Martin Armstrong-
Why are financial institutions always in need of bailouts and rescue plans? FIRST the banking system model is inherently subject to booms and busts because it is fundamentally flawed and began as a fraud. Once upon a time you paid a bank to hold your money for safekeeping. Then the banks figured they could lend your money out and make a profit keeping just 8% or less to cover withdrawals. Then when a crisis would hit, they could not get the cash back in time to meet the demand for withdrawals and the bank would close and the assets, loans they made, were then liquidated at deep discounts. They created the Federal Reserve with the power to create money in times like that to meet the demand for withdrawals without having to dump assets in a panic. Then World War I came and instead of the Fed stimulating the economy by buying corporate paper to directly create jobs, politicians instructed the Fed to buy only government bonds. The Fed was never returned to what it was intended to do and today it can take over any corporation if it deems they are too big to fail no longer limited to banks.
After PhiBro took over Solomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs took over J. Aaron. Suddenly, the trading of commodities became the mainstay of bankers. Then Robert Rubin of Goldman Sachs/US Treasury Secretary pushed to overrule Glass–Steagall. That opened the door for these banks to then be officially trading with other people’s money.
Today, the bankers who are trading banks are typically also primary dealers and when they blow up because they are liable for deposits on a demand basis yet invest long-term, they then turn to the government for bailouts threatening them that if they do not cover their losses, government cannot sell its debt.
