Bernanke hit, but kept on going. Any port in a storm. Good old Ben, not only knew that this financial meltdown was coming, he specifically ignored all the warnings and ordinary U.S. investors lost fortunes even in companies that are financially viable.
I do not care for Senator Bunning's politics, I never have and I never will. I have been a strong activist Democrat all my life, but then I do not view this continuing 'cover up' of what has happened in our financial sectors as a political matter. I view it as a national disgrace and a tragedy beyond comprehension, that has affected 15.8 million people who are currently without a job to support their families, many of whom have had their homes foreclosed upon, who have lost their retirement and life savings, because of the incompetence and the complicity of Congress to simply 'pass the buck'...continue the cover up, and play that game they play so well, which is 'let's all just pretend this didn't happen, and maybe it will just die down and go away.'
At least Bunning had the guts to lay it on the line to Bernanke:
You can find the transcript to Senator Bunning's statement here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
Personally, I do not care 'who' uncovers the truth, as long as it is uncovered. I am old enough to remember just how long the Watergate Hearings took. Those hearings were about the scandal that began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The subsequent investigation by the FBI connected the men to the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President by a slush fund.
Each network maintained coverage of the hearings every third day, starting with ABC on May 17th and ending with NBC on August 7, 1973. An estimated 85% of Americans with television sets tuned in to at least one portion of the hearings.
Five bungling crooks led to a cover up that showed corruption on a very small scale compared to what has taken place today in our financial markets, but then this happened back when we actually had public servants that were not bought and paid for by the Wall Street/Banking industries, and when we had 'journalists' that were more than 'infomercial entertainment' idiots.
So, here we are as Americans sitting by and watching as the greatest national 'cover up' and the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of our nation due directly to financial malfeasance of Wall Street, The Federal Reserve, the Banking Industry and Congress rolls merrily along. But if Ben Bernanke and the Senate Banking Committee actually believes that they have gotten away with 'rubber stamping' the extreme malfeasance that Ben Bernanke, Wall Street and the Banking industry are responsible for, then they are in for a very rude awakening. This is not going to 'go away' and just 'die down' over the next several months, not by a long shot.
When a party performs the duty inadequately or poorly, it is misfeasance. Malfeasance is used to denote outright sabotage which causes intentional damage.
We are supposed to 'buy' the lie that somehow 'we' were all 'saved' by Ben Bernanke and the actions of our government. That is no different from rewarding the arsonist who burned your house down for having such excellent matches and gasoline.
It is insane!!!! To date, not one 'regulator' has been brought up on charges in our government for not overseeing the 'sabotage' that was taking place in our financial sectors. Everyone including the SEC, the NYSE, the Federal Reserve, the Banking Industry and our own Congressional Whores were all 'looking the other way' when the shit hit the fan and on top of that, Wall Street and the Banks have turned right around and made millions and millions of dollars off of the misery and pain they have caused hard working and decent American people.
The real trouble for Ben Bernanke now is that he and his partners in crime are under assault from the left and the right, as they should be. One of the mistakes that I believe people make is trying to make this a political issue, when it is not. This is an issue about systemic corruption in our financial sectors and casting light on the crimes that have been committed and covered up, not just for the sake of accountability, but also to ensure that in the future, these crimes will never be allowed to happen again.
I received an email from Congressman Alan Grayson's office talking about the progress that is being made to hold Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street accountable for 'stealing trillions' of taxpayer dollars in addition to the devastating tanking of our economy:
I have good news. We're starting to unmask Wall Street. Over the last two years, the Federal Reserve has lent trillions of dollars in secret and taken all sorts of odd assets onto its balance sheet. It has a cozy relationship with insiders on Wall Street and a veil of secrecy that doesn't let anyone see what it's up to.
The Fed is really the power behind the bailouts, and has a special set of statutes protecting it from any sort of scrutiny from Congressional auditors. That's why, for the past ten months, I've been working with Ron Paul on a bill to remove these restrictions and audit this institution.
Three weeks ago, Ron Paul and I passed this bill in the Financial Services Committee. The vote tally was 43-26. This week, Reuters reported that this bill is headed for passage on the floor of the House. This is monumental news. The Fed is fighting us aggressively, but we're actually winning.
