Readers, let's see what really happens here. It all hinges on one judge's self respect and respect for the rule of law, rather than for the rule of the lawless, which is what we have had for at least a decade and more reasonably 30+ years. Citi could be the sacrifice to provide a bad example so that the others can escape by pointing at Citi Corp. Stay tuned, Tadit Anderson

Readers, this is a very good update on the corporate capture of the Fed and of the Treasury Department as exemplified by the AIG in the front door and out the side door bail-out. Greider only lightly addresses the consequences, but clearly in my opinion. He infers that we are in a process that is still in its early stages, and nothing was fixed at all. There are monumental implications of this assessment, particularly when the same interests are acting to block the recovery of crippled and remaining productive part of the US economy.

Readers, an interesting side point showed up for me in viewing a talk by Elizabeth Warren in San Francisco two years ago under the title of "The Coming Collapse of the US Middle Class. We now have it posted at out video site. She does an excellent job of tracking the specific reasons for the extreme vulnerability of the US middle class as its sense of economic security has eroded over the past 40 years. The mild put point she makes is that our fiscal policies have contributed to this process greatly.

Readers, this is interesting to me because it is the first evidence of someone one outside of the small circle including William Black, the post Keynesian economists, and a few scattered other people who have been concerned about the criminality of the banking system. Perhaps there are others out there. If we had about a dozen more of these sort of radical critics there might be some serious political concern translated into the real action on the part of the bought out political class. Tadit Anderson

Readers, hopefully this new will encourage the rest of the US States and any pension fund who were scammed to go after the "Too Big To Fail" criminal enterprises

CNBC is reporting that AIG is set to pay the state of Ohio $725 million.

Felix Salmon of Reuters is reporting on twitter that the actual payment will be over $1 billion.

Here is the full press release from the Ohio Attorney General (via Felix Salmon):

(Any emphasis is ours.)
7/16/2010

The financial crisis in America isn't over. It's ongoing, it remains unresolved, and it stands in the way of full economic recovery. The cause, at the deepest level, was a breakdown in the rule of law. And it follows that the first step toward prosperity is to restore the rule of law in the financial sector.

First, there was a stand-down of the financial police. The legal framework for this was laid with the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and the Commodities Futures

Readers, add to Kuntsler's piece that the upcoming hurricane season is going to be horrific in at least two ways. The key piece of information is that the average surface water temperature is about 7 degrees above normal thanks to the now dark coloration of the Gulf. This is the energy that fuels hurricanes. These hurricanes will lift up the crude oil and dispersants and at least spread it through the gulf states. We may even break records relative to the power of these hurricanes as measured by the category system. stay tuned and batten down if you can't escape. Tadit Anderson

With public attention focused on everything from the oil disaster, the diplomatic isolation of Israel, to Al and Tipper's separation, the final legislative push for financial reform begins this week as House and Senate conferees commence their work. This is the moment when lobbyists for the banking industry hope to kill provisions that they were unable to block in the House or Senate. This is no time for reformers to relent.

The following is the text of James Galbraith‘s written statement delivered
a few days ago to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee .

May 18, 2010

I write to you from a disgraced profession

Chairman Specter, Ranking Member Graham, Members of the Subcommittee,
as a former member of the congressional staff it is a pleasure to
submit this statement for your record.

I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory, as
widely taught since the 1980s, failed miserably to understand the
forces behind the financial crisis. Concepts including “rational

REYKJAVIK — More than a year and a half after Iceland's major banks failed, all but sinking the country's economy, police have begun rounding up a number of top bankers while other former executives and owners face a two-billion-dollar lawsuit.

Since Iceland's three largest banks -- Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir -- collapsed in late 2008, their former executives and owners have largely been living untroubled lives abroad.