Dark clouds continue to follow former IMF head Dominque Strauss-Kahn, who was accused or raping a hotel maid in NYC in 2011 (SEE: DSK and the Dancing Men). The charges, though eventually dropped, cost him his job as head of the IMF and likely cost him the presidency of France.
Now, the investment company in which DSK and Thierry Leyne (who committed suicide by jumping from the YOO towers in Tel Aviv two weeks ago) were partners, Leyne Strauss-Kahn & Partners (LSK), has declared bankruptcy.
Leyne founded LSK with Strauss-Kahn last year. On October 23, he jumped to his death from the YOO towers. He was one of France’s wealthiest individuals.
“LSK discovered an additional obligation within its group that it was not aware of, and which exacerbated its delicate financial situation,” said the company. “The board of directors believes that the new information that has been discovered puts the company’s ability to continue to exist into question… and it was decided to declare bankruptcy.”
(via The Jewish Business News)
at least they only killed themselves, carney &co have been suffocating all of us...
ReplyDeleteNew Plan to End Too Big to Fail Banks Previously Failed Spectacularly
By Pam Martens: November 11, 2014
Yesterday, the Financial Stability Board, established in 2009 to coordinate financial regulatory proposals on behalf of the Group of 20 major economies (G-20), released a proposal that is being promoted as a means of ending taxpayer bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks. These 30 banks are known as G-SIBs, or Global Systemically Important Banks. But the proposal does nothing to address the “systemic” danger of these banks, thus the proposal is nothing more than captured regulators floating another useless trial balloon for reform because they lack the political courage to admit the only solution is to break up these bloated financial institutions that regularly function variously as crime syndicates and institutionalized wealth transfer systems.
Mark Carney, head of the Bank of England, who also chairs the Financial Stability Board, touted the plan as a “watershed” moment.
To fully grasp the magical thinking of this proposal, let’s reexamine what actually happens when a “systemic” bank begins to fail: (1) its counterparties, the other major banks, cut off lending and demand more liquid collateral to back the over-the-counter swap deals that the public and the regulators know nothing about. (2) Word of the bank’s troubles spread like wildfire and the share price (equity) goes into a collapse, burning rapidly through that layer of so-called “loss-absorbing capital.” (3) Because the bank has too much leverage on its balance sheet, it can’t raise cash rapidly enough to meet all of the collateral calls, leading to spreading concerns about the soundness of its trading parties, i.e., the other global banks. (4) All banks connected with it see a sell-off in their equity prices, bringing in the short sellers, who spread real, imagined or trumped-up rumors to drive prices lower. (5) In short order, the most bloated and troubled behemoths have no more liquid funds to pay depositors who make a demand for their demand deposits – which among the three largest banks in the U.S. are in the trillion dollar range, each. When you start to talk about trillions of dollars, there is no one but the taxpayer and the government who has that kind of an immediate backstop to stem the crisis.
These Wall Street mega banks are now holding hostage our nation, its economy, and the living standard of the next generation who will be left to deal with the mountains of debt taken on to deal with the financial collapse and its overhang. When six years of near zero interest rates can’t revive an economy to normal job creation and economic growth, it’s time to call our monetary policy what it is: a political masquerade to artificially prop up a failed, global banking business model.
It’s long past the time to break up the banks, restore the Glass-Steagall Act, and return sanity to deposit-taking banks.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/11/new-plan-to-end-too-big-to-fail-banks-previously-failed-spectacularly/