Trump started to buy up derelict buildings in New York, and he announced he was going to transform them into luxury hotels and apartments. But in return he negotiated the biggest tax break in New York’s history worth $160 million. The city had to agree because they were desperate. And the banks seeing a new opportunity also started to lend him money. And Donald Trump began to transform New York into a city for the rich, while he paid practically nothing. ibid.
By the middle of the 1980s the banks were rising up and becoming ever more powerful in America … The banks and the new corporations were beginning to link themselves together through computer systems. What they were creating was a series of giant networks of information that were invisible to ordinary people and to politicians. ibid.
Gibson gave this new world a name: he called it cyberspace. And his novels described a future that was dangerous and frightening. Hackers could literally enter into cyberspace … In cyberspace there were no laws, no politician to protect you. Just raw corporate power. ibid.
Bill Clinton: He came to power promising to represent what he called the forgotten middle class. And very quickly, within weeks of entering the White House, Clinton agreed to give up on many of his promised reforms and to give power over to the financial world. He did this not through any cynical motive but because he knew that the old power base of mass politics had gone. No-one joined political parties any more. Organised labour was a vanishing force. Clinton might be in office but he no longer had the collective power of the people behind him. The power that in the past had allowed politicians to challenge the elites in society. And in the face of that, Clinton decided to give power instead to the new force that promised that it could create a wealthier and happier society – the bankers and the economists and the management experts who were now spreading and multiplying through the corridors of Washington. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head IV: But What if the People are Stupid? BBC 2021
Governments in Britain and America rescued the banks, but they then decided to transfer the debt that incurred away from the private sector to the public sector. And what was called austerity began. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? *****
All the major banks had been rigging interest rates, and many of them had been laundering money for organised crime, including the drug cartels of Mexico. ibid.
In 2008 a Texan tycoon landed his helicopter on the hallowed turf of Lord’s, the spiritual home of cricket. He came with a proposition – a showdown between England and his own Caribbean team at his personal ground in Antigua. He was offering one of the greatest cash prizes ever for a team sport. $20 million. But nobody knew where Sir Allen Stanford’s money really came from. The Man Who Bought Cricket I: Lord’s, captions, Sky Documentaries 2022
In 2008, the biggest and most lucrative tournament in the world was the Indian Premier League, or IPL. ibid.
Just as Sir Allen was flaunting his wealth at Lord’s, US authorities were starting to question how he’d made his billions. ibid.
Cricket was starting to fail in the Caribbean. Financially bereft. And the soul had gone from West Indies’ cricket. ibid. Jonathan Agnew
Sir Allen’s first multi-million-dollar investment in cricket was a Caribbean tournament called the Stanford 20/20. ibid. caption
He had a lot of money to throw around. And that was raising red flags. Where was this money coming from? ibid. Vanessa Walther, FBI special agent
The money laundering allegations continued to swirl around Stanford for a long time. But at the same time he starts selling Certificates of Deposit. ibid. Laurel Calkins, business journalist
Stanford appealed to customers by offering a CD that promised to pay 2% more in interest than rival banks. ibid.
After four years on Montserrat, Allen relocated his bank to the larger Caribbean island of Antigua. ibid.
Stanford International Bank: 2008 it’s $7.6 billion in deposits. ibid.
There was always the sense that this felt weird. The Man Who Bought Cricket II: ‘You’ve Sold Your Soul, Lads’, Stuart Broad
As the England cricket team prepare for Stanford’s tournament, both the FBI & SEC are investigating his businesses. ibid.
He got a bit friendly with the players’ wives and girlfriends. ‘Turning into an ego-fuelled farce’ says The Mail. ibid. Sky News
Stanford like most con artists realised you needed to dress up the fraud. You needed to really make it big and sound established. ibid. Gregg Costa, prosecutor US vs Robert Allen Stanford
The realisation really dawned on them that this was ugly. Because you’ve sold your soul, lads. ibid. Jonathan Agnew
But as the game approaches, a criminal investigation into his financial empire is coming to a head. The Man Who Bought Cricket III: Is It Fun Being a Billionaire? caption
As the world faced financial meltdown, Allen Stanford was about the spend $20 million on one game of cricket. ibid.
Shortly after Madoff was arrested, the SEC issued court orders requesting interviews with Stanford executives. ibid.
