Posted on 03/15/2017 6:10:18 PM PDT by Aria
Methinks that someone is slowwalking the carribeanradio server...
I too am careful with info I see...nothing wrong with being a little skeptical - especially these days.
From the article:
There was ample evidence that the issuing agencies were technically bankrupt when they issued the bonds and that they purchased fraudulent credit ratings from Moody’s Fitch and S&P. Wall Street’s biggest banks then knowingly sold junk bonds to innocent investors, labeling them as safe investments. Everyone made a ton of money, except the innocent investors.
As I said this rings true to me since we’ve seen it before.
Not sure how he knows about the help from Schumer and associates but it isn’t a stretch to think Schumer would be doing what he had to do to protect Wall Street from outright theft from investors.
I wish these blogs had copyeditors.
Initial report that Bharara had been asked to stay on seem to have been because respectable sources made assurances that he was effective in cleaning up corruption in New York. I imagine those sources are no longer respectable. Trump’s instinct was right from the beginning, as usual. He just let some of the slime leak out before he pulled the trigger.
I would love to see these people in the dock. It would be grand if Sessions’ DoJ were to get a bunch of prominent Democrat politicians up on charges, convict them, then start on the Gopes.
I am sure Mr. Ryan stood to gain or did gain a whole lot of financial election support and a whole lot of donations to some “charity” to which he is tied by the Puerto Pobre bond deal.
If what is in the article is true, Trump should go into major detail during a press conference and go over what happened to the bond holders, and who is responsible for them getting screwed. Then he should ask that Congress overturn any laws it passed to protect the people who swindled the bond holders. On top of that Trump should order the Dept of Justice to prosecute the culprits to the fullest extent of the law. It is absolutely disgusting that four sitting Senators would have done something like this to average investors.
Do you suppose Lawless was one of the bondholders?
I posted this on another thread, but, it applies even more so, here:
It’s been many(!) years since I studied the French Revolution. It came up again in my daughter’s home schooling curriculum, recently, and I was explaining to my daughter that I thought Thomas Jefferson’s “take” might have been a bit extreme. After all, a lot of aristocrats who were sympathetic to “the people”, or who did not directly cause the people’s woes, were brutally executed.
However, the further we get into 2017, and Trump’s efforts to set things straight, the more I worry about what these deeply corrupt, deeply entrenched interests will do to retain power. What then follows, if, per Jefferson, the people must take matters into their own hands, and the country is nearly evenly split? Will “justice” murder hundreds of thousands who may be “wrong”, but are not the true evildoers, and do not deserve to be murdered? It could get very ugly indeed.
From the article:
“In 2015, Puerto Rico defaulted on $70 billion in municipal bonds. Those involved panicked. There was ample evidence that the issuing agencies were technically bankrupt when they issued the bonds and that they purchased fraudulent credit ratings from Moody’s Fitch and S&P. Wall Street’s biggest banks then knowingly sold junk bonds to innocent investors, labeling them as safe investments. Everyone made a ton of money, except the innocent investors”
This is absolute nonsense. First off, I have no idea what he means by “technically bankrupt.” P.R. currently holds a debt to G.D.P. ratio of 68%, indicating that debt repayment issues are caused by liquidity not solvency issues. Moreover, the idea that P.R. “purchased” favorable but fraudulent ratings from the rating agencies betrays a staggering ignorance of the bond market. The Jones Act made interest earned on P.R. debt exempt from state, local and federal taxes. This exemption made P.R. debt attractive despite balance sheet concerns. In 2012 Moody’s was rating P.R. debt Baa1, meaning the lowest tier of investment grade bonds. Not exactly a resounding endorsement. Furthermore, the current P.R. debt crisis was precipitated by the ratings agencies downgrading the debt in Feb of 2014, thereby triggering acceleration clauses in the repayment schedule. The downgrade is in fact the proximate cause of the current effort at restructuring, which was the purpose of the PROMESA Act which the author so darkly speculates about. Regarding PROMESA, the author seems to believe that the Act permanently prevents bond holders from bringing suit, this is inaccurate. The Act only temporarily bars such suits, with that protection set to expire in May.
Having misstated both the P.R. debt situation and the details of PROMESA, the author’s lack of understanding regarding the legislative process is unsurprising. PROMESA passed in January. Meaning it passed through a GOP controlled House and Senate. Which means that no Democrat would be in the necessary position to even undertake such collusion had they wanted to.
I recall back in 2014, after the ratings agency downgrade, there were several hedge fund types buying up the now junk bonds at discount. My suspicion is that the author of this article is one of them and wants the rest of us to bail out P.R. and pay current holders full face. In any case there is absolutely not “ample evidence” that ratings agencies were fraudulently concealing “technical bankruptcy.” In fact there isn’t even ample evidence that P.R. is currently insolvent, rather than simply mismanaged, google “P.R. tax collection problems” for an example.
This seems logical, especially in light of the beating the General Motors bond holders got.
IIRC, Puerto Rico, as a territory, is prohibited from declaring bankruptcy. But if PR can’t meet its debt obligations, then it’s bankrupt, isn’t it? If not legally, then functionally?
Exactly true !
The Dems, alone, don't have a lock on the swamp
There are complicit Gopes who are 'Vichy'-like, who don't ask obvious questions, and then are noted by their inactivity.
And, .. that includes eGOP leadership too !
Why don’t you tell your intimate knowledge.....here.
Bmk
Chaffetz = Milt Romley
How did Sessions vote on this bill?
These kinds of stories prove that either these people never read the bills they vote on or they all get their cut of the plunder. Certainly they don't write this stuff so who does?
It wasn't just four Senators it was a majority in both Houses and the President. If anyone didn't vote for it they certainly didn't bring up the theory that was taking place either.
Maybe we should remember the House Post Office and the BCCI when trying to assign honesty to any of these clowns.
I have been. Will be doing more. But I’m exhausted.
Thank you for this analysis!
Last night I googled Moody’s and PR and saw downgrades so that didn’t support the author’s main premise.
And who knows what the detestable Schummer did...I couldn’t find anything last night to independently support the author’s contention.
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