Tag: US Treasury

Germany In The Rear View Mirror

The commander in chief has ordered US troops out of Germany…..not all but just a few…..

Growing US-Germany tensions have reached the point where the Trump Administration has announced that 9,500 troops will be returning from Germany. This will leave 25,000 US troops there, which is the new “cap” for maximum troop levels.

The US has been haranguing Germany for years over military spending, and this has included Trump threatening to pull troops back. Polls have shown Germany tended to prefer that the US troops leave anyhow.

The US had at one point many more troops in Germany, as part of Cold War deals. The troops are still nominally there to fight Russia, even though a large number of NATO countries are now in between Germany and Russia.

(antiwar.com)

Many of us antiwar types have been calling for the US to bring the troops home from Germany since the USSR is no longer a threat….

But what about Russia?

Russia’s Western Military District has announced the deployment of more troops as well as motorized units into their western region, saying they are meant to “perform tasks on ensuring the defense of the Russian Federation in the Western Strategic direction.”

This puts more Russian forces in the area near the NATO frontier, after years of US and NATO troops being deployed in the Baltic and in other areas bordering Russia. This is a continuation of that buildup, with an eye toward further tit-for-tat challenges.

(antiwar.com)

The big question is will this Trumpian move harm America’s standing in Europe?

Some say the move will damage Trump’s relationship with Germany, Europe’s most powerful nation, and boost anti-American sentiment there. “Russia has done nothing to lower its threat to our allies,” a retired US Army general tells the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story. “Germany is the most important ally we have in Europe. This looks like punishment somehow.” But a senior US official says the order reflects Trump’s frustration with Germany in other ways—like its level of military spending (not yet the NATO goal of 2%) and decision to finish a gas pipeline with Russia under the Baltic Sea. Some of the US troops will apparently go to Poland or other American allies, while the rest will come home.  

I am pleased to see some of these troops finally coming home….but will this move make matters worse in Europe….especially in Eastern Europe?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Death In Mali–Update

I have been following the story of the death of an American Green Beret at the hands of 2 SEALs and 2 Marine Raiders in the West African nation of Mali…….

https://lobotero.com/2018/01/13/death-in-mali-2/

https://lobotero.com/2018/11/27/death-in-mali-continued/

I have been following and writing about this situation since I first learned about the death and the investigation.

The 4 Special Ops troopers were set to go to trial on 10 December and news has come out that the trials will be postponed……

A preliminary hearing for two Virginia Beach-based Navy SEALs and two Marines Raiders charged in connection with the death of an Army Green Beret in Africa in 2017 has been pushed to 2019.

Article 32 hearings, the military’s equivalent to a civilian preliminary court hearing, were originally set for Dec. 10 at Naval Station Norfolk. The Navy did not say why the hearings were pushed back but indicated it expected to hear the case in March.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/12/07/hearings-postponed-seals-marines-charged-green-berets-death.html

The family of the deceased deserve  speedy end to their ordeal….and yet the Navy is dragging its feet….why?

Could this delay have anything to do with the discipline problems that are rumored?

https://lobotero.com/2014/11/10/squabbling-seals/

https://lobotero.com/2018/10/19/its-about-the-discipline/

The Navy needs to bring this chapter to a close as quickly as possible and allow the widow and family time to grieve and find some closure.

They Are Printing Money!

Today’s subject is economics.  Hear That!  Thant sound is most people falling asleep and falling out of their chairs.

I know economics is not the most interesting thing to read about…..but before one can understand what is going on with our fiscal policy….one needs to understand economics….without understanding there is nothing but ignorance.

How many times have you heard the argument against the Fed….is that they are turning on the printing press?  How many times has the Fed been blamed for all the economic problems?

The accusation may be a metaphor but way too many seem to think that the Fed will just turn on the printing presses whenever we are in dire financial straits…..

What does it mean when they say the Federal Reserve is printing money? It doesn’t mean the Fed has a printing press that spouts out dollars. Only the Treasury Department does that. However, most of the “money,” or capital, in use today is not cash. That’s because the large financial institutions that do most investments prefer using borrowed money, or credit.

The Federal Reserve does manage the liquidity of capital, which is the amount that is available for investment. High liquidity means there is a lot of capital because interest rates are low, and capital is easily available. When credit is cheap, businesses and investors are more likely to borrow. The return on investment only has to be higher than the interest rate, so more investments look good. In this way, high liquidity spurs economic growth.

The Federal Reserve manages liquidity with monetary policy and the Fed funds rate. By lowering the Fed funds rate target, the Fed lowers all bank rates. This adds liquidity, which adds to the money supply. This has the same effect as printing money.

The Fed then “prints money” to spur borrowing, investing and economic growth.

I realize that I am nit-picking on this subject……but I like precise definitions…….. I just want people to grasp what is going on with our fiscal policy and to watch out for dog whistle slogans that explain nothing……..the Fed cannot actually print money!

Will He Stay Or Will He Go?

The continuing saga of Uncle Timmy Geithner….

I recently wrote about the emails that were sent by Geithner to AIG telling them to hide pertinent ionfo about the derivatives that they were involved in….

A financial scandal has erupted that implicates Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in efforts to conceal the funneling of $62 billion in taxpayer funds to 16 large banks as part of the government bailout of the insurance giant American International Group (AIG).

The emails also show that the New York Fed, during Geithner’s tenure as president, pressed AIG to conceal some $10 billion in so-called “synthetic” CDOs it owned or insured. Synthetic CDOs are bundles of derivatives rather than bundles of loans—i.e., securities one dimension further removed from any real value—and are now considered among the most toxic of speculative assets.

