Links 10/2/13

JPMorgan Settlement Complicated By Washington Mutual: Sources Reuters. Sounds like Justice would be happy for the FDIC to pay JPMorgan’s fine. Josh Rosner says this would cut $3.5 billion out of the proposed $11 billion payout.

Spain Is Expected to Extradite Ex-Trader in JPMorgan Case Dealbook. The plot thickens.

J.P. Morgan’s Dimon Stays Upbeat in Bank’s Dark Days WSJ. Barf.

McCain Scolds Holder for Meeting with JPMorgan Chief The Hill

What I saw as a Wall Street trader: a culture of bad behaviour The Guardian

Bill Clinton on deregulation: ‘The Republicans made me do it!’ Columbia Journalism Review. Includes vintage Summers/Clinton press event bragging at the signing ceremony for Gramm-Leach-Bliley.

SEC Enforcement co-director: We’re bringing ‘swagger’ back Alison Frankel

America flirts with self-destruction Martin Wolf

How Big a (Macroeconomic) Deal is the Government Shutdown? Economic Policy Institute

Superman to the Rescue Susie Madrak

The Other Deadline Congress Missed: Welfare Just Lapsed ThinkProgress

Your Pension Is Under Attack From All Sides. Here’s 10. Automatic Earth

Student Loan Defaults Surge To Highest Level In Nearly 2 Decades Shahien Nasiripour

Consumer Bureau Says Card-Fee Problems Persist WSJ

Obamacare Launch Day Plagued By Website Glitches Huffington Post

Former aide sorry for dissing Obama Politico. “It’s stunning that (Obama’s) in politics, because he really doesn’t like people,” was the diss in question.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch:

Privacy Primer Tim Bray, Medium

Google Accused of Wiretapping in Gmail Scans New York Times

Can the Guardian Take Its Aggressive Investigations Global? The New Yorker (h/t furzy mouse)

Amid foreclosure fallout, Cleveland area has hope Cleveland Plain Dealer. Headline more hopeful than article.

Employee or Independent Contractor? Employer Fraud Costs Workers Labor Notes

Golden Dawn leaders brought to court to face charges of murder and assault The Guardian

Calpers concerned about Richmond, California’s mortgage plan Reuters. Calpers is the California Public Employees Retirement System. Harder for Richmond and its benefactor, Mortgage Resolution Partners, to demonize their opposition as “greedy Wall Street banks” when among them is the largest public employee retirement fund in the country.

You’ll Be Shocked to Learn About the USDA’s Agenda RealFarmacy (h/t lambert)

Jellyfish Invasion Paralyzes Swedish Reactor New York Times

Simpsons plots to kill off another character Today Show

Antidote du jour:

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About David Dayen

David is a contributing writer to Salon.com. He has been writing about politics since 2004. He spent three years writing for the FireDogLake News Desk; he’s also written for The New Republic, The American Prospect, The Guardian (UK), The Huffington Post, The Washington Monthly, Alternet, Democracy Journal and Pacific Standard, as well as multiple well-trafficked progressive blogs and websites. His has been a guest on MSNBC, CNN, Aljazeera, Russia Today, NPR, Pacifica Radio and Air America Radio. He has contributed to two anthology books, one about the Wisconsin labor uprising and another on the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act in Congress. Prior to writing about politics he worked for two decades as a television producer and editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @ddayen.

95 comments

    1. Doug Terpstra

      Yeah, another poor, poor, pitiful Obama story. What’s a hapless messiah to do? He now has no choice but to commit the Grand Betrayal. Those savvy banksters have him right where he wants them. Obama’s 1% membership is assured…along with his very own lamppost.

      1. Massinissa

        What im trying to puzzle out is how this weirdass thing is most closely related to giraffes…

        Adorable either way though ^_^

        1. dearieme

          It’s a metaphor for the joint Republican-Democrat cock-up that has led to the present imbroglio.

          1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

            Nature, by her nature, tends to split off species.

            She doesn’t much like mixing.

            You get more and more species (not counting man-made extinctions and evolutionary dead ends). You don’t get merging of species – that is not Nature’s way. (That is why Nature is wicked and wrathful).

            A little genetic difference in the beginning and the next thing you know, one might become food for another.

