“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
While you were blinded by bank collapses and democrat fear mongers, US Treasury Sec Janet Yellen released the long stonewalled Biden family bank records.
GOP Oversight: Biden is engulfed in scandal…The Biden Family influence peddling threatens national security.
Western Alliance Bancorp., Intrust Financial Corp., UMB Financial Corp., Zions Bancorp. and Comerica Inc. were the other lenders put on review by Moody’s. The credit rating company cited concerns over the lenders’ reliance on uninsured deposit funding and unrealized losses in their asset portfolios.
What’s interesting is that currency is supposed to be issued by the Treasury, not at the state level…unless my civics classes were so long ago I’m not remembering that correctly. Wasn’t that part of why the Articles of Confederation failed, due to states issuing their own currency which was worthless in other states? And what is backing bitcoin? No commodity, where’s the value?
.@RobertKennedyJr tells @jimmy_dore that Dr. Anthony Fauci has been in charge of developing bioweapons for the Pentagon since 2002, and in 2014, three viruses escaped from US labs, so he moved his bioweapons research to the Wuhan lab:
According to the exorcists, the demons, that would be Beelzebub (Lord of the Flies) and the minions, are scared. Something is going on in the spiritual realm.
BREAKING NEWS: Pfizer Covid Vaccine vial contents exposed by WHO whistleblower. It contains graphene oxide, parasites, RFID, metals and nano circuitry. DARPA and Bill Gates developed these non biological synthetic injections to control the minds and pic.twitter.com/hDCOaEIIoM…
— Erin Elizabeth Health Nut News (@unhealthytruth) March 14, 2023
Must watch! @TuckerCarlson explains how artificially low-interest rates and fractional reserve banking caused this crisis.
Then, he makes a similar point as @jeffdeist has made: a fiat economy creates “fiat elites” and “fiat culture.”
No vax for HIV after 40 yrs of research. No vax for CANCER after 100+ yrs of research. No vax for the COMMON COLD! Yet a vax is created for COVID, by 4 BigPharma companies, all within 1 week from one another & we are all mandated to take it.#PfizerLied People Died
The mRNA synthetic vaccines cause cancer. This is a documented scientific fact by over 17,000 scientists and doctors around the world. Listen to @P_McCulloughMD (thanks Truth justice for this one) pic.twitter.com/cGQQ77GwZg
— Erin Elizabeth Health Nut News (@unhealthytruth) March 14, 2023
No Organ Is Safe: Vaccine-Induced Autoimmune Attack in the Brain, the Heart, the Lungs, etc.
Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi: "German pathologists … have shown now that these people who died after vaccination, 90% [of them] all had signs of autoimmune attack in the organs, with the heart… pic.twitter.com/is00INiKXj
There’s not a single case of a woman dying because abortion was banned in the US. You know what we do have evidence for? That abortion is directly linked to sex trafficking & domestic abuse. Also that most abortions are coerced.
.@DavidSacks: "It's not about SVB anymore. It's about the 20 banks and the cascade that comes next. Remember, on Thursday, it was just SVB, Friday, it was Signature; over the weekend, it was three to five more, and now it's 20. Do you know who's smiling right now? Jamie Dimon.… pic.twitter.com/cItIVZZsXL
You just told me to stop picking fights with someone not driven by personal profit — that person being the heir to the Levi’s fortune, worth $250 million. https://t.co/1rp70dE4QE
Slow Collapse, Controlled Implosion: "It's Gonna Be Whack-a-Mole All the Way Down" – @DowdEdward
"Now we're at the endgame because the US dollar is in all corners of the world; the debt that's been created using something called foreign-dollar-denominated debt, and that's… pic.twitter.com/n0wkoc4hof
My favorite Professor commonly summarized every civilization in history like so:
“As civilization advances, the men grow comfortable, then eventually, brutish barbarians come down from the mountains and beat the soft men to death with clubs and the cycle begins anew.” https://t.co/UQ6ZN0XMwS
I don’t think people understand the ramifications of allowing a federal agency to declare the informational landscape “critical infrastructure” and assert the right to protect it through censorship. https://t.co/OBPhUtg39N
KPMG gave Silicon Valley Bank a clean audit report 14 days before it collapsed. It blessed Signature Bank’s books 11 days before. Did they fail overnight or was it a long time coming? Like regulators, KPMG has many questions to answer. $SIVB$SBNY#KPMGhttps://t.co/bKQ1t6EPvQ
Young Pilot Develops Myocarditis After C19 Shot, Says She's Sure the Jab Is to Blame
“A lot of people are afraid to talk about it, afraid to lose their job. And since I’m not in that situation, I have a responsibility to speak out.”https://t.co/TleQXb4kDp
(I don’t remember who brought this to a daily in the comments, but thanks.)
And, of course, the obligatory George Carlin:
Per the Boss:
And now for the obligatory message from our sponsors:
Here at the Q tree we believe in the concept of CIVIL open free speech and the discussion that fleshes out ideas. When commenting and participating in the OPEN discussion on this thread all comments MUST NOT CONTAIN personal threats, baiting, name calling, or other anti-social words fomenting hate, violence or destruction. Our host Wolfm00n has strict rules about that.
Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone
Please, stock up on blanks for celebratory gunfire, be ready to swing from the chandeliers…and no messing with the nuclear weapons.
Please remember to remain locked and loaded and ready for trouble should the insurrectionists try to invade your space.
Those who have things to say that do not fit the generally accepted limits of “civil” discussion, Wolf has provided a venue known as the UTree. You’re welcome to visit over there and say hi to anyone hanging out over there. The “Rescue Thread” is also over there. In the event a rendezvous of the tree is needed, please check it out, as well as the newest rescue venue.
Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.
One other vital note:
Please, review these rules that our host Wolfm00n outlined toward the beginning of the growth of the tree itself. it won’t take long.
17“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome.
Please include: President Donald Trump, the Q team, our soldiers in the field, special forces, tactical units, first responders and those working behind the scenes…and any and all people with family members in the hospital, COVID or not.
And…members of the QTree who no longer participate for one reason or another.
We are getting ready to experience a level of evil that will be hard to comprehend. Stay strong. Be prepared.
It is quite clear, as per Wolf’s message from July, that we are under spiritual attack. Building up a robust arsenal of prayer and discipline is a must in fighting the enemy and his minions.
In that spirit, the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel from Tuesday’s threads, and the Breastplate of St. Patrick, not to mention the Litany of Humility are favorites recommended by exorcists in spiritual warfare.
SATIRE SECTION
Biden Admin Promises To Tax Silicon Valley Billionaires On All The Money The Federal Government Just Gave Them https://t.co/17z6wYevqu
The first one up was discussed over the weekend in the comments, but I’m bringing it again just to be sure it’s seen as the analysis is one not found anywhere else. Yet.
Long time CTH reader “Regitiger” has spent a great deal of time reviewing the entire process, looking at the granular timeline and then overlaying the bigger picture of the constitutional and parliamentary process itself. What follows below is a brilliant analysis of the federal government motive to create a J6 crisis that permitted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to trigger an emergency session and avoid the 2020 election certification challenges.
Those congressional floor challenges, known and anticipated well in advance of the morning of January 6, 2021, would have formed a legal and constitutional basis for ‘standing’ in judicial challenges that would have eventually reached the Supreme Court. The certification during “emergency session” eliminated the problem for Washington DC.
The global electric vehicle (EV) market is reeling from one of the most dramatic collapses in monthly sales to date, with Rystad Energy research showing that only 672,000 units were sold in January, almost half of December 2022 sales and a mere 3% year-on-year increase over January 2022. The EV market share among all passenger car sales also tumbled to 14% in January, well down on the 23% seen in December.
My guess: all those who actually WANT an electric vehicle already have one.
Jack Posobiec says there is an ongoing security assessment of the January 6th footage, and "as much as possible" will be made available once it is completed:
SHOCKING STATISTICS: “It took decades and decades for Pfizer to get to $40 billion in revenues, before covid. After covid, in one year, $90 Billion.”
Ed Dowd explains how Pfizer capitalized on the pandemic and what kinda money it was planning to make with additional boosters.… pic.twitter.com/V2DdzgpSW4
That one is behind a paywall. If anyone has a trick to liberate it….
I've been waiting for someone to actually refute anything that Tucker presented, but all I've seen is people calling him a "liar" "propagandist" without actually addressing the underlying video evidence itself. Name calling and personal attacks have replaced discourse. Sad!
This is my same argument against those who shout down the studies that demonstrate wearing a bra for more than twelve hours a day dramatically increases the chances of developing breast cancer. They never prove a thing, just shout down the studies.
Matt Gaetz says Congressional Democrats are targeting FBI whistleblowers who are exposing the agency's politicized persecution of Jan 6th protestors:
"As these FBI whistleblowers came in, the Democrats would release out-of-context portions of their depositions and then do… pic.twitter.com/r87UbnFPKp
Are these stories one in the same…likely not. But this is a “globalist elite” in this attached story. Our current Secty of the Commerce Dept. We’re in serious trouble folks because people running our govt are incompetent and incapable of doing the job & likely benefitting… https://t.co/9holf7GGBB
Rep. Gaetz details how he now has access to the J6 Committee files, outlining how the committee targeted me and my organization, and is indeed still targeting us. Mysteriously, the files on Steve Bannon are empty. pic.twitter.com/1NAAUJxr5W
33 years ago I helped build a solar car & drove it across the United States. I describe a few of my Tesla hacks in this article, like the solid state relay in my breaker box that turns on my Model S charger when the sun shines on my solar panels. @elonmuskhttps://t.co/r0HtYzTlaGpic.twitter.com/Ybj1EJZ5rE
Elements within the US government got caught conducting mass Fascist Orwellian censorship and brainwashing on the entire planet, and Left-wing bootlickers are still trying to find a way to make this about Republicans being bad.
With Tucker’s revelations about J6th, and your statements as a NYT reporter last year that “There were a ton of FBI informants who attacked the Capitol…” and “The lefts overreaction in some places were so over the top”….“They [media]… pic.twitter.com/bAG8h3UbHV
Just so you know … this is the part where they try to scare everyone with bank accounts into government digital currency so they can control every aspect of your lives.
I spent a lot of money and a lot of hours in classrooms for that piece of paper. The thing is…I wouldn’t have woken up nearly as quickly if my major wasn’t Communications and Journalism.
SHIT HITS THE FAN IN GERMANY
Health Minister admits vaccines injuries! 1 in 10000 doses (not people) Says: “ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING” “Why did you claim it was safe and effective?” – “It was a failed tweet!” “First of all, I didn’t sign the contracts!” “BioNTech-EXORBITANT… pic.twitter.com/2s1RXOhtXD
I’d throw in a few Rockefellers and Rothschilds also.
Of course, this does not mean committing felonies, but standing up to the forces that want to tear this nation – and humanity apart. The very people XVII told us will be destroyed by the time this movie comes to an end are currently roaming the halls of power…supposedly. It’s a sickening sight.
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.
Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.
4Make me to know thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. 5Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee I wait all the day long. 6Be mindful of thy mercy, O LORD, and of thy steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions; according to thy steadfast love remember me, for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD! 8Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
MATTHEW 18:21-35
21Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. 23“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; 25and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, `Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, `Pay what you owe.’ 29So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, `Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt. 31When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, `You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; 33and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt. 35So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
“God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.” – C.S. Lewis
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast down to Hell Satan and all his evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
>>148156518 Amen brother. Q
As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome. Via con Dios.
Satire
Mario Arrested For Hate Crime After Leaving Skid Marks On Rainbow Road https://t.co/yTi1XvgQ7f
It is time to provide a summary analysis of the former employers and related principals in Goober Gump’s journey from the equipment company through the beginning of the team’s control of its fates a decade later.
