Melin and Koutoulas: Did JP Morgan 'Loot Accounts' At Lehman and MF Global As Bankruptcy Tactic

It is one thing for an organization to use its privileged position to seize assets in a firm that it knows is going to go bankrupt. That is certainly a possible crime under the fraudulent conveyance laws, as well any violations of fiduciary responsibility.

If a lawyer, for example, knows that a client is going to go bankrupt because of their privileged view of the situation, do they have the right to seize any and all of their client assets for themselves, to secure any outstanding obligations the customer may have with them? Does this include escrow accounts and assets held on behalf of other parties and creditors?

But beyond this, what compounds the situation is any subsequent obstruction of justice, and racketeering with regard to concealing the discovery of those looted funds and assets that were taken extra-legally under some self-serving rationale, and the perversion of the process of the law as a result of this effort.

Remember, it was the concerted attempt to conceal a 'third rate burglary' that finally brought Nixon crashing down.

But I have to admit, this occurred at a time when the nation and its representatives still had an active conscience, that could be repelled in disgust at the trampling of the Constitution. It is not so clear that the soul of the nation has not been deadened by years of deceit and excess, dulled by propaganda and self-serving relativism.



The powerful always snicker, reveling at the height of their reign. They murder the messengers and prophets, to maintain their delusion. And they abuse justice, and the cries of the oppressed rise to heaven.

And then it may not be man's law but God's justice that prevails, and that will be a terrible chastisement indeed, the inevitable downfall, der untergang, of a group of wealthy people driven mad by the will to power and the illusion of their own exceptionalism. And then they will be broken in default and disgrace, as a sign to the faithful.

"For the oppression of the poor, for the groans of the much abused, now will I arise, says the LORD. I will set them in safety from those that sneer at them. The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tested in a furnace purified seven times.

You shall keep them safe, O Lord, you shall preserve them from this generation of vipers forever, where the wicked prowl on every side, where vile men are exalted." Psalm 12:5-8

The US Government Is Where Everybody, Every Policy, Everything Is Now For Sale At the Right Price

Tim Price puts things in perspective, and includes an extended quote from Doug Noland's excellent Credit Bubble Bulletin.

"I have no problem with the staff of Goldman Sachs earning millions...I have no problem with their clannish, hubristic, insular culture, having never wanted to work for the Moonies.

My main problem with Goldman Sachs is that if it operated like any other business in the world, when it and its business model effectively failed in 2008 it should have been allowed to fail properly, and closed down. But that is not what happened.

Despite self-serving articles like that from Nader Mousavizadeh in this weekend‘s FT ('[the bank] navigated the crisis with far greater skill and discipline than its rivals (and at a far lower cost to taxpayers'), the reality is that Goldman Sachs was almost certainly just as bust as Lehman Brothers in those dark days of 2008. The difference is that Lehman Brothers wasn‘t allowed to convert itself into a bank holding company and borrow emergency funds directly from the Federal Reserve. Goldman was, despite not being a bank in any conventional sense of the word. But that is only to be expected, given that Goldman Sachs and its alumni have managed to infiltrate themselves into every branch of the US administration...

When you look at Taibbi‘s original article, the more recent criticism voiced by...former Goldman employee Greg Smith (readable here) is a vicarage tea party by comparison.

But as I say, I have no problem with Goldman Sachs per se, other than that it shouldn‘t exist, or that it displays the uniquely biddable qualities of US government: everybody, every policy, everything is for sale at the right price...

Tim Price, Muppets 1, Gollums 0
PFP Wealth Management
19 March 2012

Working hard and being smart does not bother anyone. It is the lying, cheating, and stealing, that is most disturbing, especially when it involves corrupting the fundamental processes of the nation like the banking system and the money supply.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what is commonly known as corporatism, à la mode Américaine.

From what I can tell money corruption was taken from a long standing but largely personal, almost petty, retail political sideline into a well-organized, wholesale, industrial scale art form by the Clintons and, given the current climate of campaign funding wherein it  has proved so successful at raising enormous funds, that it has become increasingly en vogue, if not de rigueur.

In times of general corruption, when one is dancing they all must keep dancing, whether bankers or pols, until the music stops.


Read the rest here.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - New Moon, New Year, Dollar Oil

A slam in the early morning, a sharp rally on much higher volume, and then sideways on light volume all afternoon.

Over at KWN The London Trader reminds us that:

“This is when you see things turn and the manipulators rip it to the upside. There are buy stops on the upside that are attractive for them to target at this point.

Traders are also watching the US dollar now because tomorrow the Iranians are scheduled to start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar. This is clearly an attack on the dollar by the Iranians.

That statement by the London Trader struck me as odd, because it is also New Year in the Persian Gulf, celebrated as NowRuz. I would have thought that there would be more of a holiday.

Reader Marcel from Canada reminds me that the dark of the Moon falls on the 22nd.

Let's see how the week progresses.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Another Low Volume Drift Higher for Equities

The point gain in the SP futures was equal to the point gain in the DJIA.

End of quarter coming. We'll probably go down at least once before they start the end of quarter tape painting, assuming nothing else happens.