Free Republic

| Share Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012 THE ZEIT GIST Threatened Goldman Japan workers unionize Financial giant butts against tough domestic labor law as it seeks to slim down workforce By JAMES MCCROSTIE The past year has been anything but business as usual for the financial industry. Faced with a frosty economic climate, financial service companies have been busy chopping dead wood. Last year, 200,000 financial service jobs ended up on the cutting block worldwide. In Japan, that meant layoffs at famous firms including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, Mizuho Financial Group, and the not-so-famous, such as Spanish bank Bilbao Vizcaya...

The U.S. Treasury Department disrupted a Dubai-based banking operation that Washington believes had become Tehran's primary conduit for evading international sanctions and processing its oil sales, according to people briefed on the operation. The effort was particularly sensitive because the targeted institution in the United Arab Emirates is partly owned by the local government of Dubai, a close U.S. ally. The chairman of the bank, called the Noor Islamic Bank, is the son of Dubai's ruler.

A President Dares Us Once Again. In Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story, “Alice in Wonderland,” young Alice is wandering through that magical fantasyland when she encounters a talking egg, which confused her by sprinkling clearly-misused words into the conversation. When she called him on it, Humpty Dumpty assumed his most arrogant pose and declared "When I use a word, it means just what I chose it to mean – neither more nor less." How dare the girl call him on his abuse of language?! If he wanted to use a word to mean something it had never meant before, and...

...in 2012, after eighty years of the Ex-Im Bank successfully and happily obeying its charter, President Obama has directed the Ex-Im Bank to violate it wholesale. Instead of only loaning to good foreign risks, he wants them to loan to American companies (in competition with American banks). Instead of only making loans attached to, and collateralized by, American export shipments of physical goods, he wants them to make start-up loans, short-term finance loans, bridge loans, that have nothing to do with export shipments (though they might help the companies become exporters, in the same way that if you give me...

Acting without any legal authority, President Obama has overridden the federal charter of the Export-Import Bank, and turned it into a competitor for domestic loan business, in utter defiance of the law. Hardly anyone has noticed or seems to care. Speaking at a Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Washington Friday, President Barack Obama announced a bold new plan to help American exporters: he would broaden the services of the Ex-Im Bank to help grow our exports. Now, that sounds good on the face of it. The Ex-Im Bank is chartered as an export-funding source with a very narrow, specific charter....

An SUV was driven up the front steps of the downtown PNC Firstside Center and hit the entrance of the building on Tuesday afternoon. Sources told Channel 4 Action News that, as the driver of the Hyundai Santa Fe fled the crash scene, he claimed to be with Occupy Pittsburgh and said there might be an explosive device inside the vehicle. "He came down here and he stopped at the stop sign, and then he went straight up into the building. He didn't go fast," witness Ashley Corek said. "And then he got up and walked out, and then went...

One of the two people killed on a slippery road in Superior was facing prison time after pleading guilty in federal court to charges in a widespread identity theft ring. Forty-one-year-old Frances Jones was a passenger in an SUV that collided with another vehicle last Friday. The driver of the SUV, 49-year-old Harry Wilson, was also killed. The U.S. Attorney's Office says 12 people were indicted in the plot that defrauded banks and retail businesses, primarily in the Midwest, of more than $2 million. Jones faced up to 32 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit...

On Jan. 23, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun L.S. Donovan met in Chicago with several Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) in an attempt to strong-arm them into signing up for an administration-backed agreement to settle the “robo-signing” scandal. Wall Street would pay what sounds like a large fine ($25 billion), and in exchange, the state AGs would relieve the bankers of all legal liabilities related to the fraudulent mortgage-lending practices that led directly to the 2008 financial meltdown and a 30 percent drop in U.S. home prices. The fraudulent practices of the mortgage servicers have injected...

The threat by the Islamic regime in Iran to close down the Strait of Hormuz and of Revolutionary Guards Navy boats harassing U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf has caused President Obama to send secret messages to the regime stating his concerns over the closure of the strait and the possibility of an accidental war. Since then, Iranian officials have been revealing the contents of President Obama’s letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which indicates a deep desire by the U.S. president for a dialogue with the radical leaders of Iran. However, on Saturday, Iranian officials also...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - State government stores money at Bank of America, buys goods with U.S. Bank cards, and distributes welfare aid through JP Morgan Chase ATMs. Supporters of cutting such ties to big banks say the first step is creating the state's own bank. The idea of a state bank - a favorite of the Occupy movement that sees it as an alternative to Wall Street - has strong support among the Democrats who control the state House. Speaker Frank Chopp called it a top priority last week in a speech opening this year's session of the Legislature.