I will not divulge confidential financial information from past employers, just discuss the practices that were good or bad, or, that led to them making the decisions they did BIMD. I have provided other links to their publicly reported financial reporting going back in time to when we first began. In addition, you can use the link below to the FDIC website to see the current reporting of every active bank in the system.
In the spirit of Stephen Covey and his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, of which I fully endorse, the autopsies will provide my view of win-win and win-lose in the final results.
I have also added a section on the current banking issues of the day relating to bank examinations. I will try to not get down in the weeds too far with my comments.
Patti Steele is the CEO of the rebranded and expanded First Volunteer Bank of Tennessee based in Chattanooga. It is now known as Builtwell Bank. BIMD the privately held bank holding company was named Community Group (CG). The majority owner’s name was Robert Anderson, a long term solid, executive banker from South Carolina whose family were the primary operators and in ownership of a larger South Carolina bank. Robert left the SC bank and purchased a small community bank in the rural community of Marion, TN outside of Chattanooga. From that start and with that bank’s President, Sherman Barnette, he began purchasing small rural community banks in east TN. They added a financial services subsidiary led by my former CEO a few years after forming their holding company for the purposes of doing small business government guaranteed lending. It required state banking regulatory and SBA approval to exist as a service company for the affiliated banks in the CG system as it was the first of its kind in the southeastern U. S. region. During my employment CG grew to about $350 M in total assets size.
Patti was in operations at the holding company level and on the Board when I was employed there. She was the heir apparent, professional and competent with their business model. She reported to Sherman, who reported to Robert. Sherman was a sharp, good ole boy community banker. Robert was a more formal, cordial, old south plantation type with a leadership style from the past. We got along well with each other as we shared a mutual understanding of big banks as well as a love of golf. I had a good relationship with all of the senior leaders. Patti was very competent at what she did, however, her interests were clearly linked to breaking the glass ceiling even BIMD. It seemed to drive her ambitions. In recent years her Board additions have been less than inspiring and more toward feministic purposes, which reveals her politics. They did not add tangible value to the Board or business operations. It is something to keep an eye on as it can lead to losing focus of the bank’s primary purposes, which is to make money for stockholders and service the customer base well. As long as ownership remains focused on those two truths, they should be fine.
The financial services subsidiary I worked in no longer exists. When we exited, it went into decline and died. Its demise coincided with the merging of banks from being operated as affiliate banks, which is reflected in the link below during the fiscal year ending 12/31/2001. In the financial services subsidiary’s place they expanded the reach of their residential mortgage company to serve their now, 30 locations. BIMD there was only one mortgage originator in the system. While merging the bank system in the late 1990s/early 2000s, they renamed all individually named banks to First Volunteer. They have grown through acquisition of other small rural banks in other areas including northern GA over the ensuing two decades. They are old school community bankers with conservative practices, who have served their internal desires and customers well overall. They are now at $1.8 B in assets with a conservative 70% loan to deposit ratio and stay at a ballpark level of 10-11% on Tier One Capital; which is solid. They paid out a strong dividend in excess of $8 M in 2022, to the privately held ownership.
My autopsy reveals they continued to grow through acquisitions at a measured pace while becoming who they desired to be and still are. Our subsidiary’s presence in the holding company was implemented to fuel higher profitability for a season of time so that they could purchase more small rural banks. That was a legitimate choice of ownership and it served them well. It also confirmed that our analysis was correct when they hired the SCO who began tightening credit. Our common goals and interests were diverging, so it was time to go. They would have never accepted nationwide or even a larger eastern footprint delivery of what we did. The higher compensation being paid to the team that delivered it, which was prevalent within the industry, would have created internal division. It simply would have been too big of culture shock to the rest of their employees and Board.
However, at that time it was win-win between us. They signaled their change in direction, which gave us time as a small team to change ours. We both won with the changes.
Sierra Tahoe Bancorp was the owner of SierraWest Bank, which came into existence by name a couple of years before we joined them. Its predecessor bank was called Truckee River Bank, which was also very involved in government guaranteed small business lending in the area. The bank grew into the Reno, NV area via acquisition, which led to the name change and was similar to the name of the acquired bank.
Despite the bank’s emphasis on our line of business, Truckee River had a spotty record as a government guaranteed lender until my division CEO was hired a couple of years before our arrival. They did not do it well and had numerous losses and issues with the SBA. He addressed the issues along with his excellent SCO, who was also a fine human being. It all turned around at that point with the division being the primary driver of the bank’s net income and asset growth. The theme of good people, good results, was one that was repeated throughout my work life for many years.
When BancWest, parent of Bank of the West, announced the acquisition of SierraWest, the later had grown from just south of $600 M when we joined them to over $900 M in assets in three years. There were no hiccups with the acquisition as it closed as projected in mid-1999, less than six months after announcement. Which explained why SierraWest allowed Bank of the West to be involved in the credit approval process prior to the completion of the transaction, a reality that led to our early departure as a team.
Since SierraWest did not sell from a distressed position, there is very little financial autopsy needed. The intent to sell was known to us in our region at employment. The bank was profitable and fit BOW’s expansion desires geographically. However, the sale to BOW did impact our futures and forced several members of our region to find alternatives. This led to the second best career move I ever made, with the first being entering this line of work with CG.
I could care less about BOW, then or now. Let Canadian bankers now deal with the effects that the criminal bankers in France created. Based on how Canada operates today, they will continue to be the money launders they have been.
As a result, I rate it as a win-lose-win with eyes wide open. A calculated risk to work there that paid off in unknown ways prior to making the move. SierraWest employees, its stockholders and our team highly benefitted from the relationship. The sale to BOW was a loss for our team. However, we seamlessly recovered with a much bigger win.
Bank #3 – 1999
Imperial Bank was the one. It just made sense as it targeted its efforts and did not try to be all things to all people. However, it had an Achilles heel. By virtue of being a NYSE traded business bank involved in the finance of venture capital related enterprises (think SVB) as well as the entertainment industry (think boom or bust movies) in two of its three primary lines of business, its annual net income was volatile. As a result it was watched by regulators closely. Provided below is summary financial data over a period of years for those interested in more details. As an example of its growth, total assets went from $3.4 to $7.5 B in just five years. You typically cannot grow a bank that fast (unless you are a cabal constructed SVB type bank) with income drivers in volatile lines of business and not have hiccups in net income, liquidity and capital formation due to overall economic pressures. Every boom or bust cycle will be reflected in your financial statement results.
By the time of the transaction with Comerica, the bank had grown to over $8 B in assets. The article below is an excellent summary of the reasons behind same and acquisition. I will not regurgitate it. The acquisition made great sense to Comerica.
The founder and Chairman of Imperial, who was active daily in its management, had hit 81 years of age. It was time. If he had waited until after 9/11 occurred, the bank would have probably gone under at some point. With the acquisition Comerica entered the Top 20 banks in asset size in America. They have doubled in assets since then, but dropped to #38 in asset size today.
As a result, I rate the situation as I did with Bank #2. It was no surprise that our employer sold. It was a total win for both banks. However, Comerica simply did not have the credit culture and leadership team in our line of business. We did not drive their net operating income (NOI) up high enough to justify a real commitment in their minds. Comerica chose to reward themselves as the victors instead of the people who operated our line of business smarter, more productive, while making much more money at it. At Imperial we were not the volatile income producers. We were the second highest provider of ROI in the bank, year after year. The transaction was win-win for the banks and win-lose-win for our division and my team. It was also a very short sighted decision by Comerica to go about it as they did with our division. Like many other bigger banks, they still have no idea on what they missed.
Bank #4 – 2001
When we arrived on the scene with Temecula Valley Bank, it was a small, five year old community bank in the rapidly growing SoCal area. It had the highest 5 star rating for financial condition by industry rating agencies including being rated the #1 small bank in America by same. The Chairman/CEO wanted to use our line of business to fuel growth of bank operations into the real estate markets of the area as well as branching. He had good knowledge of what we did and how we did it from his previous stint as CEO of a larger community bank in the region for many years.
We knew how to scale and ramp up our operation to accommodate the smaller size of the bank. Despite its size, the management team was competent and they contracted their operations system platform to one of the larger, national providers. They could deliver on their promises.
That they immediately changed the rules to the game upon our arrival created tension and was a major red flag. I am sure bank examiners may have been concerned with the scope of our operations due to the bank size as well as there may have been pushback from the Board initially. Regardless, they lied. However, we were able to leverage ourselves into a better situation and became a successful, expanding operation.
The Achilles heel of TVB was its arrogant Chairman/CEO. That ‘I’m smarter that you’ attitude passed to the executive level credit officer, other senior management and Board. They never believed the good times would stop, until it did. With the industry overbuilding real estate in SoCal markets, their hellbent desire to play the dog and build the brand was a train wreck waiting to happen. When liquidity began to be an issue with closing transactions a couple years into our arrival, Mr. Arrogant began to significantly use brokered deposits to add to the deposit base. We could see the handwriting on the wall for our efficiency and success. When banks buy brokered deposits, which is limited by regulators, they pay higher interest rates than market to attract them. The deposits are usually CD’s with longer termed fixed rates called “hot money”. So, what do you think happens when interest rates as a whole decline due to Fed decisions? You earn less interest on loans while paying out higher interest on deposits. Not the formula for banking success I would choose.
So for your banking lesson of the day, add in what happens when the economy cools and there are less borrowings. You now have locked in higher than market fixed rates with hot money and insufficient loan demand to offset it with interest income. The core local business customer balances go down as they use more of their own funds to lower interest expense. When the hot money matures, it leaves unless you price it high again to retain. If it leaves, you lose serious liquidity with a high concentration of real estate development and construction loans on the books that are not being paid off from less property sales due to the local economy cooling. If the hot money is retained you need income drivers to offset the declining interest margins between deposits and loans. All while at the same time, you as Mr. Arrogant, have increased your operating expenses through the increased numbers of branches, related facilities costs/expenses, and increased staff payroll relating to the branches.
This makes any bank any where totally dependent on generating more fee income and reducing its operating expenses to survive if they plan to be prepared to take advantage of an economic rebound in the future. Instead of making things better for our division to provide the high premiums, fee and servicing income, Mr. Arrogant did the opposite. He had also reduced our ability to make non-real estate secured business loans that would have added diversity to the loan portfolio, which was a major desire of the regulators. He doubled down on making real estate loans in SoCal while expanding the branch network. For awhile he could brag about how smart he was… until he couldn’t with the debt market and general economic crash of 2008.
Our regional team left in the fall of 2003. My former division CEO left about six months later to begin operations of the company he started. We left TVB a few production officers in our region who were lesser performers, who began sending their loans to the credit area in Temecula. They never reopened a regional credit and loan closing operation in the east. They hired a less accomplished replacement for our former division CEO in mid 2004. He lasted a few years before leaving as the bank started into serious decline. The top credit officer retired and was replaced by a rogue, possible criminal that Mr. Arrogant hired. The bank had grown to $1.4 B in assets by this point, ten times the size it was when we were first hired. The debt market melt down of Wall Street had occurred and with it the national economy. So, let’s see what the FDIC’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) wrote in their official autopsy. This is highly worth your time to read as a behind the scenes view of how it all works. Please at least read the opening summary.
I am confident this could be used as a case study in banking schools nationwide of what not to do. It was complete vindication for us and our line of business. With the collapse and closure in 2009, Mr. Arrogant was relieved of his duties. The force of his personality and cronyism kept him in the seat for far too long. The stockholders and employees lost out as a result.