            Animals, being of free will and vulnerable to sins, rebelled against that. They go off and had a good time. The result is what you see here.

            1. mquinlan

              There is a hypothesis that metamorphosis originated from chimerism of different species in the sea during the Permian. If I recall correctly. Read the book a few years ago, but can’t recall the author.

              1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

                Thanks for that information. Maybe you will remember the name of the book.

                Instead of one life form splitting into more and more different ones that have little in common, it’s good to hear the reverse is possible where differences come together to unite as one.

      2. Abe, NYC

        I remember how I first saw an okapi. It was at the Bronx Zoo, I was excited to see one because they are very rare… and couldn’t. Scanned the enclosure, it just wasn’t there!… until he started moving and I discovered the 15-foot-tall beast was a spit away from me, must have been less than 20 feet. They may look weird in open space, but when they are under trees their disguise is phenomenal.

  1. Which Rubinite?

    You’ll Be Shocked to Learn About the USDA’s Agenda RealFarmacy (h/t lambert)

    The guy running for gov of VA is Terry McAuliffe, not Terry McCauliffe.

    1. Doug Terpstra

      McAuliffe is better suited to run the finance office of a Yugo dealership, selling a paint protection (wax) package. Wasn’t he Slick Willie’s sales rep?

  2. Cocomaan

    Anyone else feel like the shutdown dovetailing into the debt crisis could result in an actual crisis?

    1. judabomber

      Poltico reported last night that there seems to be growing sentiment on the Hill that if a deal isn’t done by Friday the shutdown and debt ceiling would become linked. I think Ryan also made a statement to that effect. Evidently Reid is leaning that way too and Obama has said previously he won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling.

      Makes some sense if you consider why spend all your political capital for a 2 month CR when then debt ceiling is just around the corner. Perhaps the only way a government funding bill gets done before the debt ceiling is if enough House Repub rats flee the ship before it sinks, but that seems unlikely.

      1. craazyboy

        Don’t know if “linked” is the right word.

        Treasury says they run out of cash on 10/17. That means Lew has between now and then to sell all the Treasury bonds he can – and they are in default as soon as Jack sells ’em.

        Guess we could call it “MMT”. The Fed is buying them.

              1. craazyboy

                Not sure. Other variable is the last time this happened TG did “unconventional” funding actions – one of which was to raid guv pensions for cash.

                I think they have to stop selling treasuries when the debt ceiling is reached, but all I heard so far is the 10/17 out of cash deadline date from the treasury.

                1. craazyboy

                  Wait a minute. This is the NYFED buying schedule. The FOMC just keeps doing that in the open market from dealer inventory – they can’t buy directly from the treasury.

                  But is interesting to note that if you have a bond maturing – you should sell it to the fed the day before, rather than send it to the treasury for redemption – cause the treasury won’t be able to pay it off, until the new budget/debt ceiling is resolved.(depending on which reason they are out of money)

                  It’s the treasury selling schedule that gets cut off whenever we hit the debt ceiling. Then the Treasury burns whatever cash they have on hand to pay bills.

                  1. craazyboy

                    I guess I should say Treasury Auction rather than treasury selling schedule. We must keep the FOMC doing QE with the primary dealers separate from Treasury Auctions with primary dealers and foreign central banks in our discussion here. Otherwise we may get all confused.

      1. djrichard

        Well … Obama did say he wouldn’t negotiate on the debt ceiling. Famous last words?

        I think he’s left a lot more wiggle room on the shutdown itself. So if there were to be any grand bargain, he’ll have to make sure it’s connected (in the minds of the audience) to the shutdown itself rather than the debt ceiling. And the closer we get to Oct 17th, the harder it gets to pull that off.

        1. ScottS

          Well … Obama did say he wouldn’t negotiate on the debt ceiling. Famous last words?

          Ever heard of a counter-indicator?

          Here’s the most recent counter-indicator from the end of July:

          President Barack Obama gave a “full-throated defense” of Larry Summers in a closed meeting with House Democrats Wednesday, according to a lawmaker in the room, but said he’s nowhere near making a decision on who will be the next Federal Reserve chairman.

          Or is this just a kiss of death?

