There was a leak yesterday to Bloomberg that the Fed is making plans to “drain” $1 trillion from the US economy. Because supposedly our economy is overheating with too much money—not that anyone you or I know has seen a penny of it. It doesn’t seem to make any sense to suck money out of a cash-strapped country when the economy’s in ruins: unemployment is reaching Third World levels, foreclosures are hitting new record highs, and lending is still contracting at an alarming rate not seen since, yep, the Great Depression. So why would the Fed talk about pulling $1 trillion out of the economy, as if that’s the medicine it needs?

It is all about taking care the already-mega-rich Wall Street bankers and foreign investors who want to protect the value of all the money they plundered from America. They want to ensure that the trillions they were handed by Paulson and Bernanke and Summers are still worth the same trillions next year…and to do that, they’re going to apply a simple law of supply and demand: drain out $1 trillion from us, and the value of their trillions holds its value.

(more…)

What does the mysterious helicopter crash that killed one of India’s most popular politicians have to do with White House economic czar Larry Summers? Read on… (more…)

The best way to understand Larry Summers, the man who’s shaping America’s economy from his director’s chair at the National Economic Council, is to meet the people he hangs out with. Once you get to know Larry Summers’ crowd, nothing he does–no matter how twisted (like Larry’s suggestion to move all First World toxic waste to Africa) or deranged (Larry’s theory that women can’t do math)– will surprise you. Whereas the famous “Six Degrees Of Separation” gives the false impression that it’s a small world and we all pretty much know each other, this “One Degree of Separation” will prove how totally alien Larry Summers and his crowd really are from the rest of us.

I’d like to kick this series off with India’s top oligarch, Mukesh Ambani, the only foreign boss who paid Summers to work for him in 2008–and by “work,” I mean “you agree to be listed on my board of international advisors, which requires nothing from you, and in return I’ll give you $187,000.”  Two years ago, Larry’s ex-boss Mukesh was the World’s Richest Man, worth $63.2 billion–but since the meltdown, the Reliance Industry chief’s wealth has fallen to a mere $19.5 billion, dropping him to #7 of Forbes’ list.  (more…)

Is Larry Summers taking kickbacks from the banks he’s bailing out?

Last month, a little-known company where Summers served on the board of directors received a $42 million investment from a group of investors, including three banks that Summers, Obama’s effective “economy czar,” has been doling out billions in bailout money to: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. The banks invested into the small startup company, Revolution Money, right at the time when Summers was administering the “stress test” to these same banks. (more…)