Did Jeffrey Epstein Personally Set Off the Financial Crash of 2008?

STEVE SAILER, 14 Aug 2019:

As you may recall, the timeline of the 2008 financial collapse got serious in March 2008, when the Wall Street firm of Bear Stearns started to go under due to mortgage-based securities. The New York Fed tried to bail Bear Stearns out, but it still became insolvent anyway. Then in September 2008, Lehman Brothers started to drown as well. Thinking that the lesson of Bear Stearns was to not throw good money after bad, the authorities let Lehman go under, which then set off global panic.

Interestingly, Jeffrey Epstein may have personally initiated the dominos falling that eventuated in the collapse of Bear Stearns by asking, on April 18, 2007, for his $57 million back from a hyper-leveraged Bear Stearns hedge fund investing in mortgage-based financial gimcrackery.

Oddly, this might be one of the few actions I’ve heard about Epstein that isn’t obviously shady. He probably got the $57 million in the first place in a crooked manner, but he had the right to try to retrieve what was left of his money.

From the New York Times financial section in 2007:

More Bad News for Jeff Epstein?

BY DEALBOOK JULY 11, 2007

It was just about a year ago that Jeffrey Epstein, the reclusive financier, was being charged with soliciting prostitutes in Palm Beach, Fla. He may now have another image problem on his hands.

BusinessWeek reports that Mr. Epstein’s Virgin Islands-based money-management firm, Financial Trust Company, is listed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a stakeholder in Bear Stearns‘s High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, which became much easier to refer to in recent weeks as “Bear Stearns’ collapsing hedge fund.”

It is a tantalizing nugget of information about someone who rarely discloses anything about his business or his billionaire clients. Despite his penchant for privacy, Mr. Epstein runs in prominent circles: he once flew former President Bill Clinton on his 727.

Regulatory filings show that Mr. Epstein’s firm had voting power over 10 percent of the equity in the Bear Stearns fund, which, aided by loans from some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, bet heavily on the securities linked to the market for subprime mortgages, or those to homeowners with weak credit histories.

As the subprime mortgage market has been rocked by a rise in defaults, many of those bets have gone bad. As of the end of April, the Bear fund was down 23 percent for the year.

Mr. Epstein did not respond to BusinessWeek’s calls, and his lawyer had no comment.

We now know that Epstein had invested $57 million in this Bear Stearns fund run by Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, two of very few Wall Street executives ever put on criminal trial over The Crash. (They beat the rap.)

From “The Secret History of the Bear Stearns Crash” in Fortune in 2009 by William Cohen:

After 40 months of positive returns, the sudden and sharp decline in the two hedge funds was new territory for Cioffi and Tannin. They struggled mightily to figure out what to do. On April 18, one of Cioffi’s investors, who had $57 million invested, informed him that he was considering redeeming his money.

The unnamed investor wanting his money back was very likely Jeffrey Epstein.

Cioffi told the investor that the portfolio managers had $8 million of their own money invested, one-third of their liquid net worth. He neglected to tell the investor that he had taken $2 million of his own money out and invested it in his other hedge fund. …

Epstein appears to have been one day ahead of Cioffi and Tannin in figuring out the end was nigh:

[Tannin] went on to wonder whether the funds should be closed or significantly restructured. The argument for closing the funds was based on the market and on a complex internal April 19, CDO report, which was a new analysis that Tannin had recently perused. “If we believe the [new CDO report] is ANYWHERE CLOSE to accurate, I think we should close the funds now. The reason for this is that if [the CDO report] is correct, then the entire subprime market is toast,” wrote Tannin. “If AAA bonds are systematically downgraded, then there is simply no way for us to make money – ever.”

Wikipedia now synthesizes the bits and pieces that have appeared here and there over the years:

In August 2006, Epstein, a month after the federal investigation of him began,[56] invested $57 million in the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage hedge fund.[55][59] This fund was highly leveraged in mortgage-backed collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).[59] On April 18, 2007, an investor in the fund, who had $57 million invested, discussed redeeming his investment.[60] At this time, the fund had a leverage ratio of 17:1, which meant for every dollar invested there were seventeen dollars of borrowed funds; therefore, the redemption of this investment would have been equivalent to removing $1 billion from the thinly traded CDO market.[61] The selling of CDO assets to meet the redemptions that month began a repricing process and general freeze in the CDO market. The repricing of the CDO assets caused the collapse of the fund three months later in July, and the eventual collapse of Bear Stearns in March 2008. It is likely Epstein lost most of this investment, but it is not known how much was his.[60][59]