    2. LucyLulu

      From the point of view of Republicans, they entered into this “crisis” demanding the repeal of Obamacare, which was an unrealistic expectation. Anybody planted in reality knew that Obama wouldn’t yield on his legacy legislation. So, how do they now settle and save face? They need to extract something else big to take its place.

      As the debt ceiling approaches, Wall St and big money interests will be exerting pressure on both parties to settle their differences and avoid default. They don’t care if the safety net has to get gutted. We already know that Obama is more than willing, and Congressional Democrats have increasingly expressed resignation that “difficult votes” will have to be made.

      This is a byproduct of the great wealth inequality and our campaign and lobby system fueled by private money. With money comes power. The rich can buy legislation that favors them and fuels further riches and increasing power. Districts get realigned to insure incumbents aligned with their interests are re-elected. Those not so aligned lose their districts (e.g. my district lost troublemaker Brad Miller for pro-status quo Howard Coble, who during Judiciary Committee NSA hearing had obviously pre-arranged questions for DOJ to elicit talking points).

      1. Dr. Noschidt

        How It Works:
        “THE GRIFTERS” (1990) Directed by Stephen Frears; starring Angelica Houston, John Cusack, Annette Bening.

      2. craazyboy

        The Rs were demanding a one year postponement of O care, not repeal (tho realistically, postponement is our new style of governance, so we’ll have to see what they try next budget year, or debt ceiling breech).

        Obama already postponed O Care one year for small biz, so the Rs said why not for everyone?

        However I think we are in default on treasuries now. I’m pretty sure the way it works is if there is no budget, then the treasury can’t make payments on anything, including treasury interest or any redemptions that come along. That’s all temporary of course, and everyone gets paid what they were owed one the kabuki is over.

        1. hunkerdown

          In particular, a one-year postponement of the individual mandate, to go along with the other postponements of which industry was the beneficiary.

          I can’t help but laugh at the pathetic partisans taking pathetic talking points from their pathetic partisan websites to (typically pathetically) try to defend what is, at this point in time, nothing more than an upward wealth transfer backed by full faith and credit of the self-entitled MOTU, fighting so adorably hard against good sense and rational choices when their identity group does not approve. Then I get angry and wonder where a leftist sysadmin/developer/electronics type might do well to expatriate.

  3. Skeptic

    Jellyfish Invasion Paralyzes Swedish Reactor New York Times

    Nature abhors a vacuum and will seek to fill it.

    Harvest all the aquatic resources which can be sold at a profit and something else will take the place of those resources. In this case, jellyfish. Some fisherfolk are actually even harvesting jellyfish:
    http://savannahnow.com/stories/031103/LOCShrimpersJellyfish.shtml

    So, the vast, pillaged oceans offer opportunities for other aquatic species to fill the voids. Some of these species may not be so beneficial as those which existed before.

    Similarly, as the 1% harvest the Peasants and impoverish them, the financial/political environment does not remain static, something will fill the Void. Even the 1% cannot know what that will be. Good enough reason to proceed cautiously.

    1. kj1313

      Great at this point I’ll take decent president. On that score the lasr decent president was LBJ. Probably our last progressive president.

      1. Jim Haygood

        Well I don’t give a damn, my next stop is Viet Nam!

        Spilling blood in foreign wars has always been progressive.

          1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

            Spilling blood at home is very regressive.

            Americans and American lives are exceptional…more precious.

      2. Massinissa

        If we are talking ‘decent’, maybe Nixon. Scumbag as he was, he was ‘decent’.

        LBJ and Nixon were both warmongering psychopaths, but at least they were COMPETENT warmongering psychopaths when it came to domestic policy.

        Everyone we have had since then has been like Reagan, Bush, or Obama on domestic issues: They dont even pretend to care about normal people and just shovel money at their rich 1% owners.

        1. from Mexico

          Nixon was competent?

          It was Nixon who offically ended the Age of Keynes and set us down the pathway to economic hell.

          He drank the Milton Friedman Kool-Aid and believed that in a time of high inflation he could rein in inflation with tight monetary policy while at the same time running huge fiscal deficits. What this witch’s brew wrought is what is known as stagflation: high inflation combined with high unemployment.

