In a perfect world the fact that Dodd is retiring would mean that he would seek to do the right thing. Go out in a blaze of glory having done the best at the very last. Makes you wonder what he wanted to do when he ran for President but then we can ask that about the winner as well. Probably wouldn’t like the answer.

Any bets if we get an audit the results won’t be known until after the election.

Ok suppose we get the audits who values the assets the Fed claims are worth X amount? Assuming the results are as expected the banks screwed us by getting face value for Ninja loan worthless crap whats our next step.

Ummm maybe. I don’ think the thing is really if or when we find out, its what we find out and what we do with the information. I can see an audit happening and largely nobody gets fired or goes to jail. That’s more likely than an audit happening and heads rolling…

Thats what I’m afraid of

BTW they should re-visit credit card laws and piggy back that onto the bill. At this point the Banks are so unpopular you could do almost anything and they should, there’s nothing too harsh for the banks.

How come a poor man can get ten years for robbing a liquor store but a banker gets nothing.

Has anything shocked you up to this point? lol

What about chasing around Noriega and Polanski?

You would think finding out who’s responsible for crashing the economy was more important than chasing around these relics from the 70′s and 80′s.

I can’t believe angry rich investors who lost money are still supporting the ultra rich who stole their money.

That is strictly a class/race/money issue.

Banksters are rich, there for they can drag out legal wrangling for years.

Poor White/Black/Brown get shafted by law enforcement on a regular basis.

See a Class/race/money issue like many things in America.

Do I have to mention Exon still getting away with not paying for the clean up the Valdez spin and these monkeys wanna drill off shore? You can’t be serious.

If Obama would put these jerks in jail we could get the investor part of the Corporate GOP.

That is something we need to fix.

You can’t? Master’s of the Universe?

They make just as much “shorting” the economy as they do bilking it.

Haven’t you seen that this economy has left the ultra rich unaffected?

When the Rothschild’s start complaining taxes are too harsh, call me that’s when social justice has been won.

Spill I meant.. :)

Not likely there will be an audit, and the results would no doubt be eaten by the dog if there were one no matter what happens in the election.

The Ultra rich are playing with imaginary money Credit Defaults swap market $600 Trillion,. There are rumors that the Gold and Silver market have more paper giving people ownership of gold and silver than all the gold and silver ever mined in history.
Bank Assets based on home loans are not worth the face value the Fed bought them at. The banks to unload this debt sold home loan debt with 30 to 1 Collateral to hedge funds they even loaned them money to buy the debt.
The hedgefunds used this as collateral to get loans to buy companies.
There is so much imaginary money out there!

We can audit the Fed now or we can wait for something else to bad to happen and the banks will need another bailout.

As long as the banks keep gambling odds are they will lose all their money again.

I fully understand what’s going on. Watch Max Keiser’s show on RT, its fraud, complete and utter fraud. If you did something like this, not only would you have been caught and jailed already, all your assets would have been claimed by the Government and sold for pennies on the dollar.

In other news, the amount of corruption in our public school system is shocking.

If you haven’t watched – “Not As Good As You Think: The Myth of Middle Class Schools” yet, look for it on PBS. It might only be playing locally here in Southern California. If you go to their web site you can ask for a copy on DVD.

I’m getting closer and closer to the idea that America needs a REBOOT.

No reason to bailout the banks again, you’ll see a full scale revolt if that came up again.

We don’t have the money to do another bailout.

The election of 2020 no doubt.

How come a poor man can get ten years for robbing a liquor store but a banker gets nothing.

Because when the poor man robbed a liquor store it was the system breaking down.
When the rich man did, well, that is the system.

“And, more specifically, if financial institutions believe that knowledge of their borrowing from the central bank might become public, they would likely become concerned that counterparties and market analysts might suspect that they are having financial difficulties and that the institution’s access to market funding could evaporate. In these circumstances, financial institutions may seek to minimize the risk that they will need to borrow from the central bank by reducing their lending and conserving liquidity.” ; from the Fed’s letter to Dodd.

Simply stated, isn’t the above what is currently going on despite the secrecy that is existent?

I vote for them to be capitulating faster than a falling row of dominoes…..

Noooo! Jeb Bush’s son will be running then with Sarah’s daughter a more unholy union could not be imagined.

This is is the crux of the argument I can’t believe they admitted that though. I can’t believe after they wrote that anybody is trusting the banks numbers.
That Paragraph should be emailed to every bank investor.

Yes, audit the thread. Doh.

Is there any hope of an FDL thread on the second panel of Levin’s hearings today?
It’s more interesting with Scarecrow, Hugh, masaccio, and other’s insights…

by reducing their lending and conserving liquidity.” ; from the Fed’s letter to Dodd.

