On Egypt, Tony Blair's Pathetic Pivot, A Tale of Two Brits on Palestine (Graham Usher, Rest in Peace)

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 17 -- Tony Blair is many things, as he makes sure to flaunt, one of them being the UN / Quartet Representative in support of Palestine. 

  Here's what Blair published in the Korea Herald on August 13: "Egypt could pivot back toward democracy. Elections by early 2014 have been promised, and all parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, could take part."

  On August 14, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed, and today there is talk of the party being outlawed by the military backed authorities in Cairo.

What does this say about the Middle East advice Blair give to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon? Why has Blair been allowed to mix his UN role with big money making for JP Morgan Chase, Kazakhstan and others?

  When Inner City Press has asked about these conflicts of interest, the UN has invariably said, "Ask Tony Blair's office." Right. But now, isn't he discredited?

And here's the tale, in the nature of a short eulogy, of other Brit, an actual expert in Palestine: Graham Usher, who after covering Palestine and Pakistan came to cover the UN (click here for one of his Al Ahram Weekly pieces.) 

 Usher authored, among other things, Palestine in Crisis (Pluto Press 1995). Now he has passed away, at the age of 54, from Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. We are sorry for his loss and have to say: only the good die young. Presente.

   

As USUN Regrets Iran Selection, Kornblau to JPMChase, Eric Pelton Heads North, HRC Sudan?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 12, updated -- As at the UN the Arms Trade Treaty talks grind on, now half behind closed doors, the US Mission to the UN late Thursday e-mailed out the statement of its Ambassador Donald Mahley pledging 

"to achieve the consensus on an effective arms treaty in order, as Secretary Clinton clearly stated, 'to ensure that all countries can be held to standards that will actually improve the global situation by denying arms to those who would abuse them.'"

  Inner City Press asked lead US Mission spokesman Mark Kornblau a couple of questions, including on Sudan [see below] and to please "state the US position on ammunition being covered by an Arms Trade Treaty."

  Kornblau and then the Mission to their credit quickly responded, with a previous statement by another US representative to the talks, Tom Countryman, which had not previously be e-mailed to the Press, that "the United States has made clear that ammunition should not be included within the scope of the ATT." Countryman concluded, as cited by NGOs, that

"we will continue to listen to any proposals for including ammunition. Our criteria in evaluating such proposals are simple – they must be realistic and limited in the burdens they impose, and they must be effective in achieving the goals and objectives of the ATT. In the absence of such a proposal and a compelling case for its benefits, the United States remains steadfast in its opposition to including ammunition in the ATT. "

  In a statement issued by Kornblau after 5 pm on Thursday, the US expressed its opposition that

"Iran's role as one of fourteen Vice Presidents at the Arms Trade Treaty Conference - while purely ceremonial - is nonetheless outrageous. Iran was selected to run on a closed slate of candidates put forward by the Asia Group, of which the United States is not a member...While, as a practical matter, the Vice President designation at the Arms Trade Treaty Conference has no impact whatsoever on the substance of the conference or our ability to advance and protect U.S. interests and values, it still makes a mockery of the Conference's purposes and undermines the credibility of the United Nations."

  Inner City Press has likewise asked for the US position on making the next head of the UN Budget Committee Sri Lanka and its Permanent Representative, listed in Ban Ki-moon's Panel of Experts report as involved in luring rebel leaders to surrender, who were then killed -- so far without answer.

  But we had and have news of Kornblau, which in fairness we wanted to most fully confirm before now exclusively publishing. Ambassador Susan Rice, in a generous USUN EVERYONE e-mail on July 10, announced that

From: Ambassador Rice (USUN)
To: USUN EVERYONE
Subject: Staffing Announcement
Sent: Jul 10, 2012 3:02 PM

Dear Colleagues,

I am sorry to have to inform you that July 20 will be Mark Kornblau's last day at USUN. I am deeply indebted to Mark for the exceptional job he has done as my Director of Communications and Spokesperson since early 2009. Mark is a true professional, and I will sorely miss his wise counsel, sound judgment, deft touch and wry wit. I hope you will join in me in wishing him all the best in his next endeavor as Managing Director of Corporate Communications at JP Morgan Chase & Co. It’s a tremendous opportunity for him at a time of great challenge for the industry.

