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A bank's primary federal regulator could be the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or the Office of Thrift Supervision. And within the Federal Reserve Board, there are 12 districts centered around 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, each of which carries out the Federal Reserve Board's bank regulatory responsibilities in its respective district. Credit Unions in the United States are subject to certain similar bank-like regulations and are supervised by the National Credit Union Administration
Administration officials say they are postponing their plan to produce a detailed road map for overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system by April, in time for the Group of 20 meeting in London. Though officials say they will still develop basic principles in time for the meeting, the plan will not include much detail.
Fiscal outlays intended to revive economies must be sustained into 2010, Geithner said.
At the moment, statistics from the International Monetary Fund show fiscal stimulus plans are expected to drop off next year, he said.
The global crisis shows no signs of weakening yet. Rather, the recession has been "deepening," according to the most complete data available, Geithner said.
"What we're seeing happen really around the world now is really without recent precedent," he said.
The Treasury secretary's comments came during a press conference ahead of his trip to London to meet top finance officials from 20 major economies. Geithner will be preparing the way for President Obama and fellow heads of state and government to meet in early April.
Section 7 All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but
the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other bills.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor
"There wasn't any stock bought or sold," said the attorney, David Sheehan. "It was all just made up. . . . You got somebody else's money."
Bernard Madoff's alleged massive financial fraud has sparked more outrage as news circulates a major U.S. bank may have cashed out early while other investors were left high and dry.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) suddenly began pulling its money out of two hedge funds that invested with Madoff last fall before Madoff was arrested, but did not tell investors.
According to the newspaper, JP Morgan said its potential losses related to Madoff are "pretty close to zero."
JP Morgan Chase spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau did not return several calls seeking comment.
As lawyers and investors digested the story, they began questioning how big players may have been able to protect themselves from Madoff, while small investors were left exposed.
Motley Fool co-founder Tom Gardner recently wrote an awesome article about how hundreds should go to jail, given all the bad actions that have been taking place, pointing out the outrageous pay awarded to CEOs who presided over Washington Mutual (now part of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)), AIG (NYSE: AIG), and Merrill Lynch (now part of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)). These are the folks who arguably presided over ruin and yet managed to run off with big bucks anyway.
The public remains enthralled as the depth and complexity of Bernie Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme continues to be revealed yet Harry Markopoulos knew about it from the start. So why didn’t anybody listen?
Earlier today Harry Markopoulos, a Boston based money manager, stood before the congressional panel charged with investigating the scheme and directed a series of scathing critiques to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Markopoulos became famous as the whistle-blower who helped unveil the scheme at Madoff Investment Securities but it allegedly took him almost 10 years to do it.
"Reforming financial regulation, supervision, and oversight:
What to do and who should do it"
Morris Goldstein
24 February 2009
This column sketches proposed reforms for regulation, supervision, and oversight of international financial markets. At both the national and international levels, there will be plenty of work to do for the IMF, the FSF, international standard-setting bodies, and national regulators and supervisors.
In the midst of the most serious financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is clear that major regulatory failure (in the long run-up to the crisis) was one of the key contributing factors. The two central questions are:
What to do, and
Who should do it.
[...]
The IMF
Once a new international regulatory and supervisory template is agreed upon,
the Fund should expand its FSAP (Financial Sector Assessment Program) and ROSC (Review of Standards and Codes) exercises so that it can evaluate countries’ compliance with the new template. Such exercises should be mandatory for all Fund member countries, and the results should be published.
The Fund’s membership should agree that FSAPs will be done for systemically important countries at least once every 12-18 months. For other member countries, FSAPs would be done once every 2-3 years.
The Fund should strengthen its early warning capabilities – particularly its focus on monitoring systemic risk-- by performing a regular quarterly exercise that ranks countries’ vulnerability to currency, banking, and debt crises. The Fund should also present regularly the kind of global credit loss analysis and projections that has appeared in the last few Global Financial Stability Reports.
Along with the FSF, the Fund should be informed before the fact when member countries are planning to introduce crisis management measures related to the financial sector (e.g, government guarantees on bank liabilities, capital injections, etc) that could have important spillover effects on other countries’ crisis management plans.
As suggested earlier, the Fund needs to raise its game on exchange rate surveillance and on identification and publication of currency mismatches.
The FSF
The FSF should make recommendations to the standard-setting bodies whenever a clear majority of its members conclude that there is a significant hole ... [...]
The IMF
Once a new international regulatory and supervisory template is agreed upon,
the Fund should expand its FSAP (Financial Sector Assessment Program) and ROSC (Review of Standards and Codes) exercises so that it can evaluate countries’ compliance with the new template. Such exercises should be mandatory for all Fund member countries, and the results should be published.
Then there's the abjectly false testimony Madoff gave the Securities and Exchange Commission in court under oath. Why didn't the SEC ask for the records of stock transactions in Europe, or go count the securities that did not exist? The guilty plea shows how easy it is to fool the regulators.
The most likely suspect for an indictment is Frank DiPasquale, head trader. Many clients claim they dealt personally with him, so he had to be part of the scam. Unless he wants to join Madoff in the slammer, he'll have to consider putting the finger on others who knew or played a role.
If I were DiPasquale, I'd cooperate with the government, make a deal and drop the dime on anyone who gave the orders besides Bernie. They know who they are, and they must be sweating right about now.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned on Friday that 2009 could be a "very dangerous year" and urged quick action to fix troubled economies ahead of a meeting of international finance officials expected to wrestle over whether to spend or regulate the way out of the global downturn.
"The danger now is doing nothing too little, too late," Zoellick told reporters before heading to the gathering of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 countries in Horsham, 30 miles south of London. "Incremental changes will prolong and increase risks."
Reuters
G20 rift deepens ahead of crisis response talks
03.13.09,
Snippet from Article
Washington is urging the biggest industrialised countries to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product to boost demand and pull the global economy out of its tailspin, but France and Germany have rejected U.S. and British calls for fresh spending.
"The international community must unite to tackle the downturn and set the path toward a sustainable future," Britain's Darling said in a column in the Wall Street Journal.
"We must do three things: boost demand, reform the global system of financial regulation, and increase the resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)."
It's over - we're officially, royally ~snipped~! no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline - a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.
"But wait a minute," you say to them. "No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what's left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?"
Gordon Brown has made an overtly religious call for a new world order based on the 'deep moral sense' shared by all faiths.
Making the first speech by a serving Prime Minister at St Paul's Cathedral in London, he quoted scripture as he urged people to unite to forge a new 'global society'.
The Prime Minister argued that through all faiths, traditions and heritages runs a 'single powerful modern sense demanding responsibility from all and fairness to all'.
He quoted the Christian doctrine of 'do to others what you would have them do unto you' and highlighted similar principles in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.
London, 2 Apr. - From the G20 in London, a "new world order" is emerging. So announced the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to a press conference. "First of all, for the first time, we have together fixed the principles for a reform of the global banking system," Brown said, "This is a vast programme of measures which for the first time brings the shadow banking system, including hedge funds, within the network of global reglulation. We have agreed on the need to set international accountancy standards, we shall set rules for the rating agencies to eliminate conflicts of interest; we have arrived at an agreement to put an end to tax havens which do not supply information upon request. This is the beginning of the end for tax havens".