Head Of Greek Debt Office Replaced By Goldman Banker

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Head Of Greek Debt Office Replaced By Former Goldman Investment Banker

Head Of Greek Debt Office Replaced By Former Goldman Investment Banker
Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/19/2010 11:18 -0500

* Credit Suisse
* Goldman Sachs
* Greece
* Reuters


And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday's news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the CEO of the NBG Tamvakakis), as can be seen on the org chart below. Yet was is oddest, is that Mr. Christodoulou worked not only as head of derivatives at JP Morgan but also held comparable posts at Credit Suisse, and... wait for it, Goldman Sachs... Uh, say what?

Petros' profile from Forbes:

Petros Christodoulou, born 1960, is the General Manager of Treasury, Global Markets and Private Banking. Before joining the Bank in 1998, he worked in various positions in Global Markets for Credit Suisse First Boston and for Goldman Sachs. Additionally, at JPMorgan he led the derivatives desk, followed by the short-term interest-rate trading and emerging markets division in London as Managing Director. He is a member of the Investment Committee of EH and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research. He holds a BSc from the Athens School of Commerce and Economics and an MBA in International Financial Markets from Columbia University.

But, but, we thought it was all Goldman Sachs' fault for annihilating Greece? Wasn't it all Goldman's fault for fully (not) disclosing the terms of its nearly decade worth of swaps, which apparently were obvious to Risk magazine but oh so incomprehensible to Eurostat. Although it may all be good - it appears that Greece has found a new enemy. Reuters now reports that Greek opposition lawmakers said on Thursday that Germans should pay reparations for their World War Two occupation of Greece before criticising the country over its yawning fiscal deficits.

The fact that Greece's survival is now reliant on Germany's goodwill, seems to be lost on everyone.

We can not wait for the next installment in this ever more fascinating soap opera.

Posted by Alfred Woody Wang at 7:30 PM

LA PUPA E IL SERMONE

di Eugenio Benetazzo

Con il termine “pupa” nell’immaginario collettivo solitamente si fa riferimento ad un provocante esemplare di mammifero femmina appartenente al Genere Homo Sapiens Sapiens. In vero se volessimo ancora fregiarci di questa nomea senza usurparne il titolo, il termine “pupa” identifica in ambiente scientifico lo stadio incompleto di un processo di metamorfosi (solitamente animale). Si parla sovente infatti di “stadio pupale” riferendosi alle mutazioni che avvengono in natura studiando gli insetti, in cui la “pupa” rappresenta la muta di una larva. Lo stadio pupale si svolge in uno stato di quiescenza, talvolta protetto all’interno di involucri di varia natura all’interno dei quali si verifica il passaggio da uno stadio giovanile a quello adulto: il classico esempio di uno stadio pupale è il bozzolo di un bruco (denominato crisalide) dal quale fuoriesce una farfalla.

Per chi non lo avesse ancora capito il nostro paese sta attraversando uno stadio pupale. Un lento processo di metamorfosi che lo sta cambiando su più fronti: il punto interrogativo che dovremmo tutti porci è quale sarà il risultato finale di questa trasformazione ? Cosa saremo ? Una nuova farfalla oppure un insetto sgradevole e ripugnante alla vista ? Proviamo a fare alcune considerazioni fuori dal coro, che tuttavia moltissimi lettori giudicheranno molto scomode, ma non per questo non veritiere. Il nostro paese sta cambiando in seguito a due sorprendenti mutazioni, la prima riguardante il fronte sociale e la seconda quello industriale. Partiamo dalla prima pertanto. Il tessuto sociale italiano è iniziato a cambiare a seguito di due gradienti evolutivi che la maggior parte di tutti noi ha accettato con eccessiva leggerezza: una emancipazione femminile esageratamente controproducente che ha portato ad eccessi nel costume sociale e nella vita di tutti i giorni e l'ingresso senza alcun genere di controllo di etnie extracomunitarie disposte a tutto pur di migliorare il loro poverissimo stile di vita. Il primo gradiente ha causato la nascita di una fascia sociale (prettamente maschile) dai mezzi di sostentamento economici molto limitati: sto parlando di centinaia di migliaia di padri trentenni e/o quarantenni che sono costretti a pranzare alla Caritas o a ritornare dalla mamma in quanto il peso degli alimenti alla ex moglie rende impossibile una vita decorosa.

