House members’ stock market success questioned

The Washington Times ^ | May 25, 2011, 5:25pm | Valerie Richardson

[newzjunkey]

... A study published in the journal Business and Politics Wednesday found that members of the House of Representatives outperform the average investor when it comes to buying and selling stocks by 55 basis points per month, or six percent annually...

Despite their reputation as the party of the rich, Republicans fared worse than their Democratic colleagues when it comes to playing the market, according to the study. That could be because Democrats were the majority party, and thus held more leadership posts, for most of the period under review...

[Liz]

When they organize tax-exempt "non-profits" and "do gooder- foundations" back in their districts, that's how you know they're hiding "earmarks," kickbacks, bribes and other graft-------in n/p budget items such as: "maintenance, building expansion, janitorial, public relations, legal fees, administration," and the like.

Multi-million dollar govt grants to the district are easily converted......deposited in reserve accounts that a bank is then directed to redeposit in another account.

HERE'S HOW MADOFF DID IT When they went back to ID Madoff's assets, they found a super-secret labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and financial entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth......with assets and businesses in multiple places overseas that hid thievery, money laundering and tax evasion.

Madoff was running simultaneous scams:

(1) a tax evasion investment scheme for wealthy businessmen ("losing" money is a tax write-off;

(2) money laundering scams;

(3) a protection racket for affinity groups,

(4) aiding and abetting wealthy tax-exempt non-profit foundations to evade US banking laws and the IRS.

(5) hiding money for wealthy businessmen some of which was used for campaign donations (FEC fraud), and non-profit fraud (IRS fraud).

All of this is easily facilitated with co-conspirators directly or indirectly, singly or in concert, using government computers, government computer technicians, by use of financial instruments, investment vehicles, ........utilizing the US mails, electronics, wire transfers, computers.

There are zillions of ways to profit from those do-good multi-million govt programs.

Forbes Magazine says the total bailout bill may exceed $20 trillion. .

[Liz]

THE OBAMA BAILOUTS---GOVT FRAUD ON A MASSIVE SCALE now you know why Obama gets that smirk on his face---just looked at his holdings.

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REFERENCE Behind The Real Size of Obama's Wall Street Bailout (more like $14 trillion)
Mother Jones | Dec. 21, 2009 / FR Posted January 04, 2010 by E. Pluribus Unum

A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street.

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets. To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see our chart here. Below, a guide to the pieces of the puzzle:

Treasury Department bailout programs (controlled by then-COS Rahm Emanuel)

Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF].

Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF].

TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury has made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid. Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury has bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets." GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion [PDF].

--SNIP--- long read

Federal Reserve bailout programs

Commercial Paper Funding Facility: With the support from the Treasury, the Fed established the CPFF in October 2008 to increase the availability of short-term debt (commercial paper) funding. Up to $1.8 trillion [PDF] was earmarked for the program.

Mortgage-backed securities purchase: In 2009, the Fed earmarked up to $1.25 trillion to buy investments based on home loans.

Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility: TALF provides financing to investors who are buying asset-backed securities. In February 2009, the Fed and Treasury announced an expansion of the program to generate up to $1 trillion in new lending.

Foreign Central Bank Currency Liquidity Swaps: The Fed has provided $755 billion [PDF] for currency liquidity swaps with foreign central banks.

--SNIP--- long read