Here are some more points he reveals in the interview:
Says there is 15 dollars in derivatives to 1 dollar of real money.
Says "Very limited transparency" of the commodities markets and futures contracts.
System failed in 2008.
OMG - at the 5 minute mark the CSPAN host gives phone numbers people can call into. BUT you won't believe they gave different phone numbers based on "your" party affiliation! One for Democrats, one for Republicans, and one for Independents! (I can't believe they "divided" people that way).
Phone calls into CSPAN to Gensler started at: 8 minutes into the interview.
The First question asked about the Dodd Frank bill and implementing it. He talked around it and never answered it, except for Wall Street not wanting it.
They say what "line" people have called in on...
At the 13:40 minute mark - a Caller "zings" Gensler about "credit default swaps" and says what they really are - insurance, but not called that!
Gensler basically admits at the 16 minute mark that Wall Street dictates and rules what the CFTC does!
At the 17 minute mark - "Michael, from the 'Democratic' line calls in" His question is: When did the investigation into the Silver manipulation and when will the result of it be revealed?
Gensler says - He can not speak about any investigation and when it started and any information about the investigation!
He says there is "self regulatory" of Wall Street at around the 19:50 mark. He also says the Congress has cut their budget for investigating. He says they are a small underfunded agency and that the Congress is siding with Wall Street and not the American people. He said he asked for 380 million and got 180 million from Congress as a budget.
At the 23 minute mark - Gensler tries to compare a homeowner who has too much debt to Wall street and the fall of Lehman Bros and Bear Sterns! (F You Gensler. There is NO comparison - since Wall Street is the one who has been stealing all homeowner's money and pensions! )
At 25 minute mark a caller mentions that Gensler came from Goldman Sachs.
He spews all kinds of B.S. from the 26 minute mark to the 29 minute mark, then the host reads how a Senator has claimed the CFTC covers up fraud of the oil.
at 30 minute mark another Silver investor calls in and asked Gensler to explain the manipulation of the silver market. Gensler responds saying "They need to limit concentrated contracts." He did not elaborate anymore on it.
At the 34:50 mark Gensler says they are part of prohibiting proprietary trading to protect the U.S. people. They have not enacted the rules of trading, because they have to propose them. The host asks if Wall Street lobbyist have prevented the rules being put in place. Gensler admits it is due to Wall street none of the rules are in affect.
He does start spouting numbers of what things have cost the American public including the AIG bailout costing $600 per person.
Here is a link to CSPAN that has what was said at one moment, besides my bullet points about the interview above.
This is the caller Michael who recently questioned Chairman Gensler during his 6-12-2012 C-SPAN interview. Thank you Sherrie! I appreciate you summarizing key points of Chairman Gensler's recent C-SPAN appearance.
ReplyDeleteSince you took the pains to go through the clip, comment and post for our benefit, I thought I would add to your efforts by posting posting a full transcription of my questions and his response to highlight just how overtly he sidestepped them.
Michael:
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"Hi Chairmen Gensler, My question is, and I know you can't talk about specific details, but what...when did the... your most recent investigation into the silver manipulation, when did that investigation start and then the second questions is can you compare how long its taken to come to some resolution on th.. that investigation in comparison historically to other investigations you or other uh... uh... regulatory agencies have conducted. thank you".
Chairman Gensler:
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"Um Michael I thank you for your question. you're.. you're correct that I am not able to speak about any specific investigation uh.. in any particular year. I think last year we we brought just under a hundred enforcements actions and thus we uh..may in a particular year bring hundreds with an "s" of uh investigations. Uh I believe that to the first part of your question which I can answer that was before that I was actually at the agency that it... it could well have been in late 2008 that the agency decided to publicly announce that investigation. We normally uh don't do that... uh we chose just recently uh.. um... because of the nature of the situation to do so again with regard to these credit derivative products of J.P. Morgan Chase, uh.. but we bring hundreds of investigations and normally we don't say, uh anything publicly about them because we don't wish to compromise those investigations."
So his answer starts off seeming say that he can say nothing about any specific investigation because he doesn't want to compromise it and furthermore he can't say anything about an investigation "in an particular year" because of the sheer volume of investigations they open. Presumably he can't be expected to remember all of them. He then goes on to admit that he is aware of the specific investigation I am talking about(must be important for him to remember it out of the hundreds of investigations with an "s"). Subsequently he acknowledges that he can indeed say when it started because his agency publicly did so back in late 2008.
I just checked and on Fri November 4, 2011 the CFTc issued a press release that stated “In September of 2008, the Commission announced the existence of an enforcement investigation into the possibility of unlawful acts in silver markets...It has been a long, detailed, and thorough investigation, and it continues in an appropriate and considered manner.”
FACT 1: Mentioning that, as of November 2011, his agency has had 3 year 2 month open investigation, does NOT compromise it. Evidence: his agencies press statement http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/silvermarketstatement
FACT 2: There is nothing compromising about describing the length of time a publicly acknowleged investigation has remained open relative to say the average time it has taken to close past investigations. He is the head of a large agency and while I don't expect him to be able to cite the details of every past case, I can't imagine he is not familiar with his organizations high level performance stats like average time it takes to close an investigation!
Of course this just another example of how public figures are very adept at dancing around uncomfortable questions.