Congress Questions Bernanke, Paulson's Role in BoA Purchase of Merrill Lynch
By Susie Madrak Saturday Jun 20, 2009 12:00pm
Well! This certainly should be an interesting summer:
WASHINGTON – A House panel has subpoenaed documents that lawmakers say could shed new light on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's role in Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
The subpoena comes ahead of a hearing next week in which Bernanke is scheduled to testify.
Lawmakers have accused Bernanke and President Bush's treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, of pressuring Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis into the deal and urging him to keep quiet about Merrill's financial problems.
Not divulging that information would have violated Lewis' fiduciary duty to the bank's shareholders.
Lawmakers also have questioned whether Lewis threatened not to go through with the merger in order to squeeze money from the government.
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A couple of months ago, BOA raised my credit card interest rate by 4 percentage points, apparently just for the heck of it. I have good credit; never am late; always pay much more than the minimum; and when I called BOA, they told me that my rate was raised not because of any problems with the way I paid my bill, but rather because "business conditions" had changed.
It's beginning to look like perhaps the Bush administration in the form of Paulson and Bernanke might be the reason my credit card rate went up. They're all crooks.
We're trying to please a bunch of oligarchs who never even pretended to be "good businesses."
The other day at BofA I went in to deposit in a company check for a reimbursement for travel expenses. The cashier had to talk to her manager, who came... and said out loudly who they could not deposit the check into our shared account because a) She did not know me, and b) they only cash personal checks or company checks that are less than $200.
I had to tell the lady that I didn't give a f*ck if she knew me or not (we have been using that branch for years, and that was the first time I saw that idiot), I had my ID and my account number so she could cram it as far I was concerned. And that was a legal check, which she is not entitled to refuse, and that she was more than welcome to explain her refusal to my company's legal department. Once she checked our balance, she became all friendly and apologized by saying how it had been a misunderstanding.
As soon as she was ready to cash in the check, I told her I had changed my mind and that I was going to deposit it elsewhere. At least if BofA is going to treat me like that, I might as well f*ck with them. After the incident I went to my credit union instead, in fact I am analyzing our finances to study if it makes sense to move the bulk of our savings over to our credit union.
i am f*cking tired of being treated like a suspect, by the same people who took billions of our money no questions asked.
Frgn' idiots....and sounds as if you were making an actual deposit, not just cashing it. WTF...doesn't make any sense that they gave you trouble for a deposit. Jeez, Louise.
Who knew?
Corruption in the Bush Administration? Get real!
If America doesn't clean out the wounds that BuschCo inflicted, it won't last another decade without becoming a fascist dictatorship without regard for what was once law. Just ask the Republicans - they will tell you that's what they want, and to hell with democracy.
The first to go must be the entire Cheney cabal and his assasins. The CIA must be reformed. The military Industruial Complex must be reformed.
As I said here, Paulson's Plunder, now Obama's Blunder includes a lot more than meets the eye.
The several hundred BILLION dollar 'Section 382' tax giveaway that Paulson promised in September '08 and Obama certified in January is not mentioned by anyone.
It IS hidden in Stimulus bill.
The AIG travesty was a $180 billion plus pay through to the same Banks that were also receiving TARP money.
Another investigation should be why the Bankers were in the room with Paulson when he was handing out the money to AIG.
A triple whammy on the ordinary citizens of this country.
My comment on the shenanigans of Paulson et al with BoA and on the financial fraud in general et al is here
excerpt:
Mish's says this (here): Let the Criminal Indictments Begin: Paulson, Bernanke, Lewis
---
Until the too big to fail, too big to jail syndrome is dealt with, this will go nowhere.
The FP division, took AIG down, for the most part, no?
As they slither and slide, do you know off hand, if that's the division that altered their identification, to AIU Holdings Ltd?
Snip - "A spokesman said the company had decided to replace the large AIG sign -- outside the entrance to its property-casualty offices -- as part of its plan to change that operation's name to AIU Holdings Ltd."
(Reporting by Lilla Zuill and Karen Brettell)
(Editing by Richard Chang)Mon Mar 23, 2009
[ http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTR... ]
Note: The editor's name... [Richard Chang]e ;)
I'm sure! Bank of America's history, is worth noting.
Corporate history;Since 1904
→[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America ]
We can only do our best to highlight the errant activities.
Thank you... Susie
PS. I believe this would help → [H.R. 1207]
►[ http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill... ]
I'm getting tired of treading water
That 15 September money heist was the crowning of the Bush administration sinister malfeasance and shenanigans, and was nothing else that monetary reward to his click of crooks and gangters. And we all fell for it.
I have been yelling bloody murder since day one.
parading around on the news a couple of years ago?
But our current President and Vice President voted for that travesty as well along with the majority of democrats. That bill was a joint effort between Democratic leaders and the Bush administration.
I'm still reeling because it was passed.
This is highly organized crime and a definite conspiracy. Where's a prosecutor with some balls?
But they took care of him. I realize that he isn't a saint.
But when he was a prosecutor. They feared him.
So, they ruined his life.
Well, they're all the same it seems. So Obama, who I voted for, has put the thieves in charge of the thieves.
Idiot.
