Derivatives Clearinghouses Are Ruled By Secretive, Elite Group Of Bankers

The New York Times:

On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.

The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable -- and controversial -- fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[tooncesrocks]

03:16 PM on 12/13/2010

Julian Assange... this... julian assange that.... how about we have the govt investigate this crowd!

[JacksonAndy78]

02:30 AM on 12/14/2010

Exactly but "We must Look Forward!" So no investigation or prosecution.

[abbadabba]

02:05 PM on 12/13/2010

How about the part of the story where we learn that banks demanded their business clients and municipalities HAD to buy that CDS garbage or they would not be expended any credit. Makes those gamblers gangsters, too.

[Wild Turkey]

11:19 AM on 12/13/2010

How long do we have to hear about this stuff before people simply stop investing altogether?

I will never buy stock.

It's a rigged game.

I will also never buy a home without a down payment well near half of the price.

I simply don't trust the system, and I'll be damned if I'll let someone make 2-300% profit off of me.

THAT is why the economy won't fire back up.

It's the fault of the financial institutions, NOT the consumer.

[Poindexter718]

01:44 PM on 12/13/2010

You seriously ought to reconsider not buying stocks. By all means avoid buying individual bonds, annuities and other "structured products that are impossible to price/reverse engineer, but equities and no-load mutual funds are two areas where Wall Street doesn't fleece retail investors and it does help the economy if that is one of your goals.

[abbadabba]

02:11 PM on 12/13/2010

True, stocks are better regulated, and this Markit is a monopoly. But, never be fooled into believing you have an equal share. You have a vote, but that is trumped by the voting trust share holders. They can control the great wealth of the company without owning it. THAT's Wall Street power. And sitting a bunch of Wall Streeters on a board also guarantees you have little or no say.

Find a broker you can trust. Seriously, many will gladly roll you into a big cigar and smoke you. Mine is a family friend of fifty years, and I still check my statement every month and call with ANY question to remind them I'm not an Idle Investor. My picks are Millie's picks. She's been with Merrill for fifty years (and likely wants to wring someone's neck for destroying their rep) . She has steared me well. I'm using her earnings approach. VERY diversified. Like over thirty stocks and some munis.

[JacksonAndy78]

02:31 AM on 12/14/2010

Sales Pitch.

[The other mike]

08:55 AM on 12/13/2010

Both major parties are equally guilty. They each receive millions of dollars per year in campaign contributions and perks in order to make sure the playing field stays tilted in Wall Street's favor. The Democrats pretend they are on our side by proposing to end some of the tax breaks for the wealthiest 1%, but they have made no attempt to reinstate Glass-Steagall, reform derivative trading, ban high frequency trading, or break up these banks that are "too big to fail". The Republicans don't even pretend they are on our side.

[b1rd67]

09:06 AM on 12/13/2010

We get screwed by some of the Democrats all of the time and all of the Democrats some of the time.

We get screwed by all of the Republicans all of the time.

[slogward]

05:54 AM on 12/13/2010

As the US is run for the benefit of 1% of the populace, the GOP gives them a tax break, and Obama turns a blind eye to the debt. Incredible...

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/us-outlook-for-2011-why-the-goforits-are-completely-wrong/

[Kai-HK]

04:19 AM on 12/13/2010

This is a non-story. People in the industry meet. Yeah so? So do union officials of different unions.

[watson11111]

05:44 AM on 12/13/2010

your right maybe we should look at real news,like find out what paris hilton is up to

[Kai-HK]

09:03 AM on 12/13/2010

Why not? Paris has got to be up to something more sinister than than meeting people who are simply in her own industry. Or at least something criminal or illegal. Or something that doesn't reek of a desperate attempt to make something out of nothing.

Kai

[b1rd67]

09:06 AM on 12/13/2010

You are clueless.

[Kai-HK]

08:15 PM on 12/13/2010

Again, excellent response. It is as useless as it is vapid.

[Zhuubaajie]

04:05 AM on 12/13/2010

Are the lawyers in on this scam also? Usually you'd think that with huge damages like these, there'd be class actions coming out of the yinyang. But after 2008 the action was rather dead. Were the class action kings rounded up and read the riot act, and told to stay away from the banksters, or else . . . .?

