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The last remaining Obama advisor who's not a banker -or totally in the banker's pockets- is now bailing... President Barack Obama announced Thursday that former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was stepping down from his role as head of an outside panel advising the White House on economic policy. ... The White House order creating the panel expires on February 6 and sources said Obama plans to reconfigure it to focus more on business outreach. General Electric Co. chief executive Jeffrey Immelt is seen as top candidate to head the new board. Jeffrey Immelt!  Isn't that special...  CEO of the...

Volcker: Fed Plan an Illusion, Won't Boost Economy Friday, November 5, 2010 10:37 AM Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker says the U.S. central bank's plan to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in government bonds probably won't do much to boost the economic recovery. The Fed announced Wednesday that it would purchase $600 billion in Treasurys, aiming to lower long-term interest rates in an effort to spur spending and ultimately lower the U.S. unemployment rate, currently at 9.6 percent. The move comes on the heels of previous purchases of $1.7 trillion in mortgage and Treasury bonds. Volcker told a...

Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kiyohiko Nishimura discusses "informational advantage" this week at the Lujiazui Forum on economics and finance in Shanghai: "In my understanding, the Volcker Rule [proposed legislation restricting banks from making certain speculative investments] is designed to deter banks from taking excessive risk in capital markets, where volatility is inherently high and in which bankers do not necessarily have informational advantage in predicting market developments. Rather, the Volcker Rule urges banks to return to their traditional stronghold of commercial banking business, in which they can utilize their informational advantage based on long-term relationships with their customers." Informational...

SPIN FREE OVERSEAS: Volcker Explains Obama has Raised Spending to 25% of GDP And There Must Be A Massive New Tax to Cover It http://www.breitbart.tv/volcker-revelation-stiff-new-tax-needed-to-cover-obama-spending-at-25-of-gdp/ Naked Emperor News

I've been a customer of USAA services my entire adult life. It has been one company that has always kept faith, gave excellent service. Now it's threatened by the Volcker rule.

VAT chance! Republicans yesterday accused President Obama of plotting to slap a hefty new European-style "value added tax" on Americans after one of his top advisers raised the idea. "To make up for the largest levels of spending and deficits in modern history, the administration is laying the foundation for a large, misguided new tax, a first-time American VAT," fumed Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the top GOPer on the Senate Finance Committee. "If the president wants to add completely new layers of taxation, then he should take this issue before the American people when he runs for re-election." Paul Volcker,...

One of President Obama's top economic advisers, former Fed chief Paul Volcker, sug gested this week that it's time for America to adopt a VAT, or value-added tax. The White House yesterday downplayed the idea -- but it's sure to resurface: It's an inevitable consequence of a government that's too big now and likely to grow even bigger thanks to Washington's reckless spending spree. Don't get me wrong: The VAT -- on top of all the other taxes Washington imposes -- is a terrible idea. Imposing it would pretty well finish the transformation of our country into a European-style slow-growth...

Acknowledging it would be a highly unpopular move, White House economic adviser Paul Volcker said yesterday the United States should consider imposing a "value added tax" similar to those charged in Europe to help get the deficit under control. A VAT is a national sales tax that, like state and city sales taxes, would be collected by retailers. Volcker, at the New-York Historical Society, told a panel on the global financial crisis that Congress might also have to consider new taxes on carbon and energy.

Volcker: Taxes likely to rise eventually to tame deficit NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.

Some locker room banter was recently overheard, to the effect that “nothing is made worth a [@#*%&] anymore.” The subject was boxing gloves, which bore an American sounding brand name but which were manufactured in – imagine this – China. We could not find much ground from which to disagree with that assertion. But the next comment got us thinking: “…they own us, anyway!” No, they don’t. They own our debt, and that’s not exactly the same thing has having title. We asserted, “lots of things could happen to that debt. We could stop paying on it. Or, we could...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - If President Barack Obama's plan to ban proprietary trading at some banks was applied in the European Union, it could be problematic for the bloc's universal banks, an EU document obtained by Reuters said. EU finance ministers, following a call from the Netherlands which backs the proposal, will discuss its possible impact on Europe at a meeting on Tuesday but no consensus is expected. The plan, dubbed the "Volcker rule," was drafted by White House adviser and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, stunned global markets last month and is already facing resistance in Congress. EU countries...

