Welcome to Wall Street, the epicentre of financial power in America. Perhaps the money capital of the world … These financial firms are trying to undo the regulations and new laws governing them imposed by the Congress. Who Rules America? I, Press TV 2015
The focus is on political personalities not the forces they represent. ibid.
‘A power elite: an interlocking set of connections of people in business, in politics, in the military, who pretty much determine the parameters of possible change.’ ibid. Eric Foner, Columbia University
There seems to be corporate forces in addition to Wall Street that essentially help guide our political and economic direction. ibid.
A complex system that’s evolved over the years. ibid.
The activists Occupy Wall Street are continuing the fight for independence and economic injustice. Who Rules America II
The unresolved history of conflict in the United States between those who own and control its resources and those who want economic equality. ibid.
Fifty years later, on the Warning’s anniversary, President Eisenhower’s own granddaughter Susan documented how the military industrial complex had grown. She wrote: ‘In less than ten years our military and security expenditures have increased by 119%’. Who Rules America? III
Years earlier an auto executive turned defense secretary Charles Wilson said, What’s good for General Motors is good for America. He saw no distinction between an elected government and an unelected corporation. ibid.
‘We’ve undergone coup d’etat. We live in a corporate state.’ ibid. Chris Hedges
From the earliest days freedom of the press was what defined America … Today are newspapers seem to be fading in importance in a multimedia world that is largely owned and controlled by a handful of large media corporation. Who Rules America? IV
US-based media became a transnational force. The US media companies are themselves owned in large part by hedge funds, mutual funds and finance companies. ibid.
Media attention still tends to revolve around a political elite with authority. ibid.
‘Where does the money come from? … One per cent of the donors are giving 64% of the money. This is a tiny elite.’ Who Rules America? V, Sheila Krumholz
‘The largest contributors to political campaigns in America are the financial institutions.’ ibid. Michael Hudson
The Wolves of Wall Street: high-fliers who work hard, and sometimes play harder. Across town dealers are cashing in. Drugs Inc s7e1: The Real Wolves of Wall Street, National Goegraphic 2015
‘The riskiest thing is delivery.’ ibid. dealer
Cocaine is one of the most popular drugs among the wolves of Wall Street. But another home-grown drug prescribed by doctors is taking the street by storm … Adderall is a prescription-only medication … I Adderall pill =$25; 120 pills = $3,000. ibid.
Paul Wilmott: often described as the smartest quant in the world. Mathematician and an author of a large number of textbooks. A quant guru who has been warning us about the danger of a mathematician-led market meltdown for years. Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street, VPRO 2010
83% of all stocks are owned by 1% of the population. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Abolishing Capitalism, 2017
It’s a cancerous disease. ibid.
Wall Street: There is nothing positive that this institution does. ibid.
If you’re Wall Street, you’re a bigger fucking crook than I could ever be. Baby Driver 2017 starring Ansel Elgort & Kevin Spacey & Lily James & Jon Hamm & Eliza Gonzalez & Jamie Foxx & Jon Bernthal & Flea & Lanny Joon & C J Jones & Sky Ferreira et al, director Edgar Wright, Bats
The Savings and Loan crisis from the 1980s when 1,000 criminally fraudulent bankers went to prison. The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime, 2016
2008: A $13 trillion crisis … The catastrophic failure in the United States Justice Department is the work of the treasonous criminals who are running it. ibid.
There was always something odd about the DOJ’s announcement that it wouldn’t prosecute Goldman Sachs. ibid.
The DOJ doesn’t investigate crimes of global banks for fear of ‘collateral consequences’. But who determines those consequences? … The exoneration of Goldman reflects the overthrow of America’s constitutional republic by a criminal king ruling over his subjects. ibid.
Is Wall Street too big for jail? ibid.
It can all have been avoided: the report blames Widespread Failures in Financial Regulation including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem toxic mortgages; Dramatic Breakdowns in Corporate Governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly; an explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street; Key Policy Makers Ill Prepared for the Crisis lacking full understanding of the financial system; Systemic Breaches in Accountability and Ethics at all levels. FCIC Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, cited Sky News January 2011
We are picking up the bill in a global greed game. Robert Peston, Super Rich: The Greed Game, BBC 2008
[Alan] Greenspan slashed rates to just 1%, and the supply of credit soared. ibid.
By the start of the twenty-first century these two factors – the power of leverage and low taxes for enterprise – gave birth to a new set of business superpowers; among them are the private equity money who borrow huge sums of money to buy whole companies. ibid.
Colossal funds have been accumulated by hedge fund managers. ibid.
The pay structure they devised: they wrote the rules of the greed game so they couldn’t lose. ibid.
Wall Street banks started by selling good quality loans to raise money and then looked at what else would be sold. ibid.
There was a torrent of cash for subprime loans thanks to a banking breakthrough called Structured Finance. ibid.
Most of the world’s big banks ... were stampeding to make profits by turning risky subprime loans into supposedly high quality investments. ibid.
More of the borrowers defaulted than they expected. ibid.
I investigate how globalisation went badly wrong. Robert Peston, The Party’s Over: How the West Went Bust I BBC 2011
Our long boom was founded on a dangerous lie. ibid.
Big Bang allowed big international banks to buy up stock. ibid.
The gap between the very richest and the very poorest widened at a pace we hadn’t seen since the Victoria era. ibid.
The financial revolution spawned a debt revolution. ibid.
The Chinese consume half as much as we do relative to the size of their economy. They save much much more. ibid.
Western banks borrowed recklessly to lend to us. ibid.
The indebtedness of governments exploded. ibid.
The crash of 2008 began to topple an unbalanced global economic system. ibid.
Regulators failed to stem reckless lending by banks, and central bankers kept interest rates far too low. ibid.
There can be no return to debt-fuelled capitalism in the West. ibid.
How in Britain are we going to pay our way in this challenging new world? Robert Peston, The Party’s Over: How the West Went Bust II BBC 2011
Is twenty-first century austerity a journey back into our past? ibid.
Our personal debts remain dangerously large. ibid.
Has financial services become too big? ibid.
The recession had destroyed eleven trillion dollars of Americans’ net worth. A recovery seemed far off. Occupy Wall Street wanted bankers held responsible. Frontline: Money, Power and Wall Street I, PBS 2012
Credit Default Swaps – a kind of derivative that ensures a loan against default. ibid.
And so they began selling derivatives that were simply bets on any and all portfolios whether the bank owned them or not. These products came to be known as Synthetic Collateralised Debt Obligations – Synthetic CDOs. ibid.
A wave of lending abuses. ibid.
By the end of 2005 the total outstanding value of credit default swaps around the world was measured in trillions of dollars and was doubling every year. ibid.