          Granted, once Nixon started us down this pathway successive presidents, regardless of party affilation, have taken us much farther down it. So I guess in comparison to what came later he appears competent. But it was Nixon who embarked us down the road to perdition.

          If you are interested in all the nuts and bolts and sordid detail of how Nixon did this, you can read about it here, Chapter XX:

          Money – Whence It Came, Where It Went
          John Kenneth Galbraith

          https://anonfiles.com/file/7401950f3b2717503553dcfb8b51d10a

          1. susan the other

            Indochina – Vietnam – and the Middle East – Afghanistan – have been very difficult to exit. In fact Europe was difficult to exit in 1945 and we stayed there to make sure communism didn’t compete with capitalism. I’m sorry to say I think the Europeans lost their better sensibilities by becoming our NATO partners. These wars are good metaphors for exiting capitalism. How do you exit a giant ponzi scheme without crashing the world? Well, you reflate assets, lower interest rates, kill inflation surreptitiously by maintaining at least 15% unemployment, but pretend you are fighting it; eventually tax as much as possible; and cut corporations free of government largesse so they can compete on their own – except that you have written big secret trade agreements with all your best friends to guarantee them at least 8% returns come hell or high water – creating a new world sovereign. The ultimate coup. War is such a blunt instrument. You go in with guns blazing, accomplish nothing, and run like hell to get out.

          2. Andrew Watts

            Quite the contrary. Galbraith doesn’t explicitly blame Nixon for that.

            “Such, in 1974, was the state of economic thought. And again, also, it was on a collision course with political necessity. In the closing moments of the year, with the inflation genie still very much out of the bottle, the President’s advisers gathered on a snowy landscape in Colorado to concede that the pain was too great. Perhaps it would be better to have less unemployment, more inflation.”

            Anyway, Nixon qualifies as decent in my book by being forced to resigned after screwing up. Johnson was never impeached for sending thousands of troops to a foreign country without congressional authorization. No, not Vietnam. The Dominican Republic.

            The recent history of the imperial presidency is hardly encouraging. Only Bush the Elder could merit the decent label in recent memory.

            1. from Mexico

              Here are the pertinent facts, as told by Galbraith:

              Nixon was elected in 1968 and assumed office in 1969.

              In 1969, Johnson left him with a budget surplus of $8.1 billion.

              Under the Nixon administration, that changed to a deficit of $11.9 billion in 1970, $22.2 billion in 1971, $15.9 billion in 1972, and a $600 million surplus in 1973.

              “Money was kept tight and expensive,” writes Galbraith;

              by the end of 1973, the rediscount rate was an unprecedented 7.5 percent. The lending rate of the large commercial banks — the prime rate — was above 9 percent. A “prudent fiscal and monetary policy” thus received a remarkably fair trial. During 1973, the cost of living increased…nearly three times as much as during 1972. Wholesale prices in 1973 went up 18 percent….

              In the autumn of 1973 came the Yom Kuppur war, the oil embargo and a very large increase in petroleum prices. These were widely blamed by the Administration economists, among others, for the inflation. Around three-fourths of the price increases of 1973 occurred before the war and before the oil prices went up appreciably.

              In 1974, the prudent policies continued. The preliminary estimate of the Federal deficit on national income accounts was $7.6 billion. Monetary policy remained tight until early autumn when, in response to bitter complaint from the affected industires and criticism from economists, it was slightly relaxed. During 1974, the further reward of what was proclaimed to be prudence was an 18.9 percent increase in wholesale prices, an 11.0 percent increase in living costs.

              […]

              Unemployment, which averaged 3.5 percent of the labor force in 1969, rose to 4.9 percent in 1970 and to 5.9 percent the following year.

              [….]

              Unemployment at the end of 1974 was the highest in absolute numbers since the Great Depression…at 7.1 percent of the labor force.

              If that “qualifies as decent” in your book, then you and I have very different ideas about what decent means, to say the least.

              1. Andrew Watts

                Everything from the budget deficits to the standard of living was being driven on a downward course by the war in Indochina and the 1970s oil crisis. There was no wartime rationing which fomented inflation. Which gradually reached a crescendo in 1973 as the oil embargo made everything much worse.

