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Edit Volker: We Can't Handle the Truth?

14 May 2008

Paul Volcker was providing testimony to Congress this morning, and it was being covered by Bloomberg television.

Volcker started to 'tell it like it is' and basically laid out the US economic situation in plain and simple terms. We wish we had recorded it. It was 'scathing' to say the least.

To paraphrase, the mathematicians took over with opaque and complex models. The regulators failed. No one likes regulators when times are good, and when times go bad they get all the blame. We had a system fueled by outrageously high compensation, and so the Wall Street firms did not care what they created as long as they could sell it to someone else.

It was starting to get interesting, and then... Bloomberg television cut away so that Betty Liu could tell us how well the stock market was doing, and they never came back.

CNBC was not covering Volcker's testimony. Neither were the C-Spans. CNN? Forget about it.

A friend who was traveling in Europe the past two weeks emailed with the news that 'things are much worse over there and talk of the financial crisis is all over the front pages and people are talking about it." We are in much better shape because no one is talking about it here.

If we had a financial crash and everyone pretended not to notice would it still have happened? We think there are some central planners in the States that would give a resounding 'No.'

So now that Volcker has spoken out, expect the corporate shills and stooges to make snide remarks, and attempt to smear him. This is what they do.

The Consumer Price Index number this morning was a complete fabrication, a farce.

Its time to start noticing, time to stop going with the flow. The flow is heading into madness.


We found a video link to Volcker's presentation
Go to this link on Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1ODhNdXi8Mw&refer=home
Go to the top right of the page and you will see "Related Video and Graphics"
Click on the link titled Volcker Says Solution to Credit Crisis Goes Beyond US
Bloomberg TV cut away just before minute 6 of this excerpt.


Volcker Says Fed Interventions Risk Political Battles
By Craig Torres

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker warned that Ben S. Bernanke's interventions in securities markets opened the door to political interference that may threaten the Fed's independence in setting interest rates.

``Intervention in a broad range of credit-market instruments may imply official support for a particular sector of the market or the economy,' Volcker said in testimony to the congressional Joint Economic Committee in Washington today. Support for specific markets ``throws them into political battles,' he said in an interview, referring to the Fed.

Volcker's comments are his most detailed warning yet about the consequences of the Fed's rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. and taking on mortgage securities from bond dealers. He joins former Fed chief Alan Greenspan in anticipating greater meddling with the central bank at a time of rising inflation pressures.

``Independence is integral to the central responsibility of the Federal Reserve' for ``the conduct of monetary policy,' said Volcker, 80, who served as Fed chairman from 1979 to 1987, and is credited with halting runaway inflation. He was succeeded by Greenspan, who retired in January 2006.

Greenspan, 82, wrote in his book ``The Age of Turbulence,' published before the Fed's credit-market actions, that ``the dysfunctional state of American politics does not give me great confidence in the short run' and there may be ``a return of populist, anti-Fed rhetoric.'

Like Early '70s

Volcker, who engineered a surge in interest rates to 20 percent when battling consumer price gains 18 years ago, said ``there is some resemblance to where we are now in the inflation picture to the early 1970s.' The Fed failed to contain a pickup in prices at that time, spurring the acceleration of inflation later that decade, he said. (The Fed was acting the role of Nixon's whoreboy is more accurate. - Jesse)

``If we lose confidence in the ability and the willingness of the Federal Reserve to deal with inflationary pressures' and buttress the dollar, ``we will be in real trouble,' Volcker said. ``That has to be very much in the forefront of our thinking. If we lose that we are back in the 1970s or worse.' (Benny and Cheney assure W we can lie our way out of this one too. No dress. Know what we mean? - Jesse)

Consumer prices rose 3.9 percent in April from a year before, compared with an average rate of 2.7 percent over the past decade, a Commerce Department report showed today. Volcker said there's ``a lot more inflation' than reflected in government figures.

Lawmakers' Pressure

Congressional lawmakers pressed the Fed in March and April to widen the collateral it accepts for loans from securities dealers to include debt backed by student loans. The central bank did extend its Term Securities Lending Facility to add asset-backed securities on May 2.

The Fed's recent actions ``will invite greater scrutiny,' said David Jones, a former Fed economist who has written books on the central bank. ``The Fed could not be at a more delicate moment, and to the extent that Congress does try to lean on the Fed, it will impinge on its independence at a critical juncture.'

The Fed has created three new instruments since December to alleviate credit strains, including direct loans to nonbanks for the first time since the Great Depression.

Bernanke, 54, said yesterday that financial markets remain unsettled and the central bank will increase its auctions of cash to banks as needed.

`Far From Normal'

While markets have improved, they remain ``far from normal,' Bernanke said in a speech to an Atlanta Fed conference at Sea Island, Georgia. ``We stand ready to increase the size of the auctions if further warranted by financial developments.'

The flight from risk since August has made financial institutions reluctant to lend to each other, driving up banks' borrowing costs. That has increased the threat to economic growth already posed by the worst housing recession in a quarter-century by making banks more reluctant to extend credit.

``The Federal Reserve as other central banks is obviously taking onto its balance sheet a lot of mortgages these days,' Volcker said. ``Well, the creators of the Federal Reserve system would be rolling over in their graves if they knew the Federal Reserve is buying mortgages.' (We'd like to think they are roasting in hell but that's just us - Jesse)

Volcker blamed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government- chartered companies that are the biggest sources of financing for U.S. housing, for failing to take a stronger role in the crisis. (Give me a break Paul, they are practically bankrupt - Jesse)

``Where are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?' Volcker asked. ``These are two congressionally created agencies with the specific responsibility' of supporting the mortgage market, he said.

Tighter Regulation

Volcker said the Fed's rescue of Bear Stearns and its loans to investment banks now mean both officials and market participants will assume the central bank will intervene similarly in the future. That means tighter regulation of investment banks is critical, he said. (That's the moral hazard element, and the banks must be restrained now more than ever. Duh - Jesse)

``Systemically important investment banking institutions should be regulated and supervised along at least the basic lines appropriate for commercial banks,' the former Fed chairman said.

Volcker also urged an overhaul of the central bank's internal organization, with a senior official designated by law to take charge of ``administrative responsibility.'

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York, who chairs the congressional panel, said a new single regulator is needed to oversee financial regulation. (How about funding the one that we have once in a while Chuck - Jesse)

Main Focus

While the Securities and Exchange Commission was charged with overseeing Bear Stearns, its main focus is on disclosures to investors, Schumer said in an interview with Bloomberg Television before the hearing. The Fed, which in March pledged $29 billion of financing to secure the takeover by JPMorgan, had no jurisdiction, the senator said.

The Fed ``had to do what they had to do, but they're on tricky ground because the regulatory structure is so ossified,' Schumer said. He predicted that a wider effort to change U.S. financial regulations would take some time and probably awaits a new presidential administration after January.

Volcker called on lawmakers not to pressure the Fed to intervene on behalf of specific institutions or credit markets. Such political interference ``is the way to destroy the Federal Reserve in the long run.'

To contact the reporters on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at [e-mail].

Last Updated: May 14, 2008 14:32 EDT

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