Goldman Sachs To Be Tried By People's Court

Goldman Sachs To Be Tried By People's Court in Zuccotti Park

Goldman Sachs will be tried this Thursday, November 3, for crimes against the American public. Cornel West, noted civil rights activist, and Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winner, will be among those presiding, and testimony for the prosecution will include individuals who have been directly affected and harmed by the actions of Goldman Sachs. The trial is open to the public, and if you can't make it? Tune in to WBAI (99.5 FM in New York) or online at www.wbai.org this Thursday, from 10 AM to 12 noon, where it will be broadcast live.  If the government won't do it? We'll take it into our own hands.

Sourced from AlterNet
Posted at November 1, 2011, 10:05 am

UK NEWS

GREECE SET TO REJECT EU BAIL-OUT IN REFERENDUM

Tuesday November 1,2011

By Daily Express reporter

 Have your say(11)

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has called for a referendum on the EU bailout

GREECE plunged Europe further into crisis last night by announcing a referendum on the debt reduction deal...just days after it was hammered out.

The surprise pledge by premier George Papandreou stunned fellow leaders.


While key details on the  referendum have yet to be agreed, jittery markets are calling for certainty that the  eurozone will
get its house in order.


Polls suggest that 60 per cent of Greeks do not back the rescue plan – suggesting a defeat for beleaguered prime minister George Papandreou.


If the deal is rejected there will be greater pressure for the country to default on its debts and quit the single currency – another disaster for the euro. 

60 per cent of Greeks do not back the rescue plan put forward by the EU summit

Back home, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “The British people will be looking at Greece thinking if they can have a referendum why can’t we?” 

The announcement was just another wave in a tsunami of bad news yesterday. Stock exchanges fell and traders were spooked by reports China may not now invest as much in the bail-out fund as hoped. 

The OECD warned of a slowdown in the zone next year, saying G20 leaders due to meet this week had to take bold decisions to stave off recession.

GOLDMAN SUX? Giant Squid Strikes Again

GOLDMAN SUX?
Giant Squid Strikes Again
at Occupy Wall Street's Credit UnionGoldman Sachs Intensifies Threat on Credit Union

Monday, October 31, 2011
By Greg Palast
Palast is the author of Vultures' Picnic: in Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Carnivores, out on November 14.


Art by Molly Crabapple 



What have I done?  There's one angry squid out there.

Last week, Democracy Now! and The Guardian ran our story about Goldman Sachs yanking financial support from a community credit union for honoring one of its largest customers.  The customer:  Occupy Wall Street.
Our report so enraged Goldman that, within days, it doubled down on its attack on the little community bank.
Goldman had already demanded the return of its $5,000 payment to the Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union.  Now, sources say, the trillion-dollar Wall Street mega-bank sent the following message to the not-for-profit community bank:  "You will never get a dime from any bank ever again."
About those "dimes" Goldman is taking away: They come from you and me, the taxpayers who put up billions into the Troubled Asset Recovery Plan (TARP), usually known as the Bank Bail-Out Fund.
For Goldman to suck its $10 billion from the TARP trough, Goldman had to change from investment bank to commercial bank. This change makes Goldman subject to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and requires it by law to pay back a notable portion in funds for low-income communities, abandoned by the big banks.

Memo from Tim Geithner to Larry Summers
(click to enlarge)

In other words, Goldman is beating up Lower East Side Peoples (which operates in Harlem and the Latino New York neighborhood known as Loisaida).
I would note that Goldman's nasty threat to cut off funding for Peoples, the credit union that is officially chartered as the bank for low income New Yorkers, came with a complaint about this reporter.
Goldman claims that Greg Palast called only one time to get Goldman's side of the story.  (I called many times, as did my associate, and we left the same repeated message: I want your side of the story. Please call me and tell me if you're punishing the poor peoples' bank because they are supporting the demands of Occupy Wall Street?)
There are tens of billions of dollars at stake in the Community Reinvestment funds due from the big banks.  As other banks are making noises of heeding Goldman's call to whip the uppity little credit union, an answer from Goldman becomes urgent.
So, Goldman, I'm still waiting for an answer.  You've got my numbers, so just pick up a tentacle and call.
********
Chapter 12 of Vultures' Picnic, "The Generalissimo of Globalization," includes the Palast team investigation of confidential documents of meetings over years between Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and the CEOs of Goldman, Bank of America and JP Morgan.
The investigation takes the Palast crew from a dictator's shopping spree in Geneva to the Andes to Africa and back to Palast's years within the circle of a troll-like character named Milton Friedman.
Pre-order Vultures’ Picnic now or donate for a signed copy.
***
Greg Palast is the author of Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Carnivores, which will be released on November 14 by Penguin USA.
Pre-order it now!
For more information about Palast's brand new book and his book-signing events in your city, go to www.VulturesPicnic.org

