Crooked Media - What A Day: What could go Macron

All week we’ve been talking about catastrophic consequences to malfeasance in the American financial system. Now it seems that lawmakers are, once again, realizing they have to do something about it.
 

• President Biden released a statement today calling on Congress to give fiduciary regulators more power over the banking sector, including imposing higher fines on managers, reducing executive compensation, and barring certain officials from failed banks from ever returning to the banking industry. Can I get an, “It’s about fucking time!”??? According to Biden, current laws limit the White House’s authority to hold executives responsible for, you know, tanking the economy through the classic combination of greed and being bad at their jobs.
   

• Biden specifically asked Congress to give the FDIC greater authority to tamp down executive compensation “including gains from stock sales - from executives at failed banks like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.” SVB CEO Greg Becker sold $3.6 million worth of shares in late February (interesting timing, Greg!!) just two weeks before the bank entered FDIC receivership. (If that’s not already illegal, let me gently ask: HOW THE FUCKING FUCK?) 
   

• Answer: Current laws stipulate that the FDIC can only prohibit this kind of executive self-dealing if one of the country’s largest banks were to fail, and can only bar executives from the industry if they are found to have engaged in “willful and continuing disregard,” in running the bank securely. SVB announced today that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it has about $2.2 billion in liquid assets, compared to $209 billion at the end of last year.

For their part, Republicans (and way too many centrist Democrats, it turns out) have taken a break from feigning moral outrage about the bank failures to…oppose legislation that would prevent it all from happening again!
 

• A group of Democratic lawmakers led by (our girls) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) introduced a bill on Wednesday to repeal the partial rollback of Dodd-Frank the GOP Congress passed during the Trump administration in 2018. The Secure Viable Banking Act would put banks with at least $50 billion in assets under strict Federal Reserve oversight and Dodd-Frank Act stress tests. There’s one problem: A bunch of their Democratic colleagues joined Republicans in voting to loosen Dodd-Frank back in 2018, and now they’re standing by those votes. Politicians? Not admitting huge, obvious errors? They would never! So now, not unlike what happened with the train derailments, Republicans are in faux hysterics about the bank bailouts, while ignoring that their deregulation caused it, and also opposing any additional regulations that would prevent future bank failures. And moderate Dems are standing with them! In case there was any confusion, these are the kinds of Democrats worth primarying! 
   

• The problem with trying to stamp-out malfeasance and highlight the perils of insufficient regulation is that in the United States, the call is coming from inside the house. When federal regulators prepared the emergency measures they ultimately deployed on Sunday to secure deposits at SVB and Signature Bank, the Biden administration wanted to emphasize the shortcomings of financial regulation, but Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell blocked the inclusion of any mention of regulatory failures. The final statement only spoke of regulation in positive terms, referring to the laws enacted after 2008, but omitting the fact that they didn’t go far enough, and that some measures that were sufficient had been rolled back with bipartisan support. 

As we continue to take stock of the damage, Democrats have an opportunity to actually distinguish themselves as the party that stands up to big banks and big business and on the side of working Americans who are time and again harmed by deregulation. Those who don’t should be shown to the door.

Two major BNSF trains derailed Thursday, one in Arizona and the other in Washington state, with the latter resulting in 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel being spilled on Swinomish tribal land along the Puget Sound. Officials said there were no indications that the spill reached the water or affected wildlife, but…5,000 gallons were spilled on tribal lands so that’s not particularly comforting?? A spokesperson for BNSF said the cause of the derailments were “under investigation.” Might it have something to do with industry deregulation and greedy corporations skimping on safety measures? No, no, a grand conspiracy of *wokeness run amok* is probably the more logical explanation. 

A federal judge ruled Friday that Trump attorney Evan Corcoran must provide additional testimony before the grand jury investigating mishandling of classified presidential documents, invoking the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege. 

The International Criminal Court announced today that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes against children in Ukraine. 

The Justice Department and the FBI are investigating TikTok, focusing on previously disclosed allegations that employees used company technology and data to spy on journalists. 

A new study shows that negativity in headlines drives online news consumption, and each negative word in a headline increased clicks by 2.3 percent. 

YouTube restored disgraced former president Donald Trump’s channel today, over two years after suspending it in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. 

After taking a fine-toothed comb to…math textbooks to weed out “prohibited topics,” the state of Florida is reviewing its social studies curriculum, and is expected to make dramatic changes to what students learn about history. 

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is asking the FDA to investigate the potential health risks of chemical hair straighteners after the National Institutes of Health published research showing that women who use the products are twice as likely to develop uterine cancer by the time they reach age 70. 

According to a new report from House Dems, federal officials cannot locate two gifts received by disgraced former president Trump and his family from foreign nations. Trump and his family failed to report over $300,000 worth of gifts to the State Department, which is, you guessed it, a violation of federal law. It’s important to note that one of the missing gifts is a massive portrait of Trump himself from the president of El Salvador. Huge mystery as to who stole that one.

Character actor Lance Reddick, best known from The Wire, Fringe, and John Wick died suddenly today at age 60. 

A U.S. appellate court has revived a lawsuit brought by Uber and Postmates challenging a California law that makes it more difficult for them to exploit their workers.

The cost-of-living crisis and its intersection with labor has reached a boiling point in Western Europe. In France, riot police clashed with protesters today as they demonstrated against the government’s plans to raise the retirement age. This is the most significant challenge to the centrist administration of President Emmanuel Macron since he came to power. Images confirm that police used tear gas on protesters in Paris’ Place de la Concorde, close to the National Assembly building, as the demonstrators chanted “Macron, resign!” Similar disorder unfolded on Thursday after Macron decided to push through a contested pension overhaul without a parliamentary vote. Gilles Savary, a French politician who supports Macron’s plans, told a French news outlet, “The only scenario where [Macron] will let go is if Paris is on fire.” Why you would say that to French people, who have a long, rich history of lighting shit on fire when they’re mad at the government, we’ll never know, but protestors called his bluff, and fires burned across Paris into the night.

Wi-Fi + 7 Minutes + a Pulse = Profit?

Beeeeeep! What’s that sound? It’s your portfolio flatlining from an imploding stock market, and the worst inflation since Saturday Night Fever. How can you shock it back to life? (Note: This has nothing to do with bell bottoms.)

Try an asset that the ultra-wealthy have used to boost their gains for centuries: blue-chip art, which has outpaced the S&P by a whopping 131% over the last 26 years. 

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Nope, you just need Masterworks – the 660,00+ user investment platform where you can invest in shares of multi-million dollar art. Since launching, they’ve realized 11 sales for investors, netting 10.4%, 35.0%, and 13.9% returns. 

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Disclosure: “Net Return" refers to the annualized internal rate of return net of all fees and costs, calculated from the offering closing date to the date the sale is consummated. IRR may not be indicative of Masterworks paintings not yet sold and past performance is not indicative of future results. See important Regulation A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.

Two bills that will expand the electorate in Washington, DC, became law this week, including automatic voter registration. 

President Biden hosted Irish prime minister Leo Vardkar at the White House for St. Patrick’s Day. Biden will himself visit Ireland in the coming weeks to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) officially signed a bill that will provide all Minnesota students with free breakfast and lunch.