By the time that the Bear Stearns fund began to fail in May 2007, Epstein had begun to negotiate a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office concerning imminent charges for sex with minors.[55][56] In August 2007, a month after the fund collapsed, the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, entered into direct discussions about the plea agreement.[56] Acosta brokered a lenient deal, according to him, because he had been ordered by higher government officials, who told him that Epstein was an individual of importance to the government.[40] As part of the negotiations, according to the Miami Herald, Epstein provided “unspecified information” to the Florida federal prosecutors for a more lenient sentence and was supposedly an unnamed key witness for the New York federal prosecutors in their unsuccessful June 2008 criminal case against the two managers of the failed Bear Stearns hedge fund. Alan Dershowitz, one of Epstein’s Florida attorneys on the case, told FOX Business “We would have been touting that if he had [cooperated]. The idea that Epstein helped in any prosecution is news to me.”[55][6][62]

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Salvini tells Richard Gere to fly the 160 stranded migrants to Hollywood and house them in his villas

Voice of Europe, 12 August 2019:

Hollywood millionaire Richard Gere has called upon the Italian government to assist migrants who have been stranded on a Spanish charity boat in the Mediterranean for more than a week.

The Italian government needed to stop “demonizing people”, the actor said.

Gere boarded the vessel, which has been blocked from entering Italian waters, on Friday.

Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini hit back, saying Gere should take the 160 migrants to Hollywood.

Gere, who visited the Open Arms ship in a show of support, also joined a news conference on the Italian island of Lampedusa calling for the migrants to be allowed to dock.

He made comparisons between Salvini, who has made repeated efforts to block migrant ships from docking in Italy, and US President Donald Trump, who has faced widespread criticism for his immigration policies.

“We have our problems with refugees coming from Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico… It’s very similar to what you are going through here”, he said, accusing both politicians of demonizing migrants.

“This has to stop everywhere on this planet now. And it will stop if we say stop”, he added.

It didn’t take Salvini long to respond.

“Given this generous millionaire is voicing concern for the fate of the Open Arms migrants, we thank him: he can take back to Hollywood, on his private plane, all the people aboard and support them in his villas. Thank you Richard!”, he said in a statement. Over the course of a career spanning more than 40 years, Gere, 69, has starred in films including Pretty Woman, American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman.

A campaigner for environmental causes and AIDS awareness, he is also a Buddhist who pays regular visits to Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Richard Gere is worth an estimated £100million according to the website celebritynetworth.com.

Salvini, whose party made sweeping gains in last year’s Italian general election, has pledged to deport 500,000 migrants by 2023. Earlier this week he tabled a motion of no confidence in his own government, in a bid to force through a snap election and take control from his coalition partners Five Star Movement.

Blacks as a biological weapon of the right

Threat, intimidation, shock and awe, extortion:

Just because public money in the form of Welfare, Foodstamps, Medcaid, Social Security, Government Programs, Scholarships and so on, is not considered “private”, i.e., “their per capita income”, does not mean that black woman have a disadvantaged economic basis, one which is in important ways more secure, not exactly at a disadvantage, in crucial life matters such as the capacity to have children - quite the opposite: they do not have to work and can just take their time and headspace to have children at everyone’s expense, who then register as more “blacks” come black women who have “five dollars a year net worth.”

Ridiculous.

There is also a factor of money that might funnel to them through crime - which might be spun by liberals into an expression of victimization. But if they get away with that additional income, it is not as if their only other recourse was welfare.

Blacks have an advantage when it comes to education through school or college of any kind, public or private.

After their educational advantage, educated black women make more money than White women. 

If they do not choose to go to college, or trade school, blacks have a tremendous advantage with government jobs, such as the US Post Office or Public Transit or universities - which offer excellent benefits and retirement plans - if they do care to work. Actually, they have advantage with private business and corporations as well! In a word, what the hell are you talking about when you expect me to feel sorry for these people?

And all many of us White people want to do with them is nothing. We are repulsed from joining these public situations with them knowing that it will lead to straight out lineal extinction, a harrowing nightmare for what White children do survive for a time or Mulatto grandchildren, ultimately.

There is also a factor now of above board wealth among blacks that is not being factored into these statistics parceled out discreetly as ‘black woman poverty’ (which frankly is not my concern anyway).