I'd like to ask you to thank the Democrats who made this possible. Click here to sign my thank you note to the 14 other Democrats who stood with us and voted to audit the Federal Reserve to find out where our money went.
Best,
Alan Grayson
Member of Congress
The list of the 14 other Democrats who support the 'Audit the Fed' bill:
CA-27 Rep. Brad Sherman
TX-15 Rep. Rubén Hinojosa
MO-01 Rep. William Lacy Clay
GA-13 Rep. David Scott
NH-02 Rep. Paul W. Hodes
CO-07 Rep. Ed Perlmutter
CA-12 Rep. Jackie Speier
MS-01 Rep. Travis Childers
ID-01 Rep. Walt Minnick
NJ-03 Rep. John Adler
OH-01 Rep. Steve Driehaus
FL-24 Rep. Suzanne Kosmas
MI-09 Rep. Gary Peters
NY-25 Rep. Dan Maffei
And then the growing efforts on the left continue:
Jane Hamsher, founder and publisher of Firedoglake.com, who organized the effort. "It would actually make the Federal Reserve even more secretive, by erecting further barriers to transparency."
The letter was signed by SEIU President Andy Stern, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, James K. Galbraith (Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., Chair at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin), author Naomi Klein, blogger Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, William Black (Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri–Kansas City), blogger Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, Robert Johnson (former Chief Economist of the US Senate Banking Committee), Randall Wray (Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability at the University of Missouri–Kansas City), Thomas Ferguson, Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Boston and Dean Baker, co-founder and co-director of the Center For Economic And Policy Research.
http://workinprogress.firedoglake.co...
It is a very 'tired' argument that tries to place anyone that wants answers to the greatest crime of our nation's history and the largest transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to Wall Street and the Banks as simply a bunch of crazy 'tea baggers.' That simply is not the case, and it is a 'meme' that refuses to look at what has occurred and refuses to hold those accountable for ruining our economy. The truth is because of what has taken place, our nation is in a deep 'depression' and we are facing decades of 'paying the price' to those very same 'crooks and liars' who not only caused this economic collapse, but also stole trillions of dollars after the fact. How long will 'we' be paying these crooks and liars back?
Oh, yes, we the American people will be 'paying' through the ass for the long and foreseeable future thanks to Ben Bernanke's close ties to his partners in crime on Wall Street and the Banks.
And instead, of admitting any failures what-so-ever on the part of the Federal Reserve, the stunning arrogance that Bernanke showed during the confirmation hearings was simply unbelievable:
Bernanke likes to say that he’s not following the lead of his predecessor and getting involved in fiscal policy. But clearly, that’s not universal. He’s fine with talking about entitlement cuts to Social Security and Medicare. It’s when tax increases for the rich or on stock trades come up, that Bernanke demurs and says that Congress writes the laws.
Here’s another thing Bernanke felt compelled to discuss today:
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday threw cold water on efforts to push a major new fiscal stimulus package.
At his confirmation hearing for a second term as chairman, Bernanke emphasized that the government has spent less than half of the money in the $787-billion package passed earlier this year and that analysts are still determining its impact.
"Only about 30 percent of the funds have been disbursed," Bernanke said. "It’s a little bit early to make a strong judgment, a little bit early to decide whether or not to do additional fiscal actions."
Keep in mind that the Fed has a mandate to maximize employment.
So let’s tally that up. No second stimulus, no jobs bill, no public investment to deal with the worst hiring crisis since the Depression, no relief for a jobless recovery, but yes to cutting people’s meager Social Security benefit and their health care in their old age.
And this is what he’s saying when he WANTS his job back. What will it be if he gets it?
http://news.firedoglake.com/...
Ben Bernanke may want his job back, and he definitely expects that the Federal Reserve should maintain it's so-called independence, (which is simply code for 'get those scissors away from my all powerful OZ balls') but now that four Senators have placed a 'hold' on his confirmation, this 'academic arrogant idiot from hell' is about to face the scrutiny that he so richly deserves.
This 'problem' will be landing directly in the lap of Harry Reid, and given the public outrage as to 'how and why' we are in the mess we are in today, I do not believe that Harry is going to be able to 'dodge this ball' in the days to come.
