Palast on Summers as evil genius in the fall of the world's economies

[emsimon33]

If Obama chooses Summers to head the Federal Reserve, we can kiss our futures good bye and Obama's legacy will not be drones or spying but the collapse of the world's economy:

"...In the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet. ...

<snip>

"The Treasury official playing the bankers’ secret End Game was Larry Summers. ...

<Snip>

"The year was 1997. US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was pushing hard to de-regulate banks. That required, first, repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act to dismantle the barrier between commercial banks and investment banks. It was like replacing bank vaults with roulette wheels.

"Second, the banks wanted the right to play a new high-risk game: “derivatives trading.” JP Morgan alone would soon carry $88 trillion of these pseudo-securities on its books as “assets.”
Deputy Treasury Secretary Summers (soon to replace Rubin as Secretary) body-blocked any attempt to control derivatives.

But what was the use of turning US banks into derivatives casinos if money would flee to nations with safer banking laws?

"The answer conceived by the Big Bank Five: eliminate controls on banks in every nation on the planet – in one single move. It was as brilliant as it was insanely dangerous."

Read the whole article at the following:
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=33e4ec877eed6a43863a4a92e&id=78d25d8b46&e=b784a2d50d

[snappyturtle]

1. Evil genius is right. It's a crime against humanity in my book. nt

[ljm2002]

2. Here's the link to the article on Palast's own blog:

http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/

I provide this since it seems only fair to give his blog the hits.

From the article:

But what was the use of turning US banks into derivatives casinos if money would flee to nations with safer banking laws?

The answer conceived by the Big Bank Five: eliminate controls on banks in every nation on the planet – in one single move. It was as brilliant as it was insanely dangerous.

(...)

Until the bankers' re-draft of the FSA, each nation controlled and chartered the banks within their own borders. The new rules of the game would force every nation to open their markets to Citibank, JP Morgan and their derivatives "products."

And all 156 nations in the WTO would have to smash down their own Glass-Steagall divisions between commercial savings banks and the investment banks that gamble with derivatives.

Well worth reading the whole thing.

K&R

[emsimon33]

3. Thank you!

[ljm2002]

5. No problem, thanks for sharing this! n/t

[Enthusiast]

4. K&R!....nt