Friday, April 19, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
If I Provide Proof That The Entire Irish Banking System Is A Sham, Does It Set Up A Much Needed System Reboot? Let"s Go For It..
Entering my third week of publicizing my research into what I see as the potential collapse of the Irish banking system, it is about time to bring the series to a close. Before I do, though, there are a couple of loose ends that need tightening up. One is the assertion that the points that I have made are sensationalist. Anyone who has objectively read the articles I put forth cannot be objective themselves and come to a “sensationalist” conclusion. Secondly, there appears to be some who believe the many charges that I proffered as evidence are not actually evidence of a potentially nefarious plot to collude or misrepresent. Well, I believe the case of misrepresentation was made beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt in Are You About To Get Cyprus’d in Ireland…
For those of you who actually think it’s acceptable for large, international banks to have to mortgage their entire balance sheets, or the vast amount of their securities and liquid asset holdings to essentially obtain access to what essentially is a cross-border, real time checking account (Target 2), I have this fabulous bridge to sell you in Brooklyn… Real cheap!
Let’s examine the argument that the multiple charges were entered by various large banks for the legitimate purpose of facilitating access to Target 2, and not an emergency dash for liquidity funding from the ECB.
First, as excerpted from Wikipedia, a description of how Target 2 operates in terms of collateral:
Liquidity management in TARGET2
The availability and cost of liquidity are two crucial issues for the smooth processing of payments in RTGS systems.
The cost or liquidity is the pertinent issue here. The liquidity “allegedly” sought by the Irish banks is EXTREMELY expensive for it calls for them to leverage/encumber/pledge practically their entire tradable balance sheet. Contrast this with the US Fedwire, were reserves are put up. Yes, reserves, not ALL of central bank lending-eligible securities AND the liquid payment accounts. One cannot practically classify the Irish set-up as a reserve since it is practically everything that the bank has sans plant, equipment and nigh worthless goodwill. Fedwire is the largest system of it’s type in existence, yet it requires less collateralization than it’s smaller brethren in Europe, Target 2? Either everybody in Europe knows you can’t trust European banks or Ireland was given a back door bailout through the Target 2 collateralization system. No matter which way you look at it (both are probably true), it’s not positive! Now, back to the Wikipedia write up on Target 2…
In TARGET2, liquidity can be managed very flexibly and is available at low cost since fully remunerated minimum reserves – which credit institutions are required to hold with their central bank – can be used in full for settlement purposes during the day. The averaging provisions applied to minimum reserves allow banks to be flexible in their end-of-day liquidity management. The overnight lending and deposit facilities also allow for continuous lliquidity management decisions. The Eurosystem provides intraday credit. This credit must be fully collateralised and no interest is charged. However, all Eurosystem credit must be fully collateralised, i.e. secured by other assets.
So, now that we’ve established that the Irish banks have applied for, and received credit in exchange for pledging practically their entire securities and liquid assets portfolio, it is in no way debatable that these banks a) were (and are still, currently) leveraged to the max and b) tied up all of their assets with a pledge of collateralization to (allegedly) back up participation in this payment system. Back to Wikipedia…
The range of eligible collateral is very wide.
This is to be read as the quality, saleability and marketability of much of the collateral varies greatly – with much of it being worth considerably less than the claim against which it was pledged…
Assets eligible for monetary policy purposes are also eligible for intraday credit. Under Eurosystem rules, credit can only be granted by the national central bank of the Member State where the participant is established…
Now let’s drill down into how Irish banks, in particular, access Target 2 liquidity as compared to their international brethren. On April 3rd I posted The Unique, Peculiar & Unusual Method Irish Banks Used To Say “We’re Insolvent”!!! whose excerpt I present below:
A reader posted the following in reference to Are You About To Get Cyprus’d in Ireland? When A Single Word’s Worth Billions Of Euros… As a refresher, this is the graphical arrangement of the interconnected dealings between the ECB and the Irish banks… 
I suspect what you are looking at Reggie is not really an issue for the bank’s capital. It looks to me like the ECB is securing itself against the risk that a bank won’t voluntarily return a mistaken or fraudulent transfer of funds via Target2. I think in order to participate in Target2, the bank has to contractually give the ECB the right to seize and sell its assets, if that’s what it takes to retrieve a mistaken or fraudulent transfer of funds.
