By Mike Whitney

April 26, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Do you understand the root-cause of the financial crisis? Not many
people do, which is why congress' attempt to regulate the system will probably fail and there will be another crisis in
couple of years.

When the pundits talk about the crisis, they usually point to subprime mortgages or Lehman Bros, both of which played
a big role in the downturn, but both of which were merely symptoms of a deeper problem.

The source of the crisis is systemic, which is to say that it is the result of a design-flaw in the relatively-new architecture
of the modern banking system. (Don't worry; this isn't as complicated as it sounds)

You see, credit, which used to be strictly regulated--since it allows banks to create money out of thin air--has become a
franchise which is shunted off to hedge funds, insurance companies, pension funds and other so-called shadow banks
which are able to take advantage of the loopholes in the system and create gigantic amounts leverage without any
regulatory supervision. "Anything goes."

At one time, when a bank made a loan, they made sure that the applicant had a job, steady income, collateral, and a
good credit history. That's because the banks knew they would be holding the loans to maturity and any loss on the loan
would impact their profitability. That's the ONLY way that it's safe to allow private industry (aka--the bank) to create
credit. The financial crisis proves that unregulated credit-generation is every bit as lethal as a neutron bomb, which kills
everyone in the vicinity, but leaves the buildings still standing. The credit-mechanism cannot be handed over to
unregulated speculators without putting the entire economy at risk.

The new system works differently. Now the banks are largely middle-men who originate the mortgages, (or other loans)
chop them up into bits and pieces in their off-balance sheet operations, and sell them to investors in the secondary
market. The process is called securitization and it magically transforms one man's liability (the loan) into another man's
asset. (the security) But don't be fooled. The debt is the same as if it was still sitting on the banks balance sheet instead
of some oddball structured-debt instrument, like a mortgage backed security (MBS) or a collateral debt obligation
(CDO). What's really changed, is the ability to generate credit has shifted from highly-regulated depository institutions to
fly-by-night speculators whose only interest is to maximize leverage, create another bubble, and cash-in before the
mighty zeppelin crashes to earth.

Keep in mind, that a bank is any institution that takes deposits and agrees to provide ready-access to cash for people
who want to withdraw funds. A bank makes its money by "borrowing short" (deposits or repo) to "go long". (putting
money in long-term illiquid assets) That means that a bank is required to hold liquid reserves and enough capital to meet
its needs even in a crisis.

The banks have abdicated their role as credit producers, because the shadow banks can do the job cheaper. And the
reason they can do it cheaper is because they are undercapitalized. Take AIG for example, they were selling insurance
policies (CDS) but they didn't have the capital reserves to pay off the claims. Think of how easy it would be to make
gobs of money if you could sell property that you didn't really own. The only problem, of course, is that if you engaged
in such activity, you'd be dragged off to the hoosegow in chains.

So how do the shadow banks make so much money by increasing leverage?

Here's how it works: There are three houses on the block; all of them are identical and all of them are the same price,
$100,000 each.

Harry buys the first house and pays cash, $100,000 on the barrelhead.

Joe buys the second house and puts 10% down, in other words, he pays $10,000.

Frank, who works for a big chiseling hedge fund on Wall Street, buys the third home and puts 0% down; so he has zero
equity.

12 months later the value of all three homes has gone up 10%; so now they are all worth $110,000. That means:

Harry has made a measly 10% on his investment.

Joe has made 100% on his investment.

And chiseling Frank has made $10,000 pure profit.

This simple breakdown is intended to help people grasp the real purpose behind securitization and derivatives trading,
which is not to make markets more efficient or to "disaggregate" (spread) risk. It is simply to peddle garbage assets
which are balanced on minuscule slices of capital. It's a shyster's dream-come-true; capitalism without capital.

All Wall Street's profit's derive from some variation of this low-capital, high-risk schema.

ZERO-HOUR FOR LEHMAN: The day the shadow system blew up

Before to the meltdown, the depository "regulated" banks were mainly funded through repurchase agreements (repo)
with institutional investors. (aka---"shadow banks"; investment banks, hedge funds, insurers) The banks would post
collateral, in the form of bundled "securitized" bonds, and use the short-term loans to maintain operations. When the
banks collateral became suspect -- because no one knew which bundles held the subprime mortgages -- then
intermediaries (primary dealers) demanded more collateral for the loans. Suddenly the banks were losing money
hand-over-fist as the value of their assets tumbled. Lehman got trapped in this revolving door and couldn't roll-over its
debt using its shabby collateral, which, by now, everyone knew was garbage. There was a bank-run on the shadow
system; the secondary market collapsed.

