A Year After Declaring War On The Banks
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 5:25PM On January 22, 2012, French presidential candidate François Hollande shook up the banks: “It has no name, no face, no party, it will never be candidate, it will therefore never be elected, yet it governs: that enemy is the world of finance,” he said. It “freed itself from all rules” and “took control of the economy, of society, and even our lives.” He’d fight it, he said, and promised some tough reforms.
But as the private sector in France sank deeper into an economic and fiscal quagmire, his words, designed to endear him to the left wing of his Socialist Party, were swept under the rug. And you’d think that since becoming President of France, he has been tutored by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
A year later, Dimon had some choice words himself, while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where bankers, business leaders, politicians, and whoever was able to get in were hobnobbing for the better of the world.
Dimon lashed out at regulators and their feeble, slow, and confused efforts to rein in the banking industry so that it wouldn’t shove the world into another crisis. They were “trying to do too much, too fast,” he said. He defended inscrutable megabanks with their meaningless financial statements. “Businesses can be opaque,” he said. “They’re complex.” A word that in a financial crisis excuses everything, even massive bailouts that will haunt generations to come. “You don’t know how aircraft engines work, either,” he mollified us, based on the logic that we still get on a plane and fly across the Pacific.
And so the CEO of America’s largest TBTF bank, recipient of the Fed’s bailout trillions, praised the Fed because “they saved the system.” Indeed, they not only saved the system that had shoved the world into the financial crisis, but they also bailed out and enriched those who were, and still are, integral part of it—who now, according to Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, “believe themselves to be exempt from the processes of bankruptcy and creative destruction” [for more on Fisher’s feisty fight against TBTF, read.... How Big Is ”BIG?”].
This is the world Hollande declared war on, back in the day. But now, France is sinking into a new crisis, and this time it’s the already diminutive private sector that is gasping for air and shedding jobs—and moving overseas, along with the rich and not-so-rich for whom the fiscal and rhetorical climate has become too hostile.
Not a day passes without another confirmation or a new indication. Today, the statistical agency Insee released its monthly Business Climate Index, which, after a soupçon of an uptick, has deteriorated again in the categories of Industry, Wholesale, Construction, and Retail. Only Service saw an improvement. The index, at 86.75, is down from 87.02 in December, and below where it was in October 2009, during the financial crisis.
Given this scenario, what happened to Hollande’s “enemy” and the reforms to rein it in? It’s not that he didn’t try—though there simply isn’t much appetite around the world for confronting the banks. For example, even the highly anticipated Basle III liquidity rules that were supposed to make global banks more stable and another financial meltdown less likely, well... A couple of weeks ago, after years of negotiations and intensive lobbying by the banks, the rules were finalized. In watered-down form. And implementation was delayed until 2019. A huge win for the banks.
Nevertheless, Hollande’s vow to separate the banks’ retail operations from their speculative activities coagulated into a proposal for a law that was presented to parliament last December. The government prided itself that it was the first in the EU to put banking reform on the table. Four years after the financial crisis. As Dimon said: “trying to do too much, too fast.” The proposal, of course, came with such huge concession to the banks that effectively not much will change.
And his vow to impose a tax on financial transactions? It has also turned into a proposal, and the EU just issued its blessing for the tax. The 11 countries, including France and Germany, that are considering such a tax are now free to impose it. Against a wall of opposition from the banks. Nothing will happen in Germany before the election later this year. But in France, which is dying for additional revenues, the tax might pick up momentum.
These days, tangled up in a real war in Mali, Hollande no longer declares war on the financial world. In fact, he already has the first taxpayer-funded bank bailouts under his belt, including the €7 billion bailout of Banque PSA Finance. He’d “saved the system,” Dimon would say, because when push comes to shove, citizens and taxpayers, and their kids, are the ones who pay, not bank investors. And it doesn’t matter who is president.
France’s economic foundations are cracking. Unemployment is rising incessantly. The private sector is comatose. Car sales sank 13.9% in 2012, from a lousy 2011; sales by its native automakers plunged even more. Now home sales are grinding to a halt. And the finger-pointing has already started. Read.... The Next Shoe To Drop In France.
Reader Comments (5)
Did I read somewhere that Dimon considers himself the 'smartest guy in the room?'
I guess when you are in a room full of morons the man with the 80 IQ knows a lot.
lol .. i know a small puppy that thinks it's the smartest guy in the room .. shits everywhere.
> “Businesses can be opaque,” he said. “They’re complex.” A word that in a financial crisis excuses everything, even massive bailouts that will haunt generations to come. “You don’t know how aircraft engines work, either,” he mollified us, based on the logic that we still get on a plane and fly across the Pacific.
"Transparent" means being able to test for integrity. "Opaque" means being unable to test for integrity. You'd better hope that airplane engines are *not* opaque and are continually tested for integrity. Dimon seems to think that airplane engines were created by the angels and they're too complex for anyone to understand .. so we'd better not try to understand them, because that'd undermine the faith that keeps them operating.
Probably the main weaknesses of the West. Having a political system that apparently favours relatively incompetent people come to power. Obama/Bush in the US, guys like Hollande in France (and the list is longer than the bible). Often combined with guys like Obama and Hollande thinking they can reshape the world. A likely deadly combination at least for their respective countries.
It's all connected to world domination by a few dynastic familes and .02% of the world's banks that control 69% ot wealth.