The experience was another win-lose-win from my viewpoint. Despite the early lies, we were able to restore the pre-employment agreement and go on to be successful. When the bank first began experiencing liquidity issues, we had sufficient time to negotiate our way into an even better situation. However, we did not expect it to become necessary when we first arrived there. With the stock options and solid plan forward, we thought it would be a long term stay. We did not count on the insatiable greed and arrogance of Mr. Arrogant and crew taking over as it did. Which is a shame, but very common in the industry.
Bank Examinations
This section was not originally planned to be in this story. However, current conditions merit its inclusion. It was pertinent BIMD and especially so today.
Bank examiners are people like all of us. They have special knowledge and training. They also have personal goals, ambitions, families, friends, strengths and weaknesses. The have various levels of competency. During my years of being employed in banking, I only met a couple who had made the profession a career. I saw a good number who used it as a stepping stone into careers in banks, investment banking, insurance, rating agencies such as Moody’s/S&P/Fitch and so on. That made their motivations and attention to detail suspect at times.
I have experienced examiners openly lobbying for jobs in our credit and audit departments. I had a couple who became cheerleaders for us within their agencies. With our departure from TVB and acceptance of employment with the Tennessee bank, one state banking commission official told our Chairman/CEO that he should lock me and my key management up on long term contracts, to not let us get away, with me standing there with the two of them. I had one FDIC examiner tell me that we were not making enough loans for sale to the debt markets about six months before the crash.
Think about what my last statement infers. He was stating that we were not churning enough, not making enough money. I learned later he told our ownership and CEO the same thing in their exit interview. At that point our division was providing 80% of the NOI of the total bank; making more money than ownership believed possible a few years before. But here is the lead FDIC examiner stating we were not doing enough.
As a result of these experiences, it never left my mind that sprinkled throughout these regulatory and rating agencies were globalist cabal operatives even BIMD. It is incestuous by nature. If the banks do not do much business, the examiners have nothing much to examine. That exposes them to extreme boredom as well as job loss eventually from RIFs. Rating agencies have a similar issue. If they rate a bank, company, debt issue, securitization, etc. too critically, their client will never use them again. As an example our favorite rating agency for what we did was Fitch. They attempted to understand the business and as a result, the underlying loans in our pools. The other two majors were useless for our purposes BIMD.
So the key for both the bank and the examiners is to maintain an arms length, mutually respectful harmony between them, which happened frequently in my younger years and rarely in my later years. The later situation leads to excesses that can be nudged forward or destroyed by the examiners. Add to it that through the years I saw very few gray hairs remaining as examiners. If the role was truly a life’s profession, that a person could make a rewarding career of it; then there would be more talent and more experienced people in the role. That was not the case. The revolving door led to lower cost, less experienced personnel. As the years rolled by I saw fewer who did not fraternize with the leaders of the banks they examined. Occasionally you would see one later employed by a contract audit or management consulting firm to place their stamp of approval on a client bank or its loan portfolio as the recognized expert in the field.
There will be more discussion on this in future stories.
If you reviewed the OIG report on TVB, you could simply replace their headlong pursuit of real estate financing with what SVB did with their emphasis on higher risk lines of business in the Silicon Valley among other places. Neither took their foot off the gas pedal and pushed the brake pedal until it was too late. The end result was the same along with many of the contributing factors. It is a situation that keeps repeating year after year, bank after bank, and as a direct result of Federal Reserve and politician aided booms and busts.
The FDIC and California bank examiners had every reason and justification to pull the plug on Mr. Arrogant’s practices long before they did. But they did not, just like SVB. If we knew of serious issues as key officers of the bank in 2003, they had to know when they completed their next exam in 2004 after performing their stress tests, financial and operations reviews. These were duties they continued to perform annually until TVB failed five years later. They even categorized TVB as “Well Capitalized” from 2006-2008. Yet, they failed the next year. Yeah, OK.
I don’t view what I witnessed over 30+ years in this area as accidental, incompetency related, or an inconsistent application of regulations. I see it is as a system feature. Consider the huge implications.
Conclusion
i have disclosed a lot from Goober’s banking employment adventures over about a nine year period. With each new employer the team grew and became better at what they did. They were never forced out or terminated by the employer. Even in the more strained or incompetently managed situations where they chose to leave, the leaders wanted them to stay. They left because conditions changed from decisions made by ownership and/or executive management that signaled that it was time to look around. There was never an employment situation that they accepted when they were not prepared in their minds to walk away, while at the same time hoping they would not have to anytime soon.
They felt like Abraham and family as he moved from place to place at the Lord’s direction while experiencing inexplicable events. They learned to accept that was in the DNA of the industry. It did not have to be, it just was. With their move to the TN bank and control of operations, they all hoped that would end and they could do something that would last long term.
I AM NOT GOING TO MAKE THIS FANCY. I JUST WANT A PLACE WE CAN PUT ALL THE INFORMATION.
CORBETT REPORT: talks of Bank of England implementing Central Bank Currency and a questionaire designed to show buy in.
WHAT IS THE DELPHI TECHNIQUE? – QUESTIONS FOR CORBETT
Peter writes in to ask how we should respond to the Bank of England’s rigged survey about CBDCs. James answers by describing the Delphi method and how to anti-Delphi in real life.
There is no doubt they want us in the digital economy. There is no doubt half the population will never do it without a dictator forcing it. So they are setting up China to be their dictator by killing manufacturing and selling off as many of our strengths as possible. These things we know.
SVB was a creation of the cabal in the 1980s. Its primary purpose of late was to fuel the green economy, venture capital into Silicon Valley tech/research/etc., big Pharm, and other globalist type endeavors. They were the go-to for those industries and it was totally incestuous.
As for today –
First, their investment portfolio is upside down. They have $21 B of treasuries yielding 1.79% when the most recent treasury 10 year issues were at 3.9%. Enter Coothie and others with their “mark to market” accounting discussions. Add in they need to sell some of those assets due to the run. In summary, they take a big hit there.
They had too much liquidity. The Fed has been raising rates, reducing business activity. Less borrowings to earn interest, more payout of interest for higher interest rate deposits that are locked in for at least a year.
Overall economic downturn depressed access to capital for their major customers, which by nature are hard to finance conventional methods. Many would qualify for junk bond status. So those companies, who are depositors in SVB, begin drawing down deposit balances to fund their operations. This adds to SVB’s cash drain.
SVB tries to go to the markets and issue over $2 B in stock to mitigate the damage. That sparks alarm, adds to the run. Buh bye SVB.
Long term –
The major banks, many larger than SVB, are derivative monsters. That exposes them to huge risk in world currency markets as well as interest rate movements if an alternative develops that changes America from being a historical safe harbor for investment and cash. In essence, we have been using our perceived military and economic power to bend over other countries around the world to fuel our spending problem. What happens when there is a more stable alternative? i and others contend that alternative is BRICS with their gold and precious metals standard and mutually accepted currency valuation methods.
If this proceeds as it appears, our larger banks will be in major trouble. The Fed will print more money that we have ever seen. Inflation will explode. Real estate values will tank with a huge rise in defaults. Etc. That will provide the entry the globalists want to force digital currency on a scared population. It will be sold as the patriotic thing to do.
All sponsored by WEF and others in conjunction with BRICS.
US president Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring the government to assess the risks and benefits of creating a central bank digital dollar, as well as other cryptocurrency issues, the White House said….
Biden’s order will require the US Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, and other key agencies to prepare reports on “the future of money” and the role cryptocurrencies will play.
President Biden admitted recently that the coming ‘New World Order‘ will soon force a digital currency on everybody which will completely replace the traditional U.S. dollar.
On March 9, the Biden administration released an executive order (EO) instructing a long list of federal agencies to study digital assets and to report back to him about their use and proposals to regulate them.
Much of the executive order is focused on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum, which run on blockchain technology.
But there is an even more sinister aspect of the EO that has been completely ignored by the mainstream media: President Biden has instructed the federal government and Federal Reserve to lay the groundwork for a new U.S. currency, a digital dollar that can be tracked and controlled by the government...
Remember during the Obama years there was a 2 TRILLION DOLLAR UNDERGROUND ECONOMY the Cabal could not track REGULATE OR TAX!
So yes there is an E.O just as General Flynn said. ….
The overnight collapse of SVB, (Silicon Valley Bank), has certainly got everyone’s attention, but is this really any surprise at all?
Absolutely not.
The collapse of SVB is just a symptom of the current worldwide economic freefall being deliberately fostered by central banks.
If you are at all familiar with any of my work or have paid attention to the many articles I have written for the Trends Journal, then you are already keenly aware that right now today
the entire financial system is breaking down… and this is NOT any accident. (We are in the early stages of a deliberate systemic failure).
Today the world economy is in an accelerating freefall, teetering on a knifes edge, being deliberately pushed off the financial cliff by central banks who are collectively attempting to crush the existing system only to issue in a new one.
Roughly 8 months ago, I began to warn those who follow my work on YouTube, (check out my older videos), that the banks are in trouble. It just became too obvious, and the current situation with the banks comes down to just THREE things:
no deposits, no loans, and no deals.
In truth, it’s NOT the banks who are in trouble, but as always-We the People. Just some of the fallout from the SVB collapse is this; depositors with more than the government $250K FDIC insurance will never be made whole, and nor will the shareholders, who were just up until a few days ago being told that everything with the bank was sound. Not to mention the throngs of people who just became unemployed. The greatest threat? The collapse of smaller/regional banks will allow the MEGA banks to consolidate power….
Just a thought… not sure if it’s right. Inflation comes about when too much money is chasing too few goods. Fed is currently fighting inflation by raising rates. Everyone is screaming about it. Would this be a back door way of eliminating excess money in the market? The ones currently getting whacked are mostly those with lots of excess cash.
The FED was scheduled to raise rates higher on the 22nd of this month and they have been saying they should of raised rates higher than they did (only .5%) when they last met so this one is expected to at minimum be .75% or maybe a full 1%.
Will be interesting to see where they go next. If they do another .5% would that may be another indicator that this bank failure has been manufactured?
Interesting to see the FED is going to meet out of schedule on Monday.
Up to date talk to include banking situation. His message, don’t fall for it.
Yeah it is a Alex Jones interview but he does mostly shut up. go from 7 minutes.. (20 minute video)
He covers the WHO taking over health care, nuclear war and then the bank collapse. @ 15 minutes WAIT on withdrawing funds. The way we BEAT the Cabal is to EXPOSE THEM… @ 17 minutes their are alreadycorporations and elements of the US government BETA TESTING CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY…
….
What Flynn is saying makes sense.
Bite-me has signed E.O for transition to digital currency.
This bank failure, which several people say SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED, is meant to stampede normies into bank runs.
Bank runs will be used as an excuse to usher in Digital currency.
I am not really fond of listening to Flynn he is a horrible speaker but this fits the facts.
“Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.
Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump
campaign, and its alleged links to the two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.” — Heat Street
Some Bank of America customers said money is missing from their accounts, including funds from Zelle deposits and transactions.
Rey Garcia has trusted Bank of America with his money for 20 years.
…
“I was surprised, like, whoa,” Garcia said. “So I checked my transactions. I had, like, 15 different Zelle transactions. That was, like, a red flag for me right there because I don’t remember doing all that in one day.”
He says almost $700 went missing from his account. He called customer service with no luck getting a representative.
There’s a Bank of America issue where zelle transfers after 1/9 arent being reflected in the balances of ur bank account. I almost lost my mind when I saw $2,000 was missing from my account. Not accepting calls because of “extenuating circumstances” is insane. CALL ME!!!