Though some of those Senators placing the Bernanke hold are part of the Senate Banking Committee, they for the most part did not allude to bottling up the nomination in that committee before it reaches the Senate floor. Jim DeMint’s statement says "I will also object to floor consideration of Mr. Bernanke’s nomination until the Senate votes up-or-down on the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act," and the others follow suit. (Senator Vitter has also placed a hold on Bernanke's confirmation).
A Senate aide tells FDL News that there is no hold process in the Banking Committee. The aide also says that Sen. Chris Dodd, chair of the committee, is moving deliberately to consider the Bernanke nomination, which the President made in August and which just got its hearing this week. A committee vote for the nomination has not been scheduled yet. As chair, Dodd could schedule that vote at any time. Bernanke appears to have the votes in committee for now, but even if it didn’t succeed, Bernanke’s nomination could be brought to the floor anyway through a special process.
The point is, if the leadership wants a nominee on the floor, they have considerable latitude for getting him or her there. If Bernanke reaches the floor despite these holds, there would have to be a cloture debate, eating up 30 hours of floor time, and a vote on the motion to proceed to his nomination that would need 60 votes. Meaning that it’s really up to Harry Reid to decide on whether Ben Bernanke gets a vote. He’s certainly honored lots of holds on the Republican side in the past. He has every opportunity to do so in the case of Ben Bernanke.
http://news.firedoglake.com/...
What are the options left at this point?
Among the options that leaves for the Senate leadership to clear President Barack Obama’s Fed nominee:
(1) Corral the 60 votes for the nomination and push it through, while DeMint, Vitter and their supporters attack anyone in that group of 60 by saying they don’t want accountability. In this scenario, Bernanke gets cleared without an audit provision passing, though it could turn some additional lawmakers into "no" votes for confirmation.
(2) Allow an audit bill to come to a vote. The Sanders bill has 30 cosponsors — not even a simple majority — but creates a perception problem for lawmakers who oppose it. So it’s unlikely to even reach a vote without 60 backers.
(3) Find a way to settle the impasse through a watered-down audit provision, so the opponents of Sanders’s measure can say the Fed will indeed be audited by the GAO. Many lawmakers simply don’t want to be in a position of voting publicly against the Sanders measure (given the potential backlash) and would prefer a different version to be slipped into the broader financial regulation legislation. That regulatory overhaul is now on a slow track in the Senate, awaiting consideration in the Senate Banking Committee. With the health care debate, the chances of it reaching the Senate floor before January are slim. Still, at least attaching it to financial regulation in committee could mitigate some attacks (related to auditing the Fed) during a Bernanke confirmation vote.
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
Politics made strange bedfellows, such as having Congressman Alan Grayson and Congressman Ron Paul on the same side of the isle to Audit the Federal Reserve, along with 317 Co-Sponsors in the House. The Co-Sponsor of Bernie Sanders bill to audit the Fed: S604 is Senator DeMint.
Strange bedfellows? Not if fully understand that Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve are completely 'in BED' with Wall Street and the Banks, and we have all been witnesses to the greatest 'hoax and heist' of our financial 'house' that has been burned down to the ground.
79 Percent of the American people now believe the Federal Reserve should be audited, according to a recent poll:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...
It is easy to simply blame what has occurred on 'populist rage' or 'politics' or whatever the easy way out of holding those accountable for ruining millions of American's lives, and getting away with it while they are laughing all the way to the bank, but it is more difficult if you can 'step outside of the box' and fully understand that this is not about 'politics'...this is about corruption.
And 'it' is not going to go away anytime soon, nor should it. Remember this, if 'we' as the American people allow this level of corruption and cover up to be 'rubber stamped' by the cowards in charge of the Senate Banking Committee, then without a doubt, those same crooks and liars who brought our nation down to it's knees, will be given the 'green light' to just do it all over again, and that is exactly what they are planning on doing.
Bank on it.
UPDATE: Thanks for recommending this diary. I have updated this diary to exclude one of the links that I had on this story. I was unaware of that the link I put down had another link to 9/11 links.
For the record, I have never been a supporter of that kind of thing. The facts and evidence that I present in my diary are specifically about the financial sectors and deal only with that subject.
Thanks for your support.