RAW VIDEO - Paul Volcker Confronted on Bilderberg Says: "I'm A Member Of The Federal Reserve Which Is The Most Insidious Group Of All (Laughter All Around)"

Volcker v. Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change - Aug. 8, 2012

Both bizarre and strangely entertaining as former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker complains about not having been invited to Bilderberg for at least 15 years, and then to confuse and perhaps amuse Rudkowski further, he mentions his membership in the Tri-Lateral Commission and the Federal Reserve, just before disappearing into the elevator.

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Bilderberg Slideshow - There's A Lot In Here

Comments

[Cheyenne]

"When I left Chase to go in the Treasury, in 1969, I think my income was in the neighborhood of 45,000 dollars a year."

“I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth — one shred of evidence.”

"All I know is that the economy was rising very nicely in the 1950s and 1960s without all of these innovations. Indeed, it was quite good in the 1980s without credit-default swaps and without securitization and without CDOs."

The best financial innovation of the last 25 years. "The ATM. It really helps people, it's useful."

--Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve Chairman, 1979-87

[DailyBail]

Good quotes. That sounds like Paul Volcker in Inside Job.

[SKINFLINT]

Could either of you guys explain how an electrionic money market fund works and how a run on the banks is possible and Kanjorski's assertion that the Fed "opened" their window. Where that money came from and possibly where it went.

[john]

Skinflint, the money went somewhere but that is a question that remains unanswered/unclear. Here is a story DB did on it that might be helpful.

http://dailybail.com/home/the-2008-financial-crisis-was-not-caused-by-terrorists-unles.html

[Cheyenne]

The first quote, yeah. Good ear.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/awards-information/insidejob_screenplay.pdf (p. 13)

The topic of Tall Paul presents a study in contrasts, one of which is between American culture now versus 30 years ago.

Back then, people actually knew not only who Volcker was, but held strong opinions on how the Fed affected the economy. Volcker, who'd raised borrowing rates to fight inflation and presided over the 1981 downturn, actually weathered physical threats as the Fed Chair.

"Volcker even received death threats written on bricks and 2 by 4's from unemployed carpenters and out of work car salesmen."
http://wiki.dickinson.edu/index.php/Paul_Volcker_Slays_the_Inflationary_Dragon

Today, Bernanke has all but destroyed the economy, and yet even the most educated people are clueless about his role as the single-largest middle class destroyer in U.S. history.

Just compare the 1981 downturn to the one that started (but is by no means finished) in 2008:

http://panzner.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451591e69e201761745318a970c-pi

Keep in mind that the dead cat bounce you see in the graph starting late '09 - early '10 follows on the heels of a $700 billion bailout from Treasury in late 2008, an $800 billion stimulus plan in early 2009, $3-4 trillion giveaways from the Federal Reserve starting in 2008, $8 trillion in concealed loans from the Fed, not to mention $200 billion in loans from the FDIC.

Ben Bernanke has been in favor of every penny of it--and the party is over, as the tail end of the graph makes clear. And yet people obsess over the very electoral puppet show that will inject synthetic growth hormones into the metastasizing cancer called the U.S. economy under which they suffer. They have tuna fish where their brains used to be.

[Cheyenne]

SKIN--

Here's how I answered your excellent questions a day or two ago. Short answer: there is no publicly available evidence to answer you, and Kanjorski's story was just the beginning of the weirdness that was 2009:

* * *

Those are great questions that no one ever answered. But you are right that there would definitely be a footprint if this story was true.

This fabled story originated with Rep. Kanjorski in Feb. 2009, the Year of the Crazy Story. Let's recap just some of the epic weirdness that began in the first month of the new Obama Adminstration:

2/6: Kanjorski, responding to an irate caller on C-Span, busts out of left field with the heretofore untold story of the Federal Reserve "noticing" a $550 billion drawdown on money market accounts in the U.S.

3/3: Obama states: “What you’re now seeing is profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long-term perspective on it.” http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/7771/does-president-know-what-p-e-ratio-stands

3/6: Dow Jones bottoms at 6627, then rises 60% by year end. http://www.google.com/finance?q=INDEXDJX:.DJI

3/10: Bernanke comes out against mark-to-market accounting. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ae28zU9ATxmk

3/12: Kanjorki and other members of Congress rail against mark-to-market accounting. http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/13306816

3/16-4/2: FASB proposes and then adopts mark-to-fantasy accounting. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=agfrKseJ94jc

3/30: The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Treasury has $134.5 billion left in TARP funds. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123828522318566241.html

6/3: Two Japanese businessmen are apprehended in Chiasso, Italy attempting to head into Switzerland with... $134.5 billion in U.S. bonds stashed in secret compartments inside their luggage. How could that much money fit inside of luggage? "The securities were divided among 249 certificates of 500 million each, along with ten other certificates each worth $1 billion respectively." http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/420590-marli/8420-did-the-japanese-try-to-dump-135-billion-in-us-bonds-on-the-black-market

Conclusion: Lots of crazy shit shit involving unprecedented shitloads of money was going on in the first half of 2009, and no one has ever given an explanation worth a shit for any of it.