…Zelle, a peer-to-peer payment processor that is available through more than 1,700 financial institutions, said that the “issue was not the result of any issues with the Zelle Network.”
“We understand that a Zelle Network financial institution may have experienced issues processing some of their customers’ Zelle transactions, which has now been resolved,” a Zelle spokesperson told FOX Business.
Wells Fargo on Friday scrambled to respond to customers who reported deposits were missing from their accounts.
Customers complained about missing deposits in their accounts.
Many customers were unable to pay bills or buy groceries.
.
.
Another customer complained about a direct deposit disappearing.
One customer complained about being overdrawn because of missing direct deposits.
Wells Fargo responded: “I understand your concern. If you see incorrect balances or missing transaction, this may be due to a technical issue. We apologize for the inconvenience. Your accounts continue to be secure. We are working quickly on a resolution. -Amanda
Another thing about Wells Fargo.
In that AZ hearing, Remember in the testimony Jacqueline Breger mentionedWELLS FARGO!
2022to Political committees directly aligned with Congressional Democrats and pro-impeachment Trump Republicans.
On December 22nd, 2020, well after the 2020 election, Silicon Valley Bank PAC donated to Citizens for Waters, a political committee aligned with Congress Woman Maxine Waters(D-CA). On the same date, Silicon Valley Bank Pac donated to Friends of Gregory Meeks, a political committee aligned with Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY). Anthony Gonzales for Congress also received a donation from Silicon Valley Bank Pac on December 22nd, 2020. Anthony Gonzales was among the few Republican Congressmembers to vote to impeach Trump following January 6th….
Interestingly the only political committee Silicon Valley Pac gave to during the 2022 cycle was to friends of Mark Warner. Mark Warner won reelection in 2020 and is not up again until 2026.
Congressional records show that Silicon Valley’s Bank lobbyist in 2022 where the Franklin Square Group, LLC. Franklin Square Group was founded by Josh Ackil, who worked for then-President Bill Clinton. Ackil openly brags about his workings with the Clintons on his Franklin Square Group profile and in media outlets such as the Hill….
The gov’t has about 48 hours to fix a-soon-to-be-irreversible mistake.
By allowing @SVB_Financial to fail without protecting all depositors, the world has woken up to what an uninsured deposit is — an unsecured illiquid claim on a failed bank.
acquiring SVB before the open on Monday, a prospect I believe to be unlikely,
or the gov’t guaranteeing all of SVB’s deposits, the giant sucking sound you will hear will be the withdrawal of substantially all uninsured deposits from all but the ‘systemically important banks’ (SIBs). These funds will be transferred to the SIBs, US Treasury (UST) money market funds and short-term UST. There is already pressure to transfer cash to short-term UST and UST money market accounts due to the substantially higher yields available on risk-free UST vs. bank deposits.
These withdrawals will drain liquidity from community, regional and other banks and begin the destruction of these important institutions. The increased demand for short-term UST will drive short rates lower complicating the
@federalreserve ’s efforts to raise rates to slow the economy.
Already thousands of the fastest growing, most innovative venture-backed companies in the U.S. will begin to fail to make payroll next week. Had the gov’t stepped in on Friday to guarantee SVB’s deposits (in exchange for penny warrants which would have wiped out the substantial majority of its equity value) this could have been avoided and SVB’s 40-year franchise value could have been preserved and transferred to a new owner in exchange for an equity injection. We would have been open to participating.
This approach would have minimized the risk of any gov’t losses, and created the potential for substantial profits from the rescue. Instead, I think it is now unlikely any buyer will emerge to acquire the failed bank. The gov’t’s approach has guaranteed that more risk will be concentrated in the SIBs at the expense of other banks, which itself creates more systemic risk.
For those who make the case that depositors be damned as it would create moral hazard to save them, consider the feasibility of a world where each depositor must do their own credit assessment of the bank they choose to bank with. I am a pretty sophisticated financial analyst and I find most banks to be a black box despite the 1,000s of pages of
SVB’s senior management made a basic mistake. They invested short-term deposits in longer-term, fixed-rate assets. Thereafter short-term rates went up and a bank run ensued. Senior management screwed up and they should lose their jobs.
The
@FDICgov and OCC also screwed up. It is their job to monitor our banking system for risk and SVB should have been high on their watch list with more than $200B of assets and $170B of deposits from business borrowers in effectively the same industry.
The FDIC’s and OCC’s failure to do their jobs should not be allowed to cause the destruction of 1,000s of our nation’s highest potential and highest growth businesses (and the resulting losses of 10s of 1,000s of jobs for some of our most talented younger generation) while also permanently impairing our community and regional banks’ access to low-cost deposits. This administration is particularly opposed to concentrations of power. Ironically, its approach to SVB’s failure guarantees duopolistic banking risk concentration in a handful of SIBs. My back-of-the envelope review of SVB’s balance sheet suggests that even in a liquidation, depositors should eventually get back about 98% of their deposits, but eventually is too long when you have payroll to meet next week. So even without assigning any franchise value to SVB, the cost of a gov’t guarantee of SVB deposits would be minimal. On the other hand, the unintended consequences of the gov’t’s failure to guarantee SVB deposits are vast and profound and need to be considered and addressed before Monday. Otherwise, watch out below.
This guy sounds like he knows what he is talking about.
Start at 12 minutes go to around 20 minutes.
Prior to this “TruReporting” mentioned the bank loans were to SOLAR AND WIND. Those are the companies they are talking about. Loans went out no money came back in . (Do not forget all the Biden $$$ for green energy) He seems to thing it might have been a money laundering scam.
He also talks about how it is similar to the 2008 Lehman Brothers scam under Obama.
….
They are mentioning that the companies effected are going to go to Biden for BAILOUTS!
GEE, and Biden JUST HAPPENS TO WANT TO INCREASE THE DEBT CEILING– IMAGINE THAT! (Snarl)
Yours Truly: If one is reading the article correctly, Mr. Miller is of the opinion that since “vaccination” isn’t “working out”, and that the truth is being shown about Jan6, the “Next Big Thing” that will be “deployed” is economic collapse and the imposition of Central Bank Digital Currencies.
Yours Truly: If one is reading the article correctly, Mr. Miller is of the opinion that since “vaccination” isn’t “working out”, and that the truth is being shown about Jan6, the “Next Big Thing” that will be “deployed” is economic collapse and the imposition of Central Bank Digital Currencies.
I assume that Circle is this company. https://www.circle.com/en/ Best I can tell they have 9 Billion in assets. Partnered with Mellon, Black Rock and lessors. In short.
Circle is a global financial technology firm that’s at the center of digital currency innovation and open financial infrastructure. We bridge the traditional financial system and the world’s leading public blockchains to unlock growth for businesses and investors around the world.
I wonder if they were one of companies that got early warning to pull out?
There is the crypto thing, again.
Crypto is cited in every financial institution going under, recently.
^^^ NOT a coincidence, in my shallow way of thinking. Never trust crypto.
What a chart in the FT: China is now as big as the US and the EU **COMBINED** (!) in terms of manufacturing value added (a measure of the net-output of all manufacturing activity in a country).
Just 15 years ago it was smaller than either one of these 2. Crazy fast change! &
And the craziest part is that its share of world manufacturing increases like this despite shrinking as a share of China’s GDP
In other words, other constituents of China’s GDP (like services) grow even faster than manufacturing. &
And the proportional growth isn’t finished, as the EU’s share is bound to decrease *a lot*
The government and their useful idiot secretary of treasury Janet Yellen have just done an about face and are now telegraphing that they will be intervening yet again in “free” markets.
It’s a publicly traded crime scene.… The media wants to make it a crypto story, but it’s not. This is a worldwide money laundering story through these two networks with a crypto wrapper.
So why would an illegitimate Federal government, its criminal agencies and the private central banksters at the Fed provide the optics of yet another (quasi) bailout of a bank that failed due in no small part to the very conditions that these central planners caused with their unhinged policies in the first place?
If this is true – it's WAPO after all – it confirms just how bad it is behind the scenes as it refutes what Yellen said just a few hours ago. Another epic fuck up by the Fed https://t.co/pDrhz6xS4O
Bailing out SVB will be a drop in the bucket fiat-wise compared to the orgy of money printing that went down during the scamdemic.
Between banks and centralized crypto corporations simultaneously failing, the narrative options for collapse are more than sufficient.
There are many other banks like SVB that are in long-duration securities and have irresponsible and dangerous exposure to treasuries and other bonds. Short sellers started circling these institutions weeks ago, and more will pile in betting against these insolvent banks.
Here is how this may end up playing out:
The bailout is a headfake
When other banks start failing over the coming weeks the government apparatchiks like Yellen will claim that they did their best by backstopping SVB while the systemic contagion worsens all around
By bailing out SVB they are providing the requisite narrative to cover their asses when their masters pull plug on the entire global financial system
SBV may be used as the “Black Swan” excuse for their PSYOP-MARKET-CRASH, and they can once again claim that they did their utmost (e.g. “The banking system is contained” a la Ben Bernanke’s “Subprime is contained”), but in the end oops sorry the cascading bankruptcies and bank runs were too much for the government to handle
Pain and fear from frozen bank accounts, food insecurity, inflation, etc. is the perfect means of herding people into the social credit score system of CBDC’s, UBI, never-ending DEATHVAX™ boosters, climate lockdowns, 15 minute cities, etc. & etc.
This is all by design.
Meanwhile, depositors have already begun to panic:
Okay, I guess I skipped over zerohedge’s piece on the Fed’s Statement … that was a mistake!
lookie here:
“The Fed also said that it is prepared to address any liquidity pressures that may arise, which in turn has just unveiled the first bailout acronym of the new crisis: the Bank Term Funding Program, or BTFP. Some more details:
The financing will be made available through the creation of a new Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP), offering loans of up to one year in length to banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other eligible depository institutions pledging U.S. Treasuries, agency debt and mortgage-backed securities, and other qualifying assets as collateral. These assets will be valued at par.
The BTFP will be an additional source of liquidity against high-quality securities, eliminating an institution’s need to quickly sell those securities in times of stress.
The Fed explains that the Department of the Treasury will make available “up to $25 billion from the Exchange Stabilization Fund as a backstop for the BTFP.” And while the Federal Reserve – which was completely clueless about this banking crisis until Thursday – does not anticipate that it will be necessary to draw on these backstop funds, we anticipate that the final number of needed backstop liquidity be somewhere north of $2 trillion.
What is more notable is that the BTFP – or Buy The Fucking Pivot – facility, will pledge collateral at par, not at market value, thus giving banks credit for all those hundreds of billions in unrealized net losses, and allowing banks to “unlock liquidity” based on losses which the Fed and TSY now backstop!
Shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders will not be protected. Senior management has also been removed. Any losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund to support uninsured depositors will be recovered by a special assessment on banks, as required by law.
Coothie
It’s still short of The Iceland Plan if former management is still walking around….
U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to board Marine One with first lady Melania Trump en route to his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida following the release of the Mueller report at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria – RC1F20A769B0
AND our beautiful REALFLOTUS.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Please forgive us, Wheatie, we did not know That you had left us with armor in tow We had no idea with what you dealt We did not know the pain you felt And now we can only imagine With you what really did happen Cause rarely did you complain And/or share your personal pain Of one thing we are most certain You are flying high behind the curtain Watching over us above the crowds Our Warrior Angel above the clouds Thank You, Wheatie, for caring for us While you were here among the fuss We miss you dear you have no idea Since time began in the pangaea With you there was no time In your wisdom you would chime To clarify and magnify The what where how and why We did not question when you left We were not slightly bereft But over time we wondered why You did not at least stop by Now we know where you have gone With the break of this new dawn We could be angry but are not Tho with an arrow we’ve been shot Rest peacefully Warrior Angel dear Send us a sign that you are near A butterfly a flower a kiss of rain From your love do not refrain God sends Angels to watch over us And now we have an Angel Plus A Warrior Angel of Magnificence From today and forward hence
Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.
