Timothy Geithner

Is Timothy Geithner a fool or a very wise and calculated nemesis?

On October 15, 2003, Timothy Geithner was appointed President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He replaced William McDonough who had been the President for ten years when Geithner assumed the position.

McDonough is currently Vice Chairman and Special Advisor to the Chairman at Merrill Lynch Co., (owned by BOA) responsible for assisting senior management in the company's business development efforts with governments and financial institutions. Stepping back in time, in 1998 we witnessed under McDonough’s watch (at the Fed) the first collapse of the Credit Default Swaps (CDS), a derivative.

Long-Term Capital Management's use of these derivatives and leverage required a massive $3.6 billion hedge fund bailout organized by McDonough, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. After the fiasco rocked the markets, the administration of Bill Clinton was on the spot. Would it push for tighter regulation of this new form of investment vehicle? Would it rein in the derivatives markets? Would it do anything? The answer was a resounding – “NO”. Clinton advisors Alan Greenspan and Arthur Levitt then the Chairpersons of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission, respectively, and Clinton's Treasury secretary, Robert Rubin, all counseled against interfering. Interestingly, no action was taken. Instead, Clinton under the same counsel rescinded major protections of Glass-Steigel allowing these derivatives to be more fully and freely marketed by the Banks.

Five years later, in 2003, enter Timothy Geithner now President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. With full knowledge of the 1998 collapse of these derivatives and understanding how they work, and the massive bailout that had recently been required, and as an economist, Geithner completely understood the potential risks of allowing this derivative to be marketed freely without restriction or accountability; nevertheless, Geithner aids Greenspan and Wall Street Banks to promote them.

Now Greenspan we already know was a fool disguised as a wise man - his insidious undermining of Glass Steigle and having been a student of historical economics, knowing both its necessity and how well it served to restrain the Bankers from again taking this country into the throngs of depression - first waters down its application, then promotes its repeal. However, Geithner was at the time relatively unknown to the majority of Americans, Geithner and Greenspan had a common demon “The Counsel on Foreign Relations” both are deeply involved in this august body.

Alan Greenspan
Greenspan has served as a Corporate Director for: Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), Automatic Data Processing Inc., Capital Cities/ABC Inc. (News and entertainment), General Foods Inc., J. P. Morgan Co. Inc., Morgan Guarantee Trust Company of New York (Banking interests), Mobile Corporation(Oil), and The Pittston Company (now knows as Brink’s).

He was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations between 1982 and 1988. He also served as a member of the “influential” Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty in 1984. This group currently advocates for the government to enhance the role of the Central Bank (the Federal Reserve). Obama is following their lead and legislation in this regard is currently being considered and is sure to pass Congress.

The Group of Thirty (G30) is an international body of leading financiers and academics that aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sectors related to these issues.

Topical areas within the interest of the group include: Foreign Exchange, Currency, etc, International Capital Markets, International financial institutions, Central Banks and supervision of financial services and markets, and Macroeconomic issues such as product and labor markets, etc.

The group consists of thirty members and includes the heads of major private banks and central banks, as well as members from academia and international institutions. It holds two full meetings each year and organizes seminars, symposia, and study groups.

G30 created the defining principles for the reinsurance market, Derivatives, known as Credit Default Swaps.

Geoffrey Bell (a Banker and current executive secretary of the organization) founded the Group of Thirty in 1978 at the initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, which also provided initial funding for the body.

Its first chairperson was Johannes Witteveen, Finance Minister of the Netherlands and the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Its current chairperson of trustees is Paul Volker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve from August 1979 to August 1987.

Timothy Geithner
Geithner worked for Kissinger and Associates (a Consulting Group) in Washington D. C., from in 1985 to1988 then joined the International Affairs division of the U. S. Treasury Department.

He was deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy (1995–1996), senior deputy assistant secretary for international affairs (1996-1997), assistant secretary for international affairs (1997–1998).

Timothy Geithner’s relationship with the infamous Henry Kissinger

Who is Kissinger really?

Kissinger was Study Director in Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (1955-1956) where he has remained active, he also was a frequent guest at the White House and deeply involved in the planning stages for the Iraq war. Kissinger favored the maintenance of friendly diplomatic relationships with right-wing military dictatorships, and was involved with the CIA in Operation Condor to develop and support right-wing military dictatorships in the Southern Cone and elsewhere in Latin America, e.g. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

When Chilean Socialist, Salvador Allende, was elected President by a plurality in 1970, it caused serious concern in Washington, this was due to his openly socialist and pro-Cuban politics.

The Nixon Administration authorized the CIA to instigate a military coup that would prevent Allende's inauguration, but the plan was not successful. The CIA's plans to impede Allende's investiture as President of Chile were known as "Track I" and "Track II".

Track I sought to prevent Allende from assuming power via so-called "parliamentary trickery", while under the Track II initiative, the CIA tried to convince key Chilean military officers to carry out a coup.

Kissinger was instrumental in the formation of these plans, and was involved in what turned into the murder of a Chilean General, Rene Schneider, who was opposed to and stood in the way of a military coup. After which, the CIA directly instigated by Kissinger, provided formation and education for the military officers directly involved in the coup against Allende, and funding for the mass anti-government strikes in 1972 and 1973 in an attempt to undermine the Chilean economy. During this period, Kissinger made several controversial statements regarding Chile's government, stating "the issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves" and "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its people."

These remarks sparked outrage among many commentators, who considered them patronizing and disparaging of both Chile's sovereignty and democracy.

In September 1973, Allende allegedly committed suicide during a military coup launched by Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet, who became President. A document released by the CIA in 2000 titled "CIA Activities in Chile" revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende (but fails to mention their involvement in the coup).

The CIA made many of Pinochet's officers paid contacts of the CIA or US military, even though many were known to be involved in notorious human rights abuses (which has never seemed to bother US political figures).

“Operation Condor” was a 1970s plan by seven South American dictatorships to wipe out leftist opposition in Latin America with behind-the-scenes support from Washington. The judges in Spain and France want to question Kissinger about the torture and illegal execution of French and Spanish citizens after the 1973 military coup in Chile.

How it all began: in late 1975, Operation Condor -- named after Chile's national bird -- was a joint operation of right-wing South American military dictatorships, working closely with U.S.-based Cuban and other anticommunist extremists on cross-border assassinations of political dissidents as far away as Europe.

Operation Condor is the code name for the collection, exchange and storage of intelligence concerning leftists, communists and Marxists, which was established between the cooperating services in South America in order to eliminate Marxist terrorists and their activities in the area. In addition, Operation Condor provided for joint operations against terrorist targets in member countries. Chile was the center for Operation Condor, and included Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. Brazil has also tentatively agreed to supply input for Operation Condor.

