amongst stand-up comedians.

He belongs in a straight jacket in a padded room. If you could find a cell big enough for his hairpiece and ego.

else.

Attention hound gains attention for a couple of months. Nobody likes him. Probably not even his wife and kids. But he knows that. It promotes the BRAND.

I asked this evening, how hard is it to Baker Act someone. He's a threat to himself and others. We just have to catch him at his mansion in West Palm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/business/dealbook/jimmy-lee-investment-banking-force-dies.html?_r=0

James B. Lee Jr., a pioneering deal maker and among the most influential Wall Street investment bankers of his era, died on Wednesday. He was 62. Mr. Lee, a vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, died of a heart attack after working out in his home in Darien, Conn., the bank said.

Mr. Lee, who was universally known as Jimmy, was the behind-the-scenes consigliere to the world’s top corporate chieftains, hatching mergers and public offerings for companies as diverse as General Motors, Facebook and Alibaba. He was a constant presence in the lives of moguls like Rupert Murdoch of the News Corporation and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric. He was a throwback, part of a different generation of bankers on Wall Street who were trusted advisers to corporate America based on deep relationships and insights, even as much of investment banking had become commoditized. Mr. Lee was a colorful character who was known for calling clients at all hours and signing emails “your pal.” More important, behind the trappings of Wall Street culture was a keen intellect. He was an early pioneer of syndicated loans and became a powerful force in the world of leveraged buyouts and private equity, financing deals for Henry Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Stephen A. Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group and the late Theodore J. Forstmann of Fortsmann Little. Famous on Wall Street for the lengths he would go to woo a client, he bought a Corvette ZR1 to demonstrate his dedication to G.M. during its initial public offering and had hoodies made for Facebook’s I.P.O. as a sartorial homage to its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. He also looked the part of a high-powered banker, with slicked-back hair, pinstriped suits and two-toned shirts with cuff links. He also often played the role of backstage mediator among companies and activist investors, helping to end contentious battles between Carl C. Icahn and Dell, for example, and mentoring Daniel S. Loeb, the founder of Third Point.

Inside JPMorgan, Mr. Lee was the firm’s rainmaker and one of its longest-serving executives. He often used the firm’s enormous balance sheet to finance complicated transactions. He was also a close friend and adviser to the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, whose office was just doors away from his. When the bank was under investigation by the Justice Department and Mr. Dimon was under pressure, Mr. Lee had Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, call Mr. Dimon to cheer him up and tell him to “hang in there.” On Wednesday, Mr. Dimon called Mr. Lee “invaluable,” adding, “Jimmy was a master of his craft, but he was so much more — he was an incomparable force of nature.” Mr. Lee was animated by the pursuit of the big deal, stoked by a competitive fire and a desire to be in the middle of the action. In 2005, at a party honoring Mr. Lee, Mr. Dimon told a roomful of chief executives and buyout clients that “Jimmy Lee has probably lent a trillion dollars to the people in this room.” After pausing for effect, he added, “and almost all of it has been paid back.” As word spread about Mr. Lee’s death on Wednesday, laudatory statements about him came pouring in from every corner. “Jimmy loved Wall Street more than anyone I’ve ever known,” Mr. Loeb said. “He wasn’t driven by money or deals but by his passion for people. There was no more loyal friend to be had on Wall Street, nor anyone whose wise counsel I valued more. My last correspondence with Jimmy was a note from him titled ‘Bragging,’ where he told me about his son’s admission into a highly competitive securities analysis program at Columbia Business School. He signed off by telling me that despite his long and successful career, his ‘greatest accomplishment’ was his children” — his son, James, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Alexandra. They survive him, as does his wife, also named Elizabeth.

James Bainbridge Lee Jr. was born on Oct. 30, 1952, in Danbury, Conn. His father ran the Frank H. Lee Hat Company and died of a heart attack when he was 47; Mr. Lee was 11 years old. Mr. Lee talked about how his father’s death might have driven him to create special bonds and relationships. “Jimmy was my closest friend in finance,” Mr. Schwarzman said. “It’s hard to explain. He always gave someone the sense — and it was true —that he cared desperately about you.” Mr. Lee began his career with Chemical Bank in 1975 after graduating from Williams College. He played a key role in starting Chemical’s syndicated loan group in the 1980s, helping fuel a wave of buyouts, and built the investment banking business as the bank became a bigger player through mergers with Manufacturers Hanover and Chase Manhattan Bank. He climbed the ladder to run Chase’s investment banking business and eventually rose to become vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase after the 2000 merger that created the company. He advised on some on the biggest deals, including United Airlines’ acquisition of Continental, General Electric’s sale of NBC Universal to Comcast and the News Corporation’s purchase of Dow Jones. He scrambled to help save the American International Group during the financial crisis and later helped underwrite its I.P.O.