MINOR CHANGE NUMBER 1
Never talk about committing violence in a reply to Wolf or in response to anything Wolf has said, or you may get put into moderation so that your comments can be screened. This is ONLY because DHS is now playing door-knock Gestapo with people who have spoken at school board meetings, made public comments, etc. DHS regime jackboots are knocking on doors of school board mama bears and stupidly insinuating potential violence from things people say or don’t say on social media. A guy in Ohio pointed his FINGER at the school board, and they went after him, armed with pictures of the pointing, and screen captures of online comments. Yeah.
SO – give the Nazis ZERO ammo. Keep any mention of violence, even joking, away from Wolf, so that he doesn’t have to “explain” humor to humorless jackboots who pretend not to know things.
As for discussion of “violent humor” among yourselves (e.g., “#TeamHeadsOnPikes”), just use whatever discretion you think is appropriate for yourselves. I will only put you in moderation if your comments create problems for ME or THIS SITE, but not if they only impact you.
YOU are responsible for your own comments, if they come knocking. YOUR choice. Just remember this…..
OTHER THAN THAT…….
The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.
Bottom line – respect other people’s FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
Our only additional requirement is that you do so NICELY. Or at least try to make some effort in that direction.
SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]
We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.
Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.
In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”
That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.
We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).
We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.
If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.
We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.
In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”
A Moment of Prayer
Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.
Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.
You may also pray for our nation, our world, and even our enemies.
Musical Interlude
In honor of dear Wheatie, we now present some music to soothe, inspire, invigorate, or relax.
Here are three “placeholder” videos, selected from old Wheatie posts.
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned John Lausch, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, to review the classified papers and determine how they ended up at the Penn Biden Center.https://t.co/ADRJf3Cxch
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Christian Behavior
When we talk about “Christian” behavior, we’re talking about the behavior of those who have accepted, by faith, Jesus Christ as their Savior and are indwelt with His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9), making it possible for them to serve God. Examples of Christian behavior are woven throughout Scripture. Our Savior Himself spoke at length about the way we’re to behave toward others, friends and enemies. More than that, the life He lived, accentuated by His love and compassion for the lost, provides the consummate example of what Christian behavior should look like.
Christians are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10). And these last four words “to do good works” epitomize the behavior that glorifies God and makes Christ real to others. Granted, there are obstacles in our daily lives that can encumber our minds and hinder our spiritual progress, but only if we let them.
Nonetheless, Christians are called to live lives that are “holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1), and exemplary Christian behavior that allows us to fully commit ourselves to serving the Lord is made possible as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit who enables us to do the Father’s will (Romans 8:9). Indeed, “the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Christians are a chosen people, belonging to God so that we may declare His praises (1 Peter 2:9). To “declare His praises,” then, it is essential that we spend time in His Word not just so we can learn how to behave in Christian fashion, but also so we can battle against the schemes of Satan. As the apostle Paul pointed out, without this biblical knowledge we’re not only subject to buying in to every new teaching that comes along, but we can also fall prey to “the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).
However, knowledge alone is not enough; we’re called to do more than to know and believe. Christians are to be “doers of the Word” (James 1:22). As the apostle James informs us, we’re deceiving ourselves if we think we’re spiritual by only hearing the Word. Hearing is not the same as doing. “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17, 26). Faith must be demonstrated by actions.
The “actions” that glorify our Father in heaven are those that bear much fruit (John 15:8). This is, in fact, how we show we’re His disciples. Indeed, the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—should be the hallmark of Christian behavior, especially love. Yet our tendency is to sometimes look down on unbelievers or those whose lifestyles are not in sync with our Christian faith, and this is where the Christian life can be challenging.
It’s easy to show love to those who walk as we do. It’s not always so easy to be kind to those who ridicule our beliefs, show contempt for our Savior, or make a mockery of the institutions that Christians hold sacred. Yet Christ taught us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. Recall how He dealt with the woman caught in adultery. Her captors wanted her dead; our Savior showed compassion even though He was the One who would have to die for her (and our) sinful behavior (John 8:11). Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), not to condemn them (John 3:17), and if Christ did not come to condemn sinners, neither should Christians.
Christian behavior includes heeding Jesus’ call for us to be His witnesses to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We’re to share the gospel, which Paul defined as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The validity of our witness is in how we live our lives. In the second half of Ephesians (chapters 4-6), Paul discusses Christian behavior which can best be summed up in these few words: “Be imitators of God…and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:1-2).
Paul urged the Romans to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices” (Romans 12:2). This, ultimately, is the essence of true Christian behavior – surrendering our hearts and yielding our bodies to Christ so He might continue God’s work through us. We’re to be beacons of light in a dark world, using our spiritual gifts to advance His kingdom. It’s living here on earth the way Jesus lived when He was here. It also means living to please one Person – God.
We do this when we abide in His Word and then live it out as we are enabled by His Spirit, just as our Savior did until He took His last breath. As He was dying on the cross, Christ looked out at His executioners and asked His Father to forgive them (Luke 23:34). Jesus was doing more than fulfilling prophecy and making “intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12), He was practicing what He preached (Luke 6:27-28).
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control . . . a very, very good place to start.
Michaelh thought I should turn a recent comment into an article. LINK So I am going to buff up and expand that comment. As I said in my De-Population series, the years around 1970 were an inflection point, a pivotal time period in American history.
Please at least skim the other articles for the historic background surrounding this article. I have tried to show the point of view of the Cabal, and not the propaganda we are fed.
SETTING THE STAGE
The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a major period of cooling. In 1969, grain stores had decreased drastically and by 1972 had plummeted to crisis levels, that, according to the CIA, country leaders went to great pains to hide. In 1970, Broecker, using new radioactive decay dating methods (oxygen isotopes) identified and dated five full ice age cycles. He stated his work was in agreement with the 1911 Milankovitch cycles. (Hays and Shackleton expanded on this, publishing in 1972.) Kukla and Matthews alerted President Richard Nixon that the Holocene could be ending (12/03/72.) Kukla STILL asserts all Ice Ages start with a period of global warming. They’re the harbingers of new Ice Ages. (That warming has now ended.)
*In 1974 a CIA report warned ”…there is considerable evidence that these empires may not have been undone by barbarian invaders but by climatic change…. has tied several of these declines to specific global cool periods, major and minor…” To the Cabal that was a serious OH! SCHIFF! However this crisis could be used to scare world leaders into falling in line with the Cabal’s plans for population control and a world government, and that is exactly what happened.
DEPOPULATION SERIES:
This explains WHY the cabal may think the Holocene is ending and they are running out of time.
THE ATTACK ON THE FOOD SUPPLY SERIES AND OTHER ARTICLES: PAGE 1 and PAGE 2 and PAGE 3.
THE 1970S SHORT HISTORY:
If we go back in time to the 1970 inflection point, we can see that the plans were already being put in place to ‘De-industrialize’ the USA. By 1970, thanks to the stimulus from WWII, US manufacturing was really humming, while Europe was still recovering from WWII and Russia and China were suffering mis-management under Communism. In 1970 the percent of the workforce employed in manufacturing was 26.4% In 2013, it was about8.8 %at which point the government quit keeping track. In 2013 the USA had close to ~23% unemployment rate and that goes for the entire eight years prior to that date. In spite of the government numbers, GDP in 2013 had actually been below zero according to ShadowStat. By the time of Obama, the USA had become a ‘Service Economy’ selling cheap Chinese crud to each other. The only reason we did not have soup lines is because of the invention of EBT cards, the FED printing money and the 2 trillion dollar underground economy.
If you have read the earlier articles you will see Nixon was a critical figure when it came to implementing the Cabal’s depopulation plans here in the US. He also played a major roll in ‘de-industrializing’ the USA. Nixon is the president who gave us the EPA (December 4, 1970.), OSHA, (December 29, 1970) opened the US market up to strengthen Mao’s Communist China (1971-72), and closed the gold window (August 1971) since foreign banks had stripped all the ‘good deliverable gold’ from Fort Knox. This lead to massive devaluation of the dollar, followed by the OPEC cartel hiking the price of oil. Remember ARAMCO was a Saudi-Rockefeller enterprise “..There was a phony “nationalization” of Aramco in the 1970s… the Saudi government took over Aramco, formally, but then immediately turned around and granted the Aramco-Rockefeller consortium the exclusive contract to “manage” the operation…”LINK Any bets the Rockefellers were behind OPEC?
However it was Reagan’s Administration, the Era of the Hostile Takeovers aka Leverage buyouts, that really gutted the core of the USA. — Our Manufacturing.
Before I get into the moves President Reagan made, I am going to look at what happened before Reagan made his moves and then the comment that prompted this article.
ROCKEFELLER:
John D Rockefeller — New York Daily News
Rockefeller insider, Dr. Richard Day (1905-1989)
On March 20, 1969, Dr. Richard Day, the National Medical Director of the Rockefeller-sponsored “Planned Parenthood” told a meeting of the Pittsburgh Pediatric Society that the US will be de-industrialized..
3 A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation. Resources and energy must be diverted from frivolous and wasteful uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries. This effort must be largely political, especially with regard to our overexploitation of world resources, but the campaign should be strongly supplemented by legal and boycott action against polluters and others whose activities damage the environment. The need for de–development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low–consumption economy in which there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being..
THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY:
A comment on the Q-tree by Phoenixrising added this important piece to the puzzle.
…This reform will change the nature of Israel completely. It is openly supported by two think tanks, the Kohelet Policy Forum and the Law and Liberty Forum. The latter is inspired by one of the groups that make up the Federalist Society in the United States; the association that secretly drafted the USA Patriot Act and imposed it on the occasion of the September 11 attacks [1]. The Law and Liberty Forum is funded by the Tikvah Fund, which is chaired by the US-Israeli neo-conservative Elliott Abrams (known for his role in the Iran-Contra affair and in numerous coups in Latin America) [2].
…The Federalist Society and the Law and Liberty Forum’s strategy is to change jurisprudence by changing judges [3]. Over a period of 30 years, the Federalist Society has succeeded in legally justifying neo-liberalism, limiting the possibilities of recourse against big business, deconstructing the way in which the Democratic Party had imagined the fight against discrimination and for the right to abortion, preventing the USA from joining a number of international treaties and, finally, transforming the balance of power in the USA so that the president can wage whatever wars he wants and practice torture.
The originality of the Federalist Society’s approach was to reinterpret the principles of Anglo-Saxon law. Drawing on the writings of the philosopher Leo Strauss, it substituted “natural law” for “positive law. For example, during the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan wanted to deregulate the economy, but he was constrained by law and could not. A Federalist Society theorist, Professor Richard Epstein, argued that property was not a matter of positive law, i.e., conventions drawn up by legislators, but of natural law, i.e., that it was instituted by God. Now, any regulation of an economic activity consists in limiting the way in which certain owners behave. Therefore, any regulation is an expropriation that requires compensation.
Thus, if a law, in the interest of the community, requires industrialists to produce only products of a certain quality, it limits their property rights, and they must therefore be compensated. This interpretation of the law allowed President Ronald Reagan to deconstruct all pre-existing economic regulations…
[4] Proceedings of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Symposium : American Exceptionalism and Human Rights, Michael Ignatieff, Princeton University Press (2005).