A third and more secret phase of Operation Condor involves the formation of special teams from member countries to travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions, including assassinations, against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organizations from Operation Condor member countries.

For example, should a terrorist or a supporter of a terrorist organization from a member country be located in a European country, a special team from Operation Condor would be dispatched to locate and survey the target. When the location and surveillance operation had terminated, a second team from Operation Condor would be dispatched to carry out the actual sanction against the target. Special teams would be issued false documentation from member countries that were a part of Operation Condor.

Details of Operation Condor were not fully exposed until 1992 when José Fernández, a Paraguayan judge, discovered what became known as the "terror archives", detailing the fate of thousands of Latin Americans secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chili, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The archives provided details of 50,000 people murdered, 30,000 who "disappeared" and 400,000 imprisoned.

It was in May 2001, that Kissinger began to be hounded for his role and alleged scheming in the geopolitical arena; a French judge served Kissinger a summons to answer questions about the death of French citizens during the Pinochet Regime, as well as his knowledge and involvement in the CIA "Operation Condor." Kissinger refused to appear or to take part. He chose to return to the U.S. that night, rather than respond to foreign inquiries and face the probability of serious sanctions himself.

Later Kissinger was about to fly to London when he discovered that a Spanish judge and a French magistrate were both requesting permission from Britain to question him about ‘Operation Condor.’

In another action, human rights lawyers have filed a criminal complaint against Kissinger and other American officials, accusing them of helping organize the covert regional program of political repression -Operation Condor-. As part of that plan, right-wing military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay coordinated efforts throughout the 1970's to kidnap and kill thousands of their exiled political opponents. The US government is currently protecting Kissinger.

The US media silence on a French judge's summoning Kissinger to testify on Operation Condor is not a surprise considering that the CIA controls the US Media. However, the question remains unanswered; can the US demand others to cooperate with UN tribunals while it protects Kissinger from having to cooperate with other forums of international justice?

In 2002, Timothy Geithner left the Treasury to join the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow in the International Economics department. He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department (2001-2003) at the International Monetary Fund.

Arthur Levitt
Levitt was the twenty-fifth and longest-serving Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 1993 to 2001. Since May 2001, he has been employed as a senior adviser at the Carlyle Group, the war profiteering organization headed by George HW Bush and other CIA assets. The Carlyle Group and the CIA control CBS.

Robert Edward Rubin
Rubin served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during both the first and second Clinton Administrations. Before his government service, he spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs. His most prominent post-government role was as Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup, where he performed ongoing advisory and representational roles for the firm. From November to December 2007, he served temporarily as Chairman of Citigroup. On January 9, 2009, Citigroup announced his resignation, after having been criticized for his performance. He received more than $126 million in cash and stock during his eight years at Citigroup. He was the fifth chairperson of the Counsel on Foreign relations

Causalities of Greenspan, Levitt, Rubin, and Geithner’s Economic Policy
Bear Sterns, (BSC) a casualty of its own mismanagement plus malfeasance from the Fed, is itself a party to over 900,000 CDS contracts, which upon the mortgage meltdown, initially sub-prime loans, began the collapse of the financial industry and the volume of foreclosures caused its demise. BSC was subsequently take over by J P Morgan (JPM).

Last year, on April 16, 2008, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association announced that outstanding contracts regarding Credit Default Swaps (CDS) now total $62 trillion, up from $34.5 trillion a year ago, and are probably closer to $90 trillion today.

Washington Mutual, also taken over by JPM, was one of more than 1000 companies included in the CDX (North America Investment Grade Index), the most actively traded contract in the credit swaps market. The exact number of contracts held by Washington Mutual has not been reported by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. which runs a central registry for credit-default swaps, but the actual value of these instruments has been confirmed recently to exceed $90 billion dollars.Lehman Bros CDS obligation was $72 billion. Again, no actual number of contracts has been disclosed.

With the Bank and Wall Street failures mounting, the government has pledged some $14 trillion dollars to bail out the banks, leaving the inevitable question, why did Geithner, Greenspan, Rubin and Levitt promote these debt obligations?

In addition, why has Obama retained Geithner’s services to clean up the mess Geithner created in the first instance?

The CDS is basically a bet between two parties on whether or not a company or a product will default. It is a third party speculation on the outcome of the CDO. (Credit Default Obligation). The original design is no more than insurance to cover a financial fixed income product in case of its default. Then, if anything changes, such as a company declaring bankruptcy or a debt being downgraded, it will trigger a claim.

Currently, the outstanding notional amount of all credit default swaps is about $62 trillion, more than the entire asset base of the “global” banking system.

Scary? You bet!

Credit default swaps are not normal insurance policies, as such, they escape the reserve requirements that an insurance company would be required to maintain. Each side or party can trade them to make a quick profit (spread) but only if there is a willing counterparty.

Commonly, after the original CDS contract is engaged, each side of the original two parties will try to engage another party to further hedge their bet and earn a small spread. Soon there are layers of layers of counterparties involved, with total notional amount increasing several fold, and no one knows whom they are, or whom they are dealing with.

You cannot monitor this risk since you do not know who your offset bettor down the CDS chain is, and whether he is even able to pay if you win. It is a form of big investor gambling.

This kind of entanglement has never been seen before in the usually highly regulated insurance industry. This is why they are traded in the OTC (over the counter) derivative markets which bypasses all government regulations.

This mess is what has forced the collapse of the entire banking system.

Now another question, what is to be gained by the collapse of the entire global banking system?

How about: consolidation and expansion. Look at the number of bank failures and those who took them over, example JPM took over Washington Mutual and Bear Sterns, Bank of America took over Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. The result may be only (4) large banking operations left that will be “too large to allow to fail.”

Of course, there is also a consideration now on the table, a global banking system. This was planned: the question to be answered is why? In the long term, we will discover the plan but perhaps only after it is fully implemented.

The shill in the White House

Obama coerces Democratic congressmen, by executive intimidation, his threats to vote for war funding as he directs or he will withhold support for their re-election. But Obama does not intimidation for Health Care, because Big Business doesn’t want single payer health care and the military complex wants the wars to continue.

Its time to call a spade a spade: no pun intended.

Obama as it turns out is a Shill for the military complex, wall street, and big business, yes we are seeing change in Washington, unfortunately it’s not for the better, but it is change as Obama promised!

Obama, the Bankers Shill upped the anti to the banks to 14 Trillion, allowing the banks to use “our” money to invest in the Stock Market, oil and commodity futures, as such they have run the prices of gas at the pump up to nearly $3.00 a gallon and still climbing. The banks were enabled to use the profit generated from taxpayer bailout money to repay the government funding plus interest. It was a two play effort, the first part, we loaned the banks 14 Trillion dollars then we pay off the bank debt through the increased prices of oil at the pump. What a sweet deal, where can I get some of this money to invest in oil futures?