                Those facts you posted are not directly attributed to the policies of the Nixon Administration by Galbraith. You haven’t proven anything, except for the fact you’re really only interested in scapegoating Nixon for the bad things that’ve happened.

                Is there anything you won’t blame Nixon for?

                  1. Andrew Watts

                    Are you seriously saying that these events are mere opinions? American oil production peaked in ’71 which happened well before the series of events that you so stridently blame on Nixon. While the large domestic price increases didn’t start until later on in ’73 the shortages of American oil in the world markets, real and perceived, had a huge effect on the economy.

                    Whether or not this completely aligns with Galbraith’s telling of events is irrelevant. The point remains that Galbraith does not engage in the Nixon bashing you so enthusiastically embrace. I cannot honestly believe this started over my comment that what made Nixon’s presidency decent is that he was forced to resign in disgrace over Watergate.

        2. hunkerdown

          Um, Nixon gave us ERISA (in response to Medicare) and the Controlled Substances Act (in response to Leary v. US and the damn hippies). Bolstering the self-entitled rentier class after they’ve been taken down a peg or two is not what I would call sound domestic policy.

  4. Mcmike

    Re USDA: i would have preferred to see that better written.

    It reads like he’s overreacting to a single comment. Based on the evidence presented, the truth could in fact be the opposite: that the usda wants to reverse the trend, and help provide job options other than military.

    I mean, nothing surprises me any more, but operating the entire ag system as a farm league for the military… Well, occum would lead me to stick to the notion that its simply being run to enrich adm, cargyl, koch, and walmart.

  5. Pwelder

    Some context for McCain’s criticism of the Holder meeting with Dimon:

    McCain still has vivid memories of being made a fool of by Charlie Keating in the run-up to the S&L crisis in the late 1980’s and roped in with the Keating Five. His view of what is required in dealing with banksters is more Bill Black than Tim Geithner.

    If the Obamanauts had had the wit to deal with the country’s Wall Street problem a la FDR, he would have found a lot of support – or at least quiet acquiescence – from the other side of the aisle. FDR, having been Governor of New York, had a pretty good handle on what Wall Street is all about. Obama, by comparison, was naive, ignorant, and in general not up to this essential aspect of the job.

    One downside of the Obama years is that presidential politics in the US will be afflicted for quite some time with a series of inexperienced but highly marketable hotshots who feel that if BO can sell himself to the electorate, why not themselves? In terms of real experience and accomplishment, the resume of a Ted Cruz compares very well of that of Obama prior to his presidential run.

    Where’s Bob Dole when you need him?

    1. skippy

      Obama is indicative of the newly minted Wall St trader or construction supervisor. All you have to do is give them some shiny toys and feed them stuff about “the *full of win* youthful energy dynamic” they bring to the Market.

      All you need is one or a couple of psychopathic old boys to wind them up and sit back and rack in the bucks, as they short cut every possible rule – law – common sense just to keep their puffed up identity (helps getting laid at the pub).

      skippy… conversely a pinata. It looks pretty in the tree… until you whack it a few times… and find its just filled with head and teeth rotting cheap candy~

    2. CB

      Sarah Palin’s resume was better than obama’s. It isn’t the candidate that matters, really, it’s the handlers and hangers on who will form the administration, that’s who we’re voting for. The candidates are front people for power groups.

    1. Dr. Noschidt

      Ep3, please notice this claim in that otherwise BS piece you linked us to:
      “Entrepreneurs are willing to take on risks, but health care is not a manageable risk, said Bachenheimer.”

      No. History shows that health care is manageable. It is the FIRE lust for All Gain No Pain that is unmanageable.

  6. fresno dan

    http://airshipdaily.com/the-political-economy-of-zombies/

    Perhaps why many are looking for catastrophe…

    “I remember seeing Boyle’s film when it came out in theaters. I went to see it, not because it was a zombie movie, but despite that. Everyone I knew was buzzing about the opening scene in London. It was that image that got me and a lot of other “not into zombies” guys and gals to go see 28 Days Later. It was that same image that got people excited to see I am Legend: It was Manhattan emptied. It was the end of buying and selling. For the majority of us who live within the capitalist system but aren’t of the neoliberal breed of capitalist, catastrophe means no more mortgage payments, no cell phone surveillance, never again having to bicker over what is or isn’t a preexisting condition. Catastrophe voids all obligation, makes the world anew.”

