Frank warned colleague not to aid troubled bank

By Sandy Williams Friday, August 6, 2010
- Susan Milligan and Beth Healy boston.com

WASHINGTON—US Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts urged Representative Maxine Waters of California to avoid any dealings with Boston-based OneUnited Bank because her husband owned stock in it. But the Democratic congresswoman didn’t heed his warnings, according to a House ethics report released yesterday, and now faces a possible trial before her colleagues over a conflict of interest with the bank.

The 79-page report by the Office of Congressional Ethics said Waters confided to Frank that bank officials came to her for help in 2008. But she felt conflicted because her husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the board of OneUnited from 2004-2008 and was a stockholder. It is against House rules to use one’s power as a member for personal financial gain.

“She knew she should say no, but it bothered her,’’ the report said. Issuance of the document turns the matter over to the House Ethics Committee and sets the stage for a trial.

US Representative Barney Frank
Barney Frank is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and his boyfriend is Sergio A. Pombo.

Note: Harold E. Ford Jr. was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John Vincent Weber was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Sergio A. Pombo is Barney Frank’s boyfriend, a Georgetown University graduate, and an investment officer for the International Finance Corporation.

Madeleine K. Albright is a professor at Georgetown University, and a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James A. Johnson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

International Finance Corporation is a private sector arm for the World Bank.

Elizabeth L. Littlefield is a director at the World Bank, and was the managing partner for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Bailout Company).

William M. Daley is the chairman Midwest region for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Bailout Company), and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James A. Johnson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Robert B. Zoellick is the president of the World Bank, an EVP for Fannie Mae, and the vice chairman for the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Bailout Company).

James A. Johnson was the chairman of Fannie Mae, is a director at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Bailout Company), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Emmett J. Rice was the U.S. alternative director for reconstruction & development for the World Bank, and his daughter is Susan E. Rice.

Susan E. Rice is the U.S. ambassador to UN for the Barack Obama administration, was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James D. Wolfensohn was the president of the World Bank, is a director at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Christopher J. Dodd is a senior advisory committee member at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and his wife is Jackie Clegg Dodd.

Jackie Clegg Dodd is married to Christopher J. Dodd, and was the vice chairman & first VP for the Export-Import Bank of the US.

Madeleine K. Albright is the chairman the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James H. Lambright was the chairman & president for the Export-Import Bank of the US, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Richard N. Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a VP at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters is married to Sidney Williams, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and was an investor at OneUnited Bank.

Note: Harold E. Ford Jr. was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John Vincent Weber was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Richard N. Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a VP at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

The Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare) is at the Brookings Institution.

brookings.edu/es/hamilton/200705butler.pdf.

brookings.edu/projects/hamiltonproject.aspx

Emanuel Cleaver is the whip, 2nd vice chairman for the Congressional Black Caucus, and a senior advisory committee member for the National Democratic Institute (think tank).

John R. Lewis is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a senior advisory committee member for the National Democratic Institute (think tank).

Tom Daschle is a director at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James D. Wolfensohn is a director at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Madeleine K. Albright is the chairman of the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

Richard N. Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a VP at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

OneUnited Bank
Sidney Williams was a director & stockholder and his wife Maxine Waters was investor at OneUnited Bank.

OneUnited Bank received federal investment in the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Note: James H. Lambright is the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), was a VP at Credit Suisse First Boston, and the chairman & president for the Export-Import Bank of the US.

James A. Johnson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Richard N. Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a VP at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a trustee, honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at Big Shoulders Fund, an honorary life director for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

William M. Daley is a director at Big Shoulders Fund, a director at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s brother a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

Richard M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and Valerie B. Jarrett was his deputy chief of staff.

Valerie B. Jarrett was Mayor Richard M. Daley’s deputy chief of staff, is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.

Thomas E. Donilon is the White House deputy national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great niece, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Richard N. Haass was a VP at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982

(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)


http://www.illuminati-news.com/110106a.htm
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Source: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/26272
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Under Attack, Fed Chairman Studies Politics

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: November 10, 2009

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News
Representative Barney Frank, left, said of Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, right: “Ben Bernanke turns out to have better political instincts than anybody thought.”