Questo chiaramente ha conseguenze economiche che adesso cominciamo appena a percepire. In meno di trent'anni la coesione della famiglia tradizionale italiana (che ha rappresentato uno dei punti di forza del nostro paese ed anche l'invidia che suscitavamo agli altri) si è, anno dopo anno, sempre più ridimensionata sino ormai al suo completo annullamento. I matrimoni “drinkcard” sono all'ordine del giorno: tuttavia l'emancipazione femminile spinta all'eccesso è costata molto cara anche alla donna che vede ora nel maschio un partner demosciato ed insicuro, intimorito dall'idea di intraprendere una relazione seria, per le possibili implicazioni economiche in caso di default matrimoniale. Allora si preferisce piuttosto creare un circuito farlocco di relazioni ed effusioni sentimentali incentrate sulle disponibilità dei “trombamici” (uomini o donne che si rendono disponibili per rapporti sessuali a chiamata senza impegni e vincoli di natura sentimentale). Questo è avvenuto parallelamente in tutti i paesi occidentali, ma nel nostro gli effetti di questa devoluzione sono stati più incisivi: i bamboccioni che stanno a casa con la mamma per paura di un matrimonio che ti metta fuori combattimento fa parte di un pensiero dominante della nostra epoca. Non voglio esprimere giudizi: ma ognuno di voi giudichi se si viveva meglio all'inizio degli anni settanta oppure adesso, chiaramente in termini di stabilità e pianificazione familiare.

Il secondo gradiente ha invece permesso l'entrata di milioni di individui extracomunitari, con il solo scopo di offrire loro una occupazione (solitamente di manovalanza) mal retribuita: questo ha consentito a grandi aziende e gruppi industriali di sostenere minori oneri per l'attività manifatturiera ed al contempo ha abbassato copiosamente i livelli reddituali dei lavoratori italiani. Oltre a questa straordinaria opportunità economica per le maestranze operaie italiane, abbiamo dovuto assistere anche alla proliferazione di deliquenza e criminalità dilagante nelle nostre città. Tutto questo perché l'integrazione (che non esiste di fatto) ci è sempre stata disegnata come una grande opportunità di crescita per il paese. A distanza di anni abbiamo visto solo crescere la delinquenza, la criminalità, lo spaccio di droga, lo sfruttamento della prostituzione ed il disagio di chi vive nelle città oggetto di insediamento da parte di queste etnie.

La seconda mutazione, quella che ci ha portato allo stadio pupale, riguarda invece la trasformazione del potenziale imprenditoriale ed industriale. Forse piu che di trasformazione si dovrebbe parlare della polverizzazione di quello che rimaneva. Il miracolo economico è scaturito perchè ci siamo messi a produrre e realizzare tutto quello che consumavamo, dalle automobili alle scarpe. L'attività produttiva era il cuore ed al tempo stesso la ricchezza del paese: creando posti di lavoro, generando gettito fiscale e producendo benessere. Da oltre cinque anni abbiamo intrapreso la strada opposta: smobilizzando le fabbriche ed importando da fuori quello che un tempo realizzavamo in casa nostra. Fermatevi un momento a riflettere la mattina quando vi alzate: dal rasoio ai vestiti, dal lavandino alle sedie del salotto, niente di tutto questo viene piu prodotto in Italia. Il che si traduce in milioni di posti di lavoro che mancano all'appello ed in miliardi di euro di gettito fiscale in meno. Da paese un tempo manifatturiero stiamo diventando un paese avventuriero. Non ho dubbi che cosa uscirà dalla crisalide.

