rjjrdq's America II » Greed

Democrats, the Rich Party

rjjrdq — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:47:48 +0000

Not the party of the rich, oh no, I mean they are the party of enriching themselves while America wades through a phony recovery. All the talk about the Republicans being in bed with big business like some kind of mob mentality actually turns out to be true-for the Democrats.

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of greasy hands on the Republican side, but it pales in comparison to the Democrats in Congress. A publication called Business and Politics published a study that shows that when it comes to big business, Republicans can’t hold a candle to the Dems. The report says that investments by congressional members, such as stocks and bonds, outperformed those of the average investor by 55 basis points per month. A basis point is 1/100 of a percent. Do the math. That’s over five percent every month. Republicans and Democrats both are in on the party, but the Dems are far more profitable.

Democrats beat the market by 73 basis points per month, compared to 18 for Republicans. That’s a rout anyway you look at it. Senators fare even better than house members.

Let me tell you, from someone who has invested for years, picking the right stock is a whole lot of investigating, and almost as much luck. I’ve had more of the former than the latter. 73 basis points is astounding. On a consistent basis, it seems almost impossible. In my opinion, it is impossible, unless…you’re privy to information that others don’t have. I have no proof of this, and either do the authors of the study, but the ability of congressional Democrats to pick winning stocks over and over again defies the laws of chance. Even worse, if you or I acted on insider information, we would suffer the same fate as Martha Stewart did a few years back. Apparently, those laws do not apply to Congress.

Strict laws ban corporate executives from trading on their insider knowledge, but no restrictions exist for members of Congress. Lawmakers are permitted to keep their holdings and trade shares on the market, as well as vote on legislation that could affect their portfolio values.

They must mean insider information gleaned through government channels. They can’t be immune from laws barring direct insider information, can they? Or can they? After all, the same Congress that is benefiting from these stock deals are the same ones that make the laws. They could be exempt. And unless you are familiar with jumbled legalese, they could point to thousands of pages of documents to bolster their case. That’s assuming you could even prove that they did act on insider information.

There’s nothing wrong with being rich. I aspire to that myself. But the monthly investment gains Congress enjoys means that they are cashing out when the tide is high. They come in low and cash out when the stock is high. No see-saw for Congress. I challenge anyone to pull that off consistently month to month. For the rest of us, we have to pick stocks that amounts to rolling the dice, or hope our 401k somehow shows some gains. Congress is bypassing that game of Russian Roulette.

The next time you hear a Democrat talking about the party of the rich now you’ll know that they’re referring to themselves.

SEC Hacks Rewarded for Incompetence

rjjrdq — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:08:33 +0000

The fraud perpetrated by Bernie Madoff cost investors at least $50 billion. His brazen ponzi scheme went on for years as the SEC concentrated on things like forcing companies to predict the effects of global warming on their companies in annual reports. They also let former Countrywide scum Angelo Mozilo walk away unscathed as the housing market imploded due to his significant input. In the end, a guy off the street was blowing the whistle so loudly that Madoff turned himself in. Still, there are those at the SEC that were rewarded handsomely for their incompetence.

A little known investment analyst named Harry Markopolos took a look at Bernie Madoff’s hedge fund and saw immediately that something wasn’t right. The incredible gains were just beyond reality. A few math calculations showed that indeed, they really were beyond reality. Markopolos voiced his concerns to the SEC several times, but they never took any action. Check that, the New York branch of the SEC looked into Madoff’s activities, and after 11 months found nothing and closed the case. Markopolos found something in five minutes. He was pretty detailed in what he suspected, but his pleas to the bumbling SEC fell on deaf ears.

Asked how many times he sent materials to the SEC, Markopolos told Kroft, “May 2000. October 2001. October, November, and December of 2005. Then again June 2007. And finally April 2008. So five separate SEC submissions.”

Markopolos even pointed out that major Wall Street firms had steered clear of investing with Madoff, who by outward appearances was doing much better than they were at playing the market. But they knew. Everyone in the investment world knew. The investors themselves had no clue though. And neither did the SEC, the agency the exists to weed out the potential Bernie Madoff’s of the world.

How bad was is it at the SEC? Madoff’s son-in-law worked there until just a few years ago. Oh yes. There were several others in a position to easily expose Madoff and put an end to his scheme before he wiped out so many investors. They did nothing. How about Linda Thomsen, a 14-year hack and director of enforcement? She landed a gig with the international law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, with the kind of job that pays seven figure salaries. Not sure what they saw in her, but we can speculate.

There are six other lawyers that have left the SEC and now have jobs with law firms that pay them millions. Could you have received that kind of reward at your job for the level of incompetence they displayed?

Then again, maybe they were quite competent. After all, not everybody lost out on Madoff’s scheme. There are those that cashed out before it all hit the fan, and had the SEC brought the hammer down when they should have, those that cashed out would never have reaped their millions. I’m not accusing those of cashing out of having any knowledge of Madoff’s fraud, nor am I accusing these lawyers at the SEC. Might be interesting to start matching up the names of the investors who cashed out early with these firms the SEC hacks now work for. Nobody bothered with the Madoff case, so you can’t expect the SEC to take a look at these lawyers or the firms that now line their pockets.

