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SEC Defendants Fight Ex-Latham Atty For Whistleblower Docs
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

SEC Defendants Fight Ex-Latham Atty For Whistleblower Docs <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870363?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jessica Corso A credit reporting agency at the center of a $73 million U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit is seeking to force a retired Latham & Watkins LLP partner to hand over his discussions with a pair of SEC whistleblowers, arguing that the attorney's work for the tipsters isn't privileged. Memorandum attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870363?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870363?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Colo. Atty Sues Bank, Opposing Counsel Over Hack Attack
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

Colo. Atty Sues Bank, Opposing Counsel Over Hack Attack <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870387?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Thy Vo A Colorado attorney and conservative radio personality is suing Wells Fargo and opposing counsel in a divorce proceeding over their alleged role in a hacking incident that apparently caused him to wire $375,000 for a client's divorce settlement to Hong Kong. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870387?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870387?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Discover Can't Arbitrate Fraud Risk Claims, But Amex Can
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

Discover Can't Arbitrate Fraud Risk Claims, But Amex Can <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870036?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Katryna Perera A New York federal judge has refused to allow Discover Financial Services to arbitrate claims that it and other credit card networks conspired to dump fraud risk on retailers, but granted a similar motion from American Express. Memorandum attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870036?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870036?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Banking Groups Sue To Thwart New Ill. Swipe Fee Restrictions
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

Banking Groups Sue To Thwart New Ill. Swipe Fee Restrictions <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870428?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill The nation's largest bank trade association and other industry groups sued Thursday to block Illinois from implementing a new state law that prohibits financial intermediaries from charging so-called swipe fees on the sales tax and tip portions of payment card transactions, arguing it conflicts with federal law and risks broader "chaos." Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870428?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1870428?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Trump's $100M Tort Claim Against DOJ Faces Uphill Climb
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

Trump's $100M Tort Claim Against DOJ Faces Uphill Climb <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1870017?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Carolina Bolado Experts say Donald Trump's $100 million claim against the federal government for the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and the prosecution of the allegedly illegal retention of classified documents there will be an uphill climb for the former president because of the limited application of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1870017?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1870017?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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FTC Renews Bid To Toss Meta's Constitutionality Case
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