Honestly did anyone really believe Obama was a free agent, and would bring real change to Washington?

No one gets that far without being a puppet. In fact No one gets elected to any meaningful office without owing someone some ware something, and especially not the President of the US.

Here are ten examples, so far, of Obama backtracking on his promised change in the way Washington does business:
(1) He is following Bush's Wall Street Bailout policy giving trillions with no Strings attached, no accountability and no transparency.
(2) Following Bush's Iraq serge policy and Iraqi forced pull out schedule.
(3) Will not investigate or prosecute Bush and his administration for torture or deception regarding the Iraq War.
(4) Said he wants to close Guantanamo, but is not.
(5) He will run tribunals at Guantanamo rather than fair trials in than US.
(6) He will indefinitely hold some Guantanamo prisoners without due process (no Habeas Corpus).
(7) He will not end "Don't Ask Don't Tell.”
(8) His Department of Justice filed a brief defending the Defensive Marriage Act using the same nonsensical reasons.
(9) He will not release Abu Ghraib prison pictures of torture and rape.
(10) White House will not release a list of visitors since Obama took office under the Freedom of Information Act.

Why Not?

Could it be that his masters have been frequent guests?

Transparency, what is that?

Obama is under the same control that ran the White House under Bush, nothing is going to change in Washington until WE, you and I have enough.

Consequently, its past time for real change, we are the ones that put Obama and the democrats in power. Many put their faith back into a system that hasn’t worked in decades, its time in America for free elections, its time our interests were represented and not those of every big business which hands out political bribes. Its time we realized our media is controlled and is actually an agent of government. Its time we realized that the two party system is a fraud, two parties, one idea, one motive, controlled by the same puppeteer, in short its time to stop believing in the fairy tale government.

It is also past time to WAKE UP and realize that this false left/right paradigm is a diversion, to keep us out of focus, from seeing the real problem and taking divisive action: The Financial sector, the bankers, war profiteers, mainstream media, the Intelligence Community and their Drugs and sales of sex slave children for profit, a corrupt broken system operating because we have done nothing to stop them.

For those who still believe in Obama, just continue watching your football, basketball, baseball and American Idol, till you wake up homeless on the continent your forefathers gave you, and be thankful, if the banks will allow you to rent it back.

Iraq and Afghanistan, the only way we are going to end these wars is the way they were ended in the 60’s: mass movements in the streets, public opinion and an army that refused to fight. The latter being the most important part. We are beginning to see these examples even now, AWOL tribunals where more than 11,000 British military personal and more than 11,000 U.S. military personnel have deserted since 2003.

What can we do?

The obvious, start here:
(1) stop donating to any political party, they don’t need our money anyway, the Banks, insurance Companies and Defense contractors give them enough in bribe money,
(2) vote everyone out of office, no incumbents for office, ever, and finally,
(3) demonstrate for change, like the Iranians, they understand when 20 or 30 million Americans take to the streets in protest.

Remember, Cockroaches hide during the day, put them in the spot light for as long as we still have that right. When that right is taken from us, consider carefully then all options!

Rigged Elections, an illusion of Democracy

We as a nation dare to criticize foreign governments and their elections, but what of our own?

In recent history, most countries have been guilty of Voter Fraud the list is as endless as there are governments and countries. From Kosovo, Malaysia, El Salvador, Namibia, Afghanistan, India, Germany, Kenya, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Haiti, Georgia and yes even the United States.

The latest media and neo-con hyperbole about Iran and a fraudulent election continue the ongoing rant about every foreign government and their elections except one, The United States whose history is as tainted as any country!

The most notable Election tampering in the United States began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, not to imply that elections were not rigged prior to FDR, but this is the first well identified case. The election of Roosevelt was rigged by two distinct groups, the Italian Mafia and the Jewish Mafia. To insure Roosevelt’s longevity in office his serious rival Huey P. Long was assassinated. In payment to the Mob for their efforts Roosevelt aggressively promoted through congress the National Labor Relations Act, known as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which gave the Mob complete control over the Unions by requiring all litigation between the labor force and their Union to be heard by the Board. In addition it set up a short Statute of Limitations (6 months) that ran before the Union Member even knew he had a claim.

Other Presidents that have gained the presidency through Mob support and rigged elections were Richard Nixon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. When Nixon lost the first election to Kennedy in 1960, he challenged that election, then being offered the future office by the Chicago Mob he withdrew his challenge and waited his turn. These elections were won through a method called Ballet Box Stuffing, deceased voters in Illinois and Texas managed to cast numerous ballets.

George W Bush won the elections in 2000, and 2004 through rigged elections in at least Florida, where his brother was then governor, and Ohio, by tampering with computers.

Free elections, especially in the US are a myth, a grand illusion, the Power elite, who intermarried for wealth and control, run the country through their banking interest, Wall Street. The wealth of these well known American elitists was made through the illegal Drug trade with China. To understand how their wealth was achieved you must first understand the history of the Skull and Bones, the Yale University branch of the German Cult the Thule Society.

The background of Skull and Bones (whose members include the entire Bush Family and John Kerry) is a story of Opium and Empire, and a bitter struggle for political control over the new U.S. Republic.

This cult is essentially an assembly of the wealthy, elite. But there are in fact congruent organizations at other Ivy League colleges, which reflect, as does Skull and Bones, the over-arching power of several heavily intermarried financier families.

Skull and Bones--the Russell Trust Association--was first established among the class graduating from Yale in 1833. Its founder was William Huntington Russell of Middletown, Connecticut. The Russell family was the master of incalculable wealth derived from the largest U.S. criminal drug syndicate and organization of the nineteenth century: Russell and Company, the great opium syndicate.

The Russells’ were protected as part of the multiple-intermarried grouping of families then ruling Connecticut: the blood-proud members of the Russell, Pierpont, Edwards, Burr, Griswold, Day, Alsop and Hubbard families were prominent in the pro-British Party within the state. Many of their sons over the years would be among the members chosen for the Skull and Bones, and thus political office.

Samuel Russell, second cousin to Skull and Bones founder William H., established Russell and Company in 1823; its business was to acquire opium from Turkey and smuggle it into China, where it was strictly prohibited, this was accomplished under the armed protection of the British Empire.