Nobody is loaning money now so what is the Fed concerned about. Are they worried the banks might stop gambling and like musical chairs when the music stops the banks game will end.

That’s great to hear. And it’s why an open amendment process on the floor is so important.

“The group is actively gathering cosponsors as the Senate continues to vote to break a GOP filibuster which is preventing debate from beginning,” writes Grim.

Ryan Grim, of course, is wrong to say that the Republicans are filibustering, because objecting or threatening to filibuster is not a filibuster. Saying it is only helps Harry Reid to cement default supermajority rule on the Senate where it doesn’t belong. But then, Grim seems to believe he needs to report with a partisan perspective on the doings of the Democrats.

The Senate is continuing to vote on a supermajority 60-vote cloture motion filed by Harry Reid (and 15 colleagues) because Harry Reid won’t force a filibuster. More importantly, however, Reid wouldn’t let the year-long Senate writing of this legislation by members of both Parties on the Banking Committee – unfortunately mostly done out-of-sight and out-of-mind behind closed doors, with the committee markup itself of this complex legislation completed in a disgraceful 21 minutes, without debate or amendment – get to a place where both sides are comfortable opening the floor debate, without fear of a repeat of this from Reid:

Mr. ALEXANDER. [...] Twenty-six times the majority leader has filled the amendment tree. That is a “no” motion that says no more amendments. [Reid] has done it nearly as much as the last five majority leaders combined. He has the record in saying no more amendments, no more debates, and no more checks and balances on what the Congress is doing. There have been 141 times the majority leader has filed cloture on the same day a measure came up. That is simply another no motion. It says no to more amendments, no to more debates, no to more checks and balances on the legislation Congress is considering.

[...]

The Senator from Virginia, who is the Presiding Officer today and my colleague, and Senator Corker from Tennessee worked for a year on this. I went to some of their sessions. It is complex stuff, but they were coming up with a bipartisan solution to the problem. One of the advantages of a bipartisan solution is, A, it might be more likely to be right; and, B, it almost certainly is more likely to be accepted. If there is a Corker-Warner or Warner-Corker solution, Republican-Democratic solution on banks that are too big to fail, then the American people might look up here and say: OK, if they both agree on it, maybe they are right. Maybe I will not worry about it, and I will not spend my next 3 years trying to repeal it. Well, the same thing was true on other parts of the issue, and I commend Senator Dodd, the chairman of the committee, for starting out in that direction. He was working with Senator Shelby on this side on consolidating bank regulators and consumer protection. Senator Reed on the Democratic side and Senator Gregg were working on reforming oversight of derivatives. As I said, Senator Warner and Senator Corker were working on systemic risk, the too-big-to-fail issue. Senator Schumer and Senator Crapo were working on securities and exchange issues and corporate governance issues. They weren’t coming to an agreement on every single one of these issues–the last one is especially difficult–but they are making some real progress. Even yesterday, Senator Shelby, who is the ranking member, and Senator Dodd said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”–Senator Shelby said: “We are closer than we have ever been.” Mr. Dodd added: “We will get it together.”

Well, if we are closer than we have ever been and we will get it together, why are we having this “no” vote today? Why are we saying no to more amendments, no to more debate, no to checks and balances?

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2010_record&page=S2609&position=all

Reporters like Grim who cover Capitol Hill ought to know by now, and be able to explain, that when a bill is allowed to come to the floor for “debate and amendment” in the current Democratic Senate, there is no guarantee under Harry Reid that genuine “debate and amendment” will be allowed to take place. [See the health care reform "debate," see the lockstep Democratic blocking of all amendments during the follow-up reconciliation process, etc., etc.]

It does no one any good to call objections to proceeding by a small Senate minority, which suspects they will be prevented from participating in an open amendment process, a “filibuster,” as Grim misleadingly does here.

And it definitely does the American people no favor to characterize efforts to safeguard the minority’s voice in the Senate – and in fact the democratic legislative process itself – as efforts to protect and serve Wall Street, as a series of Democrats have been doing in self-righteous tones since the cloture vote yesterday failed – to attempt to pump up their Party’s political prospects, even as they disingenuously ignore their powerful majority Party’s own responsibility for the state of affairs in the Senate.

As Chris Dodd himself pointed out yesterday on the floor:

Frankly, I don’t think it serves our interests well to be screaming at each other about who cares more about this issue than the other. I think it unfortunate that a number of my Republican friends who I know care about this very much would be branded that somehow they don’t care about it to such an extent that they would not even let it get to a debate. They have ideas on this legislation. They want their amendments considered and they don’t want to be told you cannot even do that because we do not have some large, sweeping agreement on a bill here.

