Goldman Sachs And The Republicans
By: Baseline Scenario
I testified yesterday to the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the "Volcker Rules" (full pdf version; summary). My view is that while the principles behind these proposed rules are exactly on target – limiting the size of our largest banks and preventing any financial institution backed by the government, implicitly or explicitly, from taking big risks – the specific rule changes would need to be much tougher if they are to have any effect.
Wall Street is strongly opposed to the Volcker Rules (link to the written testimony; webcast) and the discussion elicited some classic Goldman Sachs moments. Gerry Corrigan, a senior executive at Goldman and former head of the New York Fed, suggested that Goldman Sachs has an impeccable approach to risk management and seemed to imply that the firm was not in trouble in fall 2008. When pressed on why Goldman requested and was granted a banking license – and access to the Fed's discount window – in September 2008, he fell back slightly, "There is no question whatsoever that when you look at totality of the steps that were taken by central banks and government, particularly in 2008, that Goldman Sachs was a beneficiary of this."
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! Goldman has an impeccable approach to risk management? If by impeccable you mean borrowing at zero percent and buying treasuries at three percent, I guess you could call that impeccable. Most everybody else calls it taxpayer theft. Give.Me.A.Break.
You know the drill. Read the rest here.
4 COMMENTS:
People are pissed and not happy with our leaders collective response whether republican or democrat
From ZH...A comment ....
Lloyd has a lot more to worry about than the number of $ in his bonus. His biggest worry should be the number of years in his prison sentence if he were to be convicted as a ringleader in the greatest financial crimes in U.S. history.
Whatever the "bonus" amount really is, Lloyd may be worried that this will be his last chance to dump the collection plate into his pocket doing God's work.
Lloyd may be worried that he might be arrested and prosecuted for a series of God's goods works that mere mortals misinterpreted as the greatest financial crimes in U.S. history.
Lloyd may be worried that the number of state and federal prosecutors after him will snowball into scores of trials, with everyone, including Scotland Yard and the International Court of Justice in Hague after him, eager to be the first to bring him to justice and a life-time sentence in a hard-time prison.
Lloyd may worried that he needs every $million he can lay his hands on to build a war chest to pay an army of defense lawyers to defend against the scores of prosecutions in state, federal, and international courts.
Lloyd may be worried that every Goldman Sachs man of God faces the same trials and tribulations, and thus, Lloyd needs to stuff their pockets so they will keep the faith and not bear false witness against Lloyd.
In normal times, Lloyd would be safe from prosecution. But these are not normal times. The probability of Lloyd's prosecution may be low, but public anger is growing with Congressional hearings, SIGTARP, etc.
It takes only one prosecutor to investigate just one crime, and follow the money and the connected crimes, and bring down the overlapping criminal enterprises using Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) prosecutions. Or, due to public anger, the Obama administration could decide to throw Lloyd overboard, Chicago-style. There is no honor among thieves; even the capo di tutti capi must go when he brings unwelcome public spotlight on the criminal enterprise.
Lloyd may see the small, but real and growing possibility that he faces prosecution. Lloyd gathering money for an army of defense lawyers would be risk management, something for which Goldman Sachs is famous.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/blankfein-cohn-both-get-9-million-stock-bonus-no-cash#comment-219944
They want to shut down the truth with mis-characterization of motives..listen
On the Edge with Max Keiser – 06 February 2010
With guest, Catherine Austin Fitts.
Do a google on Fitts..you'll be surprised how impressive her resume is...honest lady.
http://maxkeiser.com/2010/02/06/ote39-on-the-edge-with-max-keiser-06-february-2010/
The republicans are licking their chops over how much $ will be floated by the likes of goldman et al..and don't kid yourself while the dem's vocalize their opposition their hands are itching for it too...lets see if it the dem's are serious or if they fold..time will tell
February 5, 2010
In the wake of a controversial Supreme Court decision giving corporations and unions more freedom to spend on elections, many federal and state lawmakers are hoping to curb Citizens United V. FEC's effect on elections. Find out how some legislators are fighting to curb Big Money spending even as the Court invalidates laws in 24 states aimed at keeping elections clean.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02052010/watch.html
AIG-GATE: THE WORLD’S GREATEST INSURANCE HEIST
Ellen Brown
February 5, 2010
www.webofdebt.com/articles
Rumor has it that Timothy Geithner is on his way out as Treasury Secretary, due to his involvement in the AIG scandal that is now unraveling in hearings before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Bob Chapman writes in The International Forecaster:
Each day brings more revelations of efforts of the NY Fed and Goldman Sachs to hide the details of the criminal conspiracy of the AIG bailout. . . . This is a real crisis on the scale of Watergate. Corruption at its finest.
But unlike the perpetrators of the Watergate scandal, who wound up looking at jail time, Geithner evidently has a golden parachute waiting at Goldman Sachs, not coincidentally the largest recipient of the AIG bailout. At least that is the rumor sparked by an article by Caroline Baum on Bloomberg News, titled “Goldman Parachute Awaits Geithner to Ease Fall.” Hank Paulson, Geithner’s predecessor, was CEO of Goldman Sachs before coming to the Treasury. Geithner, who has come up through the ranks of government, could be walking through the revolving door in the other direction.
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/aig_gate.php
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