It’s convoluted all right. That’s the idea. The average person off the street would have no idea. That’s what Madoff counted on. The SEC on the other hand, has an abundance of resources in which to deal with these kinds of fraud. As Harry Markopolos on 60 Minutes lamented, All they had to do is pick up the phone. Ultimately, they did pick up the phone. The calls were to the highest paying employers they could find. You wonder what happened to this economy? I just shined a little light on a few of the cockroaches entrusted with keeping Wall Street on the straight and narrow. In theory, they should keep Wall Street in line. They have no other function. In reality, they’re practically useless. Makes you wonder what else they let slip by them.

Democrats Sending Stimulus Money to China

rjjrdq — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0000

We’ve all heard the horror stories of how the stimulus money was either wasted or has gone unspent, but this is a story of how it is being stolen, and the crooks go all the way to the White House.

As Harry Reid fought for his political life in last month’s Senatorial fight with Sharron Angle, he promised to bring 1000 jobs to Nevada in the form of a wind farm, that would be built by a Chinese company. It sounded too good to be true: A Chinese company actually bringing jobs to the United States. As it turns out, it was too good to be true This gets messy, stay with me here.

A company called A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a small Chinese company is bidding for $450 million of stimulus money to build a wind farm in Texas.They are seeking even more in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. This invoked the ire of some in Congress, such as Chuck Schumer, who was outraged that stimulus dollars would potentially be used to create jobs in China. Yes, the Texas wind farm project would have the wind turbines built in China, creating an estimated 2800 jobs. The project would create about 40 in the United States. Yes. 40 jobs. How does this small Chinese company, that hasn’t built anything of note ever, come within arms reach of $450 million of stimulus funds? In fact, their website had faked pictures of turbines being sent to the U.S. It never happened. How does what appears to be a possible shell company come so close to this money? They turned to the Democrats.

A group of powerful, behind the scenes Democratic operatives are behind the scheme, and they stand to make millions off the deal. Cappy McGarr, who could be described as the George Soros of Texas is one of them. There is also Ted Cunningham, a former executive for several companies in China in recent years, and a 2002 Democratic candidate for Senator. He also happened to be on Barack Obama’s national finance committee. There are also a few lobbyists in on it. G. John O’Hanlon, a former lap dog for former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe, and Moses Boyd, a former Dem staffer, and current lobbyist. These clowns gave a ton of money to Obama in 2008, and it looks like they will be rewarded for the effort.

McGarr has visited the White House numerous times since Obama took office, but administration officials are refusing to say what was discussed. We’ll just use our imagination. We know that McGarr met with Pete Rouse, the acting Chief of Staff since Rahm Emanuel left. We know he went that far.

What’s in it for these guys? How about a $245 million developers fee. If they can twist arms in Washington and cut the deal, they stand to make a fortune. A-Power estimates the deal will end up being worth $2 billion in the end, so the $245m is a small price to pay. It will end up giving these guys a 51 percent stake in the wind farm, but they won’t have to actually invest anything but their time and lobbying skills. It is us that will come up with the money.

So what about that factory in Nevada? A-Power has no details. There is no plan on where to build it, and even where to sell the turbines if indeed they are actually build there. After all, that factory would be competing with the same Chinese company that is using slave labor to build turbines in China. It was good enough for Harry Reid though, and he heartily endorsed the deal. Sure he did; these guys lined his campaign coffers and may have put him over the top last month.

Check the link for details. It’s messy, and there are certainly more details that are not public knowledge. This is money that is being not only stolen, but shipped off to bolster the Chinese economy at the same time. Of course, we know that really, there are only a few that will actually benefit, but at the same time we know that none of the money will benefit the United States. We are being ripped off, and those that are handing out the money are in on it.

Wachovia Skimming A Fee From Haiti Donations

rjjrdq — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:45:28 +0000

Call it greed, or call it foresight. Whatever you want to call it, the fee Barack Obama wants to level against banks ends up being a defacto tax on America. But of course he knew this. People off the street knew it would happen, so to suggest that the economic masterminds in the Obama regime had no clue this was happening is disingenuous.

When Barack obama proposed extracting a fee out of the ass of major banks as payback for bailing them out, anyone with an I.Q. in double digits could have predicted what would have happened. Fees by banks have been going up for months now, partly behind the shield of recovery and partly as a cushion against what might come from the White House at payback time. Well, here it comes, and just as I said, the customers are the ones ultimately paying this fee. Rising credit card rates, ATM fees, bounced check penalties and the like have all been rising, and all that helped major banks turn a profit this quarter.

Well, it all worked out in the end then, didn’t it? Banks recovered (except for the few hundred that Obama let drown), and these fee hikes will most likely be temporary (after all, they do want to keep customers), so where’s the problem? It’s hard times for everybody. The problem is, that if you hit scumbags like the banks with a fee, they’ll just roll those over to the customer. What are you going to do? Find another bank? Obama has eliminated most of the competition by bankrolling some, and allowing others to wither away. Those would be your local banks. The big boys not only survived, but they prospered. Now Obama wants some of that prosperity, and banks being for profit entities that they are have found a way give Ceasar his due.