The prior, predominant American family in this field had been the syndicate created by Thomas Handasyd Perkins of Newburyport, Massachusetts, an aggregation of the self-styled blue-bloods, or Brahmins of Boston's North Shore. Forced out of the lucrative African slave trade by U.S. law and Caribbean slave revolts, leaders of the Cabot, Lowell, Higginson, Forbes, Cushing and Sturgis families had married Perkins’ siblings and children. The Perkins opium syndicate made the fortune and established the power of these families. By the 1830s, the Russells had bought out the Perkins syndicate and made Connecticut the primary center of the U.S. opium business. Massachusetts families Coolidge, Sturgis, Forbes and Delano later joined the Connecticut, Alsop and New York, Low smuggler-millionaires under the Russell banner.

Certain of the prominent Boston opium families, such as Cabot and Weld, did not affiliate directly with Russell, Connecticut and Yale, but were identified instead with Harvard.

These intermarried Massachusetts and Connecticut families associated themselves with the British East India Company in the opium traffic into China. These families made increased profits, as partners and surrogates for the British, during the bloody 1839-42 Opium War; the race war of British forces against Chinese defenders.

A review of Russell's organization shows the following men among Russells' partners:
* Augustine Heard (1785-1868): ship captain and pioneer U.S. opium smuggler.
* John Cleve Green (1800-75): married to Sarah Griswold; gave a fortune in opium profits to Princeton University, financing three Princeton buildings and four professorships; trustee of the Princeton Theological Seminary for 25 years.
* Abiel Abbott Low (1811-93): his opium fortune financed the construction of the Columbia University New York City campus; father of Columbia's president Seth Low.
* John Murray Forbes (1813-98): his opium millions financed the career of author Ralph Waldo Emerson, who married Forbes's daughter, and bankrolled the establishment of the Bell Telephone Company, whose first president was Forbes's son.
* Joseph Coolidge: his Augustine Heard agency got $10 Million Dollars yearly as surrogates for the Scottish dope-runners
* Jardine Matheson during the fighting in China; his son organized the United Fruit Company; his grandson, Archibald Cary Coolidge, was the founding executive officer of the Anglo-Americans' Council on Foreign Relations.
* Warren Delano, Jr.: chief of Russell and Co. in Canton; grandfather of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
* Russell Sturgis: his grandson by the same name was chairman of the Baring Bank in England, financiers of the Far East opium trade.

Such persons as John C. Green and A. A. Low, whose names are on various buildings at Princeton and Columbia Universities, made no attempt to hide the origin of their money. Neither did the Cabots, the Higginsons or the Welds for Harvard. Secret groups (or sects) at other colleges are analogous with and related to Yale's Skull and Bones.

At Princeton it’s the Eating Clubs, Ivy Club and Cottage Club, whose tradition runs from Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr to the Dulles brothers; at Harvard is the Porcelain (known as the Porc or Pig club); Theodore Roosevelt was a member; Franklin Roosevelt was in the “Fly Club”.

The Skull and Bones was not the original secret sect at Yale University, previously there was the Society of Brothers in Unity.' Joseph Heatly Dulles was an Alumni of this secret society. Dulles's grandson was the father of Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles. Allen Dulles became one of the CIA Directors.

The foregoing are excerpts from the Book “Into the Darkness” by this author Jack Ferm.

Today it’s no longer the Mob that rigs our elections. Now it is the financial wealth of these families and those they choose, rigging elections are much simpler today, the computer touch screen has been shown to be programmable, to switch votes or to lose them completely. Between corrupted State and Federal elections, and a justice department continually under the control of the corrupting force, we as a nation have lost our right to elect our own representatives, indeed even to choose our own national destiny.

Perhaps France had the answer to cure corruption?

Congress; The Special Interest Elite!

Ever wonder why the government rewarded the Banks after it was acknowledged they had committed extensive fraud, well here’s a part of the puzzle:

Each year members of Congress are required to file a financial disclosure statement setting out their financial dealings and relationships during the preceding year.

Not surprisingly the 2008 disclosures, those filed so far, show that a majority of Congress held stock in the banks that were failing, banks they were intent to save, Bank of America, Goldman Sacks, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and a couple of additional banks whose status is unclear, Regions Bank, and Zions Bancor.

For example nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief to save both the nation's financial system, and their own individual wealth.

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), (a Banking panel member), has assets in several banks that have taken bailout funds including Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America. Bank of America has received $45 billion in government funds.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) holds assets in Morgan Stanley and Citibank. Morgan Stanley received $10 billion in TARP money while Citigroup was given $25 billion from the program.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), also invested in some of the banks that received federal money. In a separate trust that the senator does not oversee, Kohl had assets in JP Morgan Chase funds, which received $25 billion in bailout money.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) holds stock in Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) owns stock in Regions Bank, based in Alabama, and Zions Bancorp, a Salt Lake City company. Both have received TARP money.

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) owns shares of Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, However Johanns was not a member of Congress when the TARP vote occurred.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) sold three-dozen investments he had in various mutual funds and individual retirement accounts run by Morgan Stanley, though he does not have money invested “directly” in firms that were bailed out. He does hold interest in them through his mutual fund holdings.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has significant holdings in many companies that have received government aid. Corker had interests in more than a dozen bailed-out companies.

Corker filed for an extension; Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) also filed for an extension, and three Democrats sitting on the panel also filed for extensions to file their financial disclosure reports. Freshmen Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) along with the committee's chairman, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) their reports are due in August.

Interestingly, if these banks had been allowed to fail, we would have had fewer Millionaires in congress. By funding the banks they also funded their individual net worth.

How sweet it is to be able to use taxpayer money to salvage your own finances.

For anyone investing in the stock market, follow the money, safe bets seem to be in the areas where the lobbyists are the most visible, look at where Congress members invest and follow there lead, the Pharmaceuticals, the Military, the Insurance, Hospitals and Oil, it’s a sure bet congress will protect its own interest above yours!

Obama/Hitler Youth Movement

Adolph Hitler’s “Military style” Public Schools are on the rise in the United States thanks to a surprise promoter, Barack Obama, aided by a congress out of touch with the ideals of our founding fathers and the principles of democracy, and state governors hungry for funding.

The Obama/Nazi youth movement was something to be expected from the followers of the Nazi component, the Skull and Bones, the George Bush family, actually began these programs, but it took a Democratic president to further implement the legislation, and a democratic congress willing to sell out the ideals of democracy in favor of a fascist empire. As such, it’s only a matter of time before we can expect Our Empire (The US) to go the way of the Empire of Rome, to collapse under the weight of its own corruption.

The idea of the Hitler Youth created in the 1920's, is now becoming part of the American culture. By 1933 Hitler Youth membership stood at only 100,000. After Hitler came to power, all other youth movements were abolished and as a result the Hitler Youth grew quickly. In 1936, the figure stood at 4 million students, then swelled to more than 8 million. It eventually encompassed both boys and girls.

