One very special Chicago bank has escaped that fate, with a little help from... well... you and me, indirectly...
So: the public bails out the big banks, who in turn bail out the "community development lender" in Obama's back yard.Privately owned ShoreBank, a community development lender on Chicago's South Side near the home base of President Barack Obama and some of his top aides, is getting assistance from a consortium of Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), Citigroup (C.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N), sources have said.
...
ShoreBank, which has $2.3 billion in assets, was reported to have exceeded the $125 million in rescue capital it needed to avoid a takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Of course, it would be irresponsible to speculate that the President had anything to do with this.
Which is actually possible: ShoreBank may be closer to the Clinton's people than Obama's:Bill Brandt, chairman of the Illinois Finance Authority, said there had been no political arm-twisting to win investments for ShoreBank. He said Wall Street banks were happy for a chance to align themselves with a community bank that has a national reputation for philanthropic investments.
"People were fighting to get into this deal, as odd as that sounds," Brandt said. "Many of these organizations are aware they are under public scrutiny and they take a philanthropic vision to improve communities very seriously. The White House had nothing to do with this."
Most recently, [Bob Nash] served as Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign manager in her campaign for the Democratic nomination for President. He was formerly vice chairman of ShoreBank Corporation, chairman of ShoreBank Enterprise Detroit and the Detroit Bank Advisory Committee, and chairman of the board for ShoreBank Neighborhood Institute and ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland.
This "rescue" speaks volumes whether or not Barack Obama made a single call or text from that Blackberry of his on behalf of ShoreBank.
When Bill Brandt claims people were fighting to get into this deal, I believe it - what a great opportunity to buy influence.
I'm not amazed that Congressmen are from time to time caught with freezers full of cash, I'm amazed at how small the amounts are, relative to global standards for graft and bribery.
With a $125M bailout for a bank with a $2.3B balance sheet, we're talking real money and security - think cushy directors jobs, favorable loans, etc.
The message - for everyone to read - is that the political class and the financial class are sufficiently comfortable in their oligarchic privilege that they don't need to hide, and their denials of coordinated activity are damning even if true.
This "bailout" is a stigmergetic signal, to the rest of the oligarchy, and the rest of us: a public demonstration of the modus vivendi between the political and financial wings of the ruling class.
HT: Zero Hedge
From the wiki article I linked at the end:
ReplyDeleteStigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination between agents or actions. The principle is that the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of a next action, by the same or a different agent. In that way, subsequent actions tend to reinforce and build on each other, leading to the spontaneous emergence of coherent, apparently systematic activity.
Stigmergy is a form of self-organization. It produces complex, seemingly intelligent structures, without need for any planning, control, or even direct communication between the agents...
Stigmergetic communication can help slice the old chestnut of "conspiracy theory".
Why do the global elite go to the Bilderberger meetings? Probably for the golf/skiing/canapes/hookers. Who wants to sit through a bunch of meetings? Boring even for the people who "run the world". That's my theory.
Do the elites of the world coordinate their actions? Yes, but they don't have secret meetings and a command hierarchy - they coordinate their actions through their actions, in ways that they (and anyone else) can read.
Again - that's just the way I see it.
Whew, I had to read the "stigmergy" thing twice. Great "word of the day"!
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the root cause, the effect is the same, isn't it? Whether the evil feeds on itself or is planned at clandestine meetings, it's a slow-moving steamroller with its eye on destroying our capitalist system (and us with it).
The corruption is so deep and systemic that I fear ever ridding ourselves of its tentacles. Where would we even start?
We have a nation full of voters who BELIEVE that Obama is operating a centrist government. They cheer the current administration NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO. Obama could park tanks on the White House lawn and not set off alarm bells for these people.
Conversely, we also have a nation full of protesters who scream for a smaller government while clinging to their social security checks. Their message is "cut spending, but not what you spend on ME. ME, personally".
The disconnect in both groups is stunning. Until we can see our country in its entirety, without looking through the prism of selfishness, we are doomed to travel this rocky, circular road.
Gee, I'm cheery this morning, aren't I? :D
Until we can see our country in its entirety, without looking through the prism of selfishness, we are doomed to travel this rocky, circular road.
ReplyDeleteI like the metaphor. Rocky and circular. Getting nowhere - and not even quickly! - but slowly, laboriously. That about captures it, dunnit?
I'm sure glad that lewy spelled "oligarchy" correctly, whew.
ReplyDeleteFlorrie, LMAO!!!
ReplyDelete