FTC Renews Bid To Toss Meta's Constitutionality Case <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1870211?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Matthew Perlman The Federal Trade Commission has told a D.C. federal court that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling does not support Meta's case raising constitutional challenges to a data privacy order, arguing the case should be tossed. Motion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1870211?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1870211?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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New Study Says the Fed Is Captured by Congress and White House — Not the Megabanks that Own the Fed Banks and Get Trillions in Bailouts
by Gunnar Larson 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/08/new-study-says-the-fed-is-captured-b… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: August 15, 2024 ~ Jerome Powell, July 14, 2021A fascinating new academic paper has been released. Its title is “The Myth of Fed Political Independence.” Its premise is this: “The much-vaunted independence of the Federal Reserve is a myth. The Fed is not the bastion of sound monetary policy. Rather, it is just another politically coopted agency of the federal government.” The study asserts further that “Something like the Stockholm syndrome seems to describe the institutional relationship that exists between the U.S. Congress and the White House (the captors), and the Federal Reserve (the captives). The paper is written by Thomas Joseph Webster, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business, who has written extensively on the Fed and the role that its quantitative easing has played in ballooning budget deficits, the national debt and inflation. Dr. Webster previously worked as an international economist with the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense – which suggested to us that he might have insights into the workings of the U.S. government that we were missing in our analysis of the Fed. Based on our analysis over three decades of research, the Fed has been captured by the Wall Street megabanks. But is it possible that both our premise and that of Dr. Webster could be simultaneously correct? If Wall Street has also captured key components of the Executive Branch and the U.S. Congress, then there is actually no conflict between these premises. Let’s start off with some basic facts that are not in dispute. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors is defined as “an independent agency” of the federal government. However, what makes up the Federal Reserve System is both the Board of Governors and 12 regional Fed banks that are private corporations. These 12 regional Fed banks are, literally, owned by shareholders which are the member banks in the respective 12 Fed districts. These members banks in each respective Fed district elect six of the nine members of each regional Fed bank’s Board of Directors. (While Jamie Dimon was serving as Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and his bank was under investigation by the New York Fed for losing $6.2 billion of depositors’ money by gambling in derivatives in London, Dimon was sitting on the New York Fed’s Board of Directors.) The five largest shareholders of the New York Fed are Wall Street megabanks: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of New York Mellon. As this might suggest, the balance of power at these 12 regional Fed banks is far from level. Trader on New York Fed Trading Desk (Thumbnail) Trader on New York Fed’s Open Market Trading Desk (Source: Fed Educational Video) The Federal Reserve Board of Governors outsources a large part of its functions to the New York Fed, including all of its trading operations. The New York Fed is the only regional Fed bank to operate a trading desk in both New York and Chicago. The New York Fed’s trading desks have speed dials to the trading desks of the Wall Street megabanks, whom it uses to conduct its “open market operations.” Despite that incestuous trading relationship, the New York Fed is also in charge of sending bank examiners into the same banks. (For how that’s working out, see the story of former New York Fed bank examiner Carmen Segarra at ProPublica and our review of her book, Noncompliant.) According to the most recent Federal Reserve Board of Governors Annual Report, as of 2022 the Fed Board of Governors employed 2,988 employees while the New York Fed employed 2,957. The New York Fed has over 1,000 more employees than 10 of the other 12 regional Fed banks, according to the same report. (See page 163 at this link.) The Federal Reserve Board of Governors had operating expenses of $912.9 million in 2022 versus operating expenses at the New York Fed of $1.2 billion. (See pages 156 and 161 at this link.) The same 2022 Annual Report shows that the President of the New York Fed had an annual salary of $528,800. (See page 215 at this link.) At a 2023 Washington Economic Club event, the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Jerome Powell, stated publicly that his salary was $190,000. Surely the fact that the President of the New York Fed is making $300,000 more than the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors would suggest just who it is that has captured the Federal Reserve System. Equally noteworthy, and suggestive of who has captured whom, the President of the United States has a salary of $400,000 – significantly less than the New York Fed President. Next, let’s turn to the New York Fed’s electronic printing presses and where the money is going. In July 2011, thanks to an amendment sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders to the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010, the audit arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the results of its audit of the secret emergency loans that the Fed had funneled to Wall Street megabanks and their foreign derivative counterparties from December 2007 through July 2010. The vast majority of these loan operations were handled by the New York Fed and the vast majority of the revolving loans went to New York Fed member banks. According to the GAO audit, out of a total of $16.1 trillion in revolving loans, 40 percent of that amount went to just three New York banks: Citigroup $2.513 trillion; Morgan Stanley $2.041 trillion; and Merrill Lynch $1.949 trillion. (See chart below from the GAO report.) (Merrill Lynch is now part of Bank of America, a shareholder of the Richmond Fed.) For more on the recent Fed bailouts in the trillions of dollars to Wall Street megabanks, see our report: Former New York Fed Pres Bill Dudley Calls This the First Banking Crisis Since 2008; Charts Show It’s the Third. So back to our original question: Could Dr. Webster be correct that the White House (Executive Branch) and Congress have captured the Fed because Wall Street has co-opted the Fed directly and also the levers that control the Fed in the Executive Branch and Congress? The answer is yes. As long as the Wall Street fundraising bundlers for the presidential campaign get pivotal roles in the transition team — that plays an outsized role in recommending to the president who will head the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal banking regulators, it is true that the Executive Branch is part of the capture of the Fed. The invisible hands that went into writing the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation following the financial crisis of 2007-2010, wrote into law that the Fed had to gain the approval of the U.S. Treasury Secretary before initiating emergency lending programs in the future. That means that the U.S. Treasury Secretary will continue to come from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or the Fed itself – as in the case of Janet Yellen, who took millions of dollars in speaking fees from Wall Street between her departure as Fed Chair and arrival as U.S. Treasury Secretary. As for some Congressional members, they appear more than happy to lobby for their largest campaign donors, whether that is Wall Street, crypto or the fossil fuel industry. GAO Data on Emergency Lending Programs During Financial Crisis GAO Data on Fed’s Emergency Lending Programs During 2007-2010 Financial Crisis Related Articles: As Citigroup Spun Toward Insolvency in ’07- ’08, Its Regulator Was Dining and Schmoozing With Citi Execs Democrats Disgrace Themselves With Jack Lew Confirmation for Treasury Secretary New Documents Show How Power Moved to Wall Street, Via the New York Fed

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Ohio Panel Says Union Wage Dispute Filed In Wrong Court
by Gunnar Larson 15 Aug '24

15 Aug '24

Ohio Panel Says Union Wage Dispute Filed In Wrong Court <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1869850?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> By Emmy Freedman An Ohio state appeals court declined to rule on a union's appeal in its suit over whether the state's prevailing wage law pertains to the construction of a college dormitory by a public university because the union sued in the wrong county, avoiding deciding a matter of first impression. Opinion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1869850?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1869850?nl_pk=4126fe73-…>

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DOJ Defends Boeing Plea Deal Over Families' Objections
by Gunnar Larson 15 Aug '24

15 Aug '24

DOJ Defends Boeing Plea Deal Over Families' Objections <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1870048?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> By Linda Chiem The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday that Boeing's plea agreement is the best possible criminal resolution that holds the company accountable for defrauding regulators about the 737 Max 8's development, rejecting claims from crash victims' families that the "morally reprehensible" deal lets Boeing skirt culpability. Brief attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1870048?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1870048?nl_pk=4126fe73-…>

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DOD Issues Contractor Cybersecurity Implementation Rule
by Gunnar Larson 15 Aug '24

15 Aug '24

DOD Issues Contractor Cybersecurity Implementation Rule <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1869851?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> By Daniel Wilson The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday issued a proposed rule laying out how it will incorporate its stringent pending Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, intended to boost cybersecurity standards across the defense industrial base, into defense contracts. Proposed Rule attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1869851?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1869851?nl_pk=4126fe73-…>

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