The New York Times reports:
"The F.B.I. has now opened preliminary investigations into possible fraud involving the four giant corporations at the center of the recent turmoil — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and the American International Group [AIG], the Associated Press reported."
That's a smart move -- given that Congressman Henry Waxman's House Oversight Committee already launched a probe of Lehman Brothers and AIG last week. Waxman also set up a tip hotline. When Waxman investigates, damning evidence tends to be unearthed.
On this issue, perhaps the FBI won't be put to shame by Waxman's committee.
I found this on Yahoo. The second link (copied above @ URL is most instructive.
"The REAL value of the Dow 30 stocks...
before the republicans under Nixon, Reagan and Bushes used inflation to pay off the war debt for Viet Nam:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=%5EDJI&a=9&b=1&c=1928&d=9&e=15&f=2008&g=d&z=66&y=20064
It took 25 years to re-coup the losses of the '29 crash, when the Dow reached 381 for the second time in 1954. Then the Viet Nam war pushed it back down to 250 in 1969. All that has followed has been nothing more nor less than an inflationary spiral fueled by one bubble "economy" after another. I know, because '69 was the year I got out of the Air Force; and I've been watching and learning ever since. And that 250 mark is where we actually are if you discount all the inflation since. Gold used to be pegged at $32 an ounce until Nixon let the dollar "float" in '71, or maybe it was '72. Now gold is up over $800 an ounce, down from its high of $1000. That's how far we have inflated our economy; and that's how far we have to deflate our economy to get back to normal. That's why I believe the TRUE bottom for the DOW is actually 250. Those are the sad facts of what the republicans have done to our 'democracy' since Viet Nam.
And the banks are the handmaidens of the republicans.
And JPM is the head bank; and Jamie Dimon is the head of JPM. And he is the one who orchestrated the plundering of $1.25 Trillion of depositors' money to buy up half the $180 Trillion in derivatives, 65% of which are credit default swaps (1/3 of the total outstanding) which is what that 1/4 trillion dollar bailout Sunday was specifically designed to correct.
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2007-137a.pdf
scroll down to p. 6 and pp. 21-32
But, folks, that was just a drop in the bucket. Nothing but a bandaid, to buy time. And the market today has already burnt it up.
Do I sound like I'm pissed? You're damn right I'm pissed.
Jamie Dimon has single-handedly pissed away the American economy trying to corner the market in credit default swaps worth double the total GDP of every country in the world. You should be pissed off too.
Jamie Dimon and the neo-cons have f u c k e d all of us and our kids and grandkids out of the future we have worked for and our sons and brothers have died for."
Posted by: mackie_avelli | October 16, 2008 at 09:05 AM