This is what reserves are for. By definition, reserves are supposed to be a fractional amount of an entity’s holdings to secure against a loss. These Irish banks aren’t putting up fractional reserves, they’re putting up their entire business. Imagine if you went to a bank to apply for a checking account with real time clearing and a condition of you getting said account was for your to mortgage your house, all of your stocks and bonds, and any other bank accounts. Sounds a bit fishy when put that way, doesn’t it?
An amount of readily marketable assets are put up as collateral against the risk described above. If a bank has to put its entire business (after all, a bank’s business is money and securities, so these banks put up all of their money and securities) up as a reserve just to essentially participate in a payment system, then it most assuredly…
Tells you something about the level of trust among Europeans. You might want to check other Eurozone banks with US listings and see if all of them don’t have this exact same charge filed with the SEC. My guess is they all do.
Um, no they don’t. That was the basis of my claim of misrepresentation and potential fraud. See
- Are You About To Get Cyprus’d in Ireland? When A Single Word’s Worth Billions Of Euros…
- Dear Ireland (& AIB), Haven’t We All Learned The Problem Is Insolvency, Not Liquidity?
- Oh No! Is It Possible? A 3rd Irish Bank With Hidden Charges Not Revealed In Its Annual Reports?
- Ireland, You May Very Well Be Bust & I Make No Apologies For What I’m About To Show You
At first I thought it might be related to the refinancing and emergency liquidity assistance loans AIB has outstanding from the Irish central bank. Collateral is pledged for those which the ICB could sell if it decides not to roll over the funding and AIB doesn’t repay. But the reference to Target2 would make no sense if this were about collateral posted to the ICB.
That said AIB is indeed still a mess for a lot of other reasons.
Actually, AIB is a mess for this reason AND many other reasons as well. The inclusion of charges for the purposes of Target 2 is likely a sham. The Irish banks were dead broke, and without a printing press to manufacture funny munny like we do here in the states. They were fresh out of eligible collateral to pledge to the ECB for more emergency loans. Here’s evidence that the Irish charge system was not only unique, but not necessary for the purposes of using Target 2 as an excuse to access emergency funding.
So, here we have a comprehensive charge, all-inclusive, not referencing Target 2 in any way whatsoever, filed on the exact same date as EVERY major bank in Ireland – during the middle of the biggest banking crisis Ireland has ever had. Oh, and by the way… this charge or any reference hereto, is nowhere to be found in the company’s reporting to its regulators and/or investors – at least as far as I could determine. Hmmmm… Of course, these banks are healthy. Nothing to see here, move on and continue with your daily dose of state-sanctioned, mainstream media piped, independent thought numbing disinformation and propaganda.
Remember, extreme wealth concentrates, so you don’t have to… Coming from a “Cyprus’d” bank near you!
Other hard hitting pieces on the resurgent EU banking crisis
- Is The Cypriot Government Crazy Or Do They Really Fear Bankers That Much?
- Mainstream Media Says Cyprus Salvaged By…
- Economic Depression Is The New Success
- The Canadian Government Offers “Bail-In”…
- EU Bank Depositors: Your Mattress Is Starting To Look Awfully Attractive – Bank Risk, Reward & Compensation
- Global Banking Crisis – How & Why YOU Will Get “Cyprus’d” As This Bank Scrambled For Capital!!!
- As If On Cue, BoomBustBlog Shenanigan Research Gets Real In Ireland, Why Aren’t These Guys Knocking On My Door?
- Are You About To Get Cyprus’d in Ireland? When A Single Word’s Worth Billions Of Euros…
- Dear Ireland (& AIB), Haven’t We All Learned The Problem Is Insolvency, Not Liquidity?
- Oh No! Is It Possible? A 3rd Irish Bank With Hidden Charges Not Revealed In Its Annual Reports?
- Ireland, You May Very Well Be Bust & I Make No Apologies For What I’m About To Show You
- The Next Leg Of That Counterparty Led European Bank Run Has Put On It’s Running Shoe
- I Illustrate How The Irish Banking Cance…
- Allegations Of Big Irish Banks Operating…
- Readers Respond With Evidence That AIB (…
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If I Provide Proof That The Entire Irish Banking System Is A Sham, Does It Set Up A Much Needed System Reboot? Let"s Go For It..
Friday, February 22, 2013
The Big Dogs On Wall Street Are Starting To Get Very Nervous
Should we be alarmed that the big dogs on Wall Street are starting to get very nervous?