He was fiercely loyal and considered leaving the firm only once. In his top desk drawer, he kept a copy of the term sheet to become the No. 2 at Blackstone. He most likely would have become a billionaire had he taken the job, because it was long before that firm went public. He would occasionally show it to friends, in part to demonstrate his loyalty to JPMorgan and his colleagues. Mr. Schwarzman recounted how he had tried to recruit Mr. Lee away and nearly had a deal. “We had the press release ready,” Mr. Schwarzman said. Mr. Lee told him needed to speak with JPMorgan’s chief executive at the time, Bill Harrison. He called Mr. Schwarzman back and told him he couldn’t do it. “I told him, ‘Don’t feel badly. You’re following your heart,’ ” Mr. Schwarzman said. “He had so much loyalty to the bank and the people there.”

THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WITH ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102768552

With Greece's relations with its European counterparts at a low ebb, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to head for Russia Friday and meet President Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Tsipras' visit comes at a crisis point for Greece, with reforms-for-rescue talks between the country and its international lenders in deadlock. Tsipras' government has already warned it will not have the money to pay a debt of 1.5 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without an agreement, prompting increasing concern that Greece will default and eventually leave the euro zone.

Russia's Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina told CNBC Russia had considered the implications of such a scenario – for example, its impact on money flow in Europe – and was worried. "We do consider that scenario as one of possible risks which would increase turbulence in the financial markets in the European market, bearing in mind the fact the European Union is one of major trading partners, and we are definitely worried by it," she told CNBC this week. Voicing the fears of European politicians who are keen to avoid contagion spreading throughout the euro zone, Nabiullina said a "Grexit" was a possibility – and Russia too could be affected. "There is a possibility of this kind of sentiment becoming stronger, which could reduce the rate of the development of the recovery of the European economy, and bring down the demand for our products," she said

There is speculation that talks between the leaders will focus on the proposed construction of a gas pipeline through Greece and the country's potential participation in a new BRICS development bank, set up by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa with a reserve fund for emergency situations. Russia invited cash-strapped Greece to participate in the new bank in May.

The Greek and Russian governments' warming relations have not come as a surprise to some Europe-watchers. "Ever since he became premier, Mr Tsipras has gone to great lengths to accentuate Greece's cultural and historical ties to Russia as part of his efforts to reorient Greece's economic and foreign policies away from conventional euro zone-centric ones," Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, told CNBC Thursday. "He's playing the nationalist card and cosying up to Russia is part of his brinkmanship with Greece's creditors. This is music to the ears of Mr Putin who already has good relations with a number of EU leaders, notably Hungary's, and wants to showcase Russian influence in Europe," he said. "All this adds to fears that if Greece exits the euro zone, Russia is waiting in the wings."

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/06/bank-of-greece-issues-grexit-warning-in-move-certain-to-intensify-bank-run.html

The Bank of Greece submitted a required report on monetary policy to the Greek Parliament and the Cabinet this morning (hat tip Swedish Lex). The English language version of the press release shows that it says, in stark terms, that failure to reach a pact with Greece’s creditors will lead to a Grexit and likely a departure from the European Union. Here is the key section:



It does at least call for “milder fiscal consolidation” meaning less draconian fiscal surplus targets, but also puts in a firm word in favor of the structural reforms:

…ensuring fiscal discipline and the achievement of primary surpluses through interventions of a more structural nature rather than merely through revenue-raising measures. Emphasis should be placed on ensuring the viability of social security funds by eliminating the numerous exemptions from the general provisions. The various exemptions from direct and indirect taxes also need to be reviewed and should only remain in place if warranted by growth-enhancing and social considerations

As Nathan Tankus pointed out in his posts on the operational issues of a Grexit, the Bank of Greece is not under Greek government control but is effectively a node of the European Central Bank. And as we pointed out early in the power struggle between Greece and its creditors, the ECB was stoking the bank run as a means of applying pressure to the Greek government. We quoted former IMF staffer Peter Doyle in February:



We’ve also pointed out the potential for the ECB to make same sort of “offer you can’t refuse” that it made to bring Ireland and Cyprus to heel: that bank support in the form of the ELA would be withdrawn (leading to a collapse of the banking system, and in Greece’s case, a disorderly Grexit of capital controls, nationalization of banks, and issuance of drachma to fill the banks’ balance sheet hole) unles the government took specific actions set forth by the ECB. Given the much greater size and visibility of the Greek crisis, we don’t expect the ECB to engage in this type of thuggery unless (or perhaps more accurately, until) it has plenty of political cover.