In other words, the banks were going to the primary dealers the same way that I would go to a pawn shop, and borrow
money by posting my lavish, fully-landscaped 4,000 ft colonial home and custom Maserati sports car for a $200,000
loan. That scam might work for a while, but eventually the owner of the pawn shop will wise-up and realize that I don't
really own a lavish, fully-landscaped 4,000 ft colonial home and custom Maserati sports car. Rather, I live in a makeshift
clapboard shack with a corrugated tin roof by the railroad tracks and drive a rusty Schwinn bicycle to my job collecting
aluminum cans for the recycling center. That's what happened to Lehman.

When Lehman Bros collapsed, there was NOT a panic. That's a myth. Lehman merely triggered a radical repricing
event, which means that the assets that had been trading for artificially-high prices, suddenly fell to reflect what
reasonable people thought was there "true" market value. This (collective) judgment was not made out of fear, but rather
with the knowledge that the underlying collateral (shabby mortgages) was gravely impaired. Prices in the repo market
for some MBS and CDOs fell more than 50 percent.

Of course, Bernanke still clings to the idea that these are just "unloved" assets that will eventually bounce back. But
what else can he say: "We're going to mark these turkeys down to their real value and shove the banking system off a
cliff?" That's not going to happen.

So, it's up to congress to grasp the thistle and demand that the shadow banks be strictly regulated from here-on-out so we
don't end up in the same pickle two years from now.

The state has a compelling interest to make sure that credit-generating financial institutions are strictly regulated. Credit
expansion is vital to economic growth and to raising standards of living. But, in the wrong hands, it will increase
inequality, divert money away from productive activity, and inflate asset bubbles that end in disaster.

The reforms which are now being debated in the congress, (Too big to fail, off-balance sheet operations, derivatives
trading, securitization) miss the larger point. Regulators must have the authority to intervene wherever they think it is
necessary to ensure that institutions are adequately capitalized, that lending standards are strictly upheld and that credit
production is carefully monitored by trained government supervisors.

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Comments (14)
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carpe meridian · 13 weeks ago 0

The other piece of this puzzle is the fact that first the banksters rewrote and rigged the bankruptcy laws so that when they
were able to lure private individuals into these "neutron bomb" loans, that it made it nearly impossible for them to escape
liability for their debts short of becoming penniless. Then, when the borrowers could not afford to continue paying on the
overpriced real estate, they were still stuck paying off the loans. The crooked bankers made money at every step along the
way. While our government slept. The Fed, the SEC, the FBI. All either asleep at the switch or complicit in the scam. Take your
choice. And of course, when the fit hit the shan, the taxpayers were obliged to pay for this. The American Dream... You have to
be asleep to believe in it. (George Carlin)

Reply 1 reply · active 13 weeks ago Report

Jack Auff · 13 weeks ago 0

Reforms being debated in Congress? WTF are you smoking, Whitney?

Those dog and pony shows are just for us dumbasses to fool into thinking that finally, the theives, liars, con artists and yes,
mass murderders that control Wall Street, the Fed and Congress are actually going to be reined in and justice delivered.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When the smoke and BS clears, the same bastard Wall Street banks that shoved the economy off the cliff will be bigger and
badder than ever, devising up more ways to fleece the taxpayers.

Reply Report

Concerned Citizen · 13 weeks ago -1

What Really Triggered the Financial Crisis?

THE CREATURE FROM JECKYLL ISLAND...It has once again reared its UGLY HEAD.

THE FEDERAL RESERVE, which is neither federal or a reserve, considering it is based upon FRACTIONAL RESERVE
lending, as opposed to the currency being backed by gold or silver as the FOUNDERS INTENDED.

A corrupt system that is based on DEBT and ENGINEERED to CREATE booms and busts.

An oligarchy of elites that REFUSE to DISCLOSE who the STOCKHOLDERS of the FEDERAL RESERVE are.

For more please read: "The Creature From Jeckyll Island" by G.Edward Griffin.