Con il termine “sermone” si suole indicare un discorso di ammonimento e/o di rimprovero oppure la predica rivolta ai fedeli da un pastore protestante all'interno di una comunità cristiana. In Italia non piacciono i sermoni, nemmeno quando a farli è lo stesso Benedetto XVI. Stiamo vivendo un mese di profonda tensione finanziaria a causa del possibile default della Grecia. Quello che poteva sembrare impossibile due anni fa oggi è una realtà plausibilissima. Ritengo che anche a voler ascoltare un sermone su quello che potrà accadere, il tutto rimarrà come sempre inascoltato o mal apprezzato. Daltronde anche quattro anni fa mi derisero per quello che ipotizzavo sarebbe accaduto a livello planetario: gli stessi ora mi invitano ai talk show o mi chiedono di scrivere nel loro quotidiano.

L'escalation finanziaria non lascia molto all'immaginario: dopo Grecia, Portogallo e Spagna, toccherà all'Italia (e forse anche all'Inghilterra). Ho già avuto modo di scrivere sull'argomento, la domanda che tuttavia mi pongo ora è che tipo di Italia si troverà a reagire ad un momento infelice avendo subito una metamorfosi cosi radicale, tanto da non riconoscerla quasi più ? La perdita di coesione familiare unita all’incapacità di una coppia moderna separata di supportarsi a vicenda in un momento di ridimensionamento economico, la presenza di individui extracomunitari che sanno come arrangiarsi (a modo loro) quando la tal azienda delocalizza o fallisce, tutto questo difficilmente disegna un quadro di conforto sul come verrà affrontata l’uscita dallo stadio pupale per l’ormai defunto Bel Paese. Come ci raccontava Dante entrando all’Inferno: lasciate ogni speranza, voi che entrate.

Call for papers: Community and complementary currencies

LEFI and Triangle research centres of the Lyons University organize an international conference, trilingual (English / Spanish / French) and multidisciplinary:

CC-Conf
International Conference on Community and Complementary Currencies
February 16-17, 2011,
in Lyons, France

Thirty years of community and complementary currencies – what next?

The deadline for paper proposals is September 6, 2010, through abstracts of 500 words max.
Information available in the call for papers attached to this message. Contact : cc-conf@ish- lyon.cnrs. fr

Non li senti i cani? (Hachiko)

Non li senti i cani?
Così disse Sherlock Holmes al fido Watson, nel "Mastino dei Baskerville". E lui "No." E Holmes rispose: "Appunto."
- di Marco Saba, 3 maggio 2010

(Qualcuno dice addirittura che fa più rumore un albero che cade di cento che crescono, e questo lo dedico ad una cara amica...)

Siamo troppo presi dal rumore che sentiamo per sentire ciò che veramente conta. Ma questo non basta per nasconderne gli effetti. Anche un altro tipo speciale, l'autore del Piccolo Principe, disse: "L'essenziale è invisibile agli occhi." E, per colmo di coerenza, questo stesso Antoine de Saint-Exupéry sparì nel nulla, durante un volo aereo esplorativo sul Mediterraneo nel luglio 1944. Venendo ad un periodo temporale più vicino,15 aprile 1987, ricordiamo la sparizione di un economista, il Prof. Federico Caffè,

uscito da casa di mattina a Roma, via Cadlolo (la stessa via di Cossiga e Moro),

Mai trovato il cadavere. Episodio plausibilmente attribuibile alla statistica se non fosse che uno studente di Federico, Tarantelli,

venne ucciso dalle Brigate Rosse (deviate...) ... Altri allievi sono stati "incidentati" tra due TIR in autostrada.... Altri allievi ancora hanno avuto apparentemente maggior fortuna. Ad esempio, Mario Draghi è oggi il vero governatore d'Italia.

Se volessimo essere maliziosi, potremmo attribuire la sparizione di Caffè al suo rifiuto di firmare il primo volume sulla storia della Banca d'Italia voluto da C.A. Ciampi.