Releasing the emails last week, Issa said: “Inadvertent reporting errors are one thing. Directing a bailed-out company to withhold crucial information from a government agency in order to keep the American public in the dark is another. Whether or not the United States treasury secretary was directly implicated in the scheme is a key question. Either he didn’t know and he was negligent or he did know and presided over a blatant attempt to withhold information from the American people.”

So I ask, should he go or should he stay?  IMO, he should resign and let someone else work the scams…why?

It is simple, at least for me……Geithner was head of the NY Fed attempted to scam the taxpayer….when ask about Wall St regulations, he said that he was not a regulator, but the truth is the NY Fed is a regulatory agency….strike 2….while he was head of the NY Fed some banks were overpaid with the original TARP funds….strike three…..Geithner has had too many meetings with certain banks…making him too cozy with Wall Street….strike 4……that is way too many strikes against him….time to do the right thing and get the hell out of Washington….

Watching Geithner twist in the wind will be interesting…will he live to scam another day?

Should He Stay Or Should He Go?

That is the question that is being batted around Washington these days…the “HE”  is Geithner the Obama Secretary of the Treasury….in recent hearings on Capital Hill…..the following is being reported in The Hill:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is coming under new pressure from conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats to resign.

Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) this week joined a small group of lawmakers publicly calling for Geithner to step down. Former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons, who is challenging Sen. Chris Dodd (D) for Senate in Connecticut, has made Geithner’s resignation a campaign issue.

This week’s criticism was sparked by a report from Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general over the $700 billion bailout program. Barofsky concluded that officials at the Federal Reserve, including Geithner, who was head of the New York Fed, made a series of missteps in the bailout of American International Group (AIG).

Barofsky faulted Fed officials, including Geithner, for a negotiating strategy regarding the firm’s complex derivatives that “offered little opportunity for success.” The report said that the Fed paid full value to settle the derivatives contracts, which meant tens of billions of dollars went to the big American and foreign banks that were AIG’s counterparties in the deals.

Maybe these little jerks should read my blog, among others, we brought up all this concern back in March…..we said then that he, Geithner,  should not have been confirmed let alone ever had been nominated…..after he was confirmed we pointed out that he would not be the “savior” he has been portrayed as……we bloggers were truly the visionaries, at least when it comes to Geithner and the economy….but we do not get any of the credit….nope….it will be the “politicians” that saw this coming and that will be a lie…..not misinformation….an out right LIE!

Repubs did not like him….only because he was nominated by Obama…if it had been the nomination by a Repub prez then he would have been eagerly accepted…..bloggers were about the only ones that wrote against his nomination and later confirmation of little Timmy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury……

Since few recognize the contribution and the foresight of bloggers…I feel it necessary to give them an “atta boy”……..it would be nice if people, especially politicians, would read and appreciate the insight us bloggers have at times…..are we always correct….hell no!….but we do have our moments…..and the Geithner situation is one of our finest….

Could It Get Any Worse?

Markets are a yo-yo……foreclosures are rising quicker than the dead in a zombie movie….jobs are flying out of the economy….and manufacturing is at a stand still….so….could things get worse?

The quick answer is ….you bet your ass it can!

Remember all the urgency of the TARP, TALF and ARRA?  If we did not do something we would be in a sad place in the economy…….would the government, the Treasury to be exact, ever lie to the people to get their way or their money, as it were?

Want another quick answer?  Oh, you betcha ass they would!

Now I know someone somewhere, most likely in “Stumpville, Arkansas will dispute that….but I hate to be a buzz kill, but the WSJ is reporting …they did just that….

The US Treasury misled the public over the health of struggling Wall Street banks receiving emergency funds at the height of the financial crisis, creating unrealistic expectations and undermining popular trust in bailout efforts, according to an official audit.

An inspector general appointed to oversee the US government’s banking bailout has singled out president Bush’s treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, for painting an excessively rosy picture of the condition of institutions such as Bank of America, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch when the government pumped $125bn (£70bn) into America’s ten top banks in September last year.

At the time, Paulson described the banks as “healthy institutions” and said that an injection of government cash would kick-start lending in the economy. But officials in both the Treasury and the Federal Reserve had private concerns that some of them were teetering close to a financial collapse.

“The Treasury may have created unrealistic expectations about the institutions’ condition and their ability to increase lending,” says a report today by the inspector general, Neil Barofsky, who adds that the Treasury and the bail-out program “lost credibility when lending at those institutions did not in fact increase”.

He continues: “Accuracy and transparency will enhance the credibility of government programs like TARP [the troubled asset repurchase plan] and restore taxpayer confidence in the policy makers who manage them; inaccurate statements, on the other hand, could have unintended long-term consequences that could damage the trust that the American people have in their government.”

The Federal Reserve’s chairman, Ben Bernanke, and the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair, are criticised for similarly optimistic remarks in the findings, which will add to a vigorous debate about the handling of the credit crunch in the final months of Bush administration.

Paulson and Bernanke opted to pump funds into all ten of the country’s top banks to avoid creating “haves” and “have nots” that would highlight those considered to be in a more perilous state. In doing so, they tried to talk up the condition of every big institution.

Even though a couple of the big banks have repaid, at least some, of the money….they are still NOT stable and the lies of the past could very well come back to bite them in the ass.

I really hate to pee on the parade….but all the “good” news, economic good news, is made up…nothing is making Main Street feel optimistic about the chances of the economy recovering.

The final word is that the banks have done NOTHING to change the way they do business….so the conditions that caused the crash, as it were, are still in place and surviving well.

YES…things could still get worse……….