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The Audacity of Bonuses at MF Global
By Nomi Prins on Thursday, March 15th, 2012
In the spirit of George Orwell’s Animal Farm commandment: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal then others” comes the galling news that bankruptcy trustee, Louis Freeh, could approve the defunct, MF Global to pay bonuses to certain senior executives. This, despite the fact that nearly $1.6 billion of customer funds remains “missing” or otherwise partially accounted for, yet beyond the reach of those customers, perhaps forever, since before the firm declared ...
The Eurpoean Central Bank Spins, FED Smirks and U.S. Banks Pillage
By Nomi Prins on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Often, when I troll around websites of entities like the Eurpoean Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), I uncover little of startling note. They design it that way. Plus, the pace at which the global financial system can leverage bets, eviscerate capital, and cry for bank bailouts financed through austerity measures far exceeds the reporting timeliness of these bodies. That’s why, on the center of the ECB’s homepage, there’s a series of ...
Another Piece in the MF Global / Goldman Puzzle
By Nomi Prins on Friday, November 18th, 2011
As we await the results of a probe into MF Global and its missing clients’ funds that will no doubt be conducted with the same tactical zeal with which authorities across the country arrested over 4000 Occupy Wall Street protesters,  it’s interesting to note another component of the MF Global – Goldman Relationship. Beyond the past-leadership of Goldman Sachs by former MF Global head, Jon Corzine, and fact he was brought to the helm by ...
10 Reasons To Hate Bank of America
By Nomi Prins on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
There is no shortage of hatred for the biggest banks. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is leading a national revolution against these Byzantine, powerful Goliaths for the economic devastation they have caused. This makes it difficult to choose the worst of the bunch. That said, a strong case can be made that Bank of America deserves the title of the nation’s most despised bank. Here are ten reasons to take your money out of ...
Pocket-Change SEC Fines: Barely a Bark and No Bite
By Nomi Prins on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
There’s a reason yesterday’s announcement that JPM Chase would ‘settle’ for a fine of $156.3 million, while neither admitting nor denying any wrong-doing, thereby forking over the whopping equivalent of a normal person’s weekly grocery budget, pisses people off. Because it’s a marginal fleabite on the teflon hand of the nation’s second largest bank in terms of punitive pain, and absolutely meaningless in altering the grand scheme of toxic securities creation or  complex financial institution ...
Too Big To Fail, Or Too Stupid To Stop?
By Nomi Prins on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
This morning, amidst news of Moodys cutting Greece’s debt rating to Caa1, I came across a phrase I wish I’d thought of first, reading through a friend’s morning commentary. The phrase? “Too Stupid to Stop”. According to Bill Blain, Senior Director at Newedge in London, and self-professed Euro skeptic, “‘Too Stupid to Stop’ is based on politicians behaving as rational maximisers of their electoral objectives.” He was referring to the real reason behind all the bank-demanded bailout ...
Foreclosures Lower Because Banks Are Too Busy Foreclosing
By Nomi Prins on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
As anyone not working in economic leadership in Washington knows, the housing market has not stabilized and foreclosures, along with the pain they cause, remain unnecessarily high with no real signs of abatement. There remains no federal legal requirement for banks to renegotiate mortgages in a fair and quick (or any) manner, nor, sadly, will there be. As I’ve mentioned many times before, much of the mortgage pain could have been reduced using federal bailout ...
The Global Economy Burns, While its Leaders Fiddle
By Nomi Prins on Monday, May 16th, 2011
China is by no means a panacea of economic equality or perfect policy. It has a fast growing portion of billionaires and accounts for nearly a third of the world’s luxury goods consumption, while its per capita GDP ranks 125th globally, and 2.8% of Chinese live below the poverty line (according to ‘official’ stats). In contrast, the US has an official poverty rate of 14%, though think tanks like the Economic Policy Institute, consider this ...
Can’t Blame Economic Policy on Osama
By Nomi Prins on Thursday, May 5th, 2011
When William Shakespeare penned the words, “All the world’s a stage“ in, As you like it, it was centuries before tense photos of tense leaders would show tense concern over tense military operations. What transpired around the killing, or killing announcement, of Osama bin Laden has been astounding. Whether you believe that bin Laden was “taken out” by this NAVY Seal operation, after nearly a decade, two wars, an over 81% increase in the military ...
Bernanke Press Conference is NOT Glasnost
By Nomi Prins on Thursday, April 28th, 2011
To read some of the business and mainstream papers, you’d think Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke was going to descend from his dark, ivy-overgrown castle, trudge through the surrounding moat, hike barefoot through a hundred mile field of thorns, come to a rushing river and walk across its surface. All to impart upon the people a rare glimpse at the thought process of the shadowy one. The Wall Street Journal referred to this as the Fed ...