Category: Aggregated

In the new situation created by a leading Presidential pre-candidate campaigning on Glass-Steagall policy against Wall Street, Lyndon LaRouche said in webcast with the LaRouche PAC Policy Committee discussion on Monday that

“He [O’Malley] got this policy from me, and I’m going to back it up!… WE have to tell THE WORLD that this — Glass-Steagall and alliance with the BRICS — is the policy.”

LaRouchePAC interventions are setting out the next steps. In Boston, LPAC’s Bill Ferguson intervened in a meeting of 300 people at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The mayors present were complaining about the miserable state of the economy — New York’s Bill DeBlasio, for example, said that a shocking 46% of New Yorkers were below or near the official poverty line — but they were not attacking the problem: Wall Street. Ferguson said, “Forget Wall Street and support the return to Glass-Steagall banking separation … as stated in U.S. H.R.381 and called for by Martin O’Malley—former Maryland Governor, former Mayor of Baltimore,”
also calling on the audience to support this. Following a brief, though audible hush which swept across the audience, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh responded to Ferguson, “We’ll be taking that up tomorrow.” A number of the mayors present then made sure that they got packets from Ferguson: BRICS pamphlets, and LaRouche’s statements on “The Subject of Germany’s Role,” and “Three World Leaders.”

In Iowa, LaRouchePAC representative Bob Baker spoke to large formal and smaller informal meetings of O’Malley campaigning, addressed meetings of agriculture organizations, and organized meetings of LPAC activists around the state, mobilizing forces for Glass-Steagall and creating an environment both around O’Malley’s events, and in the state where other Presidential candidates will be spending time.

Bloomberg news carried an article March 23, “Martin O’Malley Wants To Be the Glass-Steagall Candidate,” and Fox News followed suit: “O’Malley Campaigns Against Wall Street.” A political insider note appeared in the New York Post March 23, “Democrats Favor O’Malley for President If Hillary Doesn’t Run.” Based on statements from a prominent New York Democrat who is not named, the article says, “Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will be the choice of New York Democrats for President if Hillary Clinton is forced out of the race, a prominent Democrat has told The Post. The well-known New York Democrat also said that Clinton’s email scandal had ‘knocked her off her pedestal.’

“‘O’Malley is the one who I think is going to emerge as the front-runner if Hillary is forced out,’ said the Democrat, a strong Clinton backer whose views carry considerable weight with party members. ‘I really think he’s the front-runner.'”

In the new situation created by a leading Presidential pre-candidate campaigning on Glass-Steagall policy against Wall Street, Lyndon LaRouche said in webcast with the LaRouche PAC Policy Committee discussion on Monday that

“He [O’Malley] got this policy from me, and I’m going to back it up!… WE have to tell THE WORLD that this — Glass-Steagall and alliance with the BRICS — is the policy.”

LaRouchePAC interventions are setting out the next steps. In Boston, LPAC’s Bill Ferguson intervened in a meeting of 300 people at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The mayors present were complaining about the miserable state of the economy — New York’s Bill DeBlasio, for example, said that a shocking 46% of New Yorkers were below or near the official poverty line — but they were not attacking the problem: Wall Street. Ferguson said, “Forget Wall Street and support the return to Glass-Steagall banking separation … as stated in U.S. H.R.381 and called for by Martin O’Malley—former Maryland Governor, former Mayor of Baltimore,”
also calling on the audience to support this. Following a brief, though audible hush which swept across the audience, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh responded to Ferguson, “We’ll be taking that up tomorrow.” A number of the mayors present then made sure that they got packets from Ferguson: BRICS pamphlets, and LaRouche’s statements on “The Subject of Germany’s Role,” and “Three World Leaders.”

In Iowa, LaRouchePAC representative Bob Baker spoke to large formal and smaller informal meetings of O’Malley campaigning, addressed meetings of agriculture organizations, and organized meetings of LPAC activists around the state, mobilizing forces for Glass-Steagall and creating an environment both around O’Malley’s events, and in the state where other Presidential candidates will be spending time.

Bloomberg news carried an article March 23, “Martin O’Malley Wants To Be the Glass-Steagall Candidate,” and Fox News followed suit: “O’Malley Campaigns Against Wall Street.” A political insider note appeared in the New York Post March 23, “Democrats Favor O’Malley for President If Hillary Doesn’t Run.” Based on statements from a prominent New York Democrat who is not named, the article says, “Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will be the choice of New York Democrats for President if Hillary Clinton is forced out of the race, a prominent Democrat has told The Post. The well-known New York Democrat also said that Clinton’s email scandal had ‘knocked her off her pedestal.’

“‘O’Malley is the one who I think is going to emerge as the front-runner if Hillary is forced out,’ said the Democrat, a strong Clinton backer whose views carry considerable weight with party members. ‘I really think he’s the front-runner.'”

The effects of long-term, hyperinflationary “quantitative easing” policies by the major trans-Atlantic and Japanese central banks have led, in recent days, to even “official” warnings of a coming financial markets crash. Particularly in the bond markets — much larger than the stock markets — the seven-years-long attempts to buy and bury toxic debt with new, zero-interest debt has produced widespread public nervousness about a crash.

A March 18 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report “Warns About Oil Sector’s High Debt, Low Prices,” says a Reuters headline.