I am pleased to announce that Erin Pelton will succeed Mark as my Director of Communications and Spokesperson. Erin currently serves as Director of Communications and Assistant Press Secretary at the National Security Council, where she handles the Middle East, Latin America, and the nonproliferation portfolios, among others. Prior to her tenure at the White House, Erin spent six years at the State Department, both in Washington and overseas in Mexico and Saudi Arabia, most recently serving as a spokesperson in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Erin also worked for America Abroad Media, where she developed programs on international affairs for radio and television. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Latin American Studies from Drake University, and a Master’s Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Please join we in welcoming Erin and wishing Mark a fond farewell.

   We'll have more on this, including as applicable JPMorgan Chase's relations not only with the media but also the FERC about claims it manipulated energy prices in California and the Midwest. 

   Explaining the pending Syria resolution is one thing, and hiking electricity prices during a heat wave is another. Ah, US, and USUN...

Update: On Inner City Press' question if the US opposes Sudan's bid to be a member of the Human Rights Council, as / from a U.S. official the following came in:

"We are obviously very much opposed, but this is not a done deal, and we urge members of the AU to do the right thing and stop an ICC-indicted war criminal from taking a seat on the Human Rights Council."

   On Sri Lanka's and Palitha Kohona's bid to head the UN's Fifth (Budget) Committee, we hope to have more -- watch this site.

Subprime Survivors Wells, BofA and JPM Chase More Disparate By Race in US in 2008, Study During G-20 Meeting Finds

www.innercitypress.com/ffw2data040209.html

NEW YORK, April 2 -- In the first study of the just-released 2008 mortgage lending data, Fair Finance Watch has found that the seeming survivors of the banking meltdown, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, had worse disparities by race and ethnicity in denials and higher-cost lending than the banks they acquired, Wachovia and Countrywide. Mortgage lending in the U.S. will become more and not less disparate because of the emergency mergers and bailouts engineered by the regulators, the FFW study predicts.

Fair Finance Watch notes that JPMorgan Chase's massive closing of branches of Washington Mutual will also make credit harder to come by, especially in poor neighborhoods. 2008 is the fifth year in which the data distinguishes which loans are higher cost, over the federally-defined rate spread of 3 percent over the yield on Treasury securities of comparable duration on first lien loans, 5 percent on subordinate liens.

Wells Fargo Bank in 2008 confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above this rate spread 2.18 times more frequently than whites, according to Fair Finance Watch. Wachovia Mortgage FSB, the largest lender of Wachovia which Wells Fargo acquired, had a lower disparity, at 1.46.

Bank of America NA in 2008 confined Latinos to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.51 times more frequently than whites, the data show. Countrywide Bank, which B of A acquired, had a lower disparity, at 1.22.

JPMorgan Chase was even more disparate to Latinos, confined them to higher-cost loans 2.10 times more frequently than whites, almost as pronounced as its disparity between African-Americans and whites, 2.26. Citigroup, perhaps due to its shrinking, some say dying, business had disparities of 1.90 for African Americans and 1.23 for Latinos. For US Bancorp, the disparity for African Americans was 1.55 and for Latinos, 1.35.

"The banks the regulators favored in 2008, allowing emergency takeovers like JPMorgan Chase's of Washington Mutual, Bank of America's of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo's of Wachovia, were the most racial disparate lenders," states the Fair Finance Watch report. "The regulators did not put any conditions on the mergers or Troubled Assets Relief Program bailouts, for example allowing Chase to close dozens of Washington Mutual branches. As things are going, it will be worse and more disparate in 2009. The new administration in Washington has yet to make any substantive change to this, and global predatory lending is hardly being discussed at the G-20 meeting in London."

Several lenders had worse denial rate disparities in 2008 between Latinos and whites then between African American and whites, a change from previous years. Bank of America NA, for example, denied applications by African Americans 1.44 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos fully 1.57 times more frequently than whites. Atlanta-based SunTrust in 2008 denied applications by African Americans 1.37 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos fully 1.78 times more frequently than whites.