For months, he had warned — without anyone on Capitol Hill appearing to listen — that a seemingly innocuous bill to let Congress “audit” the Fed would gravely threaten the central bank’s independence.

It was alarming enough that the bill’s author was Representative Ron Paul, the quixotic Texas Republican whose new book, “End the Fed,” had just landed on the best-seller lists. Despite vigorous protests by Mr. Bernanke, nearly 300 House lawmakers and 30 senators had endorsed Mr. Paul’s bill.

But when he sat down shortly after 8 a.m. on Oct. 1 at the Rayburn House Office Building for coffee and muffins with Representative Barney Frank, the rumpled and wisecracking chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, he took in some blunt advice.

Voters had become suspicious and unnerved by the Fed because of its trillion-dollar efforts to bail out the financial system, Mr. Frank warned. If the Fed really wanted to survive the disgruntlement in both parties, he continued, Mr. Bernanke would have to step back and let him devise a compromise.

Reluctantly, the Fed chairman agreed to reduce his own visibility on the issue and let Mr. Frank take the lead.

It was just one example of how the Fed has been forced to scramble as its power comes under more fire than at any time in decades.

On Tuesday, a new threat opened up: Senator Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, declared that the Fed had been an “abysmal failure” at regulation. He introduced a bill that would strip virtually all of its power to regulate banks, including financial institution considered too big to fail.

There will be a fight. Mr. Bernanke and the Fed has powerful political supporters, from lawmakers like Mr. Frank and President Obama. But the Fed chairman is being forced to nurture those ties as never before and to carefully map out which battles are worth fighting.
“Ben Bernanke turns out to have better political instincts than anybody thought,” Mr. Frank said in an interview last week. “They accept the fact that I know what I’m doing up here.”
On one front, the Fed faces populist anger from both left-wing Democrats and right-wing Republicans about its power and secrecy. At the same time, officials are locked in brutal but arcane battles about who should oversee Wall Street and big banks as Congress tries to pass a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation.

Last summer, the central bank hired an experienced Democratic hand and former lobbyist, Linda Robertson, to help deal with members of Congress. Mr. Bernanke alone has met privately with about 40 senators and many House members in the last few months, sometimes to dissect arcane policy issues and sometimes just to explain what he does in plain English.

At one recent meeting, Senator Sherrod Brown challenged Mr. Bernanke’s bona fides as a regular guy by giving him a pop quiz on baseball statistics. Mr. Bernanke, a passionate fan, passed.

Mindful that Democrats now control the White House and Congress, Mr. Bernanke put up virtually no opposition to President Obama’s proposal for a new consumer agency that would take over the Fed’s authority over consumer lending issues. Similarly, he avoided a bruising turf battle by agreeing that the Fed would share responsibility with other regulators to monitor systemic financial risk.

But Fed officials have been steely in protecting their two top priorities: the Fed’s political independence on monetary policy and the Fed’s role as undisputed overseer of financial institutions deemed “too big to fail.”

Mr. Bernanke took over the Fed nearly four years ago with less political experience than his predecessor, Alan Greenspan. And because he was forced to bail out companies and credit markets in such visible ways, Mr. Bernanke has enjoyed little of the mystique and distance that Mr. Greenspan used to his advantage.

No fight illustrates Mr. Bernanke’s political challenge better than the one over Mr. Paul’s bill to audit the Fed.

The maneuvering is still under way, involving intricate negotiations outside of public view. But, aided by the pledge of help from Mr. Frank and backing from the administration, Fed officials cautiously predict they will get what they want.

Mr. Paul’s bill would require the Government Accountability Office, an arm of the Congress, to complete a wide-ranging assessment of the Fed’s financial operations by the end of 2010. The audit would delve into bailouts of individual firms, short-term loans to banks, currency swaps with foreign central banks and the Fed’s effort to prop up mortgage lending by purchasing $1.25 trillion in mortgage-related securities.

Mr. Bernanke initially reacted to the bill in almost apocalyptic terms. The G.A.O. audits, he told a House hearing in late June, could lead to a Congressional “takeover” of monetary policy that would be “highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the dollar and our national economic situation.”