In addition, there are the intangibles - black solidarity, the taboo and danger of criticizing and discriminating against them - “racism!” - to go along with their warrior gene, high testosterone hyper assertiveness and lack of impulse control that makes them a great weapon of fecundity, disingenuous self righteousness - along with the ever present threat of violence and riot to extort the system - and when you look like many of them do and cannot rise to wealth through protracted intellectual effort, what do you have to lose? - now even seeking reparations for slavery on top of the trillions they’ve already received in a program of White r-p-a-c-m-nt (a word forbidden to be used by us “privileged people”), on behalf of those who would wallpaper over the decency and expense of those offering the coordination of White Left ethnonationalism.

Do you seriously expect me to care about these people who are so destructive to ordinary and working class Whites? These blacks, who Right Wingers brought to bear against us, to the destruction of millions of our loving brothers and sisters, would-be sons and daughters? Whites who are not even allowed to organize in group defense? Not to mention the Caribbean and other Native American Indians. 

Blacks know the ropes of the American system and work it much better than other groups, for example, some White peoples who are often more recently immigrated and not powerfully supported as a group by YKW language games. 

While right wingers and lucky liberals intermarry with the YKW and continue this pig game…

This is how marginalized White men are made into cows along with the rest of the working/labor surplus world, to pay to make these fat asses even fatter (some now hidden beneath a burka) and more fecund to the detriment of all…to supply their feral sons and their feral black fathers with veritable harems as they go on to impregnate naive Hispanic, Indio and White women..and yes, Asian women too, in order to mix away the would-be left ethnonationalist unions/coalition in favor of one ruler, Abrahams’ favorite sons and daughters.

Stop wallpapering Whites, depicting all White men as powerful, privileged elite. Stop characterizing White right wingers, elite traitors that they are, taking the payoff with “fellow Whites” YKW - the truly organized oppressors - as if they represent us - they do not.

Stop using black biopower, its ugly violent element with nothing to lose, against us to destroy our marginals- who would otherwise begin to help manifest the union bounds that could form coalitions to hold right wing perfidy, betrayal and exploitation to account.

Just like Muslims, many blacks are well suited to be biological weapons of the right wing by nature, and those who seek to bring them to bear against other solidarities/unions, in the name of pity and self righteousness are perpetrating atrocity. Those women who bring them to bear and exploit against other peoples, pretending that it is out of sensitivity and compassion ought rather go and live with them in the societies that stem from their nature.

There has been a ramped-up effort since 2008 to identify White activism with “the right” and to join forces, even to the point of amalgam with YKW against “the left”....but if Non-White left ethnonationalists join forces with the Jewish, anti-White program - that Whites are responsible for the world’s problems - all of them! - to the point of wallpapering over White left ethnonationalism, it will be at the loss of one of their greatest potential allies in staving off their becoming a part of an ongoing disaster of Brazilification, for all its human and other ecological disaster - while these people who you rightfully hate get away with it.

Univsersity of Chicago Schmoozer Kathleen Belew…

ROTHERHAM Council Tell Grooming Gang Victims To Add Rapist’s Names To Birth Certificates So They ‘Have Parental Rights’

        Sammy was just 14 when her rapist began grooming her, leading to the birth of her child.

Sammy Woodhouse@sammywoodhouse1

Rotherham council have offered convicted rapist access to my son.

The Times: ‘Jailed rapist given chance to see his victim’s child’.

Votewatch, 4 Aug 2019:

IN another outrageous betrayal of the many Rotherham grooming gang victims and rape survivors across backward Britain, councils are now forcing women who have had children as the result of being raped by Muslim paedophile gangs to add the name of the ‘father’ to their children.

Taking to social media today to vent her anger as another distraught victim came to her to inform her of the outrageous approach by Rotherham’s disgraced council to insist that the victim place her rapist’s name on her child’s birth certificate so that they had parental rights.

“Absolutely disgraceful how Rotherham Council are still treating women and children” wrote Sammy. “Yet again talking absolute shite and favouring convicted rapists. They are now telling women to change birth certificates to ensure rapists are on the certificate and are allowed rights”.