The references in the above article on the Federalist Society led to this article:
When reading this article remember the Cabal’s use of ‘Women’s Rights’ (the right to work, have access to birth control and have abortions) as just a means of population control to them. It is mentioned in NSSM-200 — the 1974 Kissinger report.
Defining Exceptionalism:
Since 1945 America has displayed exceptional leadership in promoting international human rights. At the same time, however, it has also resisted complying with human rights standards at home or aligning its foreign policy with these standards abroad. Under some administrations, it has promoted human rights as if they were synonymous with American values, while under others, it has emphasized the superiority of American values over international standards….
Thanks to Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, the United States took a leading role in the creation of the United Nations and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.[1] Throughout the Cold War and afterward, few nations placed more emphasis in their foreign policy on the promotion of human rights, market freedom, and political democracy. Since the 1970s U.S. legislation has tied foreign aid to progress in human rights; the State Department annually assesses the human rights records of governments around the world. Outside government, the United States can boast some of the most effective and influential human rights organizations in the world. These promote religious freedom, gender equality, democratic rights, and the abolition of slavery; they monitor human rights performance by governments, including—and especially—the U.S. government. U.S. government action, together with global activism by U.S. NGOs, has put Americans in the forefront of attempts to improve women’s rights, defend religious liberty, improve access to AIDS drugs, [a major POISON developed by Fauci according to Dr Judy Mikovits -G.C.] spread democracy and freedom through the Arab and Muslim worlds, and oppose tyrants from Slobodan Milošević to Saddam Hussein….
The legal left has a money problem, a history problem and—maybe worst of all—a big-idea problem.
…What’s going on? One explanation is historical: The Federalist Society is simply older, with deeper roots. Those trace back some years before its founding, to a 1971 memo written by Lewis Powell, shortly before his nomination to the Supreme Court, in which he argued that the “𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸”—𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀, 𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹. The Powell Manifesto, as it came to be known, foreshadowed the development of today’s roster of powerful conservative think tanks—the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan and Cato Institutes, and the Federalist Society…
Note the differences in the explanation of the origin of the Federalist Society. Melding the two you have Industrialists like the Rockefellers (remember their link to Chicago University via John Dewey) LOOKING for groups they can use. John D. was KNOWN for hiding his moves behind surrogates.
THE ORIGIN OF NGOs:
Rockefeller’s man, Maurice Strong, was Chair of the First Earth Summit in 1972. He started the CAGW movement. Strong is the guy who said “…current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class…are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns….” in his opening remarks at Earth Summit II in 1992. Strong’s web site in google states: “Maurice Strong globalized the environmental movement.”
In brief Maurice Strong worked in Saudi Arabia for a Rockefeller company, Caltex, in 1953. He left Caltex in 1954 to worked at high levels in banking and oil. By 1971, he served as a trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1972 was Secretary-General of the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment. He was Co-founder of the WWF and Senior Advisor to the World Bank, the UN AND the World Economic Forum.
Strong’s early work with YMCA international “…may have been the genesis of Strong’s realization that NGOs (non-government organizations) provide an excellent way to use NGOs to couple the money from philanthropists and business with the objectives of government.” LINK
“Very few of even the larger international NGOs are operationally democratic, in the sense that members elect officers or direct policy on particular issues,” notes Peter Spiro. “Arguably it is more often money than membership that determines influence, and money more often represents the support of centralized elites, such as major foundations, than of the grass roots.” The CGG [Commission on Global Governance] has benefited substantially from the largesse of the MacArthur, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations…. LINK
NGOs USED to REPLACE VOTERS in USA
By Presidential Executive Order the USA was divided into ten regions. These regions are governed by an unholy mix of unelected government bureaucrats and NGOs. The regions were set up by President Nixon but the implementation of the “regional governance concept began in earnest with the Clinton-Gore administration. “On the heels of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development , came the President’s Community Empowerment Board, chaired by Vice President Al Gore,” – LINKThese quasi-governmental regional authorities are slowly transforming the US from representative government to government by United Nations and foundation sponsored and directed NGOs and appointed bureaucrats.
PRESIDENT REAGAN:
Well that certainly explains why Reagan did not use the anti-monopoly laws on the books to prevent the Transnational Corporations from a massive take over of American owned mid-sized corporations. It also explains why our ‘Conservative’ Judges did nothing to stop him.
In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration drastically altered American antitrust policy, virtually eliminating Section 2 cases involving monopolies. This chapter provides a context for that decision by tracing the efforts that the federal government made since 1890 to reconcile an opposition to highly concentrated economic power with the even stronger enthusiasm Americans have always had for the economic success they associated with the nation’s largest enterprises. In this setting, judges and government lawyers struggled over the years to come up with a clear concept of monopoly. In the global economy of the late 20th century, the Reagan policy innovation solved that problem and proved to be timely and significant. The new policy allowed American firms to get up to global scale, either through strategic alliances or through mergers that would not have been allowed under previous administrations.
..In January 1982, former US Secretary of the Treasury William Simon and a group of investors acquired Gibson Greetings, a producer of greeting cards, for $80 million, of which only $1 million was rumored to have been contributed by the investors. By mid-1983, just sixteen months after the original deal, Gibson completed a $290 million IPO and Simon made approximately $66 million.[9]
The success of the Gibson Greetings investment attracted the attention of the wider media to the nascent boom in leveraged buyouts.[10] Between 1979 and 1989, it was estimated that there were over 2,000 leveraged buyouts valued in excess of $250 billion…..
US Secretary of the Treasury started the sellout of our economy. Reagan through his laissez faire attitude did nothing to stop it. Now I finally understand WHY.
…Both economic and regulatory factors combined to spur the explosion in large takeovers and, in turn, large LBOs. The three regulatory factors were the Reagan administration’s relatively laissez-faire policies on antitrust and securities laws, which allowed mergers the government would have challenged in earlier years;
the 1982 Supreme Court decision striking down state antitakeover laws (which were resurrected with great effectiveness in the late eighties); and deregulation of many industries, which prompted restructurings and mergers. The main economic factor was the development of the original-issue high-yield debt instrument. The so-called “junk bond” innovation, pioneered by Michael Milken of Drexel Burnham, provided many hostile bidders and LBO firms with the enormous amounts of capital needed to finance multi-billion-dollar deals….
Without intervention by the government or courts, greed took over.
Corporate takeovers became a prominent feature of the American business landscape during the seventies and eighties. A hostile takeover usually involves a public tender offer—a public offer of a specific price, usually at a substantial premium over the prevailing market price, good for a limited period, for a substantial percentage of the target firm’s stock. Unlike a merger, which requires the approval of the target firm’s board of directors as well as voting approval of the stockholders, a tender offer can provide voting control to the bidding firm without the approval of the target’s management and directors…..
Because it allows bidders to seek control directly from shareholders—by going “over the heads” of target management—the tender offer is the most powerful weapon available to the hostile bidder. … Although hostile bidders still need a formal merger to gain total control of the target’s assets, this is easily accomplished once the bidder has purchased a majority of voting stock.
Hostile tender offers have been around for decades, but they were rare and generally involved small target firms until the midseventies. Then came the highly controversial multibillion-dollar hostile takeovers of very recognizable public companies. By the late eighties there were dozens of multi-billion-dollar takeovers and their cousins, leveraged buyouts (LBOs). The largest acquisition ever was the $25 billion buyout of RJR Nabisco by Kolberg Kravis and Roberts in 1989. [Editor’s note: this was written in 1992.] ….
This is the result of the 1980’s leveraged buyout feeding frenzy.
….Of mergers and acquisitions each costing $1 million or more, there were just 10 in 1970; in 1980, there were 94; in 1986, there were 346. A third of such deals in the 1980’s were hostile. The 1980’s also saw a wave of giant leveraged buyouts. Mergers, acquisitions and L.B.O.’s, which had accounted for less than 5 percent of the profits of Wall Street brokerage houses in 1978, ballooned into an estimated 50 percent of profits by 1988…
THROUGH ALL THIS, THE HISTORIC RELATIONSHIP between product and paper has been turned upside down. Investment bankers no longer think of themselves as working for the corporations with which they do business. These days, corporations seem to exist for the investment bankers…. In fact, investment banks are replacing the publicly held industrial corporations as the largest and most powerful economic institutions in America….
THERE ARE SIGNS THAT A VICIOUS spiral has begun, as each corporate player seeks to improve its standard of living at the expense of another’s.
Corporate raiders transfer to themselves, and other shareholders, part of the income of employees by forcing the latter to agree to lower wages….
America has been quietly sold off piece by piece. This is a sampling of the industries with over 50% foreign ownership, according to Source Watch over two decades ago (2002.0
— Sound recording industries – 97% — Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage – 79% — Motion picture and sound recording industries – 75% — Metal ore mining – 65% — Wineries and distilleries – 64% — Database, directory, Book and other publishers – 63% — Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product – 62% — Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment – 57% — Rubber product – 53% — Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing – 53% — Plastics and rubber products manufacturing – 52% * Other insurance related activities – 51% — Boiler, tank, and shipping container – 50% — Glass and glass product – 48% — Coal mining – 48%
A real eye opener isn’t it. But it gets worse. “…The Department of Homeland Security says 80% of our ports are operated by Foreigners and they are buying and running US bridges and toll roads…” http://www.alabamaeagle.org/issues.asp?action=form&formID=2105&recordID=131006 (Funny how that info has now been completely scrubbed from the internet including the Wayback Machine…)
…Foreign ownership of U.S. assets amounted to 33% of U.S. GDP in 1990. Today it is valued at over 70% of U.S. GDP. Foreigners own $2 trillion (19% of U.S. GDP) more in U.S. assets that the U.S. holds of theirs. Foreign ownership of the U.S. Treasury market is over 30%, over 23% of the corporate bond market, and 13% of the U.S. equity market. (Statistics courtesy of Bridgewater, Dec 13, 2002.)
The fate of the dollar now boils down to a question of confidence. But not the confidence of its own citizens, but of foreigners. Their holdings are now such a large percentage of the total that, if confidence in the U.S. falters and foreigners become sellers, there is grave risk to U.S. financial markets….
…we find that only 737 top holders accumulate 80% of the control over the value of all TNCs [Trans National Corporations] …This means that network control is much more unequally distributed than wealth. In particular, the top ranked actors hold a control ten times bigger than what could be expected based on their wealth…
…In detail, nearly 4/10 of the control over the economic value of TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control over itself. The top holders within the core can thus be thought of as an economic “super-entity” in the global network of corporations. A relevant additional fact at this point is that 3/4 of the core are financial intermediaries….
There may be 147 companies in the world that own everything, as colleague Bruce Upbin points out and they are dominated by investment companies as Eric Savitz rightly points out. But it’s not you and I who really control those companies, even though much of our money is in them. Given the nature of how money is invested, there are four companies in the shadows that 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 control those companies that own everything.
Before I reveal them, some light math:
According to the 2011 annual factbook from the Investment Company Institute, there is $24.7 trillion in all the mutual funds in the world (a little less than half from the US). Based on data from the ICI, $1.24 trillion of this is directly invested in index funds, plus another $992 billion in assets beyond that $24.7 trillion in Exchange Traded Funds, which aren’t mutual funds but are index funds. That means the bulk of that money is in “active” managed funds or fund of funds….
...the chief of hedge funds at a very large asset manager told me last week (alas, I cannot identify either) that an internal study his firm recently performed found that the vast majority of mutual funds defined as actively managed see 95% of the assets they hold determined by an index. That means just 5% of actively managed funds really are driven by the active manager’s judgment.…
So of the $25.69 trillion in worldwide assets we’ve identified, $2.23 trillion are directly in indexes (ETFs and index mutual funds) with another $22.3 trillion indirectly beholden to indexes (that 95% of actively managed fund holdings said to be determined by an index).