In a previous article, I got very excited about a report that indicated that corporate insiders were selling nine times more of their own shares than they were buying.
Well, according to a brand new Bloomberg article, insider sales of stock have outnumbered insider purchases of stock by a ratio of twelve to one over the past three months.
That is highly unusual. And right now some of the most respected investors in the financial world are ringing the alarm bells. Dennis Gartman says that it is time to “rush to the sidelines”, Seth Klarman is warning about “the un-abating risks of collapse”, and Doug Kass is proclaiming that “we’re headed for a sharp fall”.
So does all of this mean that a market crash is definitely on the way? No, but when you combine all of this with the weak economic data constantly coming out of the U.S. and Europe, it certainly does not paint a pretty picture.
According to Bloomberg, it has been two years since we have seen insider sales of stock at this level. And when insider sales of stock are this high, that usually means that the market is about to decline…
Corporate executives are taking advantage of near-record U.S. stock prices by selling shares in their companies at the fastest pace in two years.
There were about 12 stock-sale announcements over the past three months for every purchase by insiders at Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) companies, the highest ratio since January 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Pavilion Global Markets. Whenever the ratio exceeded 11 in the past, the benchmark index declined 5.9 percent on average in the next six months, according to Pavilion, a Montreal-based trading firm.
But it isn’t just the number of stock sales that is alarming. Some of these insider transactions are absolutely huge. Just check out these numbers…
Among the biggest transactions last week were a $ 65.2 million sale by Google Inc.’s 39-year-old Chief Executive Officer Larry Page, a $ 40.1 million disposal by News Corp.’s 81- year-old Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and a $ 34.2 million sale from American Express Co. chief Kenneth Chenault, who is 61. Nolan Archibald, the 69-year-old chairman of Stanley Black & Decker Inc. who plans to leave his post next month, unloaded $ 29.7 million in shares last week and Amphenol Corp. Chairman Martin Hans Loeffler, 68, sold $ 27.5 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, 57, announced plans to sell as many as 3.2 million shares in the operator of the world’s most-popular search engine. The planned share sales, worth about $ 2.5 billion, represent about 42 percent of Schmidt’s holdings.
So why are all of these very prominent executives cashing out all of a sudden?
That is a very good question.
Meanwhile, some of the most respected names on Wall Street are warning that it is time to get out of the market.
For example, investor Dennis Gartman recently wrote that the game is “changing” and that it is time to “rush to the sidelines”…
“When tectonic plates in the earth’s crust shift earthquakes happen and when the tectonic plants shift beneath our feet in the capital markets margin calls take place.
The tectonic plates have shifted and attention… very careful and very substantive attention… must be paid.
“Simply put, the game has changed and where we were playing a ‘game’ fueled by the monetary authorities and fueled by the urge on the part of participants to see and believe in rising ‘animal spirits’ as Lord Keynes referred to them we played bullishly of equities and of the EUR and of ‘risk assets’.
Now, with the game changing, our tools have to change and so too our perspective.
“Where we were buyers of equities previously we must disdain them henceforth. Where we were sellers of Yen and US dollars we must buy them now.
Where we had been long of gold in Yen terms, we must shift that and turn bullish of gold in EUR terms. Where we might have been ‘technically’ bullish of the EUR we must now be technically and fundamentally bearish of it.
The game board has been flipped over; the game has changed… change with it or perish. We cannot be more blunt than that.”
That is a very ominous warning, but he is far from alone. Just the other day, I wrote about how legendary investor Seth Klarman is warning that the collapse of the financial markets could happen at literally any time…
“Investing today may well be harder than it has been at any time in our three decades of existence,” writes Seth Klarman in his year-end letter. The Fed’s “relentless interventions and manipulations” have left few purchase targets for Baupost, he laments. “(The) underpinnings of our economy and financial system are so precarious that the un-abating risks of collapse dwarf all other factors.”
Other big hitters on Wall Street are ringing the alarm bells as well. For example, Seabreeze Partners portfolio manager Doug Kass recently told CNBC that what he is seeing right now reminds him of the period just before the crash of 1987…
“I’m getting the ‘summer of 1987 feeling’ in the U.S. equity market,” Kass told CNBC, “which means we’re headed for a sharp fall.”