In 1936 Germany, it became all but compulsory to join the Hitler Youth movement. Youths could avoid doing any active service if they paid their subscription. This became all but impossible after 1939. The Hitler Youth (German: “Hitler-Jugend”) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The Hitler-Jugend was the second oldest “paramilitary” Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabfeilung.

US 1998, The U.S. Marine Corps begin wooing public school districts across the country, setting up a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it's a recruiting ploy.

US 2009, The Marines are currently talking with at least six districts - including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas - about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes.

Those schools would be added to more than a dozen public military academies that have already opened nationwide, a trend that's picking up speed as the U.S. Department of Defense looks for ways to increase the number of units in Junior ROTC, (which stands for Reserve Officers Training Corps) with the intent to increase enlistment in the armed services.

Germany 1940, Artur Axmann as Reichsjugendführer took over leadership of the Hitler Youth. Axmann began to reform the group into an auxiliary force which could perform war duties, including serving among anti-aircraft defense crews and overseeing polish property confiscation. The students wore a paramilitary uniform.

Germany 1943, Nazi leaders began turning the Hitler Youth into a military reserve to draw manpower which had been depleted due to tremendous military losses. The 12 SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend, under the command of SS-Brigadefihrer Fritz Witt, was formed. The Division was a fully equipped Waffen-SS panzer division, with the majority of the enlisted cadre being drawn from Hitler Youth, boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen.

Germany 1945, As German casualties escalated with the combination of Operation Bagration and the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation in the east, and Operation Cobra in the west, members of the Hitlerjugend were recruited at even younger ages. The Volkssturm was commonly drafting 12-year-old Hitler Youth members into its ranks.

US 2008, The US Congress passed a defense policy bill that included a call for increasing the number of Junior ROTC units across the country from 3,400 to 3,700 (300 additional school units) in the next 11 years, an effort that is estimated low at a cost about $170 million, but in reality as we all know will in all likelihood over run costs exceeding 2 Billion dollars.

US 2009, The remaining military branches, who see the advantage for recruitment purposes, also are aiming to increase their presence in our school.

In DeKalb County Georgia, which includes part of Atlanta, protests by parents and threats of lawsuits began almost as soon as the school board announced last year that it planned to open a Marine Corps high school. The district wanted to open it this fall, but the approval process in Washington has delayed that. The district hungry for approximately 2 Million dollars in government funding, hopes to open the school in the fall of 2010.

Critics like Mike Hearington, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran whose son attends Shamrock Middle School in DeKalb County, correctly states “the schools are breeding grounds for the military”. Unfortunately not all Americans are smart enough to see through this ploy!

The reason to expand the military presence in our schools is that traditionally only (3) percent of high school graduates join the military, however between 5 percent and 10 percent of graduating seniors from the nation's public military schools end up enlisting. (Statistics according to the U.S. Department of Education)

The first public military school in the U.S. opened in Richmond, Va., in 1980. (Langley Virginia, is home to the CIA) Since then, about a dozen have been added with the number increasing over the last five years as struggling districts look for innovative ways to meet federal No Child Left Behind standard. The failed program implemented by George Bush and his republican majority in Congress. However, suddenly due to the current state of the economy, military public schools are becoming a welcome innovation for tax strapped city and county governments.

It’s all about the money:
In DeKalb and other Counties across America, the school districts get about $500,000 “a year” per school, plus $1.4 million in startup funds from the Marines, or other branch of the service. The schools initially open with about 150 students (cadets), anticipated to swell eventually to about 650 or more, at this time anticipated to be drawn from a pool of low-performing students who have high test scores and want to attend. This may later change to forced enrollment as the state legislatures strengthen and correct school mandatory attendance laws.

Chicago, the nation's third largest public school district, began opening military academies in 1999 with encouragement from Mayor Richard Daley and then-Superintendent Paul Vallas. Vallas left in 2002 and took the idea with him to Philadelphia, where two military schools have since opened.

Chicago has six public military academies and is the only district with schools representing all four branches of the military.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who ran the Chicago Public School System, has been tapped by President Barack Obama to run the government counter-part. Duncan sees the schools as another option for kids who don't fit well in a traditional educational setting. The real motive however, when statistics are reviewed, could be the advanced number of enlistees after graduation from these military public schools, the number is significantly higher by almost 7 additional boys and or girls out of every 100 students.

Of the almost 50,000,000 students age 3 to 18 this is only a potential increase of 350,000 enlistees per year. What then is the significance of the government spending this large amount of money? Obviously this is only a step in the ultimate goal, forced attendance and forced service to the United States military in return for the education the government is providing.

The academy is much like a typical high school, except students would wear ROTC uniforms instead of street clothing and start each day with a military formation and inspection. Besides Spanish club and debate team, students can sign up for military drill team and color guard. The school's principal will be a retired Marine, or officer retired from other branches of the military. But what are their teaching credentials other than military service?

School districts in St. Louis, Mo.; Sarasota, Fla.; Kenosha, Wis.; Sandy Hook, N.J.; Charleston Heights, S.C., and Forestville, Md., have also started similar academies with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Test results have not favored these institutions: Students at the public military schools in Chicago have struggled with just 27 percent meeting test standards in 2008 - the most recent data available - compared to the district average of 60 percent and the state average of 74 percent. At Carver Military Academy in Chicago, just 8 percent of students passed muster on state tests.

To further dispel the myth, last year, none of the Chicago military schools made "adequate yearly progress", meaning they fell short of basic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

On the positive note: Between 2007 and 2008 Chicago's military schools have reduced chronic truancy from 24 percent to 8.5 percent and increased the average ACT exam score from 15.8 to 17.3, out of a possible 36, are these positive results for a government program? Absolutely!

The sad note is the deception these government recruiters portray to our children, the fallacy that the armed services are a game, a perpetual game.

Elementary School children are treated to a first look at the US Army’s newest recruiting strategy.

The aggressive new presentation, designed to raise dwindling enlistment numbers and supply enough troops to occupy Iraq (and as planned Iran and a litany of countries) through to the end of 2020, is shown at assemblies in the school’s gymnasium, where Sgt. Cuddles one of many recruiters introduce the children to a portrait of life in the army.

“How many of you like playing on the jungle gym?” asks the Sergeant? A chorus of hands raise, to which he continues, “well what if you could do that all the time. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Sgt. Cuddles, then goes on to explain the fun and games of boot camp, or as he calls it grown-up recess. Students are then introduced to the US Army’s new mascot, a goofy but lovable bullet named Friendly Fire, who helps Sgt. Cuddles demonstrate how bullets like Friendly Fire are needed to kill the bad guys who hate everything, especially children.

“They hate fun, too!” Friendly added, before slipping on a banana peel.

Other highlights of the presentation include a visit from The Evil-Doers. Volunteers from the audience are then given foam bats to help defeat the gang, led by Osama Hussein Ahmadinejad, before they can steal all the fun in the world.