If Dodd’s word can be trusted, he may have finally started to change the game on this bill with a statement I just heard him make on the floor this afternoon, to the effect that:

“As Chairman of the committee, I will insist that every Senator [all 100] have a right to be heard and to offer their amendments on the floor” [if the motion to proceed is adopted].

If Dodd can carry through on that, and if Republicans trust him to do so, they may well agree to proceed to floor debate, in the belief that this time Reid won’t fill the amendment tree, or require 60-vote margins for passage of amendments, or force Party-line votes on amendments that would prevent Republicans from having a chance to change the bill. We’ll see…

With regard to the Federal Reserve audit, and the Fed’s responsibilities in general, note how Senator Warner described the failure of the Fed to act to regulate mortgages, also yesterday:

Mr. WARNER. Think about the fact back in the early 1990s, back in 1993, Congress actually passed legislation to give the Federal Reserve the responsibility to regulate mortgages–responsibility that we have seen time and again they didn’t take up the challenge to meet.

Citizen TCU:

With so much horse shit pilin’ up around the bankin’ industry there must be a pony under there someplace and it’s hard not to think that nobody is gunna use a shovel ta find it…but remember the defense that all the Randian banksters and opportunists like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner are beginnin’ to use: “We didn’t think the bubble would ever burst and even if it did we didn’t break any laws because Clinton and Bush repealed all the laws or dumped all the regulations.” So those who profited but were not directly invoved in the fraud will jump on the bandwagon of reform sayin’ “who could have predicted such a thing?”

And remember that if Goldman Sachs goes under there won’t be much of the trillion dollars left to buy the election this fall and those like Dodd are lookin’ ta get a cashout by coverin’ for Goldman Sachs and gettin’ out befotre the next crash. So, I think we are beginnin’ ta see a scamble on the part of the fascists and the “untainted” Democrats to jump on the bandwagon and try an position themselves as truly appalled, yes appalled I tell ya, at all the criminality that went on and of course it was all Clinton’s and the Democtrats’ fault.

There is gunna be bankin’ reform and the fascists are gunna hafta cave or they lose any chance of gettin’ out from under the shit storm that is comin’ this Fall.

Fed is basically saying they need to remain opaque in order for the financial system to maintain leverage. But the Fed has become too focused on fighting inflation in recent generations in order to preserve capital and wealth, in lieu of fighting deflation which can serve to promote employment. It’s a balancing act, but wealth disparity is growing, and employment deserves more attention. More transparency at the Fed may compromise some leverage at the outer limits in the private sector, but would that be a bad thing given the financial collapse we’ve just experienced. Reducing leverage while expanding real money supply may be a monetary strategy that the nation would benefit from in the near term. This ought to be part of the nation’s public debate. Pressuring for more transparency will help.

Spoke to staff at Boxer’s LA office just a few minutes ago…April 27. Discussed the new amendment and the need to audit the Fed. Her staff said she is a co-sponsor. Hopefully, they were clear that I meant the restoration of wording into the tootheless Dodd bill.

My bet is we will get banking reform after the banks fail so bad we can’t bail them out. The banks will try their best not to fail until after the election.
They tried but failed to not fail before the Presidential election dooming any chance McCain had my guess is they are still to unstable to prevent themselves from failing before elections.
Why? every investor nervous about another bank failure will pull their money before the election.

“And, more specifically, if financial institutions believe that knowledge of their borrowing from the central bank might become public, they would likely become concerned that counterparties and market analysts might suspect that they are having financial difficulties and that the institution’s access to market funding could evaporate….”

Isn’t that a tacit admission by the Fed that they (and the banks), know that the banks are in fact having financial difficulties and are being allowed to hide that fact from their clients/investors?

The idea of govt by corporations for corporations leads to destruction of govt. and the concept of intelligent life.

Case in Point Goldman Sachs, betting housing market collapse on one hand and on the other hand promoting the housing market bubble.

Another great CASE is the massive Oil Leak in the Gulf, Exxon, BP, and other Oil Giants fight regulation in the need for more safety measures etc. A couple of Human Beings who sell OIL to the masses, should not have the right to destroy the current Earth that supports Human Life. (Earth will go on, us humans will die)

Govt. or the idea that was once Govt. by the people for people, should protect us from ourselves and those among us, who will kill us all. This is not happening at the present time, so the entire human race will suffer, because we have a bunch of fools calling the shots.

The world is begging for a strong progressive leader!

There was a very promising exchange just now, between Jon Kyl and Chris Dodd, before the second cloture vote commenced (it’s now underway).

Kyl explicitly pointed out that the Republicans – based on hard-earned experience on the health reform legislation – don’t trust that there will be an open amendment process if they vote to proceed, among other concerns.