    I would posit there are many who support the shutdown because they have no stake in the present NAFTA, bank bailout, serial Wall street treasury secretaries of both parties, 40 years of wage stagnation and the decrease in median income.
    http://www.epi.org/publication/a-decade-of-flat-wages-the-key-barrier-to-shared-prosperity-and-a-rising-middle-class/

    1. sleepy

      In a thoughtful society, the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of federal employees who are not furloughed yet working without pay–and yes, apparently the military is not being paid*–would go on strike.

      Would French civil servants work without pay? And yes, I understand that any federal employee who strikes is subject to beatings, jail, and fines.

      http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gC5rwPOPzH3nTjqtHiOZE3z6LtXg?docId=6e822e78-125b-46a9-a3a6-fd545c8b2c76&hl=en

    2. James Levy

      From an historical perspective you got the same vibe when World War I broke out (and to some extent, especially in the South, the Civil War). People were elated to call an end to business as usual and the dull responsibilities of bourgeois life. In those days, they were looking for something transcendent. It’s sad that today, all the author wants is to be left alone (the sad mantra of the libertarian).

      Of course, what they got was hell on earth. Paying your mortgage sucks; going “over the top” at Petersburg or Verdun sucks infinitely worse.

      1. fresno dan

        I’m didn’t see where the author said, or implied, that he just want “to be left alone”

      2. hunkerdown

        Are you sure? When American life is full of grandstanding, microaggression, people and organizations who feel themselves entitled to impose upon you and direct your personal business at any time, and generally very low quality and vapid social interaction, it’s perfectly understandable to want done with it and prefer quality to quantity. Especially if you’re not one of those *beeeeeeeeep* extraverts.

      3. Roland

        The aristocrats and bourgeois in European nations thought they could preserve social order in their own countries by waging a successful war against other countries. Victory would grow a bigger pie. The lower classes could be sated while preserving the relative ascendancy of the upper classes. The costs would be externalized to the defeated nations.

        On the other hand, there were many proletarians and petty bourgeois who believed that a war would result in more advancement by merit, and win for their classes a greater participation in national affairs. By warring on foreigners, they could achieve social mobility without the incurring the odium of starting a civil war or revolution. It was easier to displace their class-anger onto foreigners, than to struggle against their own bourgeoisie or aristocrats.

        By the way, it’s not “dull responsibilities of bourgeois life” that was a problem for the lower classes. That is the wrong way to put it. Rather, the proletarians had all the dullness and responsibility, but without any bourgeois profits to compensate for such dullness and responsibility. Viewed that way, a rational preference for battle is understandable, even if it proved to be misdirected.

    3. DolleyMadison

      “Catastrophe voids all obligation, makes the world anew.” Yep, burn baby burn – what do I care I am no longer of this world with its college funds and 401ks and the myth that I have a future and a place in this world.

  7. Chuck Roast

    You have to see the CJR video of Clinton/Summers et. al. officially enabling the financial arch-criminals.
    All the names are named and all the boot-lickers are there including Dodd. How did Schumer miss this opportunistic face-time?
    Many, many thanks to Bob Rubin.
    What a hoot!!!

  8. BondsOfSteel

    Hmm. That $11 billion fine is really $7 billion + $4 billion for “consumers”.

    I’m guessing the “consumer” bit is really some sorta discount… probably to new customers of JPM. You can bet it really won’t help consumers more than it helps JPM.

    If $3.5 billion gets assigned to the FDIC like Dimon is asking… that $11 billion settlement becomes only $3.5 billion in fines to JPM. What a deal.

    1. Dr. Noschidt

      BondsOfSteel, wasn’t that the Deal Maker in Secretary of the Treasury Paulson’s “save” — to declare {“by fiat, like a Papal Bull] that GS, JPM et al would be tucked under the FDIC umbrella, AS IF — to “end” the 2008 “crisis”? Didn’t this go along with the AIG “save” for GS pigs?