Here's how its playing out:
Amid Federal Land Grab in Brazil, Whole Towns Evicted at Gunpoint
by Alex Newman
Federal Brazilian police and military personnel, some wearing United Nations insignia, are forcibly relocating whole communities in Brazil at gunpoint under the guise of returning huge tracts of land to a small group of Indians whose ancestors were allegedly there at some point.
Excerpt:
Critics& local residents have accused the government of Brazil of mass corruption, saying the end goal is to smash private property ownership &all potential resistance — starting with the rural population. They argue, among other points, that federal authorities are doing the bidding of foreign interests &are in cahoots w/ the UN, massive international corporations, Western-based non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace, &other interests.
The other giant squid.... the UN
Remember this?
Armed Troops Burn Down Homes, Kill Children To Evict Ugandans In Name Of Global Warming
Prison Planet
September 23, 2011
Armed troops acting on behalf of a British carbon trading company backed by the World Bank burned houses to the ground and killed children to evict Ugandans from their homes in the name of seizing land to protect against “global warming,” a shocking illustration of how the climate change con is a barbarian form of neo-colonialism.”
“The evictions were ordered by New Forests Company, an outfit that seizes land in Africa to grow trees then sells the “carbon credits” on to transnational corporations. The company is backed by the World Bank and HSBC. Its Board of Directors includes HSBC Managing Director Sajjad Sabur, as well as other former Goldman Sachs investment bankers.”
Spot light on the other giant squid, the UN.
The IMF & World Bank are UN agencies & it’s sovereign eating un-elected dictator technocrats are UN agents... >that pay no fek'n tax. Do you think the UN is there for you?
Come on people where are the pitchforks?
“In fact, her IMF salary of $467,940 plus an $83,760 additional allowance is not subject to any taxes. See Christine Lagarde, Scourge of Tax Evaders, Pays No Tax. No taxes is the norm for most United Nations employees …”
The UN membership includes 3rd world tyrannical dictatorships-easily bought by the bankers&dynastic families) that like nothing better than to dis-arm &spread western wealth to themselves through UN resolutions and increasingly control NATO.
There is no question the UN is forcing it's "supranational" control already over every nation's sovereignty and needs to be defunded and kicked out of every country, our so-called representatives need to be woken up or removed from office.
Through uninformed or complicit politicians, the UN is increasingly inserting itself in every country (your taxes for ‘world’ spending) WE CAN'T AFFORD THIS MALICIOUS PARASITE. A behemoth,tax eating,authoritative,supra-nationally sovereign,un-elected, bloated ‘world regulating’ bureaucracy pushing Agenda 21,carbon taxes,water,land control,vaccines,'their' world core curriculum &anti-self protection rights-needs your taxes to reach these goals to please their boss; the NWO intellectual elites & world bankers& their march toward world monarchy. The UN’s catch phrases; ‘sustainable’, ‘peace’, ‘greater good’, ‘green’, 'smart growth'.
UN -produces no revenues and needs 'your taxes' for UN salaries, benefits, pensions, bonuses, office complexes all over the world (like a giant squid), parties, information/documentations systems, armed guards, energy/maintenance costs, vehicles, MILITARY AND POLICE ACTION & LOTS of air travel, accommodations, food, limousines & martinis,etc. As the UN/UNESCO/UNWTO/ICLEI/etc, etc continues to expand along with the 'World Tourist Organization', so do the salaries and pensions and all of the above expenses.
What is the UN costing (has already cost since established) and what exactly has it accomplished besides insidiously forcing it’s control already over every country’s sovereignty? The UN is the ‘regulatory tool’ of the NWO (self-imposing new world monarchy, so what does that make ‘you?).
There is no question the UN is forcing it's control already over every nation's sovereignty and needs to be defunded and kicked out of every country, our so-called representatives need to be woken up. How much is the UN costing the world and what exactly is it's agenda? - Agenda 21. Sustainability and peace? UN also back door funded? The EPA in the US has awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant (US citizen's taxes) to the UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP), where the fek did the EPA get that money while people in NJ are still freezing?…you've been taxed to fund UNU since 1972, how's that 'sustainablility and peace' going? How many of these UNU professors and administrators are now retired with tax funded pensions? For accomplishing what?
NO WONDER THE WORLD IS GOING BROKE! (while slowly enslaved)
Google a photo of that HUGE United Nations General Assembly hall at its headquarters in New York, purposely designed and built to project a feeling of power, 'importance' and authority (over who?).
In 2000–2001 the regular, two-year budget—not counting special political missions, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan—was $2.4 billion. In 2010–2011, it was $4.2 billion. That is a 75 percent increase, over a period that included a major post-9/11 economic contraction and a global recession. Heritage (dot) org
In 2010–2011, it was $4.2 billion. - a 75 percent increase! The UN is the regulatory police state for the Globalists NWO
“more education increases the threat to sustainability – you can’t make this up.
Youtube: Agenda 21 For Dummies
http://youtu.be/TzEEgtOFFlM
- 67-The War on Parents ( and the UN handbook for teachers)
http://youtu.be/ChQd6YMBw4g
UNESCO: "You must destroy the family so people will then look to the state for direction".
- UNESCO - It's Evil Purpose and Philosophy
http://youtu.be/Iqv5Q8Ujj2s
Watch the UN's Agenda 21 in action, this is happening around the world:
youtube: Sheriff Dean Wilson – Defend Rural America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZicSIjJwSmU&feature=share&list=PLybzMXLEOSWIx9oOmYL7ZVDOvZghNmMED
- Youtube: Agenda 21 for Public Officials
http://youtu.be/fFIcZkEzc8I