Everyone knew but me that there was trouble on the horizon. ibid. chief investment officer Laura
Following Jim Davis’ testimony, the FBI had enough evidence to file criminal charges. Allen Stanford was finally arrested on 18 June 2009. ibid. caption
For billionaire Allen Stanford has been sentenced to – listen to this – 110 years in prison; it follows his conviction on 13 charges including fraud and conspiracy. ibid. news
Owners of assets have all made out like bandits. The Decade the Rich Won I, dude, BBC 2022
Bailout: ‘the rich survived and got even richer.’ Bailout to UK banks: £124 billion. ibid.
Google: £395m, estimated corporation tax £6m; Facebook: £175m, estimated corporation tax £238,000; Amazon £3.3b, estimated corporation tax £0; Starbucks £398m, estimated corporation tax £0. ibid.
World leaders were plotting an exit from the pandemic. But our prime minister walking talking about the 2008 crash. The Decade the Rich Won II
Printing money: ‘only game in town’. ibid.
Total Bank of England Quantitative Easing August 2016: £445 billion. ibid.
QE benefited the richest the most … It is the top one or five per cent who have benefited the most. ibid. Paul Marshall, Marshall Wace LLP
Britain’s economy is producing more billionaires than ever. ibid. caption
Uber drivers in the UK are not alone. Protests spring up around the world. ibid.
Total Bank of England QE March 2020: £645 billion. ibid.
And a bizarre bank robbery with a time bomb ticking down to zero … Brian Wells [victim] walked out of the bank with only a fraction of the amount of money he demanded … The bomb detonated and Brian Wells died instantly. The UnXplained with William Shatner s2e8: Outrageous Robberies, History 2022
There’s a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality … I found a flaw … in the model I perceive. The Flaw, Greenspan, 2011
When they start to treat a good as a financial asset, as people started to do with houses in the boom, that’s when you get into a very unstable market. ibid. George Cooper, fund manager
The fatal flaw was the assumption that real estate values would always go up. ibid. Nell Minow, corporate watchdog
The government is going to pay our commercial banks £136 billion of excess interest over the next five years on money the government gifted to them using the QE process. That’s £27bn a year that could be used in the NHS and education. This is outrageous. Richard Murphy tweet 18th November 2022
A titan of Wall Street prepares to address his staff in New York, London and around the world. He wants to put an end to rumours the firm is in trouble. Crisis? What crisis? Twelve weeks later the bank went bust. It was the biggest bankruptcy in history. The Fall of Lehman Brothers, 2009
The weekend that changed the world. ibid.
For months Wall Street had been worried about Lehman’s because of the bank’s massive property investments. ibid.
When the bank chiefs assembled that Friday evening it was clear from the start that there would be little sympathy from the government. ibid.
Few ever imagined that America’s fourth largest investment bank would fall so far and so fast. ibid.
Dick Fuld was to become the longest serving chief executive on Wall Street. ibid.
Dick Fuld also had an insatiable appetite for profits. ibid.
He had not been invited to the crisis meeting of chief executives. ibid.
Bank of America announced it had bought Merrill Lynch for $50 billion. ibid.
The so-called subprime mortgage scandal was born. ibid.
The real money for Wall Street banks came not from selling mortgages to home owners but from selling bundles of these loans among themselves and other institutional investments. ibid.
It [Lehman’s] borrowed more and more money ... It’s called leverage. ibid.
Repossession rocketed and house prices slumped. ibid.
At their peak Lehman’s shares were worth eighty-five dollars each; they were now worth three cents. ibid.
Lehman’s was the catalyst for the crash in 2008. ibid.
Over the last decade the largest international banks have been involved in multiple scandals. One name embodies the excesses of this renegade finance: HSBC. The HSBC Scandal: Tax Evasion, Money Laundering … Youtube 54.07, 2023
This financial empire has created a unique network to move dirty money around the world. From tax evasion to money laundering for the Mafia and manipulation of currency, HSBC has its hands in a variety of illicit activities. ibid.
In Hong Kong, HSBC is untouchable … one of the pillars of local power. ibid.
US: The bank is eventually fined two billion Euros, the equivalent of one month’s profits. ibid.
Protected by London, blessed by Beijing, HSBC serves as a go-between. ibid.