NY fed suspends MF Global

http://www.pretorianews.co.za

October 31 2011 at 04:55pm 

Reuters

A woman leaves the office complex where MF Global Holdings Ltd have an office on 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan October 29, 2011.

The New York Fed suspended MF Global from conducting new business with the central bank on Monday and its shares were suspended, as the troubled brokerage nears a deal on its future.

As per a tentative plan, MF Global's holding company would file for bankruptcy protection and derivatives trader Interactive Brokers would buy the assets, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported.

“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has informed MF Global Inc. that it has been suspended from conducting new business with the New York Fed,” the Fed said.

“This suspension will continue until MF Global establishes, to the satisfaction of the New York Fed, that MF Global is fully capable of discharging the responsibilities set out in the New York Fed's policy.”

MF Global, run by former Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Jon Corzine, has been struggling over the past week in which it posted a quarterly loss, its shares fell by two-thirds and its credit ratings were cut to junk.

Its shares were suspended before trading opened in New York, pending a statement.

Interactive Brokers would likely make an initial bid of about $1 billion during a court supervised auction for the U.S. futures brokerage, the WSJ said.

MF Global clients in London said the company wasn't taking on new business and they were closing out positions.

“It was quite difficult to get our money out on Friday, because they had a lot of redemption calls,” a trader, whose firm used MF Global as a brokerage said.

“The company is not initiating any new position. They are trying to close down positions that they already have with clients that are open,” the trader said.

The company is suffering because of low interest rates and bets it made on European sovereign debt, making it possibly the most prominent U.S. casualty yet from the eurozone debt crisis.

MF Global was in talks on Sunday with possible buyers, aiming “squarely” to do a deal, though all options remained on the table as the firm hired restructuring and bankruptcy advisers, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The New York Times reported in its electronic edition that by Sunday evening, the talks had narrowed to one bidder, Interactive Brokers.

Sullivan & Cromwell's restructuring and mergers teams have joined the long roster of those advising MF Global, one source familiar with the situation said.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges was also hired to prepare potential restructuring options, a second source familiar with the situation said. The sources could not be identified by name because the talks were not public.

Weil would focus on MF Global's UK subsidiary if it needed to pursue a formal restructuring overseas, the Journal reported in its electronic edition.

The securities company also has hired firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the newspaper said.

MF Global and Interactive Brokers declined to comment. The law firms could not be reached immediately for comment.

A number of interested parties were considering several possible deals, including buying all or parts of MF Global, said the source, who requested anonymity.

“The goal is squarely for some sort of M&A transaction,” the source said, adding the situation was “fluid.”

QUARTERLY LOSS

Corzine, who became CEO in March last year after a term as New Jersey's governor, has been trying to transform MF Global from a brokerage that mainly places customers' trades on exchanges into an investment bank that bets with its own capital.

The plunge last week in MF Global's corporate bonds to distressed levels, and in its shares to below $1 at one point on Friday, makes it all the more urgent for the company to come up with some sort of solution before markets open on Monday.

MF Global has given potential buyers limited information about its financials and has not set up a data room for bidders to conduct due diligence, a buy side source earlier said.

The source, who is looking into deals both for the whole company and for its parts, said he was skeptical about the possibility of MF Global striking a deal over this weekend.

The company's positions are big and hard to value, especially the firm's sovereign risk exposure, the source said.

“How do you put a price on that? How do you get a deal done when the right side of the balance sheet keeps moving so dramatically?” the source said.

The company hired boutique investment bank Evercore Partners Inc to help find a buyer, separate sources said this past week. - Reuters