Critics of the new recruitment strategy say it turns the horrors of war into a fun fantasy designed to brainwash defenseless children into enlisting. And that is exactly how this strategy is intended. Can you imagine this mentality teaching our children in a military public school?

Sgt. Cuddles, whose real name is Sgt. Johnson, was quick to dismiss those accusations as gross exaggerations, he states:
“This is simply the US Army’s response to anti-war forces in the liberal media and our education system. They start preaching to these kids at a very young age, and we felt it was only fair to the kids to show them the other side as well.”

“We’re trying to show kids what the Army is really like. It’s not all fancy lasers and cool explosions.., that’s only the ‘Explosions are Cool’ part of the presentation, which we believe is an essential part of the Army experience.”

Yet the armed services in their attempt to sell enlistment to our children use deceptive fantasy imagery, and conceal the real horrors of war, the potential for death and dismemberment, the governments inability to honor agreements, and for women the real potential for rape.

It’s an obligation of every citizen of the US to take a stand against this obfuscation, and to maintain a separation between the federal government and the right of the states to educate its children. This means to be honest and open about military service, and the lack of government care or concern for veterans wounded in action and the permissible rape of women in the service. Granted our education system is lacking, however, military schools are not the answer, as the recent test scores show, the government, by establishing a movement that will only advance, is merely setting the pace for future war and political involvements ad infinitum. Something we as a people can not allow or endure.

We can surely expect the CIA to develop a similar school program in the near future, using coerced learning techniques through torture, perhaps by splitting the mind of children into multiple personalities, they will be able to learn much more, and much faster, perhaps the CIA will develop for this purpose an offshoot of MKULTRA which has never truly died.

Change ? - What Change?

The Obama administration has promised to change the way Washington does business, yet its business as usual on the hill, with NO change in site.

The latest challenge to this fledgling administration is a health care system that covers more Americans, but remains the same. A dichotomy, oh yes! How do you change something and yet keep it the same?

So far the score is Banks (3) US (0), Insurance companies (2) US (0), leaving a question unanswered, when do “we” get to win?

The lobbyist, who can only be characterized as a contamination surrounding our elected officials, run the administration, whose financial support, as this author continues to explain, is the funding process for the campaigns for public office, as long as we have lobbyists, promoting corporate interests, bribing our public figures, we will never have meaningful change in Washington, indeed we will not have meaningful representation in any office under either the united States or any state government.

This administration is very predictable. So far Obama has shown his ability to take a position then dance the fox trot, slightly to the left then to the right then to the center, making a small transition away from the promised change, while maintaining the status quo. Yet the people, the mainstay of the Democratic party, in their imagination, believe he has done something, I question what? Yes there has been legislation passed, but what has been accomplished that is a meaningful variation from the status quo? I suggest nothing!

Regarding the Banks: Obama has now pledged more than 12 Trillion dollars to reward the Banks for committing FRAUD, by which they caused a melt down, not only the finances, but also the edifies of American retirement benefits, and, there were NO strings attached. Meanwhile these same banks that defrauded the American consumers continue to foreclose on American property owners. Forcing some 1,416,902 people into bankruptcy for the year ended December 31, 2008.

The “New” Bankruptcy law enacted under Bush prevents most Americans from discharging Credit Card Debt, a Law prepared by the Banking interests. Under Obama the Credit Card Bill of rights was passed, with NO teeth to make a difference, why? Because this bill was also promoted by the “Lobbyists” and gifts of financial support was promised to our talented legislators. I say talented because “we” elect and pay them to represent our adversary.

The bank support Bills are nothing more than a political SCAM, Obama places in charge of fixing the problem the very people that created it, these same people “Timothy Geithner appointed Secretary of the Treasury, by Obama, with Obama’s knowledge, employs a Wall street Lobbyists, Mark Patterson, as his chief of staff. This duo, Geithner-Patterson, then employ ‘wall street” purveyors to handle the payment requests from the Banks. Meanwhile mortgage Interests rates begin to raise, as fewer people can even qualify for a home loan, because their Jobs are in question, the economy having lost more than 6 Million Jobs since the beginning of last year. Home prices continue to slide, Oil continues to rise as Wall Street bids up the price of Oil Futures, and many of us continue to watch TV, Football, Baseball, and American Idle, oblivious to the reality, living in the luxury of illusion. As our country self destructs under the weight of its own corruption.

If The Banks Are Too Big To Fail, Break Them Up Into Smaller Units!

The government message, albeit incorrect, is that Bank of America, CitiBank, AIG, Goldman Sachs and the others are "too big to fail," but the real issue is not their size but how did they get there. We have laws against monopolies yet these banks are just that.

The large Banks grew with the acquiescence of the FDIC, the Federal Reserve System, The US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. They took over large chains of institutions in some instances as they failed. The justice department looked the other way as a Federal Law was deliberately NOT pursued to prevent this take over, the Clayton Antitrust Act.

The Clayton Antitrust Act passed in 1914 was enacted in the United States to add further substance to our antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. That regime started with the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first Federal law outlawing practices considered harmful to consumers (monopolies and cartels). The Clayton Act specified particular prohibited conduct, the three-level enforcement scheme, the exemptions, and the remedial measures.

Like the Sherman Act, much of the substance of the Clayton Act has been developed and animated by the U S Courts, particularly the Supreme Court.

The political environment under which the Clayton Act was erected was one of protectionism and interventionist policies by the government, at that time, fearing the growing economic sphere and monopoly of certain areas of commerce. The Act was an attempt to define more clearly the basic policy of the United States with respect to the organization and control of any industry. This at the time included the Banking Interests.

Substantively, the Act seeks to capture anticompetitive practices in their incipiency by prohibiting particular types of conduct, not deemed in the best interest of a competitive market. There are 4 sections of the Bill that proposed substantive changes in the antitrust laws by way of supplementing the Sherman Act of 1890. In those sections, the Act thoroughly discusses four principles of economic trade and business:

The following two apply:

Mergers and acquisitions where the effect may substantially lessen competition (Act Section 7, codified at 15 U.S.C. Section 18)

Preventing any person from being a director of two or more competing corporations (Act Section 8; codified at 15 U.S.C. Section 19)

Section 7 of the Clayton Act allows greater regulation of mergers, since it doesn't require a merger-to-monopoly before there is a violation; it allows the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to regulate all mergers, and gives the government discretion whether to approve a merger or not, which is still a widely approved action by the government today. It employs the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (“HHI”) test for market concentration, to see if the merger is a positive one. (Although Banking is subject to these antitrust laws a “non legislative” exception has been carved out to enable Banks to take over failing institutions) prompted by the FDIC and The Federal Reserve System.