[SKINFLINT]

Yes I remember the whole Kanjorski thing from a couple of years ago. Got your threads and read through most of them. I certainly remember the Japanese guys. Totally unusual stuff that sticks in my mind. Guys. I really don't mean to be a pain here. Seems to me that there should have been a stop gap in the system somewhere rather than opening the "window" and throwing even more money out and holding us accountable. I wll try and read more about electronic market funds and how they work. I'm just a blue collar grunt trying to figure this mess out. Just seems that Kanjorskis comments are the place to start.

[Cheyenne]

SKIN--

Good luck. But keep in mind that Kanjorski's story might be badly confused bullshit.

First, he had no compunction in advancing Paulson's doomsday yarns to ram TARP through Congress; he's a bankter's wet dream of a poltician. Second, why did he wait four months to come out with this? Third, and most compelling, there were already documented accounts of a money market run taking place at the very same time as the money market run that Kanjorski supposedly heard about.

According to Kanjorski, he heard on 9/18/08 about the alleged $550 billion draw-down, which supposedly had occurred the previous week. On 9/19/08, however, the New York Times reported the following about money market activity in the previous week:

"Money funds held more than $3.4 trillion in investor funds, as of the most recent industry tally released Thursday, DOWN ALMOST $170 BILLION FROM THE PREVIOUS WEEK."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business/20moneys.html?_r=1

Which ya gonna believe? (1) The NYT contemporaneous account that $170 billion net had left MM accounts, or (2) Kanjorski's 4-months-stale and off-the-cuff account of $550 billion was drawn down in a couple of hours?

Methinks Kanjorski's memory may have been a little faulty, to put it charitably.

[SKINFLINT]

Was not aware of the discrepancy on the dates. Thought that the drawdown occurred on the 18th. Also was not aware of the NYT article in this time period. Still, and I posted this before, through the miracle of voice recognition technology, our guys can zero in on a phone conversation half a world away. Lock a guided missile on to that signal, stick a camera on that missile and watch the incredulous look on a bad guys face as he is vaporized into a pink mist while we watch on the 5 o clock news while holding a cold beer thanking God we were not that guy. And we can't figure out who stole the money or even arrest one person who had a hand in this thing. Thanks.

[SKINFLINT]

Zero Hedge Sunday Feb 9 2009. Kanjorski at a hearing addresses the hammer in regards the huge drawdown in money market funds and reiterates his position on the amounts that he mentioned on CSPAN. The Hammer does not disagree or correct him at all. Hopefully this will post.

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-world-almost-came-to-end-at-2pm-on.html

[SKINFLINT]

The hearing actually took place in September of 08. Fact remains, Paulson does not correct Kanjorski's zany assertions.

[DailyBail]

Which ya gonna believe? (1) The NYT contemporaneous account that $170 billion net had left MM accounts, or (2) Kanjorski's 4-months-stale and off-the-cuff account of $550 billion was drawn down in a couple of hours?

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I was trading in the markets that week and remember the day well. There was a run on money market funds after that 1 fund broke the buck. The stock markets started to crash on the news (down about 800 pts. on the Dow), and a new money market guarantee was announced intra-day. Then they shut down money market training altogether a few hours early.

Here's what I always thought happened. There was a run. None of us know how much left the markets. Paulson used the panic to exagerate the outflows in private meetings a few days later with members of Congress in order to get them to pass TARP. It was just another Paulson tactic like all the others, utilizing fear to cajole a financially-illiterate Congress.

I covered in great detail here:

http://dailybail.com/home/kanjorski-reveals-paulsons-closed-door-tarp-threats.html

And here:

http://dailybail.com/home/kanjorski-asks-paulson-to-describe-his-greatest-fears-from-t.html

As for exactly how much left that day during the panic, who knows. But it made for nice motivation from the Treasury Secretary. I assume he tossed around the $550 billion figure to anyone who would listen.

[SKINFLINT]

So we have three different clips of Kanjorski starting in 08 going on about the same story. Kind of like Grandpa telling it over and over again. Paulson never really corrects him or anything here. Is this the Primary Reserve Fund?

[Cheyenne]

Bloomberg is running a three-part series, excerpted from the author's upcomng book and replete with gold references, about Volcker. First two parts:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-20/how-volcker-launched-his-attack-on-inflation.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-21/how-volcker-created-a-gold-standard-without-gold.html

Unfortunately for its author, the book has been nominated for the Goldman Sachs Book of the Year Award. Last year's winner, "Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty," was selected by a panel that included two of the world's leading impoverishers, Mario Monti and Arthur Levitt.

Lloyd Blankfein, carrying out God's work, offered this completely insipid praise of last year's winner: "Poor Economics is an important and thoughtful book. It provides real insight into many of the fundamental issues that can help alleviate poverty. [It] is a deserving winner." http://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/business-book-award/2011/index.html

Jesus Christ, Lloyd, that's fucking pathetic, you shitheel. You steal that from a 3rd grader's book report?

[Pitchfork]

If Paulson really told Kanjorski that the 550B drawdown was "calculated" to exceed 5 Trillion in a matter of hours or whatever, then he was lying. There aren't 5 Trillion in money market funds. At the time there was about 2 Trillion, total. But who worries about actual numbers anymore?