The law required that the 2008 data be provided by April 1, following March 1 requests by Inner City Press. Some lenders did not provide their data by the deadline. Regions Financial provided its data at the deadline but only in paper format, on over 2000 pages, so that it could not yet be computer-analyzed. Further studies will follow.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ffw2data040209.html

Geithner Promotes Megabanks' Monopoly, in DC as at Fed, 17 Cut to 7 on Derivatives

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press on Wall Street
www.innercitypress.com/bb1monopoly032809.html

NEW YORK, March 28 -- Seven megabanks' renewed grab for monopoly power in the over the counter derivatives market shows how little Wall Street's real power has changed in the transition from the Bush to Obama administrations.

The banks, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, are paying over $1 million to p.r. firm Prism Public Affairs to "educate" the voters weary of bonus and bailouts that those who caused the crisis should benefit from it.

Already, Congress members hungry for campaign contribution have submitted to closed door briefings by Ed Rosen of the law firm Cleary Gottlieb, who drafted the legislative language for monopoly.

The connector in this story is Timothy Geithner, under Bush the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now Obama's Treasury Secretary. Geithner in June 2008 convened closed door meetings with 17 banks, essentially allowing them to propose and draft their own rules for the derivatives market.

This led to advocacy by the Fair Finance Watch that Geithner's meetings were in fact rule making that excluded the public in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and by Inner City Press, as media, to get the meetings opened to journalists and the public.

The Administrative Procedures Act (5 U.S.C. Section 553) and related laws require that when the government engaged in rule-making, it must provide notice to the public, and allow and weigh public comments. The New York Fed under Geithner tried to rule-make without any involvement by the public, even the public most impacted by the subprime lending that underlies these processes. The New York Fed on June 9, 2008 met with a group of the largest banks to discuss, according to the Geithner himself

"Regulatory policy. These are the incentives and constraints designed to affect the level and concentration of risk-taking across the financial system. You can think of these as a financial analog to imposing speed limits and requiring air bags and antilock brakes in cars, or establishing building codes in earthquake zones. Regulatory structure. This is about who is responsible for setting and enforcing those rules. Crisis management. This is about when and how we intervene and about the expectations we create for official intervention in crises."

Press accounts made clear that the financial instruments and regulatory issues discussed behind closed doors are related to issues of public interest, which in fact are disproportionately impacting low- and moderate- income people and communities of color -- subprime and predatory mortgages.

The financial institutions invited, in mid 2008, were:

Bank of America, N.A. - Barclays Capital - BNP Paribas - Citigroup - Credit Suisse - Deutsche Bank AG - Dresdner Kleinwort - Goldman, Sachs & Co. - HSBC Group - JPMorgan Chase - Lehman Brothers - Merrill Lynch & Co. - Morgan Stanley - The Royal Bank of Scotland Group - Societe Generale - UBS AG - Wachovia Bank, N.A.
Buy-Side Firms: AllianceBernstein - BlueMountain Capital Management LLC - Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C.

Fast forward to March 2009, with Geithner despite tax evasion installed as Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, and with Lehman have failed and Wachovia been swallowed by Wells Fargo. Now he is promoting monopoly powers in the market for an even smaller group of banks, just seven: Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank -- which despite European headquarters received billions of dollars in U.S. Troubled Assets Relief Program bailout funds through AIG.

Now the idea is to formalize the monopoly through legislation, not rule making. Industry friendly Congress people like Connecticut's Chris Dodd are supporting the monopoly for the privileged. The fig leaf policy argument is that derivatives should runs through regulated banks. The push is made now, before it is formalized that non-banks, too, are regulated. It is a pure power grab, with Timothy Geithner as the connector. And who is fighting this monopoly of the morally if not financially bankrupt? To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/bb1monopoly032809.html

In DC, "Inevitable" Fraud as Obama Jokes with JPM Chase, Meets Citi and ExxonMobil

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/dc1tarp031209.html

WASHINGTON, March 12 -- As President Barack Obama promises to find and "call out" misuses of the stimulus package, and to review the over 7,000 earmarks in the budget bill he signed this week, the chairman of his Recovery Act's Transparency and Accountability Board, Earl Devaney, told the Press of a "naive impression that given the amount of transparency and accountability called for by this Act, no or little fraud will occur... some level of waste and fraud is unfortunately inevitable."

