Banker Poutrage as Senator Elizabeth Warren Kicks Ass

I want to note that there are district attorneys and U.S. attorneys who are out there everyday squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin grounds and taking them to trial to ‘make an example,’ as they put it. I am really concerned that too-big-to-fail has become too-big-for-trial.
. . . nobody believes that the banks' books are honest. Second, would be that nobody believes that the banks are really manageable. That is, if they are too complex either for their own institutions to manage them or for the regulators to manage them.
~ Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, to Bank Regulators


From Upworthy

• At 1:20, she asks the question we've all been wanting someone to ask FOREVER. Then a government lawyer stumbles over his words.
• At 2:20, she rattles off another one. Then a government lawyer stumbles over his words.
• At 2:55, she asks another lawyer the same question. Said lawyer then tries to not stumble over her words.
• At 3:25, she asks the same question again. That lawyer asks for some time.
• At 3:45, she gets our back and goes for the knockout punch.
• And then right after that you reward her good behavior by sharing this with everyone on the Internet. You know you want to.

By raising of the issue of prosecuting banksters, Elizabeth Warren renews checks & balances - w/Senate as watchdog on watchdogs. @thenation
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) February 15, 2013

OMG - if loving a middle aged bankruptcy law professor is wrong, I don't want to be right. Elizabeth Warren - my new hero. #politicsnation
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) February 15, 2013

WARREN TERRIFIES BANKERS IN FIRST HEARING
~ Headline on Politico's Morning Money

While Senator Warren had every right to ask pointed questions at today's Senate Banking Committee hearing, her claim that 'nobody believes' that bank books are honest is just plain wrong. Perhaps someone ought to remind the Senator that the campaign is over and she should act accordingly if she wants to be taken seriously.
~ An Anonymous "Top Executive" Angry at Elizabeth Warren

People love when Warren squares off on Wall Street. It delights them, the sight of a bespectacled middle-aged professor absolutely hammering suit-clad financiers.
. . . She is ...talking to Wall Street in a way it's not used to hearing from elected officials, and it's making her a rising star in the Democratic Party. Bankers should probably stop griping, and start getting used to it.
~ Kevin Roose on NY Mag

The more scared the banksters get, the more satisfied I am.
Go get 'em, Sen Warren!
We couldn't be more proud!
~ RillyKewl on Huffington Post

Today's Headline on Huffington Post:

They say when you hear a bell ringing an angel is getting their wings ...
I am sure there are belling ringing all over because a really honest , good person has been elected.
~ Enough240 on Huffington Post

I failed to mention the beauty of irony and Karma.
The banking industry fought hard to prevent Elizabeth Warren from running the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that she developed with her team at Obama's direction.
Oh are they sorry now. It makes me punch drunk that the great residents of Massacheusetts voted her into office. They know a winner when they see one.
Wall Street, Paybacks are a Beach! She's got your number...
~ California TowHead on Huffington Post

Joe Biden Unchained

"Joe Biden Pack" from the Obama Store
Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he's gonna let the big banks again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street!
They're going to put you all back in chains.
~ Vice President Joe Biden in Danville, VA

. . . the vice president was clearly using a metaphor to describe the devastating impact of deregulating Wall Street and the financial industry, as well as how Governor Romney’s policies would take us back to the same failed formula that led to the 2008 financial crisis – the same failed formula that benefitted a few, but crashed our economy and hurt the middle class.
~ Stephanie Cutter responding for the Obama Administration



After weeks of slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney, the Obama Campaign has reached a new low. The comments made by the Vice President of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama Campaign will say and do anything to win this election. President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden’s comments.
~ Romney Press Secretary Andrea Saul

 For months, Speaker Boehner, Congressman Ryan, and other Republicans have called for the ‘unshackling’ of the private sector from regulations that protect Americans from risky financial deals and other reckless behavior that crashed our economy. Since then, the Vice President has often used a similar metaphor to describe the need to ‘unshackle’ the middle class. Today’s comments were a derivative of those remarks, describing the devastating impact letting Wall Street write its own rules again would have on middle class families. We find the Romney campaign’s outrage over the Vice President’s comments today hypocritical, particularly in light of their own candidate’s stump speech questioning the President’s patriotism. Now, let’s return to that ‘substantive’ debate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan promised 72 hours ago, but quickly abandoned.” 
~ The Obama Admin response to Romney's response