[outnow]

09:09 AM on 12/13/2010

Frank-Dodd Bill specifically allows secret profits for these clearing houses. Lawyers are not bought off. They get their fees by suing or defending. The remedy is the restoration of the separation of commercial and investment banking called the Glass-Steagall legislation.

Where do you get the idea that class action kings (lawyers) are rounded up and then would stay silent. Blame the right people - Frank, Dodd and Obama, not the lawyers. The only thing between you and a totalitarian government is the lawyers. They are not perfect but are not rounded up and told what to do. WShere do you get this strange notion? Can you give us a single instance where the class action kings, as you call them, were ever rounded up?

Look no futher than the express permission under Frank-Dodd under the Obama administration and the abolition of the Glass-Steagall Act by Ohil Gramm, Robert Rubin and signed by Bill Clinton.

[hellboundtrain]

04:00 AM on 12/13/2010

Not changing the normal termination date for the tax credits would do the most to show fairness to all. This is still possible here. Also, taxing the bankster bonuses at 98% would go far in correcting some inbalances. Ireland just put a 90% tax on their bonuses there.

[WIpatriot]

04:14 AM on 12/13/2010

...after the damage was done. Ireland is no longer of interest to the ubers.

[hellboundtrain]

03:10 PM on 12/13/2010

After the capital has been sucked out, the value destroyed; yes the interest fades.

[Antifascist-08]

03:23 AM on 12/13/2010

It will be another 20 years before the average American voter understands any of this, even with serious study on their part.

By that time we will be a f as c is t oligarchy- a plutocracy.

I'm just glad that I, at least, lived trough a time when all of this was fairly well suppressed, and we still had a chance of keeping our republic.

[WIpatriot]

04:05 AM on 12/13/2010

In 20, nobody living today will recognize the world. The AVERAGE American, with an IQ of 100, will NEVER understand any of this.

[Antifascist-08]

01:58 PM on 12/14/2010

Sad but true.

[DavidATolucaLake]

03:21 AM on 12/13/2010

Finance run by the quants.

If these quants were not border line mentally unstable with Asperger Syndrome or other anti-social spectrum disorders they might have the social skills to go out into the world and make money analyzing the marketplace. Instead of hiding out in secret, creating computer programs to mine the market for profits.

[abbadabba]

02:02 PM on 12/13/2010

Quants schwantz. How hard is it to create a historical risk model when you don't include even the LTCM/Russian Debt Crisis, much less the Crash of 29? Those faulty models were part of an organized equity stripping scheme. Let's call them the propaganda wing of this fasci enterprise.

[guveqzero]

03:21 AM on 12/13/2010

Not secret for long. I suspect Wikileaks will take care of that problem.

[WIpatriot]

04:05 AM on 12/13/2010

hoping, hoping....

[disgustedwithall]

03:17 AM on 12/13/2010

In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.

Hmmmmm in reference to "this group" are we talking of bankers, congress or more likely "it" is both, although history does prove that banks own congress, or is congress just a operating division of banks, really hard to ID?

[Antifascist-08]

02:00 PM on 12/14/2010

Not that hard. These are the 'brains' behind the policy. Congresspeople are just pawns and tools of the big money.

[DavidATolucaLake]

03:07 AM on 12/13/2010

Dark pool trading should be exposed as well.

[disgustedwithall]

03:18 AM on 12/13/2010

Yep like the majority of media will report it and make it a news item for the commoners, they could not even report the Wiki data on Obama covering for bushies in Spain and rest of real news,

[whitemale08]

02:51 AM on 12/13/2010

The Bankrupt British Empire of Worthless Derivatives and Credit-Default Swaps.

The Western serf, so ready to bail out the bankrupt imperial oligarchy with a pledge to perpetuate their serfdom under MASSIVE AUSTERITY CUTS.

SUCKERS!!!

[Antifascist-08]

02:00 PM on 12/14/2010

fanned for truth.

[peaceandfreedom]

02:36 AM on 12/13/2010

Does anyone here still believe that this was an 'accident' or that the bankers were somehow simply inept, or unaware? Our leaders since Jefferson's time have been warning us of these very machinations. None of us should be surprised,