Dodd replied, in no uncertain terms, that he has no intention of shutting down worthy amendments from either side, and welcomes a full and fair debate. [As Dodd said he'd just assured his own caucus today was the case, with regard to their amendments. Dodd also implied that he was open to an amendment addressing the complexities of Fannie and Freddie, because he said he agreed with 90% of the concepts outlined in a circulating Republican draft about the GSEs.]

Again, if Dodd’s assurances alone are enough, he may have convinced some Republicans, who will now vote to proceed. [Shelby and Corker and Snowe, however, just voted no.] But it’s not clear to me that Dodd can or will speak for Reid’s potential actions, when the inevitable pressure from the White House to shut down the process, and pass the bill, comes along. So we’ll see, but progress in identifying concerns, and in expressing a shared desire to cease the speculation about motives and other finger-pointing, and to return to a Senate of comity and trust, was obvious, and welcome.

Also, Dodd mentioned the Audit the Fed amendment in his remarks – saying he “has some concerns” about the amendment, even as he used it to illustrate his support for an open amendment process that would allow even such amendments as that to receive a vote, despite the fact, as Dodd pointed out, that there are currently more Republican co-sponsors of it than there are Democratic sponsors.

So if Dodd can carry the day on the way the debate unfolds, if and when the Senate proceeds to his bill, Audit the Fed ought to have a very good chance of success as an amendment to this legislation.

Shelby and Dodd are meeting again at 5 p.m. today, regardless of the outcome of the second cloture vote.

But Dodd is retiring and won’t have to face the voters this fall.

What he will be facing is unemployment, and in contrast to some folks on the Hill, Dodd doesn’t appear to be independently wealthy. He has a net worth in the coupla million range, which isn’t enough for a guy with a young family. Dodd may be motivated to help potential future employers. This isn’t a motivation that’s unknown in government circles.

More kabuki. Expect massive treachery and capitulation.

Jane,

Russ Feingold is also up for reelection this Fall which may explain his position here.

Feingold’s a good Democrat but he’s still a Democrat:

1) Russ failed to do anything to stop the extension of the Patriot Act. If he had “pulled a Bunning” he could have done so since only a 3 day delay was needed. Obama, too, signed its extension (Obama opposed the Patriot Act before he supported it).

2) Russ voted against Bernie Sander’s bill to provide a one-time payout of $250.00 to social security recipients (Sanders bill was based on the fact that these people get no cost of living adjustment this year for the first time ever). The bill would have cost a paltry $11 billion or so. Chickenfeed these days; less than Goldman got. Yet Feingold and 13 other Democrats (including “liberals” like Levin, Feinstein and Bennett) voted against it. Otherwise, it would have passed.

What makes Russ’s vote awful is that just days before he had campaigned before his constituents in tiny Park Falls, Wisconsin where they told him they were hurting because of rising costs and no increase in benefits. He said he felt there pain and understood. But when crunch time came, he voted against Sander’s bill.

3) conventional wisdom has it that Feingold will have an easy time in the Fall election because Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin’s popular former Republican governor, isn’t opposing him. That’s wrong. Thompson ran a horrible campaign for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. He’s almost 70 years old. In 2008, Thompson complained that he couldn’t hear the questions in a debate because of a faulty hearing aid. That’s not going to get anyone elected and Thompson wisely realized he’s too old to run again.

4) Moreover, there’s a moderate Republican running against Feingold by the name of Dick Leinenkugel. He served in the Wisconsin Democratic governor’s cabinet as state commerce secretary. Moreover, his name is instantly recognizable to any Badger because he is the 5th generation of a famous beer brewing family that makes Leinenkugel beer. He’s also an ex marine and a graduate of Marquette and a decent speaker. His beer brewing family has bucks. He’s telegenic. AND he’s running against Feingold in a year when incumbents have a huge target circle painted around them.

In short, It’s not going to be easy for Feingold in November.

…….”and he’s joined by Republicans John McCain (Ariz.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), David Vitter (La.) and Sam Brownback (Kan.)”………..

I’m impressed. I was certain that the Senate was an adequate fire wall against this blasphemy. I still give it (auditing the Fed) as much chance as a new investigation of 9/11 But if such a distinguished group as McCain, DeMint, Vitter and Brownback (oh my!) want to pull back the curtain, who is Obama to say no? For the congress to exercise oversight of the Fed would be like the sack of Rome. Just talking about it sends a tingle up my leg.

Just talking about it sends a tingle up my leg.

I’m sure it sends a tingle up Ben Bernanke’s leg too. Only in his case it’s a precursor to a heart attack.

Ben hired ex-Enron lobbyist Linda Robertson to fight the FED audit. I think that puts things into the proper perspective. The Federal Reserve, aka The Enron of Central Banking.

Dodd is busy feathering his nest. Hopefully he no longer has the clout to get away with it. The FED needs a real audit.