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M&T Bank Corp.'s (MTB) Chief Executive Robert Wilmers railed against the "astronomical" pay of his fellow bank executives, calling on them to rein in their compensation while singling out the "Big Six" banking "oligopoly" for its outsized paychecks and serial regulatory lapses that continue to shade the public perception of banks. Mr. Wilmers, who has led M&T for 30 years, issued his stark criticisms in his annual shareholder letter, in which he also took aim at "unnecessarily complex" accounting and new banking rules that amount to "misguided regulatory chemotherapy." snip While the Big Six are not named in the letter,...

Charles Brady, senior editor of the FOX Business Network, has put together a remarkable chart that clearly shows the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing policies are not going into the U.S. economy, but instead into the stock market. The chart here compares the Dow Jones Industrial Average with the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank’s adjusted monetary base. It shows the effect of Fed purchases of mortgage-backed and Treasury securities from Fed dealers, whereby the Federal Reserve buys $85 billion total every month from the big banks, hastening the growth in the Fed’s balance sheet to more than $3 trillion. The central...

The brilliant and colourful English Lit professor and occasional philosopher Marshall McLuhan presciently wrote, “Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The Politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favour of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.”McLuhan passed away in December of 1980, yet he seems to have had the capacity to perceive so many vacuous celebrity politicians which today fill our electoral landscape - empty vessels which float to re-election on electoral carpets of wishful thinking and ignorance. With an uninquisitive media abstaining from accurate reporting, the misinformed...

In an exchange with Bob Corker on Tuesday in which the Senator called Ben Bernanke an inflation dove, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve responded that "my inflation record is the best of any Federal Reserve chairman in the postwar period." For the readers who presume this article to be satire, the link here will prove otherwise. Bernanke, the walking, tripping, living definition of systemic risk now views himself as a top level inflation fighter in addition to being the world's foremost Great Depression expert, bank savior, and so many other things. And it's President Obama who has the huge...

The ‘End’ Of QE – Hype Or Tripe? Interest-Rates / Quantitative EasingFebruary 23, 2013 - 07:32 PM GMT By: Andy Sutton I am going to say right up front that there is going to be quite a bit of sarcasm in this essay. I say this simply because of the ludicrous nature of our marionette-esque talking heads in the mainstream financial press in this country. They are truly amazing, taking molehills and making mountains out of them and vice versa. In one segment telling us that there in fact will be no criminal charges against anyone involved in the HSBC...

We progress, marching forward leaving behind us a trail of yesterdays, filled with events large and small, assembling memories, but some of the more momentous occurrences rise to a superior level which we include in our collective “history.” In that wake of our advance some of those momentous waves swell further, rising to become events that only hindsight can identify as pivotal moments in that shared recollection. UTOPIA Such hindsight is not always 20/20.  We may be aware of the events as they unfold, but their significance and impact on our march forward is not always self evident and years...

We got a problem here folks, and it's going to lead to the next crash -- and sooner than you think. First, let's talk about the impact of QE on companies. The common mantra is that it makes it "easier" for firms to borrow money. The problem is that borrowing, in general, is a destructive act as you must pay back said borrowing with interest -- no matter how small. The bigger problem, however, is that long-established businesses have obligations that were all contracted with the expectation of lending other people money and earning a spread on it, such as...

Did The Fed Lie About QE 3 And 4? Stock-Markets / Quantitative EasingJan 05, 2013 - 08:24 AM By: Graham Summers It’s common belief that Bernanke and the Fed are printing $85 billion per month ($40 billion to buy Mortgage Backed Securities and $45 billion to buy Treasuries). After all, these are the policies that the Fed announced in September and December 2012, respectively. The only issue with this is that the Fed lied. Today, the Fed’s balance sheet is $1.3 billion smaller than it was at this time last year. Last week it was $19 billion smaller. The largest...

The Federal Reserve Has No Practical Option To End QE January 3, 2013, at 6:07 pm by Jim Sinclair in the category General Editorial | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post Dear CIGAs, Such an announcement has been part of QE either from MSM or some Fed board member since it began. The implication of stopping QE is so dire to the economy that it is in a practical sense impossible. When gold was being sold by central banks during the 1970s market announcements were made constantly with the bias to depress metals....

Here is a way to explain “Quantitative Easing” to liberals. You and I sit down to a friendly game of poker. I bring out the chips in different colors and we both “buy in” by trading real dollars for the chips. As the game progresses you win most of the chips. I reach into the chip box and place a large stack on my side and continue playing. I did not pay for the chips, I just “created” them out of the blue. You continue to win and you have a large stack of colored chips in front of you....