The Herfindahl index, also known as Herfindahl-Hirschman Index or HHI, is a measure of the size of firms in relation to the industry and an indicator of the amount of competition among them. Named after economists Orris C. Herfindahl and Albert O. Hirschman, it is an economic concept, widely applied in competition law, antitrust and also technology management. It is defined as the sum of the squares of the market shares of the 50 largest firms (or summed over all the firms if there are fewer than 50) within the industry, where the market shares are expressed as percentages. The result is proportional to the average market share, weighted by market share. As such, it can range from 0 to 10,000, moving from a huge number of very small firms to a single monopolistic producer. Increases in the Herfindahl index generally indicate a decrease in competition and an increase of market power, whereas decreases indicate the opposite.

The United States uses the Herfindahl index to determine whether mergers are equitable to society; increases of over 0.0100 points generally provoke scrutiny, although this varies from case to case. The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice considers Herfindahl indices between 0.1000 and 0.1800 to be moderately concentrated and indices above 0.1800 to be concentrated. As the market concentration increases, competition and efficiency decrease and the chances of collusion and monopoly increase.

Each bank grew the same way by acquiring competitors, lets Analyze just one bank, Bank of America against the Herfindahl index.

BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.

BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 by the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost. Though Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A. W. (Tom) Clausen, Clausen was appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling operations. It sold its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler and the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Company back to Mr. Schwab.. It also sold it division Bank of America and Italy to Deutsche Bank. By the time of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica's share price had fallen to $8, but by 1992 it had rebounded to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade.

BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the largest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators, however, forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, as the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. The Rainier Bank branches were divided and sold off to West One Bancorp (now U. S, Bancorp) and KeyBank Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.

In 1994, BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle emanating from Oklahoma City's Penn Square Bank that had brought down numerous financial institutions including Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.

These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation to once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corporation. In 1998, BankAmerica was purchased by North Carolina-based NationsBank, and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1997, BankAmerica lent D. E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after the 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was acquired by NationsBank later that year in October.

The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.

Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 States. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bank following the combination. This is because branch divestitures are only required if the combined company will have a larger than 25 percent FDIC deposit market share in a particular state or 10 percent deposit market share overall. Which Bank of America exceeds.

In 2001, Bank of America CEO and Chairman Hugh McColl stepped down and named Ken Lewis as his successor. Lewis's greater focus on financial discipline and efficiency contrasted greatly with the expansionary mergers and acquisition strategy of his predecessor.

In 2004, Bank of America announced it would purchase Boston-based bank FleetBoston Financial for $47 billion in cash and stock. By merging with Bank of America, all of its banks and branches were given the Bank of America logo. At the time of merger, FleetBoston was the seventh largest bank in United States with $197 billion in assets, over 20 million customers and revenue of $12 billion.

On June 30, 2005, Bank of America announced it would purchase credit card giant MBNA for $35 billion in cash and stock. The Federal Reserve Board gave final approval to the merger on December 15, 2005, and the merger closed on January 1, 2006. The acquisition of MBNA provided Bank of America a leading credit card issuer at home and abroad. The combined Bank of America Card Services organization, including the former MBNA — had more than 40 million U.S. accounts and nearly $140 billion in outstanding balances. Under Bank of America the operation was renamed FIA Card Services.

In May 2006, Bank of America and Banco Itau (Investimentos Itaú S.A.) entered into an acquisition agreement through which Itaú agreed to acquire BankBoston's operations in Brazil and was granted an exclusive right to purchase Bank of America's operations in Chile and Uruguay. A deal was signed in August 2006 under which Itaú agreed to purchase Bank of America's operations in Chile and Uruguay. Prior to the transaction, BankBoston's Brazilian operations included asset management, private banking, a credit card portfolio, and small, middle-market, and large corporate segments. It had 66 branches and 203,000 clients in Brazil. BankBoston in Chile had 44 branches and 58,000 clients and in Uruguay it had 15 branches. In addition, there was a credit card company, OCA, in Uruguay, which had 23 branches. BankBoston N.A. in Uruguay, together with OCA, jointly served 372,000 clients. While the BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction, as part of the sale agreement, they cannot be used by Bank of America in Brazil, Chile or Uruguay following the transactions. Hence, the BankBoston name has disappeared from Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. The Itaú stock received by Bank of America in the transactions has allowed Bank of America's stake in Itaú to reach 11.51%. Banco Boston do Brazil had been founded in 1947.

On November 20, 2006, Bank of America announced the purchase of The United States Trust Co. for $3.3 billion, from the Charles Schwab Corporation. US Trust had about $100 billion of Assets under Management and over 150 years of experience. The deal closed July 1, 2007.

On September 14, 2007, Bank of America won approval from the Federal Reserve to acquire ABN AMRO N.A. and LaSalle Bank Corporation from Netherlands's ABN AMRO for $21 billion. With this combination Bank of America will have 1.7 trillion in assets. A Dutch court blocked the sale until it was later approved in July. The acquisition was completed on October 1, 2007.

The deal increased Bank of America's presence in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana by 411 branches, 17,000 commercial bank clients, 1.4 million retail customers and 1,500 ATMs. Bank of America has become the largest bank in the Chicago market with 197 offices and 14% of the deposit share, passing up JP Morgan Chase.

LaSalle Bank and LaSalle Bank Midwest branches adopted the Bank of America name on May 5, 2008.

On August 23, 2007 the company announced a $2 billion repurchase agreement for Countrywide Financial. This purchase of Preferred Stock was arranged to provide a return on investment of 7.25% per annum and provided the option to purchase Common Stock at a price of $18 per share.

Following that initial investment, on January 11, 2008, Bank of America announced that they would buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion. This acquisition, which closed on July 1, 2008, gave the bank a substantial market share of the mortgage business, and access to Countrywide's expertise, technology, and employees for servicing mortgages. The acquisition was seen as preventing the potential of bankruptcy for Countrywide. Countrywide, however, denied that it was close to bankruptcy. Countrywide provides mortgage servicing for nine million mortgages valued at $1.4 trillion USD as of December 31, 2007. However, Countrywide is under FBI investigation due to possible fraud in home loans and mortgages, therefore Bank of America states that by 2009 they will only be "officially" affiliated to Countrywide.

On July 1, 2008, Bank of America Corporation completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corporation. This purchase made it the USA's leading mortgage originator and servicer, controlling between 20 to 25 percent of the home loan market. The deal was structured to merge Countrywide with the Red Oak Merger Corporation, which Bank of America created as an independent subsidiary. It has been suggested that the deal was structured this way to prevent a potential bankruptcy stemming from large losses in Countrywide hurting the parent organization by keeping Countrywide bankruptcy remote.