Accordingly, the same is true not only at the United Nations -- despite Obama not mentioning the need for UN reform in his comments Tuesday after meeting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- but also with the bank bailout funds of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Nevertheless, Obama joked with JPMorgan Chase's Jaime Dimon at the Business Roundtable's gabfest Thursday in Washington. As a smaller banker asked the final question of Obama -- no questions were taken after his meeting with the UN's Ban -- Obama said that banking has of late become complex, and that he could ask "Jaime" about it.

Also on the White House's list of Roundtable attendees was Citigroup's longtime board member and now chairman Richard Parsons. Citigroup veered into predatory lending, JPM Chase at a minimum securitized it, while lending to payday lenders and pawnshops. What then is so funny?

Obama's successor as Senator from Illinois Roland Burris is said to have a brother who is going through foreclosure. A well-known Representative from the state of Illinois, sponsoring a pro-industry payday lending bill, has taken over $10,000 from the lender QC Holdings. If this is how politics will be in the current Washington, predatory lending can be expected to continue.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dc1tarp031209.html

Tony Blair's UN Quartet Role May Conflict with His New Job with JP Morgan Chase, Engaged in Subprime Lending Mis-viewed by the UN

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN:
www.innercitypress.com/unblairchase011008.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 10 -- J.P. Morgan Chase has hired former UK prime minister Tony Blair, it was reported Thursday. The AP repeated Blair's claim that "the appointment won't infringe on his duties with the so-called Quartet - the U.S., European Union, U.N. and Russia... helping the Palestinians build up their economy and governing bodies in preparation for the establishment of a Palestinian state." But might it create at least the perception of a conflict of interest?

Is it impossible that J.P. Morgan Chase may have economic interests in the area, in which case Tony Blair would be attempting to serve at least two masters? On Thursday morning Inner City Press asked the UN spokesperson's office for their response, including that if no prohibition is said to apply, what safeguards will be put in place. Having received no answer, the question was asked at Friday's UN noon briefing. Spokesperson Michele Montas replied that "I have absolutely no comment on that," adding "as you know, Mr. Blair is an envoy of the Quartet, not of the UN." But not only is the UN one of the four Quartet members -- as stated by the UN's Michael Williams in the Security Council on August 29, 2007, "several United Nations offices and departments are collaborating to finalize arrangements for the provision of financial management and security support for Mr. Blair's mission." In practice this has meant that the UN Development Program rented ten room for Tony in Jerusalem, click here for that story.

When Inner City Press asked if Blair had asked the UN about any possible conflict of interest or safeguards, Ms. Montas said, "He doesn't have to." When asked if Blair had asked the Quartet -- on which the UN sits -- Ms. Montas said, "You should ask Mr. Blair." Video here, from Minute 15:20.

For now, using J.P. Morgan Chase's involvement in and exposure to the subprime and predatory lending crisis as the bridge, consider the UN's just-released World Economic Situation and Prospects 2008, which in reference to "rising defaults in the U.S. subprime mortgage market" recommends that "regulatory standards have to be introduced for investor protection." But what about consumer protection? On January 9, Inner City Press asked Rob Vos, Director of UN DESA's Development Policy and Analysis Division, about this seeming lack of focus on consumers. Video here, from Minute 47:35.

"Maybe you're right we overemphasize" capital markets, Vos answered, acknowledging that the DESA report does not mention "any mechanism to compensate consumers," that can "perhaps be addressed in subsequent reports." Here's hoping. And what will Tony Blair say about Morgan Chase and subprime lending, or about the demonstrations in front of Morgan Chase's headquarters on Park Avenue about the Darfur issue? We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unblairchase011008.html