'Dump Trump': Tens of thousands join global march

'Dump Trump': Tens of thousands join global march
Demonstrators arrive on the National Mall in Washington, DC, for the 'Women's March on Washington' on January 21, 2017 (AFP Photo/Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

March for Science protesters hit the streets worldwide

March for Science protesters hit the streets worldwide
Thousands of people in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday kicked off the March for Science, the first of more than 500 marches around the globe in support of scienceThousands of people in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday kicked off the March for Science, the first of more than 500 marches around the globe in support of science

Bernie Sanders and the Movement Where the People Found Their Voice

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


Hong Kong's grandpa protesters speak softly but carry a stick

Hong Kong's grandpa protesters speak softly but carry a stick
'Grandpa Wong' is a regular sight at Hong Kong's street battles (AFP Photo/VIVEK PRAKASH)
.
A student holds a sign reading "Don't shoot, listen!!!" during a protest
on June 17, 2013 in Brasilia (AFP, Evaristo)

FIFA scandal engulfs Blatter and Platini

FIFA scandal engulfs Blatter and Platini
FIFA President Sepp Blatter (L) shakes hands with UEFA president Michel Platini after being re-elected following a vote in Zurich on May 29, 2015 (AFP Photo/Michael Buholzer)
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Wall Street's 'Fearless Girl' statue to stay until 2018

Wall Street's 'Fearless Girl' statue to stay until 2018
The " Fearless Girl " statue on Wall Street is seen by many as a defiant symbol of women's rights under the new administration of President Donald Trump (AFP Photo/ TIMOTHY A. CLARY)



“… The Fall of Many - Seen It Yet?

You are going to see more and more personal secrets being revealed about persons in high places of popularity or government. It will seem like an epidemic of non-integrity! But what is happening is exactly what we have been teaching. The new energy has light that will expose the darkness of things that are not commensurate with integrity. They have always been there, and they were kept from being seen by many who keep secrets in the dark. Seen the change yet?

In order to get to a more stable future, you will have to go through gyrations of dark and light. What this means is that the dark is going to be revealed and push back at you. It will eventually lose. We told you this. That's what you're here for is to help those around you who don't see an escape from the past. They didn't get their nuclear war, but everything else is going into the dumper anyway. … “

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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Disputed Volcker rule divides financial world

Deutsche Welle, 12 December 2013

The Volcker rule, approved by US regulators this week, aims to rein in risky trading practices at US banks. Some consider it the biggest milestone in financial regulation since 1933, some say it's worse than nothing.


The Volcker rule - named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker - is a key plank of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law that was passed in 2010 in response to the global financial crisis of 2008. It was approved after two years of debate and lobbying by the big banks to modify it.

"The Volcker rule will make it illegal for firms to use government-insured money to make speculative bets that threaten the entire financial system, and demand a new era of accountability from CEOs, who must sign off on their firms' practices," US President Barack Obama said after the rule was approved by five US regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday (10.12.2013).

In essence, the rule severely limits so-called proprietary - or prop - trading, where banks trade for their own profit. US banks are required to put in place compliance programs and document trades to demonstrate that they are in a client's interest or a hedge against risk, rather than purely for profit.

Paul Volcker is a former chairman
of the Federal Reserve
Profound or inept?

"There hasn't been a change this big in the banking industry since 1933," says Mark Williams, a former Fed bank examiner who now teaches at Boston University and has written extensively on the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

"The onus has been pushed back on banks to demonstrate that they are not in violation…through good record-keeping, analysis, through back-testing. They have to demonstrate that they are using risk-management best practices in their hedging operations."

But critics say it is unworkable, as it will be hard to distinguish between mere gambling and legitimate trades.

"It won't work because it will be too easy to evade," Bill Black, also a former regulator, who now teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told DW.

Apart from being far too much work for understaffed regulatory agencies, he says, "as soon as you tell the banks they can hedge, against a trillion and a half dollars worth of their portfolio, tell me you couldn't find something that that would be a hedge for."

"It's a tragic lost opportunity for real reform," Black told DW. "It is worse than nothing," he says.

Back to banking basics?

Many experts consider proprietary trading to be one of the reasons for the 2008 crisis, in particular the rise of a specific type of prop trading, so-called mortgage-backed securities, "manufactured by some of the largest banks…, sold by them and kept in their portfolios," Williams told DW. These securities often involved repackaged subprime mortgages that led to mass foreclosures, when people could not pay their loans off.

Working in banking now is a far cry from the 1980s when "being a banker used to be a "respected, but also a very boring profession," Williamson says.

"The traditional banking model was a two-legged stool - banks earned income through loans and through fee services, like asset management."

To make more money "the very large banks brought a third leg to that stool and that was prop trading…and that leg is being knocked out and it's going to be a tough transitional period for many of these large banks."

And, indeed, the American Bankers' Association (ABA) argues in a statement on their website that, apart from being "burdensome and highly complex," the rule will lead to "decreased liquidity and inferior product pricing" for customers.

The banks were hoping that the Volcker rule would be much less stringent, but a 6.2-billion dollar trading loss by JPMorgan Chase in the UK in 2012 - known as the "London Whale" - gave the Volcker implementation process the "momentum," Williams says, to curb proprietary trading in a more substantial way.

The London Whale debacle cost JPMorgan
Chase over 6 billion dollars, plus fines
JPMorgan Chase, he says, "was a hedge fund disguised as an FDIC- [federally - the ed.] insured commercial bank."

"There's going to be much less profit to be made from that third leg," he says, arguing that the London Whale loss, and more importantly, the fact that the trader hid the true extent of the losses from management, could have been prevented had the Volcker rule been in place.

Still too big to fail

Bill Black is among those who are calling for much tougher measures, such as cutting banks down to size to eliminate the "too big to fail" argument that he believes encourages risky behavior.

Because of the feared domino effect of one of the big banks failing and dragging the whole economy down with it, "too big to fail institutions - the systemically dangerous institutions - can borrow much more cheaply, which creates a huge competitive advantage," he told DW.

Borrowing, especially short-term borrowing, grew rapidly in the run-up to the 2008 crisis, says Benn Steil, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in a memorandum. So, an approach to reform "that restricts the scope and incentives for bank balance-sheet expansion funded by short-term debt is essential to prevent another crisis." The Volcker rule will do nothing of the sort, he argues.

Glass-Steagall to the rescue?

Black goes a step further by insisting that the Glass-Steagall Act from 1932/33 should be reinstated. It was part of the US Banking Act passed in the wake of the Great Depression. It separated traditional banking from riskier activities like investment banking. It was repealed in 1999, allowing practices like proprietary trading to emerge.

"It [Glass-Steagall] worked brilliantly for 50 years and was praised by almost everybody," Black told DW. But "we violated one of the key rules of life - if it's not broke, don't fix it," he said.

Black says it is not just the US that has so far failed to pass meaningful regulation. "Contrast the boldness of the US response to the Great Depression and the successful boldness in regulation with the timidity of the global response to the current crisis, where we feel that we can't even think boldly."

The Volcker rule will come into effect on April 1, 2014, but banks have been given until mid-2015 to fully comply.

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