       

The issue is a grave one; with the end result being that paedophiles who rape children are being given protection by the establishment to have rights to children – yet another backward, illogical policy in 21st century PC Britain.

https://twitter.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1067412305888067584

This is happening all over the UK and must stop! An investigation and change in law is needed. https://twitter.com/bbcnews/status/1067189356887183361?s=12 …

       

In 2018, grooming gang rapist Arshid Hussain, who was jailed for 35 years in 2016 for raping Woodhouse, was contacted by Rotherham Council about care proceedings and his parental rights as the ‘father’ of Woodhouse’s child.

At the time, Sammy told the BBC that she was “shocked” when she was informed of the council’s approach.

Ms Woodhouse rightly described Hussain as “a danger to myself and to other children”.

In a video posted on Twitter she urged the government “to change the law to ensure rapists can’t gain access to children conceived through rape”.

‘What about my rights?’ she understandably added.

Hussain, known around Rotherham as Mad Ash, was one of three brothers behind the grooming and sexual abuse of more than 50 girls, including Ms Woodhouse.

She was just 14 when she was first groomed by him.

Just a handful of the many vile child groomers who were member of the gang that raped over 2,000 children in Rotherham.

In response to yet another backward decision by Rotherham Council, the Ministry of Justice said that urgent efforts would be taken to “address the failings in this case”.

Yet – two years down the line – nothing has happened, and victims of the horrific Rotherham grooming scandal that saw over 2,000 children raped and of which Sammy helped to expose, now face even more stress and betrayal.

Other victims have recently reported the horror of having to see their rapists walking down their streets, with one woman stating that upon seeing her tormentor, who had been released on bail by a weak justice system, she had felt so terrified that she ran into a nearby shop and wet herself.

Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Andy Wong / AP)

Neoliberalism Has Met Its Match in China

TruthDig.org, 7 Aug 2019:

When the Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week, commentators were asking why. According to official data, the economy was rebounding, unemployment was below 4% and gross domestic product growth was above 3%. If anything, by the Fed’s own reasoning, it should have been raising rates.

Market pundits explained that we’re in a trade war and a currency war. Other central banks were cutting their rates, and the Fed had to follow suit in order to prevent the dollar from becoming overvalued relative to other currencies. The theory is that a cheaper dollar will make American products more attractive in foreign markets, helping our manufacturing and labor bases.

Over the weekend, President Trump followed the rate cuts by threatening to impose, on Sept. 1, a new 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese products. China responded by suspending imports of U.S. agricultural products by state-owned companies and letting the value of the yuan drop. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 770 points, its worst day in 2019. The war was on.

The problem with a currency war is that it is a war without winners. This was demonstrated in the beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the 1930s, which only deepened the Great Depression. As economist Michael Hudson observed in a June interview with journalist Bonnie Faulkner, making American products cheaper abroad will do little for the American economy, because we no longer have a competitive manufacturing base or products to sell. Today’s workers are largely in the service industries—cab drivers, hospital workers, insurance agents and the like. A cheaper dollar abroad just makes consumer goods at Walmart and imported raw materials for U.S. businesses more expensive.

What is mainly devalued when a currency is devalued, Hudson says, is the price of the country’s labor and the working conditions of its laborers. The reason American workers cannot compete with foreign workers is not that the dollar is overvalued. It is due to their higher costs of housing, education, medical services and transportation. In competitor countries, these costs are typically subsidized by the government.

America’s chief competitor in the trade war is obviously China, which subsidizes not just worker costs but the costs of its businesses. The government owns 80% of the banks, which make loans on favorable terms to domestic businesses, especially state-owned businesses. If the businesses cannot repay the loans, neither the banks nor the businesses are typically put into bankruptcy, since that would mean losing jobs and factories. The nonperforming loans are just carried on the books or written off. No private creditors are hurt, since the creditor is the government and the loans were created on the banks’ books in the first place (following standard banking practice globally). As observed by Jeff Spross in a May 2018 Reuters article titled “Chinese Banks Are Big. Too Big?”:

Because the Chinese government owns most of the banks, and it prints the currency, it can technically keep those banks alive and lending forever. …

It may sound weird to say that China’s banks will never collapse, no matter how absurd their lending positions get. But banking systems are just about the flow of money.

Spross quoted former bank CEO Richard Vague, chair of The Governor’s Woods Foundation, who explained, “China has committed itself to a high level of growth. And growth, very simply, is contingent on financing.” Beijing will “come in and fix the profitability, fix the capital, fix the bad debt, of the state-owned banks … by any number of means that you and I would not see happen in the United States.”

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