Today the market just barely avoided closing under 10,000 - tonight EC will shed some light on WHY the market's crashing - and the reason why this might get out of control and that could cost many people their entire net worth. We'll also talk about the rise of antisemitism in France, and the headlines of the day.

PRESIDENT OBAMA 10 days ago set out one important element in the needed structural reform of the financial system. No one can reasonably contest the need for such reform, in the United States and in other countries as well. We have after all a system that broke down in the most serious crisis in 75 years. The cost has been enormous in terms of unemployment and lost production. The repercussions have been international. Aggressive action by governments and central banks — really unprecedented in both magnitude and scope — has been necessary to revive and maintain market functions. Some of...

Little Timmy Bonaparte testified today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and it looked as if he was going to explode on national television. I must say I am surprised that he decided to come out so aggressively. I was waiting for someone on the panel to ask him if he “ordered the code red”? (If you don’t know what I mean, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hopNAI8Pefg I must admit I was amused. Bonaparte scored one on the congressional panelist who told him to speak into the microphone (a standard intimidation tactic) to which he caustically replied “I’m almost eating it”....

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker wrote the House Financial Services Committee earliy this month that they opposed a provision, backed by Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) that would expand the congressional Government Accountability Office’s audits of the Fed. The committee, ignoring the pleas from the two, endorsed the provision Thursday. Greenspan and Volcker, in a letter sent to the committee’s chairman and ranking Republicans, warned that the provision threatened the ability of the Fed to foster price stability independent of political interference.

Many who backed Obama at the time of the financial crisis last Fall, are now, in private, expressing grave misgivings. (snip) I'm told that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers have both complained to senior Wall Street execs that they have almost no say in major policy decisions. Obama economic counselor Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman, is barely consulted at all on just about anything -- not even issues involving the banking system, of which he is among the world's leading authorities.(snip)(obama)is acting as if he has a blank check to do what he wants,...

A handful of high-ranking Obama administration officials this month delivered private briefings at the annual invitation-only conference held by an elite international organization known as the Bilderberg group. The closed meeting of some of the most powerful business , media and political leaders in North America and Western Europe heard from top Obama diplomats James Steinberg and Richard Holbrooke, who detailed the administration’s foreign policy, while economic adviser Paul Volcker, chairman of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, also gave a presentation at the heavily guarded seaside resort in Greece that hosted the event. The Bilderberg group, which takes its...

On Tax Day, Apr. 15, President Obama declared his belief in simplifying the tax code. His Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by Paul Volcker, has been tasked with presenting recommendations by Dec. 4. Is the flat tax coming? No. Simpler code? Yes. Lower tax rates (plural)? Yes. The catch: The improved income tax code will come with a European-style value-added tax. Choke! Politicians love the VAT. First, because the levy applies to every transaction phase and includes services as well as products, it is difficult to avoid. It's no surprise, therefore, that the VAT was invented by the French. Second,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House Wednesday announced a new task force headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to reform the Byzantine US tax code in the hope of recouping billions in lost revenue. White House budget chief Peter Orszag said Volcker and four other top economists will report their recommendations back to President Barack Obama by December 4, and their review will cover three main areas. "One is tax simplification, the second is closing tax loopholes and reducing tax evasion, and the third is reducing corporate welfare," the director of the Office of Management and Budget told...

A top economic adviser to US President Barack Obama, along with nine former senior officials, is calling on the American leader to launch a dialogue with Hamas, the The Boston Globe reported Saturday. SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World According to the report, Paul A. Volcker and other members of the bipartisan group - including former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski - have sent a letter to Obama urging him to engage Hamas in order to coax the terrorist organization to disarm and join a peaceful Palestinian unity government.