Nevertheless, this report looks to be an effort to pour gas on the ongoing fire of the bank run, particularly since Greek citizens are souring on the Syriza negotiating strategy. From a Bloomberg story last week:



Not surprisingly, sources in Greece, like this freelance journalist, say that people are edgy....

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/06/time-to-fire-mary-jo-white-sec-covers-up-for-bank-capital-accounting-scam-promoted-by-her-former-firm-debevoise.html

Pam Martens and Russ Martens published a mind-boggling expose yesterday on how the SEC is refusing to stop an abuse by major banks that increases systemic risk. Large banks are continuing to fake their capital levels, via a ruse called a “capital relief trade” with hedge and pension funds. And Mary Jo White, the chairman of the SEC, is aware of this practice, which undermines the safety and soundness of financial institutions, and has done squat about it.

White is not just head of the SEC but also a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. She is undermining it and financial reform generally by her failure to take on this practice. Pam Martens and Russ Martens also charge the SEC chairman and her director of enforcement, Andrew Ceresney, with cronyism, since they both hail from the law firm Debevoise, which is an active player in this practice.

As much as there has been considerable consternation over Mary Jo White’s numerous lapses, like hiding behind the need for more data as an excuse for doing nothing about high frequency trading, her failure to secure more admissions of wrongdoing in SEC settlements, and her refusal to comply with Dodd Frank by virtue of too freely issuing waivers for mandatory sanctions, even to recidivist bad actors, this dereliction of duty is considerably more serious, because it increases systemic risk in a direct, tangible way.* Remember that technically permissible balance sheet fakery at Lehman, also known as Repo 105, allowed it to mask how sick it was.

One of the excuses for the weakness of Dodd Frank was that if financial firms had high enough equity levels, all the other ways of reducing risk became less important. The Wall Street Journal quoted Geithner’s reform approach that he set forth in 2009:



Thus capital relief trades undermine the government’s chosen first line of defense against bank failure. From the Martens’ article:



Mind you, $1.2 billion is small beer compared to the $50 billion in Lehman Repo 105 trades at its peak. But the flip side is that this is the one of the very few examples of this type of transaction that has come to light. How much more risk has been shifted to unregulated entities like private equity and hedge funds? Recall that AIG has an AAA balance sheet and was considered a financial powerhouse. By contrast, these risks presumably sit at specific private equity and hedge funds, and a $1.2 billion risk is certain to loom large relative to total fund size. These entities aren’t supervised for safety and soundness and thus aren’t held to any requirement that will assure that they can meet liquidity demands in the event that Citigroup or one of its peers that has entered into similar trades hits a financial iceberg yet again. Recall one of the lessons of the crisis: when a hedge fund is hit with losses, it also receives investor redemptions, which put many once high-flying funds into a death spiral. And the icing on the cake is that retirees and endowments are major investors in these “alternative” investments and thus the main ultimate risk bearers.

The article describes the undisclosed, glaring conflict of interest:



Please sign the Credo petition, Tell President Obama: Time for Mary Jo White to go. More important, call or e-mail your Senators and Representative and tell them about the Martens’ bombshell. You can find Senate contact information here and House contact details here.

Mary Jo White has done nothing to stop the type of bad practices that blew up the financial system in 2008. She is so clearly unwilling to do her job that she needs to be fired.

Update: My bad (failure of early AM drafting) to not say that the President cannot fire White. However, I also cannot imagine that if she were to hit a firestorm of criticism and the President were to call her in and say that the public had lost confidence in her, the odds are high that her resignation would be forthcoming.

____
* As much as HFT and dark pools have produced the worst possible market structure for public equities, the low use of borrowing in the US stock markets means it is not a source of systemic risk.

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/Mary_Jo_White

House Joint Resolution 48 introduced April 29, 2015

Section 1. (Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights)

The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only.

Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.

The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.

Section 2. (Money is Not Free Speech)

Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure.

Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.

The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

*****
Initial Co-Sponsors are: Rick Nolan (MN), Mark Pocan (WI), Matthew Cartwright (PA), Jared Huffman (CA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Keith Ellison (MN).

Here’s a press release with more details:
https://movetoamend.org/press-release/release-we-people-amendment-introduced-114th-congress-today

http://news.yahoo.com/4-banks-pay-1-bn-settle-forex-rigging-215352750.html

Four major banks have reached separate agreements to settle a US civil lawsuit over alleged foreign-exchange rigging in deals totaling nearly $1 billion, sources close to the situation said Wednesday. The agreements by Goldman Sachs, French bank BNP Paribas and British banks Barclays and HSBC are preliminary and could change, the sources said, confirming a report on the settlements in The Wall Street Journal that cited people familiar with the matter. The four banks' pending agreements would settle the civil lawsuit filed by Scott & Scott and Hausfeld that alleges their traders manipulated the forex market to boost the banks' profits. According to the sources, Barclays will pay $375 million, HSBC $285 million, BNP Paribas nearly $100 million and Goldman Sachs about $130 million. Combined, the settlements total about $890 million.

None of the banks has admitted to the alleged rigging of the $5.3 trillion currency market, the sources said.

The deal is subject to approval by US authorities, notably by US District Judge Lorna Schofield in New York, in whose court the lawsuit was filed. A hearing is scheduled on June 25 at 2000 GMT, according to court documents reviewed Wednesday by AFP.

The four banks' position in the case was weakened last month by nearly $6 billion in fines ordered by US and British regulators from six major banks -- Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citicorp, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Bank of America -- for rigging foreign exchange market and Libor interest rates. Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citicorp and the Royal Bank of Scotland all pleaded guilty to US Justice Department charges of conspiring to manipulate the massive currency market.

Switzerland's UBS meanwhile pleaded guilty to violating a prior settlement of charges for rigging the Libor interest rate. And Bank of America was included with the other five banks in fines levied by the US Federal Reserve in the forex rigging case.

I want to see the canceled check and the deposit slip.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-regulator-limits-mortgage-servicing-160647106.html

A U.S. bank regulator on Wednesday said it imposed restrictions on mortgage servicing against HSBC, Wells Fargo and four others because they failed to meet all of the requirements of a major settlement. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said the new limitations would apply to acquisitions of residential mortgage servicing rights, outsourcing servicing to others, and other related business activities.

Mortgage servicers accept payments from borrowers, negotiate loan modifications and pursue foreclosures. They include lenders and outside companies that buy the rights to handle loans. Following the 2007-2009 financial crisis, banks reached a settlement with regulators over their mishandling of servicing activities, including "robo-signing", or using defective or fraudulent documents, to pursue home foreclosures.

Wells Fargo and HSBC face the toughest restrictions, the OCC said on Wednesday, and JPMorgan Chase, EverBank , Santander and U.S. Bank also will have certain activities limited. The rules do not prevent banks from making any new loans, the OCC said.
Wells Fargo and HSBC each said in separate statements on Wednesday that they had made progress on servicing issues and were continuing to work on fixing the remaining problems. JPMorgan said in a statement that it expected to meet all the requirements by the end of the summer.

The regulator said it also planned to take additional actions against the six banks. The OCC said Bank of America, Citigroup and PNC all had met the requirements under the agreement. So far, the settlement has resulted in payments of more than $2.7 billion to borrowers, the OCC said. The regulator said it expected about $280 million to be unclaimed at the end of 2015, and borrowers could access that money through state processes.

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20151178.pdf

News Release

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, June 18, 2015

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending June 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 267,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 279,000. The 4-week moving average was 276,750, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 278,750.

There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent for the week ending June 6, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 6 was 2,222,000, a decrease of 50,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 7,000 from 2,265,000 to 2,272,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,231,000, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 1,750 from 2,226,750 to 2,228,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA

....
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending May 30 was 2,142,307, an increase of 79,821 from the previous week. There were 2,479,465 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/goldman-sachs-vampire-squid-is-coming-to-your-neighborhood-2015-06-17

“Goldman Sachs, known for catering to large companies and other super wealthy clientele, plans to start offering loans to the Average Joe as soon as next year” — USA Today

We've been on vacation to Charleston several times. The last time was in October. And we always stay down in the historic district, downtown, within walking distance of the church where the massacre occurred.