You can see where I’m headed here. That means the real power to control the world lies with four companies: McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poor’s, Northwestern Mutual, which owns Russell Investments, the index arm of which runs the benchmark Russell 1,000 and Russell 3,000, CME Group which owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes, and Barclay’s, which took over Lehman Brothers and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, the dominant world bond fund index. Together, these four firms dominate the world of indexing. And in turn, that means they hold real sway over the world’s money….
Just to be clear, if you invest in a mutual fund you are buying shares in the mutual fund (that you cannot vote) and theMutual Fundthen uses YOUR money to buy stock shares which it owns and controls. This allows much more consolidation of control. For example Edward C Johnson 3rd, chairman of the Fidelity Group voted the stock in Monsanto owned by several pension and mutual funds like FMR LLC, FIDELITY MAGELLAN FUND INC, FIDELITY GROWTH COMPANY FUND, and Pyramid Global Advisors. The Vanguard Group, aka John C. Bogle, owned another healthy chunk of Monsanto. In this way even more power is concentrated in the hands of a few. This explains the point made in the paper, Network of Global Corporate Control, that the amount of power is greater than the amount of wealth can account for.
So facts like “85% of Monsanto is held by mutual funds and Institutional (financial) Holders” while true in that the money originated from pensioners and other little people does not tell the whole story. Yet it is trumpeted by those who want to confuse those trying to follow the money and power trails and misdirect us into thinking the stock is held and voted by pensioners — a complete and utter falsehood.
Aug 15, 2022 Thanks to the surging popularity of its index funds, Vanguard is now the No. 1 owner of 330 stocks in the S&P 500, or two-thirds of the world’s most important collection of stocks, says an Investor’s Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith. No other investor comes remotely close. BlackRock (BLK) is a remote second-top owner, ranking as the No. 1 investor in just 38 S&P 500 companies.
Not only does the Cabal use our saving and pensions to gain control over corporations, they also shifted the tax burden to the middle class. At the same time that corporate taxes and tariffs on imported good (excise) have gone down, taxes on personal income aka WAGES has gone up. ‘Tax the wealthy’ is a real joke because the wealthy ARE NOT PAID WAGES.
(Try finding that graph via a search engine today.)
Today, it is still the case that Joe Biden didn’t Win.
I realize that to some readers, this might be a shock; surely at some point things must change and Biden will have actually won.
But the past cannot actually be changed.
It will always and forever be the case that Joe Biden didn’t win.
And if you, Leftist Lurker, want to dismiss it as dead white cis-male logic…well, you can call it what you want, but then please just go fuck off. No one here buys that bullshit–logic is logic and facts are facts regardless of skin color–and if you gave it a moment’s rational thought, you wouldn’t either. Of course your worthless education never included being able to actually reason–or detect problems with false reasoning–so I don’t imagine you’ll actually wake up as opposed to being woke.
As Ayn Rand would sometimes point out: Yes, you are free to evade reality. What you cannot do is evade the consequences of evading reality. Or to put it concretely: You can ignore the Mack truck bearing down on you as you play in the middle of the street, you won’t be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring the Mack truck.
And Ayn Rand also pointed out that existence (i.e., the sum total of everything that exists) precedes consciousness–our consciousnesses are a part of existence, not outside of it–therefore reality cannot be a “social construct” as so many of you fucked-up-in-the-head people seem to think.
So much for Leftist douchebag lurkers. For the rest of you, the regular readers and those lurkers who understand such things: I continue to carry the banner once also carried by Wheatie. His Fraudulency didn’t win.
Let’s Go, Brandon!!
Hey China!
Or rather, “Hey Chinese Communist Party and your entire array of servitors, ass-wipers, and fellators!”
You’re not even worth my time this week. When you decide to act like civilized people, maybe I’ll give you a lesson or two in how non-barbarians behave.
Hey BiteMe! (Or, Whoever Has Their Hand Rammed Up That Putrefying Meat Puppet’s Ass)
[Language warning]
You and yours have caused a lot of injury. Literal injury with your war on people who don’t want to take an untested vaccine. When people die in an emergency room because a hospital won’t admit them because they haven’t had their clot shot, that’s a crime.
I’m going to address here the insult on top of the injury, because I am among the insulted. I still have my health but apparently you want me to live under the 8th Street Bridge (which actually isn’t on 8th Street, but whatever, that’s what the I-25 overpass over Cimarron is called), so maybe if you have your way that won’t be true for long. Dreadful time of year to become homeless.
No, you’re just trying to make me unemployed, because I won’t take your fucking shots.
Well, that threat is NOT going to work. I. Won’t. Take. Your. Fucking. Shots.
And it looks like enough people agree, that you’re having to back down, you worthless asswipe.
You’re LOSING.
You LOSER.
You Chinese-bought ratfucking traitor.
I would love to see you die an agonizing, humiliating death. (This isn’t a threat, because I am not threatening to cause that death. I am just announcing my intention to party if it happens.) It would be just recompense for the way you’re killing America…and millions of Americans.
His Fraudulency
Joe Biteme, properly styled His Fraudulency, continues to infest the White House, we haven’t heard much from the person who should have been declared the victor, and hopium is still being dispensed even as our military appears to have joined the political establishment in knuckling under to the fraud.
One can hope that all is not as it seems.
I’d love to feast on that crow.
(I’d like to add, I find it entirely plausible, even likely, that His Fraudulency is also His Figureheadedness. (Apparently that wasn’t a word; it got a red underline. Well it is now.) Where I differ with the hopium addicts is on the subject of who is really in charge. It ain’t anyone we like.)
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
Gold went up 2 percent today, after threatening to drop below $1800. (Silver and platinum went up too, roughly as much percentage wise) I noticed as I was editing (and changing the prices from five weeks ago) that gold had not moved much from five weeks ago, and overall just a bit up from last week but everything else (even silver) is down. So basically, all metals were going down, but then today gold (and only gold) made up five weeks of losses. Silver had been hit more than gold in the last five weeks, apparently, since it’s still a buck and a half below the 5 week old price.
When comparing to last week, gold is the only thing that is up…and when gold goes up and nothing else follows, it’s being sought as a safe haven.
The two purely industrial metals (palladium and rhodium) were down today, especially rhodium which fell six percent.
I think this all means people are very nervous about the economy…maybe those rumors of bank failures are telling; certainly manufacturing seems to be in trouble too.
.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
Whoever ends up in the cell next to his, tell him I said “Hi.”
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
As I left the last part, something was about to happen to our region at the bank. We just did not know it yet. This will be the last background story leading into more recent times and experiences.
Time To Go – Again
Our region had rocked along with TVB for a few years in a bumpy climb to annual loan volume of just over $115 M at about 175-180 transactions per year. We were making the bank good money and were up to about 45% of the division’s total loan volume. However, loan closings were being delayed by slow funding of loans and there were signs the hot SoCal real estate market was cooling some.
During this time 9/11 had reared its ugly head and the country was reeling from the shock. I still remember where I was when it all began – in my vehicle on the Cumberland Plateau about an hour west of Knoxville heading to Nashville for a SBA lenders conference. My SCO called me on my Blackberry to let me know as he knew I listened to CD’s when driving. We both agreed that more of the prophecy of Revelation was underway.
I was on that cold interstate…
Yet, the business world continued on. TVB continued to participate with developers and contractors with financing packages for residential development of lots and new homes. The homes were primarily built spec, no buyers on the hook. Their price ranged from $1 – $2 M per home. This was not unusual for that market while seeming otherworldly to us in the southeast. It also averaged about twice as many loan dollars committed per transaction than one of ours, of which at least 75-85% of our single transaction loan amount was guaranteed by an agency of the federal government that would be sold on the secondary market for a tidy premium while retaining servicing rights for an additional minimum 1% annually on the sold loan balance. We could make three or four $1 M loans for every one spec house construction loan while adding far greater income to the bottom line.
It typically would not take a genius to figure out that our division was the profit bell cow. Except it did at TVB where they were convinced that the reverse was better. Which perfectly illustrated the ego of the bank Chairman/CEO and his buds in executive management and the Board. They wanted to play the dog in the local area. They wanted bragging rights in their pond over bank stability and profitability, which would not be the desire of the national investor looking for value in bank growth stocks on the NASDAQ. One approach was for show, the other was for dough.
As an interesting educational experience for Goober and his SCO, we had difficulty grasping how subdivisions in the desert around the region were cropping up everywhere. There was no vegetation like in Tennessee and the ground was dry, sandy and rocky. Then as we drove in from LAX for meetings one time we saw a first for us. It was a dirt mine. A mine where decent soil was being extracted for use in the booming subdivisions for vegetation purposes. We knew at that point we had seen everything this old world had to offer. What we took for granted in the east was gold in them thar hills of Californ-I-a.
We noted that some of TVB’s contractor customers were beginning to default on those spec house loans and the loss of liquidity and the constraints on bank capital were making it increasingly difficult for our loans to fund in a timely manner. If the homes would not sell, the development financing would also fail. The credit committee began declining larger loan requests in our region that were of a type that were formerly approved. Production officers were beginning to complain again and rightly so. They worked hard to generate the flow of business that was being gradually undermined by the bank’s executive management and Board decisions. We also knew that sometimes management in any business will use that method as a way of downsizing without stating the obvious. There are no exit packages to pay if people leave on their own to take better opportunities. Regardless of the motive(s), the financial situation signaled major issues ahead for our division.
At this point I notified my division CEO of our concerns. He felt the bank would work out of it, not seeing there was a sense of urgency. His response was unusual. Normally he would shoot straight with me (I found out why later). I signaled to him and the Chairman/CEO that I disagreed with that assessment by selling a large block of my stock near the top in the $40/share range. At this point there were still ample buyers as the markets were not yet aware anything was amiss as regulators had given the bank a good rating in their last exam and reported profits and capital were still strong. Since I was not an executive officer, just listed as senior management, I had no legal constraints in doing so. I had only paid $5/share when executing my options. As a result I fully recovered my total investment plus made a profit while holding some additional shares for selling later in a different tax year. There was no mention of it by the Chairman and I expected it would fly under the radar since he and some Board members routinely bought and sold as well.
I was preparing without knowing exactly what was to come, just that “it” was coming. I could feel it.
^^^ This ^^^
Opportunity Knocks
While this was going on, I discussed the situation with my SCO and a key regional sales manager. We agreed it was again time to explore our options. This led to a long dance with a well established large community bank nearby before the Chairman/CEO, a man I greatly respected, informed me that he could not convince his Board and SCO to agree. He clearly saw the opportunity and recommended the venture to them along with another Board member we knew, but they did not as they did not understand the industry and were basically uninterested in working harder and smarter. Disappointed, but undeterred and facing no deadline, we continued looking and kept working. That Chairman/CEO was correct in his assessment. We could have been the profit generator that bank needed to pull out of a longterm downtrend in profitability, which was a shame. It simply scared them to being doing business all over the country in a line of business in which they had no real knowledge.
At this point it is important to state our industry’s reach during those days. In the eastern U. S. there were only a half dozen big banks and a few licensed non-bank lenders like GECC who did more volume of loans annually than my eastern U. S region of TVB did. Most of the industry’s loan volume was generated in the western U. S., with 40% of the total coming from California. Our region was providing the loan volume that ranked TVB as the #1 lender in volume in four states and in the top five in nearly all of other states in our eastern region. There was no real commitment to the industry by banks in the east. If a small business customer could not be financed conventionally they simply declined the loan rather than hire specialized staffing to process the government guaranteed loans. It seemed we were blazing a trail as it had never been done like this before in our region of the country. Even the big banks did not sell the loans as we did, they retained them in their portfolios. The benefit for them retaining on the books was the loan amount that was government guaranteed did not count against their capital, while also earning a higher rate of interest than a conventional loan. Even our state regulators and eastern region FDIC area bank examiners’ minds were blown with how our method worked. So, we understood why prospective banks would be nervous about the opportunity. We just needed to find the right situation.