      Don’t forget, these “Capitalists” have a RULE: the top dogs NEVER accept their losses — those are dumped on their “counterparties” to the “trades” after the “fees” and the “carry trade” profits are extracted.

      The Monopoly Finance FIRE Economy is ALL about RENT to the Rentier Caste.

    2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      How much of that remaining $3.5 billion will go to funding the NSA, how much of it will go toward more drones, and how much of it will go Social Security?

      Do we lose some more of it to prosecutors’ bonuses?

      Perhaps we use most of it towards diplomatic missions to Mongolia to open their markets for Dimon’s bank.

    3. craazyboy

      Dimon conveniently forgot he paid a paltry $1.7B for the remains of WaMu WITHOUT an indemnity deal from the FDIC.

      Due diligence? You get what you pay for? FDIC price for WaMu coulda been 1.7B + FDIC cost of bad loans? (assuming they are even empowered to indemnify deals? The FDIC doesn’t insure loans – they insure bank accounts)

  9. fresno dan

    Simpsons plots to kill off another character

    I think they should be radical and let Marge go – 25 years, time to shake things up…
    And than they should be super radical – Homer comes out of the closet, and Bart gets to say that he has too Dads…
    The only question is: who would Homie hook up with?
    Bumble bee man?
    Smithers?
    Kent Brockman?
    Krusty?
    I would go with the “me thinks thou doth protest too much” and its always the one you least suspect, and have Ned Flanders as the new spouse. One could simply take all those “eight is enough” scripts, put a Simpsons take on them, and viola! another 8 seasons…
    (and nothing so lame as divorce to get rid of Edna…no, she gets murdered…by Ned)

  10. down2long

    So JPM, which got 40 billion worth of free loans from the FDIC, now also wants the FDIC to pay the fines for the WaMu sins.

    As I have posted here before, Chase inherited my loan from WaMu, for hundredths of pennies on the dollar. When the $900K loan expired, Chase took extra payments from me, then did a voluntary foreclosure, resulting in me losing the building, Chase getting less than $400K on the loan. They let the building go into such neglect in the nine months they had a receiver in place that I, as titleholder, was sent the criminal neglect charge. (Yes, two weeks after these bastards took my building I was in the stand accused of their criminal neglect. It was disgusting. Fuck AMERIKKA) Now I admit I did everything I could to make them lose money, sued in BK court, dragged it out, made other adjustments to cash flow which I am not at liberty to discuss, but which resulted in happy tenants. (It’s a heavy rent controlled building. Rents can only be raised 3% a year from the lease amount.) I would’ve burned the building down were it now for the tenants.

    The Michagan Supreme Court said $3.75 Billion of WaMu loans that Chase took over could be voided. By the time the case hit the court, Chase had already foreclosed on $2 Billion in WaMy loans, and pocketed the money.

    My point is, SLimin’ Dimin’ had no problem liquidating the loans, and taking all the free money, but now he wants the FDIC to pay for WaMu’s sins.

    First, the sins of WaMu are inseparable from Crooks, I mean Chase, since they are of a piece. Chase just ramped up foreclosures on free WaMu because they needed cash to offset the Whale losses.

    Second, WaMu gets all the cash from WaMu loans, but bears no responsibility for the loans?

    The FDIC threw all of us WaMu customers to lions, (thanks Sheila Bair!) Give me back my building. Give my friend back his house in which he had put too much down. All that equity made Slimin’ wet, and poof, that house was gone.

    My friend was so upset he wanted to commit suicide, but he said he didn’t have the balls to do it, and asked me to help him. (I am a got to guy in cases like this.)

    I told him I would not participate in a wasted suicide. If he were willing to strap on a bomb and blow up Slimin’ while he committed suicide as an added bonus

    I would’ve missed my buddy, but I wouldn’t have to hear Slimin’ slinging his nonsense anymore. Bits and pieces of that varmint is all I want to see.

  11. craazyboy

    Late Breaking News: Congress Concerned Government Got 70% Dumber!

    *GRASSLEY `CONCERNED’ 70% US GOVT INTELLIGENCE STAFF FURLOUGHED

  12. down2long

    ” [Slimin’] upbeat in dark days”

    What dark days?

