By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 24, 2021 ~
Haven’t we learned anything about properly vetting people for the highest offices in the U.S. government?
Former Fed Chair and Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen has failed to report the details of millions of dollars in fees that she earned in 2018, the year she stepped down as Fed Chair, as she went on a whirlwind of speaking engagements in foreign cities around the world. Yellen’s “leadership” role with the Bloomberg New Economy Forums which had the “active participation and support” of an organization openly tied to the Chinese Communist Party, raises further serious red flags. And yet, Yellen sailed through her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing this past week, gaining a favorable vote of 26-0. A full Senate vote to confirm Yellen as Treasury Secretary is expected to occur tomorrow.
What Yellen did disclose on her Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure form showed that in 2019 and 2020 she made a cash haul of more than $7 million in speaking fees, the majority of which came from Wall Street trading houses, mega banks and hedge funds. Yellen stepped down as Chair of the Fed on February 3, 2018. Over the next 10 months, in addition to her foreign gigs, Yellen also appeared at numerous stateside paid engagements for Wall Street firms like JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Jefferies. She has failed to make public the transcripts of her speeches at these events or the specific amounts she was paid.
After the news broke of Yellen’s $7 million haul, Senior Reporter Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica Tweeted: “Deeply troubling two-fisted money grab from banks by Janet Yellen. This is corruption, but isn’t called that because it’s so quotidian.” Eisinger also noted: “Sure, Yellen might think she can make independent decisions once in office. But how arrogant is it to imagine that money corrupts everyone but you?”
Many of the banks Yellen accepted cash windfalls from were regulated by the Fed prior to her departure. These banks are also recidivist lawbreakers. JPMorgan Chase has been charged with, and admitted to, five criminal felony counts brought by the U.S. Department of Justice while it was being supervised by the Fed. The public deserves to know how much Yellen received from JPMorgan Chase in the year after she left the Fed. Citigroup, a smaller bank than JPMorgan Chase, paid Yellen over $990,000 in 2019 and 2020, according to her financial disclosure form. Citigroup received the largest Fed bailout in global banking history following the Wall Street crash of 2008.
We have learned that Yellen didn’t even come clean with the abbreviated information she did provide to the Office of Government Ethics. For example, Yellen was a speaker at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore in 2018; appeared virtually at the event in 2020; and was a member of its Advisory Board. The Office of Government Ethics asks nominees to list “Employment Agreements and Arrangements.” There is no mention of her role on the Advisory Board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum or any speaking fees she may have collected to speak at its 2018 and 2020 events. (Considering that Yellen charged the Texas Christian University $135,000 to speak in March of 2019, it seems highly unlikely Yellen would travel 9600 miles to Singapore for a billionaire’s event on a pro bono basis.)
One of the Co-Chairs of the Advisory Board for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in 2018 was Zeng Peiyan, the former Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. That Forum opened on November 6, 2018 in Singapore with a Keynote Address from Wang Qishan, the Vice President of the People’s Republic of China, according to a program brochure for the event. The billionaire founder of the New Economy Forum, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, gave the opening welcome remarks. Bloomberg ridiculously gushed over Wang Qishan, saying: “Today he is the most influential political figure in China and in the world” – “in the world” being the operative phrase.
Yellen was on a panel that same day that looked at “The Future of Capitalism,” which asked the question: “Is the Chinese model a better option for New Economy countries?” The explanation for this seemingly anti-American discussion was this, according to the program: “In the West, stark wealth disparities stoke popular resentment against business elites, establishment political parties and global institutions. Capitalism needs a new face. What would it look like?”
Michael Bloomberg Giving the Welcome Remarks at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on November 6, 2018
We think it behooves Michael Bloomberg, whose wealth derives from leasing his data terminals to trading floors around the world, including in China, to release a recording of this entire panel discussion. China is a Communist country with a serial and ongoing history of abhorrent human rights abuses of its people, as documented by Amnesty International. To suggest it should be a “model” for anything demands scrutiny. And what Yellen, the nominee for one of the most powerful posts in the U.S. government, said in this discussion needs to be shared with the American people, given the remarks she made in Paris in 2018, which we discuss shortly.
The Bloomberg 2018 event was originally scheduled to be held in Beijing. It had the “active participation and support” of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), as reported by Bloomberg LP. The South China Morning Post reported that the venue was changed because it conflicted with the 2018 China International Import Expo in Shanghai, also held in November 2018.
The following year’s Bloomberg New Economy Forum was held in Beijing on November 20-22, 2019 and was “hosted” by Bloomberg and CCIEE, according to a press release for the event. Yellen is listed as an “advisor” for the event. It is unclear if she actually attended or spoke at the 2019 Forum but her financial disclosure report reveals that she received $157,500 from HSM for a speaking event that occurred on the same day as the second day of the Bloomberg 2019 Forum, November 21, 2019.
HSM potentially stands for HSM Air Services, which says it is “dedicated to bring in high-quality foreign airlines for tourism to all levels of cities in China, providing more options and travel destinations for Chinese travelers by establishing direct schedule flight routes.” Why an air service company would pay $157,500 to hear wonky talk from the former Chair of the Federal Reserve is worthy of further exploration.
Yellen also reported on her financial disclosure form…
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