And of course the “perma-bears” continue to warn that the months ahead are going to be very difficult. For instance, “Dr. Doom” Marc Faber recently said that he “loves the high odds of a ‘big-time’ market crash“.
Another “perma-bear”, Nomura’s Bob Janjuah, is convinced that the stock market will experience one more huge spike before collapsing by up to 50%…
I continue to believe that the S&P500 can trade up towards the 1575/1550 area, where we have, so far, a grand double top. I would not be surprised to see the S&P trade marginally through the 2007 all-time nominal high (the real high was of course seen over a decade ago – so much for equities as a long-term vehicle for wealth creation!). A weekly close at a new all-time high would I think lead to the final parabolic spike up which creates the kind of positioning extreme and leverage extreme needed to create the conditions for a 25% to 50% collapse in equities over the rest of 2013 and 2014, driven by real economy reality hitting home, and by policymaker failure/loss of faith in “their system”.
So are they right?
We will see.
At the same time that many of the big dogs are pulling their money out of the market, many smaller investors are rushing to put their money back in to the market. The mainstream media continues to assure them that everything is wonderful and that this rally can last forever.
But it is important to keep in mind that the last time that Wall Street was this “euphoric” was right before the market crash in 2008.
So what should we be watching for?
As I have mentioned before, it is very important to watch the financial markets in Europe right now.
If they crash, the financial markets in the U.S. will probably crash too.
And the financial markets in Europe definitely have had a rough week. Just check out what happened on Thursday. The following is from a report by CNBC’s Bob Pisani…
Italy, Germany, France, Spain, U.K., Greece, and Portugal all on track to log worst day since Feb. 4. European PMI numbers were disappointing, with all major countries except Germany reporting numbers below 50, indicating contraction.
What does this mean? It means Europe remains mired in recession: “The euro zone is on course to contract for a fourth consecutive quarter,” Markit, who provides the PMI data, said. A new insight is that France is now joining the weakness shown in periphery countries.
You’re giving me agita: Italy was the worst market, down 2.5 percent. The CEO of banking company, Intesa Sanpaolo, said Italy’s recession has been so bad it could cause a fifth of Italian companies to fail, noting that topline for those bottom fifth have been shrinking 35 to 45 percent. Italian elections are this weekend.
It wasn’t any better in Asia. The Shanghai Index had its worst day in over a year, closing down nearly three percent.
And the economic numbers coming out of the U.S. also continue to be quite depressing.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced that there were 362,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits during the week ending February 16th. That was a sharp rise from a week earlier.
But I am not really concerned about that number yet.
When it rises above 400,000 and it stays there, then it will be time to officially become alarmed.
So what is the bottom line?
There are trouble signs on the horizon for the financial markets. Nobody should panic right now, but things certainly do not look very promising for the remainder of the year.
The Big Dogs On Wall Street Are Starting To Get Very Nervous
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Obama delivers "Democrat Classic," Symbolism of SOTU guests, Shootout nearly upstages Obama, Rubio on GMA: "I needed water," Rand serves up red meat, Hagel advances, Lew on Hill at 10 a.m.
(swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)
STATE OF THE UNION: OBAMA DELIVERS A ‘DEMOCRAT CLASSIC’ – Glenn Thrush writes for the hometown paper: “Four years after his first State of the Union, Obama rolled out a series of vintage proposals from his party’s amply stocked policy cupboard — a $ 1.75-an-hour hike in the federal minimum wage, an ambitious plan to expand public preschool education to all kids, reintroduction of a $ 50 billion infrastructure plan, and resurrection of climate change legislation. Taken as a whole, it marked the latest step in a clear effort by Obama to nudge the nation’s politics to the center-left, a shift from the center-right politics of Ronald Reagan that have dominated American political life for more than three decades. …
– “‘It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country — the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love,’ he said as he began a speech that lived up to its billing as a bookend to his progressive inaugural address three weeks ago. ‘It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation of ours.’ …
– “Over and again in the hourlong speech, Obama cast himself as champion of the working classes and portrayed Republicans as protectors of the wealthy and powerful … Obama’s more immediate aim was to back Republicans into a corner on the upcoming fight over $ 1.2 trillion in budget cuts triggered on March 1 by the sequester by harnessing public opinion for his own approach — through fewer budget cuts than Republicans want, a more modest approach to reforming runway entitlement programs and a greater emphasis on raising new tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy.” http://politi.co/Vfs5SB
WaPo, A1, “State of the symbolism: Speech guests help put human faces on rhetoric,” By Ed O’Keefe, Emily Heil and David A. Fahrenthold: “There was a teacher who’d survived three gunshot wounds. A congresswoman who’d lived through an assassination attempt. The grieving parents of slain teenagers. And, a few feet away, a fierce pro-gun rock-and-roller who said he’d wind up ‘dead or in jail’ if the president was reelected. During many State of the Union speeches, the House’s viewing gallery is filled mostly with congressional spouses, lucky staffers and visiting donors. But Tuesday was different. The normally staid gallery was filled, instead, with ordinary Americans whose unordinary lives made them political symbols. In many cases, what they symbolized was the toll of American gun violence. There were 35 people who had been touched by tragedy, whom Democrats had brought to represent the real stakes of the gun-control debate playing out on the floor below.” http://wapo.st/VUgUfl
SHOOTOUT NEARLY UPSTAGES OBAMA – Howard Kurtz writes for The Daily Beast: “President Obama used his State of the Union to pivot back to the economy, saying he wants to protect ‘senior citizens’ and ‘working families’ from bearing the brunt of budget-cutting, but the Washington ritual was nearly overshadowed by a California crime drama.