    Slimin’ had a personal meeting with Debevooise and Covington DC Subsidiary Stooge Eric Holder last week, and today, he meets with the President Obombya. This would be considered unethical for the rest of us charged with anything in America. (I would’ve LOVED To have a private meeting with my bankster BK judge):

    This meeting must’ve just wrapped, or perhaps they’re pouring champagne to celebrate further beatings of the sheeple:

    The chief executives of large banks
    including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will
    meet with President Barack Obama tomorrow as Wall Street urges
    Congress to end the budget stalemate in Washington.

    http://bloom.bg/16DtGcT

    Slimin’s biggest concern is of course that Treasury is currently unable to send boatloads of cash his way, as are the other 19 criminal banking CEO who met with Obeyme today.

    They banksters are united in this. THIS IS A CRISIS! We need MONEY!

    And so it goes.

  13. Jim Haygood

    New York makes a graven-image monument to a notorious war criminal, whose destruction of American civilian populations goes discreetly unmentioned by Pravda on the Hudson.

    They painstakingly covered the heroic equestrian statue of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman by Augustus Saint-Gaudens with 1,200 square feet of 23.75-karat gold leaf.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/nyregion/they-made-the-statue-dazzle-then-to-improve-it-they-toned-it-down.html?hp

    Just for a little historical perspective:

    After the November [1864] elections, Sherman began a march with 62,000 men to the port of Savannah, Georgia, living off the land and causing, by his own estimate, more than $100 million in property damage. Sherman called this harsh tactic “hard war,” often seen as a species of total war.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman

    Funny how folks freak at Confederate flags, but honoring a monster like Sherman who intentionally tried to cause a famine by destroying farms occasions not a peep of obloquy.

      1. hunkerdown

        Federalist #10. Without an ongoing civil war, the landed gentry is in trouble. Therefore, promote factionalism (or fascism; you’d be nearly enough accurate either way).

    1. Massinissa

      Look im Georgian, I had ancestors fight in that war, and its still none of my goddamn f**cking business who those yanks make statues of.

      They can make statues of Pol Pot for all I care. Leave history dead and buried. I certainly dont give a shit about a war that happened over a century ago.

      1. Optimader

        There really is no reason why someone from the former soviet union should care about the us civil war, you have your own historical issues

    2. Bunk McNulty

      No, we’re not nearly done fighting. The South went to war to retain the right to own people. Black people, specifically. It’s all right here. Between 1861 and 1865 we killed each other like never seen before or since. I don’t really believe that will be necessary next time out, but there is a hard 20% core out there of super-reactionaries, people who cannot bear the idea of losing the effortless privileges society bestows on them for the mere fact of their whiteness. A feature that poor white people, naturally, are acutely aware of, lacking as they are in the privileges that only money can buy. I leave the policy implications up to my betters.

  14. rich

    Economist: U.S. labor market recovery is a fraud

    If payroll job growth were to persist at the average level of the past three jobs reports and increase at just 148,000 jobs per month, it would take until December 2021 for employment to reach its CBO estimated potential, he added.

    In his 2013 third-quarter U.S. forecast, Snaith explains that by just focusing on the unemployment rate, many analysts erroneously are predicting a fast recovery that’s simply not there yet.

    That’s why it’s not surprising that consumers are holding back on spending, which in the past has brought the economy out of the doldrums, he said.

    Snaith was only one of four national economists to predict that the federal Reserve Bank would continue to funnel billions of dollars into the market on a daily basis as a way to help stimulate the economy and not begin tapering that process until 2014.

    “Will the Federal Reserve’s exit be more like Ginger Rogers gliding across the dance floor or Miley Cyrus awkwardly twerking remains to be seen,” Snaith said. “But given the phony labor-market recovery it could be some time before the Fed hits the dance floor.”

    http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/10/02/economist-us-labor-market-recovery.html?

  15. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit

    “Former aide sorry for dissing Obama”

    If you don’t like people, what BETTER occupation than politics, where not only can you smack them around, but the smackees are the ones who are paying your salary and benefits? :D

    1. jrs

      Oh quick need to prove my liberal Dem credibility: this is horrible, just horrible! Even vitally agencies like those that spy on you 24/7 are being shut down! We will lose the war on terrror!

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