Oppure ad una maliziosa e speciosa perquisizione fiscale ordita da un suo allievo traditore...
Ma il cittadino comune si chiede (ed io mi chiesi, ieri): perché sparare ad un professore d'economia quando in fondo il suo ruolo si dovrebbe limitare alla semplice propaganda per far accettare ai paesani (i contadini post-moderni) la dittatura plutocratica ? Perché i più bravi, pochi, tra cui Caffè, cercavano di mediare tra gli interessi vampireschi dell'oligarchia e le necessità della popolazione. Mentre l'élite dei nati-stanchi (ed anche un po' arroganti. Oggi addirittura trans-cocainomani), riteneva ormai superfliua questa mediazione, anzi dannosa. Poteva insinuare nella mente dei miserabili quasi un possibile senso di rivincita, un diritto di rivalsa.
Ma gli episodi sono innumerevoli. Ci vorrebbe una enciclopedia, passando per l'accoltellamento di Arrigo Molinari

(27 coltellate, il magistrato ebbe a dire che non c'era intenzione di uccidere. A Giulio Cesare ne bastarono sette, di coltellate...), glissando sull'eliminazione fisica dei Gladiatori assassini "by-proxy" per conto di Washington DC che volevano dalla BNL la meritata pensione e... liquidazione

(erano stati accantonati Buoni del Tesoro, allo scopo, alla BNL, poi spariti...), fino a Falcone e Borsellino, per arrivare alla Forleo, vittima ripetuta di incidenti stradali poco plausibili. La lista sarebbe troppo lunga.

(Potrete comunque approfondire nel mio, ovviamente, inedito: "Segreti di Stati", scaricabile liberamente da internet. Per le spie americane che mi seguono con affetto, suggerisco di leggere The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone )
Finalmente si scoprirà che gli anni di piombo servirono per ricattare quel rimasuglio patetico dello stato italiano allo scopo di trascinarlo nella truffa gigante del Trattato di Maastricht. Non a caso firmato da Gianni de Michelis,

capopopolo socialista e... danzatore del ventre, sia detto "sans malice"...

(continua...)

Muslims and the Collapse of the Political Class

Muslims and the Collapse of the Political Class
by Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi

01/05/2010


When the first great European historian wrote ‘The Peloponnesian War’ around 400 BC he explained its purpose:

‘I shall be content if it is judged useful by those who will want to have a clear understanding of what happened – and such is the human condition, will happen again at some time in the same or a similar pattern.’

Now that we have arrived at the point where the collapse of the political class is not only visible but finally grasped by the ignorant masses, it is vital that the Muslim intellectual elite in whose hands the future is inevitable, coming as they do with a new nomos, that is post-capitalist and theistic, should base their actions on an understanding of why the old order collapsed.

When the Earl of Essex rose against the State of the aging Queen Elizabeth, it was not the personalised conflict of the ambitious favourite and the aged virgin Queen. It was the political crossroads between the two possible foundations of state power – the personal rule against the structuralist State. It was Essex versus the Cecils, but the latter represented the model of a State governed by a political class. Essex was executed, personal rule went under and the modern State was born. Blair, the last dictator of the British political system brought the Cecilian system to an end before sending the country to a war without benefit but which has brought him a personal fortune of millions of dollars of brokering Iraqi oil contracts. His abolition of the House of Lords saw its demise being at least delayed by Viscount Cranbourne, the last of the Cecils!

With Essex dead 400 years the issue has been reborn. With the disintegration of the capitalist wealth system, the political framework which upheld it is disgraced also.
In one of his most important letters Essex wrote to the Earl of Rutland:

‘…above all other books be conversant in the histories, for they will best instruct you in matter, moral, military and politic, by which, and in which, you must ripen your and settle your judgment.”