It should surprise no one that Paulson and Bernanke coerced BOA to obtain ML (as if BOA was really coerced since they received so much taxpayer money in return). Everything that has been done so far in The Greatest Bankster Heist Ever has benefited only a few major financial institutions, which coincidentally have incestuously close ties to those that hold high-level government positions in such regulatory institutions like the SEC, the Fed, the Treasury, etc. I'm sure Paulson and Bernanke just feel like they helped a friend out with their actions.
See my comment and links to previous comments here.
Lawmakers have accused Bernanke and President Bush's treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, of pressuring Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis into the deal and urging him to keep quiet about Merrill's financial problems.
Not divulging that information would have violated Lewis' fiduciary duty to the bank's shareholders.
----------------------
Yet congress has done nothing while Bernanke violated the Constitution.
ALL spending bill MUST originate in the House of Representatives. Thus Bernanke could not legally obligate tax payers to backstop Bear Stearns losses of up to 29 billion dollars. Only congress can, and specificly, the House must originate the bill.
Legally, Obama can't violate the rights of the bond holders of GM.
By law, they come before all other stake holders in a bankruptcy.
Paulson extorted 700 billion from the tax payers, through congress.
When the bill didn't pass the House the first time, the Senate loaded 150 billion in pork and the house passed the bill.
That congress is going to ask Paulson some questions, is rather a joke. What happened after congress asked greenspan some questions?
NOTHING.
Alan Greenspan is at the center of the greatest financial fraud in history, and he isn't even sitting in prison for it.
The SEC allowed investment banks to recklessly leverage up and Barney Frank allowed the GSE's to recklessly leverage up.
Bernanke says that the housing bubble was caused by a savings glut.
That is a flat out lie. America had no savings glut. Debt was used to buy houses. Banks created zero down, interest only, negatively amortized adjustable rate loans. Without those, there never would have been a housing bubble. Again, it comes back to Alan Greenspan, who in 2003, told home buyers to get adjustable rate loans. Greenspan wanted a housing bubble.
Greenspan and Bernanke and Paulson and Geitner are peas from the same pod.
If they had Bernanke and Paulson ON TAPE, holding a GUN to Lewis HEAD and telling him to AGREE WITH US or WE'LL KILL YOU AND ALL YOUR FAMILY TODAY, congress would do NOTHING but pat them on their little heads and say "Just don't do it again, boys." and give them another multi-billion dollar CHECK. The ONLY THING that would put a stop to the crooks on Wall Street or any OTHER fat cat corporate leaders and hacks would be for Americans to stop doing BUSINESS WITH THEM or stop BUYING THEIR GOODS. Since the deck has been stacked by OUR "leaders" to favor other countries over us and we can no longer produce any of the goods Americans NEED, I don't think that's ever going to happen. And I KNOW congress is NEVER going to do anything about it, either, because THEY WORK FOR THOSE CORPORATE CROOKS, HACKS AND FAT CATS and AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.That's why we are going to continue buying poisoned food, lead tainted toys for our kids, sending trillions of BORROWED dollars to other countries while our own crumbles around us, watching OUR loved ones die for lack of health care while we WATCH our "vaulted leaders" in all levels of government get the best health care in the WORLD on OUR DIME, sell off pieces of our towns, cities, states and federal lands to foreign interests, and on and on and we will continue to put the WORST, ANTI-AMERICAN traitors in office until they finally die of old age and by then, all the younger ones will be so ignorant from our bottom of the barrel educational system that we'll no longer even be a viable nation at all.
We have a government run by self interested, selfish, greedy, ignorant, uncaring FOOLS, who think their way is the ONLY way and to H**L with all the rest of the underlings who "Don't UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO WORK or WHY!", as one side keeps telling US, while IGNORING the fact that THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MILLIONS OF LOST JOBS WE WOULD GIVE UP 10 YEARS OF OUR LIVES TO GET BACK.
Don't waste another MINUTE asking QUESTIONS that aren't going to be ANSWERED or where the "answers" will all be lies or "I don't remember! I don't recall!" from thieves.
And here we go folks; now we begin to see the real reasons for the fleecing of America. There is no doubt left in my mind as to who is responsible, it is Greenspan, Paulson, Bernanke: the Federal Reserve, they have been the drivers, but who and what was/is the cargo? Who are the social engineers in all of this? What was Greenspan referring to when he said we must go forward with the plan, pushing it again in 2005? He was talking about the NWO!
I see huge changes in DC. I see a NWO forming, listen to Brown out of Britian, and I see many within our own government seeking globalist positions. I see global monopolies so deep into the hoop-la, one can almost not fathom the power or control of such antitrust coroprate monsters. I see pharmacutical companies patenting DNA recombinations in seeds which last 2-4 seasons before going sterile. In fact, I see a rush to patent everything on a global scale, while you and I hold the bag. I see real emergent Zero-Point Energy Technology being purposely held back. I see a country being held for ransom concerning the production of JOBS, with Americans, and so many other countries, being pushed under the beggars can't be choosers rule of thumb.
Is this where it's going? We currently have 32 Czars holding hands with Corporate America in D.C. and a President welding more power than any President who has ever come before him. Where is it all going? Socialism/Communism? Who says this is the way to go and Why? Socialism doesn't have to follow rampant (purposeful) Capitalism, just as Communism doesn't have to follow Socialism. Karl Marx made it all up, it was his theory; a theory HE MADE COME TRUE. We are watching the purposeful breaking of America. This was purposeful. The plan has been to create a One World Government.
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