On September 15, 2008, Bank of America announced its intentions to purchase Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in an all-stock deal worth approximately $ 50 billion, about 86% of the Bank of America stock price at close. Merrill Lynch was at the time within days of collapse, and the acquisition effectively saved Merrill from bankruptcy. Around the same time Bank of America was reportedly also in talks to purchase Lehman Brothers, however a lack of government guarantees caused the bank to abandon talks with Lehman. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy the same day Bank of America announced its plans to acquire Merrill Lynch. This acquisition made Bank of America the largest financial services company in the world. Temasek Holdings, the largest shareholder of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., has become one of the largest shareholders of Bank of America.

Shareholders of both companies approved the acquisition on December 5, 2008, and the deal closed January 1, 2009.

The Bank, in its January 16, 2009 earnings release, revealed massive losses at Merrill Lynch in the fourth quarter, which necessitated an emergency government bailout of the Bank to keep it solvent. Merrill recorded an operating loss of $21.5 billion in the quarter, mainly in its sales and trading operations, led by Tom Montag. The Bank also disclosed it tried to abandon the deal in December after the extent of Merrill's trading losses surfaced, but was compelled to complete the merger by the U.S. government. The Bank's stock price sank to $7.18, its lowest level in 17 years, after announcing earnings and the Merrill mishap. The market capitalization of Bank of America, including Merrill Lynch, was then $45 billion, less than the $50 billion it offered for Merrill just four months earlier, and down $108 billion from the merger announcement.

Subsequently, Bank of America received US $20 billion in federal bailout from the US government through the TARP program on 16 January 2009 and also got guarantee of US $118 billion in potential losses at the company. This was in addition to the $25 billion given to them in the Fall of 2008 through TARP. The additional payment was part of a deal with the US government to preserve Bank of America's merger with the troubled investment firm Merrill Lynch. Since then, members of the US Congress have expressed considerable concern about how this money has been spent, especially since some of the recipients have been accused of misusing the bailout money. The Bank's CEO, Ken Lewis, was quoted as claiming "We are still lending, and we are lending far more because of the TARP program." Members of the US House of Representatives, however, were skeptical and quoted many anecdotes about loan applicants (particularly small business owners) being denied loans and credit card holders facing stiffer terms on the debt in their card accounts.

According to a March 15, 2009 article in The New York Times, Bank of America received an additional $5.2 billion in government bailout money which was channeled through American International Group (AIG).

The FDIC's market share report, released annually in October, shows Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) had a 25.85-percent market share, based on $10.4 billion in deposits on June 30. Deposits were up 15.6 percent from a year earlier, when the bank's market share was 24.81 percent.

Remember: According to the HHI standard anything over 18 Percent is potentially a danger signal, and subject to Antitrust laws, the Fed looks at 10 percent “overall” market share as a monopoly. Bank of America acquired all of these assets with the approval of the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board, the US Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission, now these same agencies claim Bank of America is too large to be allowed to fail, well this author has a different opinion, the solution is simple “its time to Break Bank Of America up into smaller units”.

An interesting side note:
1. Barclays Global Investors owns 3.83% of the stock in Bank of America at 192,077,414 shares.
2. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., owns 1.30% at 65,284,687 shares
3. Morgan Stanley, owns 1.16% at 58,081,288 shares, and
4. JP Morgan Chase & Co., owns 1.09 % at 54,816,605 shares.

Oil Prices Continue to Rise in Anticipation of Dollar Collapse

American Taxpayers have given Wall Street Banks almost 14 trillion dollars in bailout money, yet they fail to do what they promised, to loosen credit, help those facing foreclosure and provide the liquidity that businesses and consumers need to jump start an economy trashed by these very same bankers.

While we go in debt for future generations, the Banks use our money to hire lobbyists who work to prevent legislation planned to help us and the economy.

And who stands up to stop them?

Certainly not Congress and certainly not President Obama! In short we have the best government money can buy, and the price isn’t all that much. The Legislative Ethics Law forbids a Legislator or a member of his or her immediate family from accepting a “gift” (other than a campaign contribution) from persons affected by legislation or who have an interest in a business affected by proposed legislation, where it is known or reasonably should be known that the purpose of the donor in making the gift is to influence the Legislator in the performance of his official duties or vote, or is intended as a reward for action on his part. For more information, please see Section 1014(B) of the Legislative Ethics Law. The caveat here is “other than a campaign contribution” luckily all bribes to members of Congress are now paid in campaign contributions.

This has been a problem not only in Washington but in each state as well and there seems to be no way to end the practice, as such we will never have meaningful legislation to protect the consuming public from the banks and their unlawful control over our lives, which includes the confiscation of the wealth of our country.

The Bankruptcy provision to cram down the debt of owner occupied homes was a very good law aimed at preventing foreclosures, yet it was defeated with the aid of 12 democrats who favored the bankers’ interest over their constituents’ interest, and we can only surmise why! It will be interesting to see which banks provide their campaign money.

The Credit Card Bill of Rights is not all it purports to be, it does not rain in the banks control over credit card interest rates, nor the effect of the Bankruptcy code which does not allow the discharge of credit card debt except under strict guidelines.

Thanks to us, the taxpayers, and a Congress easily bribed, bankers still and always will "own" the US Senate, as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) put it. Thanks to us, the taxpayers, and a Congress easily bribed the insurance companies and health maintenance organizations still have the clout to keep single-payer health care "off the table." And thanks to us, the taxpayers, and a Congress easily bribed the huge financial supermarkets like CitiBank can still block a reenactment of anything like the New Deal's Glass-Steagall Act, which since 1933 kept the high-rollers in investment banks from gambling with "our savings". For those who forgot, Wall Street pushed the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and Bill Clinton signed the repeal into law.

Why we as Americans put up with - and pay for - Wall Street and our own Congress's continued corruption, and the corruption of the Federal Reserve System that allows and promotes it, is a question that still needs to be answered. Wall Street's power remains a fact of life, kept alive by taxpayer dollars, government printing presses, and a Congress easily bribed.

Now consider, we have given the banks some 14 trillion dollars, which they are holding in reserve, because of our fractional reserve system (The Federal Reserve System) - this 14 trillion dollars would allow the banks, if they were inclined to loan money, to loan 140 Trillion Dollars. Investors around the globe are concerned about hyperinflation, as such large capital investors are hedging against this impending inflation by buying oil futures, the purchase of which is driving up the price of oil and subsequently the price of gas at the pump. In short the dollar is actually collapsing because of the volume of it, and this is again being promoted and advantage taken by none other than Wall Street!

Wall Street Bankers take our money then use it to compound the problem by deflating the currency and making more money as the price of oil rises.

Does anybody care?