HSBC Settlement

[Bonam]

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21568403-two-big-british-banks-reach-controversial-settlements-too-big-jail

So after knowingly and purposefully facilitating billions of dollars in money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels, HSBC gets off scot-free, with a trivial $1.9 billion fine. Why? Allegedly, politicians are too worried that criminal prosecution or more significant fines would damage the bank's operations in America, thus costing jobs.

Here's what I think: a few jobs at a stupid bank should never come before the fundamental concepts of justice and the rule of law. Politicians are so obsessed with avoiding a recession and "creating jobs" that they will let absolutely anything else by.

The US should have prosecuted the bank's top officials subject to US jurisdiction for treason (materially supporting America's declared enemies) and pushed for life imprisonment, and should have initiated extradition proceedings for the bank's top executives abroad. Further, they should have banned all operations of HSBC in the US, banned all American companies from doing business with HSBC, and confiscated all holdings of HSBC in the US.

Now, instead, every bank will know that you can do business with America's sworn enemies and in the worst case, if you get caught, you'll be fined for a bit of pocket change and go on with business as usual. This settlement is a disgrace.

[eyeball]

NOW every bank will know the guvmint will look the other way? Where have you been hiding, that ship sailed decades ago.

Hey look,God-damit, there goes another pothead. Get him!

[Canuckistani]

Too big to fail. The banks need to be broken up the way the oil companies were, and separate commercial from retail banks. Hard to do tho, when the bankers have you in their pocket.

[TimG]

Too big to fail. The banks need to be broken up the way the oil companies were, and separate commercial from retail banks. Hard to do tho, when the bankers have you in their pocket.

The 80s savings and loans crisis demonstrated that an economy dominated by thousands of little banks can still require trillions to clean up the mess created by banking bubbles.

The real issue are the bubbles and the fear of recession that creates them (i.e. populations get extremely unhappy when the economy is not growing and politicians and regulators ignore common sense in order to deliver it).

Edited January 11, 2013 by TimG

[GostHacked]

Criminals run the central banks. Kieser calls them 'banksters'.

[guyser]

HSBC....Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China.......I wonder why they slapped their wrist with a strand of noodle. Probably stung

[kimmy]

HSBC....Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China.......I wonder why they slapped their wrist with a strand of noodle. Probably stung

Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Corporation. They're an English company (in the same sense that the Hudson's Bay Corporation was headquartered in England, not in Hudson's Bay) that was originally established to facilitate British merchants doing business in the far east.

No, this leniency is not because regulators were afraid to offend China. It's because they were afraid to offend the banks.

-k

[WIP]

Criminals run the central banks. Kieser calls them 'banksters'.

Our entire banking system is a con game; it really wouldn't matter what their individual intentions are. Our Bank of Canada mints coins and prints paper money....but on last check, that's only about 5% of our money supply. 95% of new money created in Canadian dollars is by the banks issuing more loans and making money appear by magic! But, that's exactly how the U.S. Federal Reserve and most of the world's other central banks do it....they just turn over the authority to create money to the bankers....or banksters!

I picked up a book on the subject of banking....and everything that's wrong with the way our banking system works called: Web Of Debt, by Ellen Hodgson Brown; who also has a blog by the same name. This was an interesting blog post about our system written in April.

Between 1939 and 1974, the government actually did borrow from its own central bank. That made its debt effectively interest-free, since the government owned the bank and got the benefit of the interest. According to figures supplied by Jack Biddell, a former government accountant, the federal debt remained very low, relatively flat, and quite sustainable during those years. (See his

chart

below.) The government successfully

funded major public projects

simply on the credit of the nation, including the production of aircraft during and after World War II, education benefits for returning soldiers, family allowances, old age pensions, the Trans-Canada Highway, the St. Lawrence Seaway project, and universal health care for all Canadians.

The debt shot up only after 1974. That was when the

Basel Committee

was established by the central-bank Governors of the Group of Ten countries of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which included Canada. A key objective of the Committee was to maintain “monetary and financial stability.” To achieve that goal, the Committee discouraged borrowing from a nation’s own central bank interest-free, and encouraged borrowing instead from private creditors, all in the name of “maintaining the stability of the currency.”