We've fixed the economy By Bill Bonner - 14 November, 2012 "In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Dow down 58 yesterday. No panic. Just hesitation... and worry. A TV news report this morning said that Congress only had 18 days to solve the fiscal cliff issue. Seems like plenty of time. But the fiscal cliff is no big deal...

The picture below shows $15 trillion dollars worth of $100 bills on $10 million dollar pallets stacked on top of each other over an area that is one third larger than a regulation football field. An electronics van is parked between the stack and the Statue of Liberty. A single $100 million dollar pallet rests in front of the truck’s cab. See it?Recently, I reported that the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) secretly gave ten trillion dollars of interest-free loans to over a dozen European banks to shore up the Euro and keep them financially solvent. I later found out that...

U.S. Fed QE Infinity, What Is It All About? Interest-Rates / Quantitative EasingOct 04, 2012 - 03:10 PM By: Ellen Brown QE3, the Federal Reserve’s third round of quantitative easing, is so open-ended that it is being called QE Infinity. Doubts about its effectiveness are surfacing even on Wall Street. The Financial Times reports: Among the trading rooms and floors of Connecticut and Mayfair [in London], supposedly sophisticated money managers are raising big questions about QE3 — and whether, this time around, the Fed is not risking more than it can deliver. Which raises the question, what is it intended...

Evidence QE3 Is Working, And Other LiesBruce Krastering A mega fixed income deal for GE: GE raised $2Bn of three-year money at a very cheap 86Bp and $3Bn of ten-year cash at a rate of 2.73%. The financing produces a blended cost of 1.98% (1.6% after tax) for an average life of 6 years. That’s a hell of a deal for the boys at GE. (Note: as part of the deal GE did a $2B slug of 30 year, this was done to push out the average life of the company’s liabilities.) GE is a complex company with big bucks...

The Fed Plays All Its Cards, Road Map for Currency Debasement Currencies / US DollarOct 03, 2012 - 02:09 AM By: Peter Schiff There never really could be much doubt that the current experiment in competitive global currency debasement would end in anything less than a total war. There was always a chance that one or more of the principal players would snap out of it, change course and save their citizenry from a never ending cycle of devaluation. But developments since September 13, when the U.S. Federal Reserve finally laid all its cards on the table and went "all...

A faltering economy, a coalition government torn between spending cuts and tax rises, a sinking currency, money printing and 'unconventional' monetary policy. Britain in 2012? No, Argentina in 2002. The problems faced by Argentina a decade ago and by Britain are eerily similar. In each case the government believed that through its own sophistication and trickery it could defeat a debt crisis of its own devising. In Argentina, every government action served only to make the situation worse. We are following the same path. ....At each stage, Argentina's recovery was sabotaged by the actions of its own politicians, as can...

The preponderance of misrepresentations and fiction floated by most of the MSM in these frenetic final weeks of the Presidential election, may in the long term cause much harm to an already overburdened Nation. Making decisions with bad information never works out well. Near the top of our influence food chain we have Ben Bernanke fuelling inflation of risky assets through a continuation of the quantitative easing strategy. The markets have siphoned money from “savings” accounts where interest rates are at near zero. How great is that? The stock markets are booming, while anyone holding interest-bearing assets continues to...

Q.E. To Infinity: Unintended Consequences Interest-Rates / Quantitative EasingSep 23, 2012 - 07:53 AM By: John Mauldin There is an intense debate going on in the first-class cabin of Economics Airlines about the direction in which our plane should be pointed. And while those of us back in the cheap seats don't get to help decide, knowing where we will land is of intense interest to all of us. This week we listen in on the debate, in the form of speeches and academic postings passed back from first class for the rest of us to read. This type of...

Why QE3 Won’t Jumpstart The Economy And What Would Economics / Quantitative EasingSep 22, 2012 - 12:56 PM By: Ellen Brown The economy could use a good dose of “aggregate demand”—new spending money in the pockets of consumers—but QE3 won’t do it. Neither will it trigger the dreaded hyperinflation. In fact, it won’t do much at all. There are better alternatives. The Fed’s announcement on September 13, 2012, that it was embarking on a third round of quantitative easing has brought the “sound money” crew out in force, pumping out articles with frighting titles such as “QE3 Will Unleash’ Economic...

10 Quotes From Financial Experts About The Effect That QE3 Will Have On Gold And Silver By Michael Snyder September 19th, 2012 Do you want to know what QE3 is going to do to the price of gold and the price of silver? Well, you can read what the financial experts are saying below, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what is likely to happen. During QE3, the Federal Reserve will be introducing 40 billion new dollars that have been created out of nothing into the financial system each month. So there will be more dollars chasing...