Now, while it is abundantly clear that the politicians are the scum of the human species, and that their age is effectively over, anarchy is not in our interest. Tacitus and Imam Malik are one in their preference for a limited tolerance of incapable government to chaos itself. The present duty of the, alas, uneducated urban masses is to steer a calm course into a doomed future while working intensely to build a new model of society devoid of the capitalist institutions, instruments and personnel. This is true for Britain, Greece, France, Germany and Spain. The internal crisis inside the U.S.A. is irretrievable. Even ending its wars will not bring rescue. Its near future will be hispanic, and one hopes, finally, Navaho!

With reference to the imminent British election – the historical perspective is vital. While the Empire’s system was in place, the structuralist government was constant. Two parties not governing in opposition but rather on the hidden model, front benches in power, ministerial rule passing among ministers, and, till their turn came, ‘shadow’ ministers. Parliament itself remained engaged in local issues. The two parties which provided this ministerial class were Conservatives and Liberals. They were not in leadership – opposed to one another. Of the Liberals, Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell declared, “We dine with them!”

The socialist ‘Labour’ party were not voted into power but owe their existence, ironically, to the Royal Prerogative of George V, in his rescue of political governance. Ironic, because they plan to abolish that same Prerogative which is the historical foundation of post-Roman Britain.

In the first monetary crisis of post-War Britain with the ruling financial and banking system still insecure, they did not dare risk a socialist government. To break the old two party system logic, rendered merely technical once Opposition now meant, ideologically, an opposite financial doctrine, the logical solution was to split the Labour vote. To this end the financiers set up a rogue politician, Clive Jenkins, to ‘re-create’ the ruined Liberal Party as ‘The Liberal Democrats’. It was to ‘break the mould’ of two party politics. What it did, was what it was intended to do, break Labour and put in a Conservative Party which was in fact a new breed of trained monetarists. Jenkins, the ex-socialist, was elevated to the peerage. The Liberal-Democrats had been financed by a raft of oligarchs, led principally by Lord Rothschild!

For a second time the now terrified financial oligarchy have seen fit to play the broker’s card – ‘Lib-Dem’.

This time it can give Parliament an impotised Government that dare not oppose banking reform, robbed as it will be of legislative power. The Hung Parliament – all middle and no extremes – will assure the rise of extremist groups. It will weaken the Monarchy – the last Henrician gift of religion protecting the State – and this will lift the only protection the Muslim community can count on inside the State. It will also licence the extremist republican right whose prime target is Islam and the Muslims.

It follows from this – that ‘choice’ is not available. The Sky Television, poll manipulated ‘decision’ is something thinking Muslims cannot afford. Forget personalities, forget parties. The issue is survival. For the Muslim population the only way to a safe immediate future is to support Cameron Conservativism and the weak but potentially strong Monarchy. If not them, then the demise of functioning government – ‘the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’ – as Yeats foresaw, and a bleak atheist future.

May Allah grant wisdom to the Muslims of Britain,
and by them rescue their new land and my ancient one.

Trichet Calls For BIS To Boss Global Gov

Trichet Calls For Corrupt BIS To Boss Global Government In CFR Speech

ECB President tells insiders that secretive group of international bankers – responsible to no nation state – will become primary engine of world government

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, April 29, 2010

In a speech before the elitist Council On Foreign Relations organization in New York earlier this week, President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet called for the imposition of global governance to be bossed by the G20 and the corrupt Bank of International Settlements in the name of safeguarding the global economy.

In an address entitled “Global Governance Today,” Trichet proclaims how the elite need to impose “A set of rules, institutions, informal groupings and cooperation mechanisms that we call “global governance”.

During the course of the speech, Trichet uses the term “global governance” well over a dozen times, outlining how “global governance is of the essence” to avoid another financial crisis.

Section one of Trichet’s speech is entitled, “Why we need global governance,” and from then on he constantly invokes the economic downturn as a justification for empowering secretive, undemocratic and corrupt global institutions with the power to rule the world.

Highlights of Trichet’s speech can be viewed below via the official Council on Foreign Relations You Tube channel.

A full transcript of the speech was also carried by the Bank for International Settlements, an international organization of central banks that has constantly lobbied for a centralized global currency to replace that of nation states. Trichet praises the BIS as being “ahead of the curve” in dealing with the financial crisis during the speech.