Bank of America (BAC) must turn over excess funds from a record $335 million discrimination fine to community organizing groups. Critics say it's a "political backdoor" to subsidize Democrat-tied Acorn "clones." The unusual mandate is buried in a Justice Department filing last month detailing settlement terms with the nation's largest bank. Prosecutors had alleged BofA's Countrywide Financial mortgage unit discriminated against minority homebuyers in the years leading up to the financial crisis. Funds not passed out to alleged victims after two years will be handed out to "qualified" groups unconnected to the case that provide credit and housing counseling and...

Drug Enforcement Administration agents have raided an Oklahoma car dealership that the government suspects may be one of about 30 such businesses in the U.S. involved in funding the terrorist group Hezbollah. DEA agents say the car lot of Ace Auto Leasing in Tulsa is part of a huge network that is selling cars and drugs -- and then using the money to support terrorism against the U.S., myfoxphoenix.com reports. During Friday's raid, agents could be seen carryout out filing cabinets and other items. They also questioned employees and took inventory. "They're making big time money and it's going right...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Bank of America Corp closed below $5 on Monday for the first time since the depths of the bear market in March 2009. The stock closed at $4.99, down 4 percent, after dropping as low as $4.92. The shares haven't closed below $5 since March 11, 2009. Shares of financial institutions have declined on worries about the global economy and possible exposure to sovereign defaults in Europe. Bank of America, in particular, faces concerns about whether it has enough capital to absorb mortgage-related losses and meet new international standards. With more than 275 million...

Two banks in College Station have been robbed at gunpoint in the past two weeks. The person responsible for robbing a bank in Snook is also still on the loose. At a bank in Chappell Hill though, they haven't had a problem with robbers since implementing some new bank rules. Bank customer, Steve Moreland, said, "It's none of your business." You won't be able to tell who has one, just by looking at the people inside the Chappell Hill Bank. "These women, they've taken the concealed handgun carry course and of course, they can't tell you if they're carrying or...

Ganziano, a 55-year-old mother of five children, encouraged her fourth child, Daniel, 18, to set up a savings account at a nearby TCF Bank "out of convenience" due to its location. Ganziano and her son discovered that the bank offered little convenience due to the growing number of bank fees, as first reported by the Chicago Tribune. After he put money into the savings accont from his job, Daniel Ganziano's balance eventually fell to $4.85 and with such a small amount, he ignored it. However, TCF sent him a letter on Oct. 12 informing him that it had charged him...

Occupy movement wants to start a financial institutionBy: Dan Schreiber | 11/23/11 2:38 PM Examiner Staff Writer Call it the First Bank of Occupy. The denizens of the embattled tent city on San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza have been pushing for folks to close their accounts at big banks and put the money in credit unions instead. Now, the movement wants to form its own institution to keep their money out of the hands of the reviled 1 percent. A survey circulating Facebook and other social networking sites asks some simple questions that occupiers hope will relay the demand for...

"You can meet capital requirements by either raising capital or shrinking risk weighted assets," said Wiant. "Nobody wants to raise capital at these prices." That could be especially true now that the Federal Reserve said late Tuesday that BofA, along with five other large U.S. banks, will need to give the Fed loss estimates early next year that accounts for a "hypothetical global market shock."

CA Occupy activists protest at bank, 95 arrestedBy: BETH DUFF-BROWN | 11/17/11 12:21 AM Associated Press Taking their protest to a financial center, anti-Wall Street activists swarmed into a San Francisco bank and tried to set up camp in the lobby. About 100 demonstrators rushed into the Bank of America branch Wednesday, chanting "money for schools and education, not for banks and corporations." Police in riot gear responded and began cuffing the activists one-by-one as other demonstrators surrounded the building, blocking entrances and exits.

Police in riot gear face down Occupy protesters inside bankNovember 16, 2011 | 3:11 pm Police in riot gear warned Occupy San Francisco protesters who took over the lobby of a Bank of America in the city’s financial district Wednesday that they would be arrested if they did not leave the premises. About 20 officers with helmets and batons entered the bank on California Street about 2:45 p.m. and warned protesters sitting in the lobby that they would be arrested and cited. Organizers circulated fliers advising protesters what to do if they were taken into custody. Some demonstrators left the...

A local reporter in Eureka, California has the unenviable task of trying to figure out who pooped on a local bank. Via YouTube: "News Channel 3 Eureka CA reporter asking the Occupy protesters if they peed or pooped on the bank. All they can say is that the bank pees and poops on us all every day. She then walks through the camp and then gets assaulted by a camping occupy protester who doesn't want to occupy her time." Check out our new original video from Occupy Wall Street: #OWS Quiz, Part II: How Much Do the Protesters Know About...What...