But in this whole mess, the law of unintended consequences reared its ugly head. Wachovia, who Wells Fargo got for a song, is charging a 3% international service fee to those that are donating to Haitian relief. Yes, if you want to help the people of Haiti and are using Wachovia, they will be skimming 3% off the top. So in the end, not only are Americans paying this fee that Obama is pretending to impose on the banks, but now the the folks that are the most destitute, the most in need are having aid to them chipped away. Wachovia will justify it as a cost of doing business. Obama is justifying his fee as a way to make banks pay for the privilege of surviving. Both are unethical, and both extract a piece of the now shrunken American pie.

Barry, the next time you come up with a great idea like this, consult me first. I’ll lay out the pitfalls to you, and allow you to make an intelligent decision. Then again, maybe this is the plan. A tax is a tax, no matter how you try and launder the money.

Obama Smacked Down In Copenhagen

rjjrdq — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:07:00 +0000

Friends are hard to find, eh Barry? Little piece of information Bar: These people aren’t your friends. They will never be, no matter how much of our money you throw at them.

The debacle that was the Copenhagen redistribution conference is over, and Barack Obama heads back to the U.S. with bucket full of spin and his tail between his legs. Being smacked down by China was expected, but he must have been surprised to get knocked around by those he thought he was handing out freebies to, in the form of American tax dollars.

First it was his pal Hugo Chavez that said he could still smell sulfur in the room after Obama left. Yes, he indicated that Obama is the devil. Well, that isn’t quite accurate Hugo, The devil is a dictator of the worst order, such as you are, and Obama is a Marxist. Demon-like maybe, but the devil no. Keep in mind that Chavez received a standing ovation from that crowd over there. THAT is who Barry wants to hand our money to.

But the back-handing didn’t stop there. Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aling, Sudanese stooge head of the G-77 had a problem with the non-binding agreement hammered out by just a few players at Copenhangen. He wanted that money flowing with no strings attached, but Obama indicated that he would at least have to jump through a few hoops. He compared the agreement with the holocaust.

“[The draft text of the summit deal] asks Africa to sign a suicide pact, an incineration pact in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries. It is a solution based on values, the very same values in our opinion that funneled six million people in Europe into furnaces.”

Pretty strong words coming from a country that still practices female circumcision and has as their claim to fame the genocide in Darfur (which continues by the way). Not sure what this guy is upset about. Instead of condemning the goof and humiliating him at the conference, Obama is offering him billions in borrowed money to fight global warming, with just a few strings. Take the money and run jackass. Add it to the money that the U.S. already throws away on Sudan. Funny how state sponsors of terror are entitled to any money at all. It still flows though, and will continue, Allah willing. It’s no secret that if any deal was actually reached, the implementation would be along the lines of the any other program the United Nations oversaw. In other words, the fraud and mismanagement would be legendary. Di-Aling was talking like there would be strict administration. Fraud is built in to the administration. What the hell did he think that conference was? It’s not about climate. It’s about redistribution, and countries like Sudan and Venezuela would be the beneficiaries. So would a poor country like China. Still trying to figure that one out.

It’s not likely that Obama could squeeze another multi-billion dollar fraud out of congress, but damn if he won’t try. It seems that every time Obama goes overseas, he comes back with a black eye.

Kangaroo Ethics Panel Clears Dodd, Conrad

rjjrdq — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:09:36 +0000

While the rest of America was being buggered with sub-prime loans, senators Dodd and Conrad were getting sweeheart deals. What was the quid pro quo?

Don’t get me wrong. The people who actually signed on to to the horrible loan packages that Countrywide offered have no one but themselves to blame for their financial mess. This piece relates to the consequences for the rest of us.

Under a program called friends of Angelo senators like Chris Dodd (among others) benefited from choice mortgage deals offered by Countrywide. Well, some companies offer better deals to better qualified applicants. What’s the big deal? The deal is, that if you weren’t a friend of Countrywide chief Angelo Mozilo, you got stock shit deals. Those were the deals that helped collapse the real estate market in America. Countrywide had to have known the the type of loans they were offering couldn’t possibly be appropriate for the people they were offering them to. They did it anyway. What were the consequences? Well, Angelo bailed out at the last minute with his golden parachute, and Dodd, with his position as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was in a position to make sure his hack friends survived the Countrywide meltdown by having Bank of America buy up Countrywide, even though we now know they couldn’t afford it. B of A was subsequently bailed out. Are you going to tell me that Dodd didn’t use his influence to push that along? Right, we can only speculate.

Dodd and Conrad were accused of accepting gifts in violation of senate ethics rules. In fact, the Countrywide hack that handled the loans testified that they knew they were getting special treatment. It didn’t matter. Of course they were cleared of any wrong doing. Look at Washington folks. It’s like Machine gun Kelly declaring that Al Capone did nothing wrong. The function of those ethics rules is to make sure senators could not be bought off.

Well, Dodd and Conrad were bailed out by their buddies in Washington. Can they be saved from angry voters? How many scandals can a guy like Dodd absorb?