By the time Obama called for generating enough jobs for ‘a thriving middle class’ on Tuesday night, he found himself sharing the television stage as the cable news networks blanketed a shootout at Big Bear with accused cop-killer Christopher Dorner that left one police officer dead and another wounded. It was a split-screen moment reminiscent of Bill Clinton delivering his 1997 State of the Union during the verdict in O.J. Simpson’s civil trial—and all the more surreal since Obama talked about gun violence after the Big Bear cabin in which Dorner was hiding went up in flames.” http://thebea.st/X7HamF
RUBIO REBUTTAL: NO FORTUNATE SON – Jonathan Martin writes for POLITICO: “His desperate need for a drink of water created the immediate headline, but Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) much-anticipated speech Tuesday night had a very serious intent: It was as much an exercise in erasing Mitt Romney’s legacy on the Republican Party as it was a traditional response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. The selection of Rubio to speak for his party marked the latest, and perhaps most overt, step in the GOP’s rehabilitation project since Election Day, an effort to repackage its identity without altering its policies. And at four separate moments in his remarks, Rubio went to great lengths to get the message across: The GOP isn’t the party of rich white guys.
–“Right from the start, the 41-year-old Cuban-American stated bluntly that he was no senator’s (or governor’s) son. ‘I didn’t inherit any money from them,’ Rubio said of his parents. ‘But I inherited something far better — the real opportunity to accomplish my dreams. … Mr. President, I still live in the same working-class neighborhood I grew up in … My neighbors aren’t millionaires. They’re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They’re workers who have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills. They’re immigrants, who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy.’” http://politi.co/YcMNBf
RUBIO’S WATER BREAK: THE GULP HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD – Joel Siegel writes for the New York Daily News: “Thirsty for attention? Or just thirsty? … It was supposed to be the moment that propelled Rubio into the top tier of potential presidential candidates. Instead, social media exploded with jokes after Rubio awkwardly paused, reached for a bottle of Poland Spring water and took a swig to douse a case of dry mouth. ,,, The Florida senator seemed to have a sense of humor about the viral moment. Late Tuesday night he tweeted a photo of the attention-grabbing bottle.” http://nydn.us/XzOlTL
LET ME EXPLAIN – “I needed water, what am I going to do?” Rubio told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “God has a funny way of reminding us we’re human.” http://politi.co/XKomeg
GIFs were online within minutes of Rubio’s aqua lunge – http://bit.ly/XKhCx1
TWITTER TRAFFIC – @PaulBegala: Marco Rubio: the man you want to have a desperate gulp of water with.