I'm told when I made that comment earlier today in Danville, Virginia, the Romney Campaign put out a tweet, you know tweets, and went on the air, went on the airwaves saying 'Biden's outrageous in saying that - I think I said, instead of unshackled, unchained or - anyway, outrageous to say that, that's what we meant. I'm using their own words. I got a message for them, if you want to know want to know what's outrageous, it's their policies, and the effects of their policies on middle class America, that's what's outrageous.
~ Joe Biden via CBS News

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other words, when Wall Street is "unchained," the rest of America is "back in chains" — that is, back at the mercy of the banks. Hyperbolic? Yes. Demagogic? Yes. But it's a totally plausible explanation when you consider the context.
~ New York Magazine

Romney's campaign exceptionally thin-skinned. All year long they've cried and cried about what we can't or shouldn't talk about. Meanwhile, he can associate with all sorts of neanderthals, who think the President is everything from a traitor to the anti-Christ.
~ comment by Biloxi on Daily Kos

 Portraying Biden as an angry black man is just the strategy that I can see Mitt 2012 trying out for a few days.
~ comment by Inland on Daily Kos

 To be fair to the Romney campaign, suggesting that Wall Street should be regulated is, for them, the lowest of all possible lows. Good day, sir!
~ comment by bryduck on Daily Kos

Romney speak: "A new low"
Translation: "it really hit home".
~ comment by Quantumlogic on Daily Kos

Biden's Unchained Melody. . .
 ~ comment by 88kathy on Daily Kos

Joe Biden Said Something About Chains and Slavery and now Andrea Saul Needs Her Smelling Salts | ABL Chronicles angryblackladychronicles.com/2012/08/14/bid…
— Arrogant Demon (@ArrogantDemon) August 15, 2012

We CANNOT let Joe Biden's 'chains' comments go. These liberals deserve a good whooping. #tcot #mitt2012 #Biden #Romney #romneyryan #RnR
— ProRomney2012 (@ProRomney) August 15, 2012

RT @thekudlowreport: [VIDEO] Fmr NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani questions if VP @joebiden is mentally fit for office. Watch: cnb.cx/NyLsAB
— Larry Kudlow (@larry_kudlow) August 14, 2012

After Joe Biden's remarks Monday, the GOP has a lock on S&M voters.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) August 14, 2012

This was a response to Joe Biden telling a group of people living in a town that's 48.6% black that Romney wants to put em "back in chains".
— (V) (;,,;) (V) (@SnackGods) August 15, 2012

So, Joe Biden's a racist cuz he said "unshackle" today. Right-wing is doing a terrific job demonstrating their understanding of race issues.
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) August 14, 2012

Rush Limbaugh on Biden's Remark

Romney, God bless the guy, is energized himself on these campaign appearances now. Romney is fired up. They've got standing room only crowd right now in Colorado to see Paul Ryan. This enthusiasm is great to see. You talk about the 2010 midterms, Wisconsin, I've had this -- and I've had it for a while -- this sense that our voters just can't wait to get these chains off and get to the ballot box. They want November to be here tomorrow and the Democrat voters are not like that at all. Look at who Obama picked. Obama picked a buffoon.
This guy, folks, I think this Ryan pick has really rattled Bite Me. He's out there in Virginia, (imitating Biden) "I think we can win North Carolina." While he's in Virginia he says that: "I think we can win North Carolina." He doesn't even know where he is.
. . . Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager to President Kardashian, said of course we have no problem with Biden's comments about putting everybody back in chains. I mean, President Obama probably agrees with Vice President Biden. That's what she said. I just read it. Stephanie Cutter believes that Obama agrees with Biden. It's just a metaphor, but everybody knows that's what the Republicans want to do is put the black people back in chains. This is just a metaphor. We totally stand by these comments. They're just decent guys, Ryan and Romney, decent family men. They want to put people back in chains.
I'm sitting here, I just hate the fact this stuff gets rewarded. I just despise the fact that this stuff gets rewarded. And it does. It works. I don't know what percentage. Thirty percent of the country stands up and applauds when Biden says this kind of stuff. Now, the Romney people said this is deplorable. This is the bottom of the barrel. This is the lowest of the low. And the Kardashian campaign said: No, President Kardashian totally agrees. We stand by the vice president fully. Anyway, Biden's exploding. Something's gotten under his skin. Biden is a walking gaffe machine. He's out there letting fly. He's in Virginia saying (imitating Biden) "We're going to win. We're going to keep North Carolina in our camp." While he's in Virginia.

Facebook ~ Sorry, Suckers! I mean, Zuckers!