That did not go over well with many lawmakers, who were competing to describe the Fed in dark and conspiratorial tones.

Senator Jim DeMint, a conservative Republican from South Carolina, denounced the Fed on the Senate floor in July as an “unelected central bank” that enjoyed a “monopoly over the flow of our money” and operated in “almost complete secrecy.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, a left-leaning independent from Vermont who sponsored a Senate version of Mr. Paul’s bill, attacked the Fed for being beholden mainly to Wall Street.

“People are frightened,” Mr. Sanders said. “How do you explain to them that the Fed has spent $2 trillion to help many of the same banks that got us into this crisis in the first place?”

As the summer wore on, even centrist lawmakers were getting impatient with Mr. Bernanke.

“What he failed to do was convince me that this would somehow damage the Fed,” said Representative Dan Maffei, a centrist Democrat from Syracuse who co-sponsored Mr. Paul’s bill. Representative Paul E. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, a senior Democrat on the financial services committee who is sympathetic to the Fed, said the popular anger became too deep to ignore.
By mid-July, Mr. Frank had begun to agree. Meeting privately with the Fed chairman that month, Mr. Frank warned that he might have to embrace a version of Mr. Paul’s bill. By September, he had begun exploring possible compromises.

Fed officials say they were alarmed, but focused on making their case in private rather than in public. Mr. Bernanke met privately with dozens of House and Senate members, even taking calls at home on weekends, and won praise for his willingness to listen and answer their questions.
“The best weapon the Fed has is Bernanke himself,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.

What Mr. Bernanke insisted on, and what Mr. Frank vowed to prevent, was Congressional interference in Fed deliberations over monetary policy.

But whenever discussion got more specific, Fed officials insisted that monetary policy extended to many if not most of the Fed’s emergency credit programs.

Mr. Frank said he would “wall off” deliberations on basic monetary policy, and delay the release of information about the Fed’s financial operations to prevent traders from capitalizing on its moves.

Exactly what that means in practice remains unclear. Mr. Paul says he is delighted that his bill has gotten so far. But details matter, and Fed officials say they are quietly confident details will break their way.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 11, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/business/11fed.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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Congressman Rips Protester for 'Nazi' Line

Photo(Courtesy) http://cbs13.com/health/barney.frank.health.2.1134683.html

CNN

(Aug. 19) -- Most Congress members conducting town hall meetings this month have chosen a noncombative posture to deal with angry participants who disrupt the proceedings. Not Rep. Barney Frank.

At a lively two-hour meeting Tuesday night in Dartmouth, Mass., Frank gave as good as he got in confronting opponents of overhauling the nation's health care system.

The crowded hall had both supporters and detractors, but the opposing side was much louder and more raucous, booing the Massachusetts Democrat from the moment he was introduced and shouting questions and challenges at him throughout.

"You want me to talk about it or do you want to yell?" he asked over and over when interrupted while trying to answer. Continued shouting brought a sterner rebuke.

Disruption never helps your cause," he said more than once. "It just looks like you're afraid to have rational discussion."

While Frank attempted to respond to all questions, he gave up when one woman compared health care proposals favored by Frank and President Obama to policies of Nazi Germany.

"When you ask me that question, I'm going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked.

"You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis," he said, adding such behavior demonstrated the strength of First Amendment guarantees of what he called "contemptible" free speech.

"Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table," Frank said to the woman. "I have no interest in doing it."

Despite the disruptions, the meeting covered many of the issues of the health care debate, with Frank shooting down rumors that a House health care bill would mandate free insurance coverage for illegal immigrants.

He read from the section of the bill that excludes payments for that purpose, and when another questioner referred to a different section guaranteeing nondiscrimination, Frank pointed out that the first section he read superseded that language.

Some in the crowd applauded, but others booed and shouted. Frank asked why the detractors shouted for him to answer, and when he did, they shouted more.

"What's the matter with you all?" he said. "I don't know if you get angrier when I answer the questions, or when you don't think I do."

Source: http://news.aol.com/article/barney-frank-town-hall-meeting/629113?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl7link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fbarney-frank-town-hall-meeting%2F629113

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