“A toxic mix of high levels of debt in the oil sector and the sharp decline in the price of the commodity could have far-reaching effects on the global economy,”

economists at the Bank for International Settlements warn. The new BIS report shows that the total debt of the oil and gas sector worldwide stands at roughly $2.5 trillion, two and a half times what it was less than a decade ago, at the end of 2006. Because of “a significant decline in the value of assets backing the debt in this sector,” the leverage of most of this debt has gone above 30:1, and a sell-off of it is underway. “The sell-off of oil company debt could spill over to corporate bond markets more broadly if investors try to reduce the riskiness of their portfolios. The fact that debt of oil and gas firms represents a substantial portion of future redemptions underlines the potential system-wide relevance of developments in the sector,” the BIS economists wrote.

On March 19 the Office of Financial Research, part of the Treasury which now does research for the Financial Stability Oversight Board, issued a report saying that U.S. financial markets may be on the verge of a crash. They based the warning on extreme levels of leverage in the debt markets, only characteristic of pre-crash conditions in 1929, 2000, and 2007.

Proliferating warnings in the financial media about “a crisis of liquidity in the bond markets” are paradoxically being made, just as the central banks print and pump unprecedented volumes of liquidity into these markets. The problem is that — just like in 2005-07 when banks and funds all piled into the same types of MBS and CDOs — all of the liquidity is buying a few categories of (mainly a half-dozen countries’ government) bonds, pumping up huge bubbles in these bonds and using them en masse on the repo markets. Other kinds of bonds are becoming illiquid, and oil and gas debt and derivatives provide the perfect example.

The effects of long-term, hyperinflationary “quantitative easing” policies by the major trans-Atlantic and Japanese central banks have led, in recent days, to even “official” warnings of a coming financial markets crash. Particularly in the bond markets — much larger than the stock markets — the seven-years-long attempts to buy and bury toxic debt with new, zero-interest debt has produced widespread public nervousness about a crash.

A March 18 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report “Warns About Oil Sector’s High Debt, Low Prices,” says a Reuters headline.

“A toxic mix of high levels of debt in the oil sector and the sharp decline in the price of the commodity could have far-reaching effects on the global economy,”

economists at the Bank for International Settlements warn. The new BIS report shows that the total debt of the oil and gas sector worldwide stands at roughly $2.5 trillion, two and a half times what it was less than a decade ago, at the end of 2006. Because of “a significant decline in the value of assets backing the debt in this sector,” the leverage of most of this debt has gone above 30:1, and a sell-off of it is underway. “The sell-off of oil company debt could spill over to corporate bond markets more broadly if investors try to reduce the riskiness of their portfolios. The fact that debt of oil and gas firms represents a substantial portion of future redemptions underlines the potential system-wide relevance of developments in the sector,” the BIS economists wrote.

On March 19 the Office of Financial Research, part of the Treasury which now does research for the Financial Stability Oversight Board, issued a report saying that U.S. financial markets may be on the verge of a crash. They based the warning on extreme levels of leverage in the debt markets, only characteristic of pre-crash conditions in 1929, 2000, and 2007.

Proliferating warnings in the financial media about “a crisis of liquidity in the bond markets” are paradoxically being made, just as the central banks print and pump unprecedented volumes of liquidity into these markets. The problem is that — just like in 2005-07 when banks and funds all piled into the same types of MBS and CDOs — all of the liquidity is buying a few categories of (mainly a half-dozen countries’ government) bonds, pumping up huge bubbles in these bonds and using them en masse on the repo markets. Other kinds of bonds are becoming illiquid, and oil and gas debt and derivatives provide the perfect example.

The effects of long-term, hyperinflationary “quantitative easing” policies by the major trans-Atlantic and Japanese central banks have led, in recent days, to even “official” warnings of a coming financial markets crash. Particularly in the bond markets — much larger than the stock markets — the seven-years-long attempts to buy and bury toxic debt with new, zero-interest debt has produced widespread public nervousness about a crash.

A March 18 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report “Warns About Oil Sector’s High Debt, Low Prices,” says a Reuters headline.

“A toxic mix of high levels of debt in the oil sector and the sharp decline in the price of the commodity could have far-reaching effects on the global economy,”

economists at the Bank for International Settlements warn. The new BIS report shows that the total debt of the oil and gas sector worldwide stands at roughly $2.5 trillion, two and a half times what it was less than a decade ago, at the end of 2006. Because of “a significant decline in the value of assets backing the debt in this sector,” the leverage of most of this debt has gone above 30:1, and a sell-off of it is underway. “The sell-off of oil company debt could spill over to corporate bond markets more broadly if investors try to reduce the riskiness of their portfolios. The fact that debt of oil and gas firms represents a substantial portion of future redemptions underlines the potential system-wide relevance of developments in the sector,” the BIS economists wrote.

On March 19 the Office of Financial Research, part of the Treasury which now does research for the Financial Stability Oversight Board, issued a report saying that U.S. financial markets may be on the verge of a crash. They based the warning on extreme levels of leverage in the debt markets, only characteristic of pre-crash conditions in 1929, 2000, and 2007.

Proliferating warnings in the financial media about “a crisis of liquidity in the bond markets” are paradoxically being made, just as the central banks print and pump unprecedented volumes of liquidity into these markets. The problem is that — just like in 2005-07 when banks and funds all piled into the same types of MBS and CDOs — all of the liquidity is buying a few categories of (mainly a half-dozen countries’ government) bonds, pumping up huge bubbles in these bonds and using them en masse on the repo markets. Other kinds of bonds are becoming illiquid, and oil and gas debt and derivatives provide the perfect example.