Facebook Shows There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
~ Headline on Wall Street Journal

It’s the biggest pump-and-dump in history.
~ Francis Gaskins, president of the IPO research site IPOdesktop.com, on New York Daily News

In one of the biggest IPOs in history, in which a huge amount of stock was sold to small investors, privileged Wall Street insiders once again got much better information than individuals did.
~ From MSNBC "The Inside Story of Facebook's IPO"

...there’s something unseemly about customers complaining at a gambling table that the game was rigged against them....Unfortunately, you can’t sue people for being suckers or greedy. You’ll note these people never sue when their investments go up.
~ WSJ Marketwatch OP-ED called "You Can Sue Facebook, but Why Did You Buy?

Nasdaq messed up Facebook's IPO, and now Facebook is totally going to show them by taking its stock away from Nasdaq and hooking up with Nasdaq's frenemy, the New York Stock Exchange.
That is the latest gossip from the world of Facebook, whose stock today managed to dead-cat bounce by more than 3 percent to exactly $32.
~ Huff Post Article "Facebook is Totally Dumping Nasdaq"


Facebook: What you have when you put lipstick on MySpace.
~ Comment by Aerobat on Huffington Post

I understand that the FB shareholders are planning to rename their company, CHAGRIN, and to discuss their 'issues' on the new social/legal networking site, FACEOFF.
~ comment by awenshok on BusinessWeek

I would buy a ton of it. Because Facebook is the king of backlash. It takes a whipping and keeps on gripping. Us all. Try as we might we can never break the bonds that our Facebook masters have us all captive in. This is the dirty secret that they, and us, all know. They can force us into a timeline. We will revolt, but then learn to tow it. They can take away our protections. We will complain, but then learn to cope. They can sell all our information. We will freak out, then give them some more. They've got us all by the walls.
And we're not going anywhere. All 900 million of us and growing. We can bitch, we can moan, but we're still going to post. Facebook is like an awful party that we all already went to and have been standing in the corner of for the last 6 years...
~ Gavin Shulman on Huff Post Comedy

Facebook's stock has gone way down. It's as if a million investors' voices cried out and were suddenly silenced.

— Darth Vader (@DepressedDarth) May 22, 2012

It is such sweet and supreme irony that #Facebook seems to have screwed up its IPO through failing to share information correctly.

— emily bell (@emilybell) May 23, 2012

Facebook has lost so much money Mark Zuckerberg has been named an honorary board member of JPMorgan. #LenoMono bit.ly/Kz336K

— Jay Leno (@jayleno) May 23, 2012

Investers Get "Zucked" by Facebook IPO

Via Zazzle


Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room and in eight years built it into the most popular waste of time the world has ever seen.
~ Jay Leno

Facebook is worth $100 billion. Today it was friended by Greece.
~ David Letterman

Andy Warhol said that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Facebook is exactly like that except you're not really famous and your 15 minutes goes on forever.
~ Craig Ferguson

Shares of Facebook stock dropped from the opening day price of $38 to around $34 today. They say if it drops any lower, Mitt Romney will swoop in and divide it up into Face and Book.
~ Jimmy Kimmel

Mark Zuckerberg’s paper wealth has fallen by more than $3 billion over the past two-and-a-half trading days. It could fall further today, giving us a new term for the business lexicon: “Zucked.” (As in “My stock wealth is down 30 percent, I got Zucked!”)
~ Robert Frank on CNBC

Please try to imagine, how passionately indifferent I am, to these wealthy morons, who got screwed by believing the Faceplant hype.
~ comment by deconstructionist on CNBC

I'm going to wait till next month to see if Facebook stocks will be on Groupon at 50% off.
~ comment on Techcrunch by Julian Hugh, Founder and CEO at SwagFriends.com teens social network

Insiders profited, the rest are suckers. Dot-bomb 2.0.
~ comment by Curt Story on Techcrunch

Remember this biblical saying? "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind"! So be it with Facebook.
~ comment by Slyfas on Independent UK

Facebook stock is falling so much that its new mascot should be Wile E. Coyote.

— Ben Greenman (@bengreenman) May 22, 2012

It's my fervent hope Mark Zuckerberg gets the happily-ever-after he deserves after selling everyone's privacy for billions.

— Uncle Dynamite (@UncleDynamite) May 22, 2012

Fallon: The Zuckerberg wedding reception was really annoying though. As soon as everyone sat down he changed the layout for no reason.

— Andrew Malcolm (@AHMalcolm) May 22, 2012

Social networking has become a club. Twitter is the dance floor, Instagram is the bar, and Facebook is the people crying in the bathroom.

— Catherine (@TFB_Lovers) May 23, 2012

Today the dude on my street who usually hands out pizza flyers was handing out Facebook stock.

— Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) May 23, 2012

I'm buying Facebook stock because I see a big future in people being annoyed by other people they barely remember from junior high.

— Julius Sharpe (@juliussharpe) May 21, 2012

At the Vancouver airport, you can exchange one Canadian dollar for either .98 American cents OR a share of Facebook stock.

— Daniel T. Thomsen (@danielthomsen) May 23, 2012

JP Morgan Bank Losses in the Billions from Sketchy Hedge Trading

We made a terrible, egregious mistake...There's almost no excuse for it...We got very defensive. And people started justifying everything we did.
~ CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, on NBC's Meet the Press

Since when does a mea culpa deserve praise? JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon shows how low the leadership bar can go. ow.ly/aUocG

— Inc.(@Inc) May 14, 2012

"You either get to be a bank, or you get to be a casino." @mtaibbi on JP Morgan's disastrous $2 billion bet: bitly.com/IXRtpZ

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 11, 2012

JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon has a top post at the New York Fed, presumably because Madoff was unavailable.

— Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) May 14, 2012

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: "We Just Lost $2 Billion on Credit Derivatives, But I Have a Real Good Feeling About Next Mega Millions Drawing"

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) May 11, 2012

"Just cause we're stupid doesn't mean everyone else was." -Jamie Dimon on health of the financial industry: bloom.bg/ILW8Zr $JPM

— Bloomberg TV(@BloombergTV) May 12, 2012

The JP Morgan Whale joins the Goldman Sachs Vampire Squid in the great hall of deep-water and sinking financial monsters

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) May 14, 2012

Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got, and they still lost $2 billion and counting....We don't know all the details," Obama said. "It's going to be investigated, but this is why we passed Wall Street reform.
~ President Obama on The View

Jamie Dimont Put in the Rough
~ Headline on Boston Herald

It’s no secret that bankers have been feeling the wrath of an angry public—although nowhere near as much wrath or anger as the situation demands. They kept a low profile for a while, garaging their Lamborghinis and keeping the big watches in the sock drawer. But like penny-ante crooks who ignore warnings not to flash their money around after a heist, they are what they are. And everything, from multi-million-dollar duplexes to oceangoing yachts and NetJets accounts, is back on display.
~ From an article called "Dimon in the Rough" on VanityFair.com

If we are going to define this trade as a hedge, then there is no other conclusion to reach except that everything at a huge bank is a hedge.
And once you define everything as a hedge, well then, nothing is a hedge.
~ Barry Ritholtz on The Big Picture Blog

You liberals need to get out of the way, u don't understand capitism (sp)
~ Huffpost Super User Oppose Obama (who cannot spell)

What is capitism, brainwave? We DO understand fraud and malfeasence.
~ Celiene on Huffpo in response to Oppose Obama

Why is this a left vs. right problem? How can anyone think we don't need tighter regulation?
~ comment by Jaguar Man on Huffington Post

That is what Jamie Dimon has said. He says it’s stupid and sloppy but we’ll fix it. So stay away. But what if the next loss is $20 billion or $200 billion? Is he saying JP Morgan should be entitled to continue to take these bets right up until the day it lands in the taxpayers lap again?
...That’s the strongest argument for a modern Glass-Steagall. Glass-Steagall said in effect that hedge funds should be separated from commercial banking. If a big institution wants to go out and play in the market, that’s fine. But it doesn’t get the backup of the federal government. If it’s too complicated to implement the Volcker rule, do you say we give up and let the largest financial institutions do what they want? Or do you say maybe that’s the reason we need a modern Glass-Steagall?
~ Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to Ezra Klein of Washington Post

I spoke with @EzraKlein this afternoon about JPMorgan and the argument for a modern Glass-Steagall Act. wapo.st/L1t4fx #wallstreet

— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 14, 2012

Banks have been loading up on risk and they don't want to be accountable. Jamie Dimon not only is CEO of JP Morgan Chase, he holds this position of public trust, advising the New York Fed. on how to regulate risk for these large financial institutions, like his own finanicial institution.
It's not just conflict of interest, it's a real point about attitude here. This isn't personal to Jamie Dimon. It's what's been going on ever since Dodd-Frank passed. There's been a guerrilla war out there in which the largest financial institutions have been doing everything they can to make sure that financial regulations don't get put in place. And if they do get put in place, that they're loaded with loopholes and not very effective. There's been a lobbying army hired by these financial institutions becasue they really don't want to have any oversight. They want to take on risks however they want to take on risk and let the rest of us bear the consequences...
~ Elizabeth Warren on CNN's Starting Point