My developing theory about what's behind 'nationalizing' the big financial houses...

[Dover]

Help me think this through. I feel like I'm trying to piece together the Dead Sea Scrolls without a clue of how to read paleo-Hebrew script.

Okay, there are literally TRILLIONS of dollars 'missing' and untaxed in offshore accounts, laundered through the various mega-financial entities and their shell companies (think Enron) that make it nearly impossible to track. Congress has held hearings to try to track these missing assets...but apparently to no avail. It's just too opague. (read Trillion Dollar Hideaway http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/11/offshore.html )

So might the best way to get inside of these companies be to 'nationalize' them and get access to internal documents and have more leverage to pressure their executives to talk, etc.? Besides hiding money, these gains are often ill-gotten and dirty...accomplished through any number of means, not least of which is a manipulation of the markets.

And might there be evidence of this larger investigation by examining some recent events like -

UBS investigation could bode ill for Phil Gramm and McCain campaign

An ongoing investigation of offshore investments handled by the Swiss bank UBS may have major repercussions in the U.S.

http://news.muckety.com/2008/06/06/ubs-investigation-could-bode-ill-for-phil-gramm-and-mccain-campaign/3261


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And Spitzer was onto AIG's misdeeds as well before he was 'eliminated'.


Spitzer files suit against AIG, former CEO

...The 37-page suit accuses AIG of employing a variety of questionable accounting devices. The suit said, for example, that AIG “engaged in at least two sham insurance transactions” to give the impression its reserves were higher than they were.

It said Greenberg “personally proposed and negotiated” the deals with General Reinsurance Corp., a unit of billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Buffett has said he was not directly involved in the transaction, and the suit says the deal was worked out between Greenberg and Gen Re’s former chief executive.

The suit also alleges that AIG concealed losses from insurance underwriting through offshore shell companies; mischaracterized income from the purchase of life insurance policies; and repeatedly lied to state insurance regulators about its ties to offshore companies.

The suit suggests that Greenberg and Smith manipulated the stock for their own financial benefit.

“Greenberg and Smith ... both held hundreds of thousands of shares of AIG stock. For example, the value of Greenberg’s holdings increased or decreased approximately $65 million for every dollar AIG stock moved,” the civil suit claimed...cont'd

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7994428/


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IF this theory about the 'nationalizing' of these banks is at least partially true
then it seems that rather than taxpayers having to wait for an unlikely eventual return on worthless assets, there might be the potential of finding the lost treasure and returning literally trillions to our coffers?


What is unclear to me is -

-- how all this fits in with the larger financial crisis.

-- what role Bernanke has had, though we know he has tried to seize unprecedented power through the recent bailout bill.

-- And what of Treasury Secretary Paulson?

-- And finally, how much can be accomplished even with a Dem president and majority in Congress IF they too are complicit?

Related Post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4172433


*sigh*
I can dream.

[Dover]

1. Officials Refuse to Provide Details on Secret Previous Bailout

Fed Made $30 Billion Deal to Manage Assets of the Collapsed Bear Sterns


October 1, 2008—


Top government officials are refusing to provide details on a secretive deal it made to manage billions in assets from an earlier bailout.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has been pressing top officials for months to provide details on a deal the Federal Reserve made for a private firm to manage $30 billion in financial assets from the collapsed investment bank Bear Stearns, as part of an arrangement to facilitate J.P. Morgan Chase's purchase of the bank in March.

The Federal Reserve announced at the time that it had contracted with BlackRock Financial Management Inc. to manage the assets. Since then, it has declined to share any further details on the arrangement with anyone  not reporters, not the public, and not Sen. Grassley.

"When will I receive answers to the rest of my questions posed two-and-half months ago?" Grassley wrote to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Sept. 23, asking for an update on the value of the assets and other details of the deal.

In his letter, Grassley pointedly noted his need for timely answers in light of "the continuing financial crisis where more transparency is being promised," and the urgent press from the administration for lawmakers to approve a massive bailout program....>

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5930875

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After the Economic Crisis, the Fleecing?
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5939279&page=1

[ixion]

2. how can much be accomplished:

they've got a bit more than 3 months to start squirreling away the cash. That's a whole lotta time to squirrel.

From my perspective, this has been another prefabricated crisis designed to do what the other crises were designed for: to either secure or render benign the governmental "oversight", as toothless as that is generally. More importantly, though, was the cash. The power issues seem to be almost an afterthought. The goal here was to hobble non-friendlies and seize power through a massive daylight robbery.

Ultimately, he who controls the cash controls the power. Over the course of its term in power, the Bush cabal has managed to channel nearly 7 trillion dollars to it's network of neocon terrorist cells. This they refer to this as "catatrophic success" the only kind of success there is in Disaster Capitalism.

This latest "crisis" was simply the cherry on top.

[Dover]

3. So you are saying there is no countermovement to stop the fleecing?

I agree that they are using the time they have left to seize as much treasure as is possible
before leaving the White House....IF they leave. The Dems seem to be enabling them by allowing
them to operate outside of a regulatory framework.

So are you saying that the Dems are no better on this score; that once they have their hands
on the power (and perhaps even use that power to go after some of the missing money), we will still
have a similar greed-infested (if not more cosmetically more benign) government?

[ixion]

4. not necessarily

I think in general the dems have shown more restraint over the years, and at least try to keep up an appearance they care about the working class.

I guess this goes back to Clinton and how he handled the so-called "war" on drugs. I thought then that he would end the madness that was ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of decent people, and rollback many of the major encroachments on civil liberties and privacy. He didn't. In fact, he pushed forward with that social fabric shredding travesty, keeping it alive the entire length of his term, and passing it on to the Bush cabal, who pumped it full of crystal meth and called it the "war" on terror (:wtf:).

So for me that was an important insight into the functioning of the bureaucratic mind. That is, it's very easy to introduce something into the machinations of bureaucracy, and nearly impossible to extract once introduced.

The Bush cabal has effectively hobbled the abilities of whomever takes the helm (the neocons don't want to, which is probably why they're running McLame).

So I guess I'm saying, in short, that they're a little better, but not much. This rings especially true after watching them capitulate to an extremist regime, largely against the will of the people.

I really hope I'm wrong. I hope that Obama is elected and throws wide open the doors of accountability. I hope he shines that bright light into every crevice of the bureaucracy. But I'm not getting my hopes up...again.