@AntDeRosa: Stay thirsty, Americans – Marco Rubio
@samsteinhp: Jesus walked on water. Rubio drank it #saviors (ok, done)
@darth: OK RT @jakebeckman: Someone photoshop Rubio on the poster for The Water Boy cc @darth thx pic.twitter.com/XG18YRGT
In an attempt to poke fun at himself, Rubio tweeted out a pic of his water bottle — @marcorubio: #GOPResponse #SOTU #gop #tcot pic.twitter.com/3hxtgdbP
And one of his advisers scored the prized possession: @dtoddharris: I am now the proud owner of the most famous bottle of water in American politics. pic.twitter.com/wkzaLSlX
RUBIO ROLLS OUT SCHOOL VOUCHER BILL – Marc Caputo writes on A1 of the Miami Herald: “U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio immediately followed his rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday night by releasing a ‘school-choice’ bill to allow taxpayers to subsidize private-school education for poor kids. By putting legislation where his mouth is, Rubio wanted to reinforce the theme of his speech — that conservative policy is good for the poor and working class.” http://hrld.us/XzKCFW
THE RAP ON RUBIO – New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wasn’t impressed by Rubio’s performance – or his fluency in rap music: “Gangsta rap used to be a reliable issue for politicians, but they were denouncing it. Now Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is praising it — and right at the moment when Republicans are pushing the argument that guns don’t kill people; it’s a culture glorifying guns and violence that kills people. The ubiquitous 41-year-old — who’s on the cover of Time as ‘The Republican Savior’ — looked as if he needed some saving himself Tuesday night as he delivered the party’s response to the State of the Union address in English (and Spanish).
– “He seemed parched, shaky and sweaty, rubbing his face and at one point lunging off-camera to grab a bottle of water. He needed some of the swagger reflected on the Spotify playlist he recently released, featuring Tupac’s ‘Changes,’ as well as Flo Rida, Pitbull, The Sugar Hill Gang, Kanye, Big Sean, devoted Obama supporters Jay-Z and Will.I.Am, and a Foster the People song about ‘a cowboy kid’ who finds a gun in his dad’s closet and goes after ‘all the other kids with the pumped up kicks.’” http://nyti.ms/XzKp5r
RAND’S RESPONSE FULL OF RED MEAT – James Hohmann reports for POLITICO: “Rand Paul tackled gun control, drone strikes, immigration and — first and foremost — spending cuts in a blistering ‘tea party’ response to the President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. ‘We will not let the liberals tread on the Second Amendment,’ the Kentucky senator declared Tuesday night after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished delivering the official GOP response. The libertarian-leaning Republican then alluded to the controversy over the drone strike Obama ordered against Anwar al-Awlaki. ‘We cannot and will not allow any president to act as if he were a king,’ Paul said. ‘We will not tolerate secret lists of American citizens who can be killed without trial.’ Rubio and Paul are both likely to run for president in 2016, but they played to very different bases Tuesday. Paul delivered a wide-ranging speech aimed at activists, chock full of criticism for both parties.” http://politi.co/15bSkx6
GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 13, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.
My new followers include but are not limited to @KimberlyRailey and @RepJerryNadler.
TODAY IN CONGRESS – The Senate meets at 10 a.m. and could consider the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be secretary of Defense. The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing to consider the nomination of Jack Lew to be Treasury secretary, 10 a.m. in Dirksen 215.
The House is also in at 10 a.m. with first and last votes expected between 1 and 2 p.m. on the Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act and Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act.
AROUND THE HILL – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, Vice Chairman Joseph Crowley, and Rep. Mike Thompson hold a post-caucus media availability at 10 a.m. in the HVC-210 alcove. Also at 10 a.m., Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders hold a post-conference meeting availability in the RNC lobby.
Sens. Barbara Mikulski, Ben Cardin, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand speak about the Harret Tubman Historic Park legislation at 10:30 a.m. in SVC 208. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Whip Steny Hoyer speak on the Violence Against Women Act at 1 p.m. in HVC Studio A. Sens. Jon Tester and Rep. Chellie Pingree speak on legislation to help survivors of military sexual trauma at 1 p.m. in S-115. Sen. Jack Reed speaks on consumer protection at 2:30 p.m. in the Senate Studio.
Both Democratic and Republican leaders said they will dedicate a statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in Statuary Hall on Feb. 27.
BOEHNER’S SENATE FIRST STRATEGY – Jake Sherman and Manu Raju write for POLITICO: “The same House Republican majority that spent the entire past two years haranguing Senate Democrats for ignoring piles of legislation has a new strategy. Let the Senate act first — on nearly everything. Whether it’s an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, renewing the Violence Against Women Act or retooling gun regulations after mass shootings across the nation, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is perfectly fine with sitting on his hands. The House GOP’s days of incessantly repealing President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul are gone, as are their bills to eliminate obscure regulations.
