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WALL STREET TITANS CLASH OVER
FINANCIAL FUTURE OF U.S.
By Christopher J. Petherick
A clash of the financial titans is being waged among us to
determine the future of Wall Street, and most Main Street Americans have no
idea about it, says Ellen Brown, an author and expert on the debt system that
is destroying America. The two financial behemoths waging a war over
financial regulations are JP Morgan Chase Co.—the result of a merger between JP
Morgan and David Rockefeller’s financial flagship Chase Manhattan—and Goldman
Sachs.
Today, says Ms.
Brown, JP Morgan Chase appears ready to accept reinstatement of post-Depression
banking regulations, which prevented banks from merging with Wall Street firms
and insurance companies to create the so-called “too-big-to-fail” financial
titans behind the new “global economy.”
“In 2000, the
Rockefellers and the Morgans joined forces, when JPMorgan and Chase Manhattan
merged to become JPMorgan Chase Co.,” wrote Ms. Brown in a recent column. “[On
the other hand] former Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and Robert Rubin came
from Goldman, and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rose through the
ranks as a Rubin protégé.” Geithner also is former head of the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York, the most powerful of the Fed’s
branches, so it’s especially tough for him to be an impartial participant in America’s
financial policies. Now the battle is
waging over who will wield more influence in Washington.
Neither side is
innocent in this fight, because both engaged in the types of exotic speculation
and shadow money-lending, which resulted in the collapse of economies around
the world.
But, according to Ms.
Brown, those representing JP Morgan Chase are fed up with Goldman, which stands
out as one of the worst of the worst when it comes to Wall Street’s profligate
ways. The market-making Goldman Sachs has repeatedly been cited for hocking those
now-infamous subprime mortgage-backed securities to its best customers, while
betting against them in the full knowledge that these collateralized debt
obligations would eventually come crashing down. “Goldman Sachs has been caught in this
blatant market manipulation so often that the JPMorgan faction of the banking
empire has had enough,” wrote Ms. Brown.
Ms. Brown cites the
reemergence of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on the side of the
Morgans with a plan to rein in Wall Street as evidence of the behind-the-scenes
battle currently being fought. It’s not
just Ms. Brown who is speaking out on the clash of these two massive financial
firms. Financial publications have also been airing the behind-the-scenes struggle.
According to one
report, those in the Morgan camp are fed up with Goldman’s crass greed and
arrogance. As a result, executives at
the New York bank have been pressuring Washington
to reduce the influence of its team of advisors, such as Geithner, Summers and Rubin—all
of whom were spawned from Goldman Sachs.
“Washington needs a new face on Wall Street,”
remarked one well-known news writer, “not that of a criminal syndicate.”
While the serious
horse-trading goes on behind the scenes, it remains yet to be seen what side
the politicians will come down on. With an army of financial lobbyists working
Capitol Hill for both sides, the winners will likely be determined by who has
the most money with which to flood the midterm election campaigns. JP Morgan recently donated $30,000 to
Republican House and Senate campaign committees while shunning the Democrats,
leading some to speculate that JP Morgan was “irked” by Democrats’ pro-populist
plans to shut down Wall Street’s casino.
Considering that
executives at the top financial firms in New York and Chicago maxed out with
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, the news of Morgan’s donations
provided ample fodder for speculation on the part of leading financial papers. However, JP Morgan could simply be buying
influence among Republicans campaigning for the upcoming midterm elections,
indicative of the fact that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)
has raised more money for the 2010 elections than the GOP.
According to Congressional Quarterly, the DCCC closed out 2009
with nearly $20 million—more than nine times the $2 million the Republicans
ended with for the year.
Christopher J. Petherick is the owner and publisher at Brandywine House Books. Email him at at [email protected].
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(Issue # 5, February 1, 2010)
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