The primary outfit that will boss the institutions of global governance, according to Trichet, is the Global Economy Meeting (GEM), which regularly meets at the BIS headquarters in Basel. This group, states Trichet, “has become the prime group for global governance among central banks”. The GEM is basically a policy steering committee under the umbrella of the Bank for International Settlements.

The BIS is a branch of the of the Bretton-Woods International Financial architecture and closely allied with the Bilderberg Group. It is controlled by an inner elite that represents all the world’s major central banking institutions. John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the most influential economist of all time, wanted it closed down as it was used to launder money for the Nazis during World War II.

Financial website Investors Insight describe the BIS as “the most powerful bank you’ve never heard of,” labeling it “the most powerful financial institution on earth”.

The bank wields power through its control of vast amounts of global currencies. The BIS controls no less than 7% of the world’s available foreign exchange funds, as well as owning 712 tons of gold bullion.

“By controlling foreign exchange currency, plus gold, the BIS can go a long way toward determining the economic conditions in any given country,” writes Doug Casey. “Remember that the next time Ben Bernanke or European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet announces an interest rate hike. You can bet it didn’t happen without the concurrence of the BIS Board.”

The BIS is basically a huge slush fund for global government through which secret transfers of wealth from citizens are surreptitiously handed to the IMF.

“For example, U.S. taxpayer monies can be passed through BIS to the IMF and from there anywhere. In essence, the BIS launders the money, since there is no specific accounting of where particular deposits came from and where they went,” writes Casey.

“The bank was a major player promoting the adoption of the euro as Europe’s common currency. There are rumors that its next project is persuading the U.S., Canada and Mexico to switch to a similar regional money, perhaps to be called the “amero,” and it’s logical to assume the bank’s ultimate goal is a single world currency. That would simplify transactions and really solidify the bank’s control of the planetary economy,” adds Casey.

The Bank of International Settlements is responsible to no national government whatsoever. Trichet’s acknowledgment that an offshoot of the corrupt BIS will boss the main engine global government is a startling revelation, and emphasizes once again that world government is inherently undemocratic and dictatorial in nature.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

The fact that Trichet unveiled this new approach in the march towards global governance before an audience of CFR insiders is fully appropriate.

The Council On Foreign Relations comprises of influential elitists and powerbrokers from all sectors of government, business, academia and the media. It is the public face of the more secretive Bilderberg Group. The CFR only recruits members sympathetic to its agenda for global government and the elimination of U.S. sovereignty.

The scope of the CFR’s mission was best encapsulated by former Deputy Secretary of State under Clinton and CFR luminary Strobe Talbott, who told Time Magazine in July 1992, “In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.”

As we have emphasized, the global elite have already announced the birth of world government and who will run it. People expecting the UN to be at the helm have been distracted as the G20, alongside the BIS, was being empowered with the tools through which global governance is being coordinated.

In his speech, Trichet acknowledges the role of the G20 in using the financial crisis to mandate developing countries’ “full integration into the institutions of global governance.”

“The G20 has been effective in addressing the global crisis. We are now at the stage where this forum is making the transition from acting in a crisis resolution mode to contributing to crisis prevention,” said Trichet. In other words, the elite exploited the financial crisis in order to allow the G20 to pose as saviors and consequently empower itself to impose global governance regulations on nation states in the name of avoiding another economic crisis.

As EU President Herman Van Rompuy stated during his speech in Brussels, 2009 marked the first official year of world government powers being directly exercised to control the economies of nation states.

“2009 is also the first year of global governance, with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of the financial crisis. The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step towards the global management of our planet,” said Van Rompuy.

The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone

Empower The People

Open Letter to Obama

by Ralph Nader

Global Research, April 29, 2010

Nader.org - 2010-04-26

Dear President Obama, Senator Schumer and Senator Shelby:

On the eve of the portentous Senate debate over the extent to which the financial industry is to be so as to avert future megacollapses on the backs of taxpayers, workers and consumers, a great gap has been left unattended.