So, since 1974 the Canadian Government has had to do like the U.S. Government, and most of the world's governments when borrowing money - pay interest to a cabal of bankers, who create and loan the money to the government, rather than borrow from their own central banks! No wonder the banks have taken such a huge slice of each nation's wealth, and every nation has ended up indebted to the banks.

[GostHacked]

WIP, then you'd be interested to listen to Max Keiser. Two shows he does, The Keiser Report and On The Edge.

http://maxkeiser.com/

He's been calling for the jailing of guys like Blankfien, Jamie Diamond, Corzine, Bernake ect .....

[WIP]

WIP, then you'd be interested to listen to Max Keiser. Two shows he does, The Keiser Report and On The Edge.

http://maxkeiser.com/

He's been calling for the jailing of guys like Blankfien, Jamie Diamond, Corzine, Bernake ect .....

Thanks to Bell for providing RT among the regular news channels, I get to watch the Keiser Report whenever I notice it's on.

[CPCFTW]

Our entire banking system is a con game; it really wouldn't matter what their individual intentions are. Our Bank of Canada mints coins and prints paper money....but on last check, that's only about 5% of our money supply. 95% of new money created in Canadian dollars is by the banks issuing more loans and making money appear by magic! But, that's exactly how the U.S. Federal Reserve and most of the world's other central banks do it....they just turn over the authority to create money to the bankers....or banksters!

Central banks control interest rates, which is what affects the money supply. Nice try leftster!

[WIP]

Central banks control interest rates, which is what affects the money supply. Nice try leftster!

Banks create 95% of the money in circulation in Canada:

if "money" is thought of as the combination of issued money and bank-created credit, then presently, the Bank of Canada "issues" less than 5% of Canada's money, with the remainder (95%) being "created" by commercial banks through the process of

fractional-reserve banking

.

[

...nice try rightster!

Wikipedia's money creation entry

Here's an example of how they earn their undeserved rewards from the fractional reserve banking system that even a child could understand:

http://cms.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-new-economy/how-banks-make-money

[CPCFTW]

Banks create 95% of the money in circulation in Canada:

if "money" is thought of as the combination of issued money and bank-created credit, then presently, the Bank of Canada "issues" less than 5% of Canada's money, with the remainder (95%) being "created" by commercial banks through the process of

fractional-reserve banking

.

[

...nice try rightster!

Wikipedia's money creation entry

Here's an example of how they earn their undeserved rewards from the fractional reserve banking system that even a child could understand:

http://cms.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-new-economy/how-banks-make-money

Yes everyone knows how fractional reserve banking works. That doesn't change the fact that the money supply is controlled by central banks.

[WIP]

Yes everyone knows how fractional reserve banking works. That doesn't change the fact that the money supply is controlled by central banks.

Controlled doesn't mean squat! All the controls do is apply reserve limits to how many loans the banks can create. Who makes the money from the new money loaned into existence? When a government, including the Canadian Government, needs to borrow money, they don't create it in the Bank of Canada. They could, if they wanted to; and they wouldn't have to pay interest to the bankers.

And, this is only if we're talking about the Canadian situation. The U.S. doesn't have a central bank. The Federal Reserve system is a cabal of powerful banks who get together and make the rules. And, since this HSBC story is about the U.S. Government's unwillingness or inability to prosecute any executives at a major international bank, the U.S. system of having no central bank is most relevant. It was noted a year or two ago, when Congress treated Jamie Dimon with kid gloves....obsequious Republicans apologizing for calling him before a hearing, that Dimon had been chairman of the New York Federal Reserve.....pretty much meaning that he was in charge of investigating his own malfeasance! And that's the system you want to defend, I presume?

[eyeball]

Too big to fail. The banks need to be broken up the way the oil companies were, and separate commercial from retail banks. Hard to do tho, when the bankers have you in their pocket.

All we need to do is line that pocket with cameras and microphones and keeping them big should make it easier to monitor them.

[GostHacked]

Thanks to Bell for providing RT among the regular news channels, I get to watch the Keiser Report whenever I notice it's on.

I just watch it online through youtube when it pops up in my list.