Commentary - 11/03/2008

Trained To Lie, In Order To Steal, Results In Disaster

I'm going to start with the resulting disaster phase first, as described in this recent article From Midwest to M.T.A., Pain From Global Gamble from the New York Times.

The Wisconsin schools are on the brink of losing their money, confronting educators with possible budget cuts.

“I am really worried,” said . . . the first-grade teacher at Grewenow Elementary in Kenosha, Wis., one of the districts that invested in the deal. “If millions of dollars are gone, what happens to my retirement? Or the construction paper and pencils and supplies we need to teach?”
. . .
“The local papers and radio shows call us idiots, and now when I go home, my kids ask me, ‘Dad, did you do something wrong?’ ” said . . . the director of business services in the Whitefish Bay district. “This is something I’ll regret until the day I die.”
. . .
And the bank at the center of the saga, named Depfa, is now in trouble, threatening the stability of its parent company in Munich and forcing German officials to intervene with a multibillion-dollar bailout to stop a chain reaction that could freeze Germany’s economic system.

How does an out-of-country financial predator reach all the way from Europe into our heartland, and then into an American school district?

First, the company starts with a "knowledgable" executive staff. From here, these are a few of their qualifications:

. . . previously held senior positions in the Capital Market Divisions of Deutsche Bank AG and Westdeutsche Landesbank.
[Drill down into the Major Holders of corporations in America and you'll see Deutsche Bank AG quite often, i.e. Key Bank : McDonald's : Target : Wendy's]

. . . worked for Merrill Lynch where he was CEO of Germany and Vice Chairman of European Equity Capital Markets. He also worked for Goldman Sachs in New York and London as Managing Director in M&A, Corporate Finance and Equity Capital Markets.

Prior to this, the Mathematician with a PhD in Business Administration worked for more than ten years in various Front and Back Office Functions for Frankfurt based Citigroup.

. . . held Senior Positions in Fixed Income, Public Finance and Capital Markets in both New York and London for JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

Next, you need a license to lie and steal in America.
Staffed with these connections, appropriate contacts are made with the appropriate folks at the Federal Reserve.
The result is the granting of the license for operating here in the States.

But this is not an isolated incident:

Wisconsin schools were not the only ones to jump into such complicated financial products. More than $1.2 trillion of C.D.O.’s have been sold to buyers of all kinds since 2005 — including many cities and government agencies — an increase of 270 percent from the four previous years combined, according to Thomson Reuters.

“Selling these products to municipalities was pretty widespread,” said . . . a finance industry consultant in Chicago. “They tend to be less sophisticated. So bankers sell them products stuffed with junk.”

So what happened to the chief that rallied all his subjects to wheel and deal in these "products stuffed with junk?"
In 2007, even as the global economy was softening, Mr. Bruckermann persuaded one of Germany’s biggest lenders, Hypo Real Estate, to purchase Depfa for $7.8 billion. Mr. Bruckermann’s cut was more than $150 million. He left the company to grow oranges on his Spanish estate.
NOTE: Earlier this year was another commentary of financial predators going after school children here: Make The Children Suffer.

Today, we must say, "NO MORE!"
The Dragon Wins NO MORE!
Let's accept our failures now. Congress proved themselves not worthy of our trust.
Pass the American Monetary Act to prevent giving away TITLE to your homeland.


© 2008 by Edward Ulysses Cate
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