That gap pertains to the continued powerlessness of the investors and consumers—the people who bear the ultimate brunt of Wall Street’s recklessness, avarice and crimes and who have the greatest interest in strong regulatory enforcement.

Among all the amendments filed for the upcoming Senate debate, only amendment number 29, introduced by Senator Schumer, provides a facility to establish an independent non-governmental non-profit Financial Consumers’ Association (FCA).

Amendment 29 includes the following for funding this unique institution:

“…the financial industry has enjoyed virtually unlimited access to represent its interest before Congress, the courts, and State and Federal regulators, while financial services consumers have had limited representation before Congress and financial regulatory entities;” and

“…the Federal Government has a substantial interest in the creation of a public purpose, democratically controlled, self-funded, nationwide membership association of financial services consumers to enhance their representation and to effectively combat unsound financial practices.”

Anyone modestly familiar with the history of regulatory failures knows that the gross disparity of power and organized advocacy between big business and consumers outside of government leads to an absence of fair standards and law enforcement.

It also leads, as everyone knows, to massive taxpayer bailouts, subsidies and guarantees when these giant banks and other financial firms immolate themselves, after enriching their bosses, while engulfing tens of millions of innocent people in the subsequent economic conflagration.

Given all the privileges and costly rescues for culpable corporations that flow regularly from Washington, D.C., adopting ever so mildly the principle of reciprocity makes a powerful case for facilitating a nationwide Financial Consumers’ Association—one that would be composed of voluntary memberships by consumers who, through their annual dues, will sustain the FCA for an expert place at the table.

Senator Schumer, when he was a Congressman during the savings and loan bailout in the nineteen eighties, introduced such a proposal. But the bankers took the $150 billion bailout and blocked this reciprocal respect for depositors in the House Banking Committee.

Then Representative Schumer and his supporting colleagues on that Committee understood that without the supposed beneficiaries of regulatory authority being organized to make regulation and deterrence work, the Savings and Loan collapse could happen again. And so they became prophetic beyond their wildest nightmares.

Before (October 17, 2002) he died in a plane crash in 2002 (October 25, 2002), Senator Paul Wellstone recognized the need for such a facility, when he introduced the Consumer and Shareholder Protection Association Act.

A key enhancing feature in amendment 29 is a requirement that invitations to membership in the FCA be included in the billing envelopes or electronic communications of financial institutions with their customers. At no expense to these vendors, these notices would ensure that the maximum number of consumers are invited to join and fund such a democratically run, educational and advocacy organization.

In early 2009 I met with Chairman Christopher Dodd and explained the nature and importance of the FCA and Senator Schumer’s earlier role in advancing this civic innovation. He seemed receptive to the idea and urged us to have his colleague Senator Schumer take the lead, which he has done with amendment 29 just a few weeks ago. Senator Shelby and I have also discussed the FCA proposal.

The major valiant but overwhelmed consumer groups, who experience daily this enormous imbalance of power between corporations and consumers, presently stacked by unprecedented amounts of federal funds and bailout facilities for the misbehaving companies, support the creation of a self-funded FCA.

The Federal Government has long paid for facilities in the U.S. Department of Agriculture for agricultural businesses to band together and assess themselves to promote beef, corn, cotton and other commodities to increase their profits. By contrast the FCA, once launched, would be composed of consumers paying their own way to preserve their hard-earned savings from predatory financial speculators.

Allow one prediction. Even if the ultimate legislation comes out stronger than expected on such matters as derivatives, rating agencies, too big to fail, using depositor funds for speculation, and the consumer financial regulatory bureau, unless the consumer-investor is afforded modest facilities to band together with their experts and advocates, the laws will hardly be enforced with sufficient budgets, personnel and regulatory will power.

Give the consumer a modest round in this prolonged deliberation following the destructive events of 2008.

Sincerely,
Ralph Nader