– “This ‘Senate first’ strategy allows a divided House to sit back and watch Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) struggle to wrangle votes in a chamber filled with vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in 2014. But it also carries substantial risks. If Senate Republicans join with Democrats and push through major elements of Obama’s agenda, House Republicans could become isolated if they seek to dilute or block the legislative push.” http://politi.co/12LlDam
The NYT’s Jeremy Peters reports: HAGEL NOM CLEARS COMMITTEE, BUT THINGS GET PERSONAL – “After a combative two-hour debate that tested the bounds of Senate collegiality, the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary on a sharply partisan vote. The 14-to-11 vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor with a favorable recommendation was the latest step in a process that has deepened festering hostilities between Congressional Republicans and the White House and has exposed stark disagreements over wartime foreign policy. After the vote, Republicans threatened to try to filibuster the nomination of Mr. Hagel … while Democrats were promising to force a vote of the full Senate as early as Wednesday night.
– “At times, the meeting slipped into an unusually accusatory and bitter back-and-forth, with Republicans like Ted Cruz, a freshman senator from Texas, going as far as to suggest that Mr. Hagel had accepted money from nations that oppose American interests. … Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and other Democrats countered by saying that Republicans had unfairly questioned the integrity of both Mr. Hagel, a two-time Purple Heart recipient, and had undermined the work of the normally bipartisan committee itself. ‘Senator Cruz has gone over the line,’ Mr. Nelson said. ‘He basically has impugned the patriotism of the nominee.’ Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who is opposing his former colleague, also bristled at the attacks on Mr. Hagel, saying that ‘no one on this committee should at any time impugn his character or his integrity.’” http://nyti.ms/XKsjjg
MENENDEZ’S BUSINESS AS USUAL APPROACH – John Bresnahan and Manu Raju report for POLITICO: “Embattled Sen. Robert Menendez is throwing himself into his new job as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as he struggles to deflect attention from his own personal problems. Menendez briefed fellow Democrats in a closed-door session on Tuesday about North Korea’s surprise nuclear test, an issue that has rattled the U.S. and foreign governments. He also met with Shehrbano Rehman, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, to talk about American policy in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Menendez will have coffee with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Over the weekend, Menendez is leading a congressional delegation to Afghanistan and Pakistan. …
–“At the same time, Menendez has been quietly meeting with some of his Democratic colleagues and party leaders to assure them that the scandal he’s embroiled in — which centers on his ties to Florida eye surgeon Salomon Melgen, a close friend and big Democratic donor — won’t interfere with his ability to do his new job. … Yet both Democrats and Republicans — mainly in private — are wondering whether the New Jersey Democrat can succeed with his ‘business-as-usual’ approach to the scandal, which has threatened to derail his once-promising political career.” http://politi.co/WlzcYP
– Fox News reports that Menendez took an undisclosed trip on Salomon’s plane back in 2008 to attend a charity golf tournament. http://fxn.ws/YcPxyo
NUGENT: I HAVE MORE SUPPORT THAN OBAMA – Kate Nocera reports for POLITICO: “Never one to shy away from speaking his mind, rocker Ted Nugent arrived on Capitol Hill for the State of the Union speech and promised to keep quiet. And he kept his promise, sitting silently in a corner of the visitors’ gallery above the House floor. Nugent — a gun advocate and guest of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) — was so quiet, in fact, he didn’t even applaud once during the entire speech. … Nugent said the people who sat with him during the speech were those who ‘lived by the same logic as the Nugent family.’ ‘People of the military, people of law enforcement, small business owners — everyone was in agreement with Uncle Ted,’ he said. As he left the gallery, Nugent was swarmed by fans wanting photos — and even one woman who yelled ‘Run for president, Ted!’ ‘You hear that?’ he said to a reporter. ‘I have more support than the President at his own speech.’” http://politi.co/14S5vCn
TUESDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Aaron Merkin was first to correctly answer that “Yesterdays,” composed in 1933, is the popular song standard that includes the lyric: “Days I knew as happy sweet sequestered days.”
TODAY’S TRIVIA – Which former U.S. senator formed a foundation that raised funds to complete the stalled “Mountains and Clouds” sculpture that hangs in the Hart Senate Building? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.
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Obama delivers "Democrat Classic," Symbolism of SOTU guests, Shootout nearly upstages Obama, Rubio on GMA: "I needed water," Rand serves up red meat, Hagel advances, Lew on Hill at 10 a.m.