We had made our team aware we were looking at options and that seemed to reassure them to hang in there with us. A month later the production officer who was assigned to TN walked into my office. He had a potential opportunity that had fallen in his lap that he thought we should pursue. He had contacts in the western part of the state that referred him business that owned a small community bank of about $250 M in assets there. The executive management was intrigued about how we did what we did. One of the four owners was a general contractor, another was an attorney/nursing home chain CEO, another was a mega wealthy businessman who owned a larger bank, and the fourth was the community bank’s Chairman/CEO. They were from the same area and lifelong friends. Even though their bank was small and unsophisticated, it was over twice as large in assets as TVB was when we started with them along with a stronger capital position. We knew it was sufficient to get the job done as well as how to do it.
I told my guy to go ahead and visit with them to tell them we were interested in talking. He was already working on a couple of referred loan requests of their clients for lodging type financing such that even if it amounted to nothing, his trip would be worth the time. Two days later the bank’s Chairman/CEO gave me a call and asked if they could fly over and visit in a few days, to which I was happy to oblige. We talked a bit and I told him to contact the Chairman/CEO of the area bank who had passed on the venture since he had offered to be a reference for us should we find another opportunity. He responded that they knew each other well from the Tennessee Bankers Association meetings and that he had a lot of respect for him.
When the day arrived I picked them up at the airport. My SCO and I had spent time reviewing their bank’s financial call report to verify they had the capital and liquidity to do the deal, which we confirmed. They had too much liquidity to be as profitable as they wanted as there was a limited amount of business activity in their rural markets. There were three of the four owners and their CPA present in the meeting. The wealthy businessman chose not to come. We gave the group a quick tour of our offices and made introductions since they were already referral sources of bank business. This was a normal practice with our customers and referral sources.
We then retreated to a business associate’s conference room in the same office building. I went through the business methods and gave them a five year financial projection to review for any questions. Their eyes fell out of their heads and huge grins crept across their faces. Their CPA became very engaged with me at that point. The others asked a few questions and wanted to know how a transition of our people would work along with timing. I asked about their missing owner. They said he was reticent about the opportunity, but stated he would not stand in their way if they wanted to do it. The three owners said that was not unusual for him as he usually dealt in larger endeavors and owned a minority share of 40% with the three of them owning the other 60%. They had the authority and Board control. The missing owner will be discussed again in a future story. But as a spoiler, he did not come because he would not understand it and his pride would not allow him to admit it.
We had a deal on the spot in one meeting. It was time to take control of our fates as a team and they were well past ready in their minds to accelerate the growth of their bank. The Chairman/CEO was a member of his hometown UMC, so we shared a common bond. I knew he was a well liked family man and respected banker as my friend, RB Summitt, had known him for years and verified it to me. The contractor owner was very entrepreneurial, which is important for our line of business. As a result they had no problem at all with expanding nationally in scope. They asked if my SCO, National Sales Manager (NSM) and I wanted employment contracts. I told them that we did not. We preferred to work from a position of trust in each other. If it did not work out for either side, we each needed to be free to pull the plug on it. They were shocked and agreed. I asked that each employee I approved for hire to receive an offer of employment from the CEO that stated a. job description, compensation arrangements, benefits and so forth. I would be titled the Division President with my SCO and National Sales Manager, who was my current regional sales manager, also becoming executive officers of the bank with asset procurement authority for new offices including the leases. They agreed to all of it. They wanted us to know they owned the bank’s computer operating system as a separate company that had a couple of dozen of other small banks contracted as customers. They wanted us to know it would need tweaking to accommodate us, so there would be no surprises.
All that was left was to implement the plan once the employment offers were signed by the three of us. Goober Gump and friends had arrived at our destination just like Goober’s brother, Forrest, did during his day.
Time To Peel Our Own Banana
Monkey see, monkey do. Figurative, but almost literally speaking. The whole small business journey since the equipment company fiasco had been just that. I had learned so much. My personal strategy to take one or more steps back in compensation and position to move forward three had worked to perfection as our growing team and I learned more and became more cohesive, thereby increasing our value in the industry. We were winning financially for our employers as well as for ourselves. We just had to remain flexible, open to change, and realize one important truth about our role with each bank employer. Which was…
We ignited insatiable greed within the hearts of owners and executive management everywhere we went. We were like cash cocaine they snorted. Seriously. Goober Gump had just become the head of a legal, figurative cash cartel.
Achieving 35+% Return on Investment (ROI) on each transaction does that in the banking industry, which typically has much smaller margins and ROIs in most lines of business while using OPM. We told them up front that economic downturns could sharply reduce our profitability, yet our recovery from it would be reasonably quick. They were informed to remain flexible and that the business worked in quarterly cycles. We could not do in reductions in force on a whim and be able to rebound quickly because the employees were specialists, training was time consuming.
Looking back, in the first two California bank employer situations, the bank’s executive management and Boards intended to sell out to larger institutions. We were just a contributing means to an end to that purpose and knew in advance of its likelihood. In the later TVB situation, we were means to a different end. They wanted to become a major player in SoCal as a traditional bank and were a long term hold as an investment. Which meant our division would have been deemphasizedexpendable just like the others if their primary goal had been achieved.
The exit strategy of selling the bank worked better for what we provided than for the later. Booms and busts of the economy highly affected its profitability and balance sheet management requirements. Being the primary driver of income would be a major issue for a small publicly traded bank wanting to be a bigger fish in the highly competitive SoCal pond. In contrast we could not afford to get caught with their financial issues messing up our delivery system because their egos would not allow them to properly manage their bank.
We knew as a team, we were never employed by the employing bank. We were employed by our industry. In essence we were contractors or even the non-violent mercenaries of banking.
I gave a heads up to my division CEO. He had been frequently absent in recent months and evasive about what turned out were his plans of starting his own loan origination, processing and servicing company in the industry that contracted to banks. I turned in my notice to him. He was very understanding and not surprised. He briefly discussed the new venture that he was starting as soon as his employment contract with TVB ran out later that year. He stated it would be a couple of years before he could offer me a role. He seemed relieved I had the new option and would be moving the eastern operation over time.
I came into work one morning as I worked out my notice and saw I had a voice mail. It was from the irate TVB Chairman/CEO who proceeded to denigrate my choice of future employer and asked me to reconsider in a strained, pissed off voice. He said the TN bank was too small and unsophisticated to do what we did. Ironic, since his bank was half their size when we started there. He then said some angry comments under his breath as he hung up the phone that I could not make out. I never returned the call. I considered it just another former ego maniac employer who disrespected the very guy and his team who had delivered serious profitability to their bank while not being willing to humble himself to admit he needed to make positive changes. He made it easy to move on and I would never be listing him as reference in the future anyway.
I left TVB in the spirit of Johnny Paycheck…
C’mon, I know you love it.
Conclusion
During the course of these stories I will periodically go back and update readers on what happened to people and employers from the past. That will be happening again in the the near future. In TVB’s case I will post a link to give readers a more technical picture of where their path of choice led and why. Coothie will be one of the few readers that would probably enjoy reading that financial and operational (spoiler alert) autopsy.
I had reached a point in life that I was tired of the lies, manipulation, and ego trips of those who felt they had power and control of the lives of others through their employment. I guess age and experiences being what they were made me less tolerant of being dependent on azzhats.
It was time for me to step out of my comfort zone. It is really easy to blame others when things do not go the way you think they should or to your personal benefit. I tried hard not to do that, to recognize the good and value of each situation. Yet, when conditions soured to the point of harming our team, the Lord had once again opened the door for that to change.
In my humble opinion obedience was the reason.
Job 36:11 – If they listen and serve Him, they will end their days in prosperity, and their years in happiness.
Isaiah 1:19 – If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land;
II John 6 – And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you are to walk in it.
And the big one:
John 14:15 – If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
On Thursday, there were two stories really overshadowing everything else. One was the hearing featuring Matt Taibbi of Twitter Files fame of the Congressional Subcommittee on the Weaponization of [Government] Stuff. Talk about a dumpster fire. WOW where do the Democrats come up with these people?
Thankfully, Jim Jordan was presiding. Here’s the majority of it rather than putting in countless tweets, people can just fast forward. Sorry to just link it, but the darn thing won’t embed and as of this writing that is the longest video available. This is the FOX feed which will also not embed.
This is a result of elements in the USG (ie., deep state) usurping the rights of everyday citizens. W/out @elonmusk opening up this free flow of information & journalists like @mtaibbi (& others) doing the extraordinary work to expose this mess, our nation would be in even… https://t.co/MjSdxaRLN9
Tucker Carlson on Chuck Schumer calling for this show to be pulled off the air:
"That's not an argument based on logic, it's based on hysteria and the shame you feel as a weak and terrified person when your lies are exposed." pic.twitter.com/RpbP9QBTqc
— LaughLoveLive, identifies as Deplorable Patriot (@LaughLoveLive1) March 9, 2023
“You cannot have a state-sponsored system targeting ‘disinformation’ without striking at the essence of the right to free speech. The two ideas are in direct conflict.” https://t.co/8ika0Kpc8J
— LaughLoveLive, identifies as Deplorable Patriot (@LaughLoveLive1) March 9, 2023
I interviewed East Palestine locals, contacted a controversial firm that Norfolk Southern hired to conduct testing, and examined how corporate lobbying and politics connect to put American communities on a collision course with disaster. https://t.co/hcdsvZ0ScX
“Every virus since HIV has been a gain of function deployed ‘infection by injection’…HIV was spread through the Hepatitis B vaccination…” -Dr. Judy Mikovitz pic.twitter.com/EV12tWJhgA
. @BensmanTodd: Federal judge gives the Biden administration 7 days to reverse their policies and return the border back to how it was when he took office. pic.twitter.com/u7naUVqjQB
— The Dirty Truth (Josh) (@AKA_RealDirty) March 9, 2023
.@RandPaul Sir, you’re doing the right thing as is your style. But “they” don’t care about what you want. This is a takeover of our government by a group of communists & their intent on getting even more control. Use every ounce of your authority as a U.S. Senator & every ounce… https://t.co/rahDAgpkqU
— Zach Vorhies / Google Whistleblower (@Perpetualmaniac) March 9, 2023
BREAKING!
Microsofts program, where Newsguard originated, called “Defending Democracy,” owns ElectionGuard, & is partnered with the Russian troll hoaxers, Alliance for securing democracy aka Hamilton68, & most if not all, election machine companies.https://t.co/Vq4Lmm6PsApic.twitter.com/DPTVeYt8gE
Attorney @barnes_law Is Spearheading the Way to Break Through the Liability Shield of Big Pharma
"The reason why there have been attacks on it [Atlanta conference] is because the point and purpose of the conference is to find a way to get legal remedy for the people that have… pic.twitter.com/3w6I8oM9NU
When I agreed to testify about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, I didn't expect the hearing's lead Democrat, @CoriBush, to make a prepared statement falsely accusing me of having "espoused White Supremacist views"!
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion. In that spirit, though, threats of violence real or hypothetical are out of bounds.
Fellow tree dweller the late Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
33“Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. 34When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; 35and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. 37Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, `They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: `The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.” 45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet.