Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

*TYT | Bernie Sanders Tells Trump To Keep His Promises (01/12/17) [5:44]

*Financial Crash Analysis: $22.6 Billion in Homeowner Relief; $7.8 Trillion to Four Wall Street Banks
Click to zoom in WallstreetOnParade.com/ | Pam Martens | 01/11/17

As Goldman Sachs guys prepare to take the reins of power in Washington under the Trump administration, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided a tragic reminder on Monday regarding the power of the U.S. citizen versus their Wall Street overlords. The GAO released a study showing that as of October 31, 2016, the government "had disbursed $22.6 billion (60 percent) of the $37.51 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds" that were directed at helping distressed homeowners as a result of the 2008 Wall Street financial crash and the resulting housing bust.

Those paltry billions stand in stark contrast to the $7.8 trillion in near-zero interest loans that the Federal Reserve secretly funneled to just four Wall Street banks from 2007 to 2010. The Fed funneled $2.5 trillion to Citigroup; $2 trillion to Morgan Stanley; $1.9 trillion to Merrill Lynch; and $1.3 trillion to Bank of America. The total amount that the Fed secretly loaned to both U.S. and foreign banks came to $16.1 trillion. ... Read more

Trump Tells Congress to Repeal and Replace Health Care Law 'Very Quickly'
NYTimes | Maggie Haberman | 01/10/17

President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass.

"We have to get to business," Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. "Obamacare has been a catastrophic event." ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Supporters Launch Glass-Steagall Drive
WallstreetOnParade.com/ | Pam Martens | 01/06/17

Northwest Ohio supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders in his run for President have launched a nationwide push to enlist other organizations to send it letters and take to social media to endorse a demand that President-elect Donald Trump fulfill a campaign pledge. Trump made the pledge on October 26 of this year in a speech he delivered in Charlotte, North Carolina, promising to enact a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act to reform Wall Street. Such legislation has been sitting dormant in both the House and Senate for years. If enacted, it would separate the deposit-taking, taxpayer-insured commercial banks from the globe-trotting, high-risk trading casinos known as investment banks on Wall Street. ... Read more

Trump Moves Closer To Gutting Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Watchdog
HP | Ben Walsh | 01/12/17

NEW YORK ? Big business and congressional Republicans salivate at the idea of gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Now, President-elect Donald Trump is moving toward what they've long wanted: a weak agency that sides with financial predators over consumers.

... A source close to the transition team told HuffPost that Neugebauer has yet to be offered the job, but that no other candidates are being looked at yet. HuffPost previously reported that Neugebauer's name was being floated as agency chief if Trump decides to fire the current director, Richard Cordray. ... Read more

14 Fake News Stories Created or Publicized by Donald Trump
AlterNet | Kali Holloway | 01/12/17

Trump has put thousands of fake news stories out there, some enormous and others so small you wonder why he bothers. Here are 14 fake news stories from the recent and distant past that Trump has created or promoted.

A Well-Kept Open Secret: Washington Is Behind India's Brutal Experiment of Abolishing Most Cash
washingtonsblog.com | Norbert Haering | 01/11/17

In early November, without warning, the Indian government declared the two largest denomination bills invalid, abolishing over 80 percent of circulating cash by value. Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington's role has been disguised only very superficially.

... On November 8, Indian prime minster Narendra Modi announced that the two largest denominations of banknotes could not be used for payments any more with almost immediate effect. Owners could only recoup their value by putting them into a bank account before the short grace period expired at year end, which many people and businesses did not manage to do, due to long lines in front of banks. The amount of cash that banks were allowed to pay out to individual customers was severely restricted. Almost half of Indians have no bank account and many do not even have a bank nearby. The economy is largely cash based. Thus, a severe shortage of cash ensued. Those who suffered the most were the poorest and most vulnerable. They had additional difficulty earning their meager living in the informal sector or paying for essential goods and services like food, medicine or hospitals. Chaos and fraud reigned well into December. ... Read more and/or original here

The Biggest Commodity Story Of The Year?
Oilprice.com | James Burgess | 01/11/17

Lithium saw its price triple in 2016, and cobalt--another massively important element in the lithium-ion battery--rose almost 50 percent in the same year, and is poised to become the next critical metal as the world sits on the edge of an energy revolution driven by mainstream electric vehicles, battery gigafactories and power walls. ... Read more