Reply Report

Guilliermo de Espero · 13 weeks ago +1

The founding fathers of the US did NOT intend for the currency to be back by gold or silver. All the gold was in the hands of
your enemies (ie. the brits) why would they hand the money power over to them? That would be crazy. Which is why they
created the Continental.
You've got the problem correctly identified, but your solution is wrong. Instead you need to take the money power out of private
hands by moving away from a credit system and into a public controlled money system.
1. Put Fed in Treasury
2. end fractional reserve system
3. spend government money to replace private money

For more please read: The Lost Science of Money - by Steven Zarlenga
and Look for the American Monetary Institute and their "American Monetary Act" for more info

Reply 1 reply · active 12 weeks ago Report

Concened Citizen · 12 weeks ago 0

Coinage Act of 1792 (Scan of Original) http://www.nesara.org/files/coinage_act_1792.pdf

Reply Report

Guilliermo de Espero · 12 weeks ago +1

Yes, there was a split. The continental, the currency that gave you your country, was back by nothing but the sovereign power
of a state. It was not back by gold or anything. At the end of the war it did lose its value, not due to government mishandling,
but by British counterfeiting (they had boats in NY Harbour printing day and night). Secure that the country was safe, the
bankers then retook the money power from the state.
The founding fathers were definitely not unanimously agreed on this subject. The experience of the colonies showed how a
government money system could not only work but bring untold prosperity in its wake. In fact, according to Franklin the main
reason for the war of independence was not taxes but that the King had taken away the colonies power to print paper money,
pushing them into deep depression.
"The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the
colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of colonists to get power to issue their own
money permanently out of the hands of George the III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the
Revolutionary War." - Benjamin Franklin
Even with the "Coinage Act of 1792" Jefferson wrote to Washington NOT to sign the bill.

Amike,
William

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Guilliermo de Espero · 12 weeks ago +1

 Also, if the coinage act was so successful, why the need for Greenbacks (government issued fiat money, which again saved
the country) less than 100 years later?
It's funny how only when their own existence is threatened will the bankers allow the government to assume the money power.
As long as its used only for war, never on the real economy (so as not to let the people see the prosperity it would bring) and
only long enough to secure the banker his future existence, whereupon they reusurp what they but temporarily lent to its rightful
owner (the people).

Reply 2 replies · active 12 weeks ago Report

Guilliermo de Espero · 12 weeks ago 0

"Money exists not by nature but by law" - Aristotle

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Guest · 12 weeks ago 0

This was posted by someone over at Calculated Risk I thought it was hilarious: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/

Lehman Brothers II: This time, it’s Sovereign!

Our wacky hero’s are back, this time in the sunny islands of Greece!
Join last year’s favorite screw-ups Helicopter Ben, Larry “Summertime” Summers, Tim “Brainiac” Geithner, and Wall Street’s
most hilarious sidekick Lloyd “the Gambler” Blankfein as they travel to Europe and take on the sovereign bond markets,
European and Asian stock markets, the currency exchanges, and the European Monetary Union, all while simultaneously try to
stash all the gold they can carry in secret Swiss accounts without alerting US tax authorities!
Their crazy antics will have you rolling in the “Isles” as they match wits with the foxy Angela Merkel, Europe’s own Money
Honey ... Will the boys get busted partying at the Hague? Will interest rates rise as the money runs short? And what happens
when the guys take "Braniac" Geithner to his very first nude beach? (Look out, Braniac - you haven’t seen “naked swaps” like
these before!)
Don’t miss the wild premiere weekend, coming soon to a theater near you!
(Also, see the new short feature “Panning for Goldman” with everybody’s favorite country comedienne, Claire McCaskill, and a
new cartoon by Eric G. Lewis!)

Reply Report

Guilliermo de Espero · 12 weeks ago +1

I never said the Coinage Act wasn't passed.

I merely stated that the founding fathers were NOT unanimous in there support for it, as YOU stated.

And I never stated that it wasn't back by gold.

I said that the Continental and the Greenback were NOT back by gold. Do your even read what I write?
I'm quite aware that the US went off the gold standard in '72.

Concerning the Continental depreciation again, did you not read what I said?
The British counterfeited billions of dollars, this would have wreck ANY paper currency and had nothing to do with what the
colonies did themselves. For most of the war the Continental functioned most excellently.

Concerning Lincoln, why then did he issue the greenback?

He could have borrowed and paid interest to the banks, but he didn't.
Also, after the war greenbacks were exchange 1 for 1. One dollar in greenbacks for one dollar gold. But you know what?
Almost nobody wanted the gold, 99% of people did not turn them in, they loved them.

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