Elizabeth Warren was fully aware of who had contributed to the financial crisis and said so:
"To restore some basic sanity to the financial system, we need two central changes: fix broken consumer-credit markets and end guarantees for the big players that threaten our entire economic system. If we get those two key parts right, we can still dial the rest of the regulation up and down as needed. But if we don't get those two right, I think the game is over. I hate to sound alarmist, but that's how I feel about this."Such honesty is like a red flag to banks like Goldman Sachs that would prefer no regulation at all. In the end, Elizabeth Warren was not chosen to implement the changes she worked on. Sad!
So this is how Goldman Sachs guys work in the real world to thwart the creation of necessary regulations of the banks! Haller's having worked at Goldman Sachs is a taint, not a blessing.
Our Little Friend From Goldman Sachs Scheduled Elizabeth Warren's Oversight Committee TestimonyRead the story here and also here
By Susie Madrak - CROOKS AND LIARS
More on our little former Goldman Sachs VP. Of course, I'm sure he would never have anything to do with trying to set up Elizabeth Warren:ThinkProgress has now obtained more evidence that suggests that Haller’s employment under Issa is more akin to a bank lobbyist than a public servant entrusted with protecting the public interest. In May, GOP members on the Oversight Committee invited Professor Elizabeth Warren, then a special advisor working on the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to testify about the new agency. The hearing quickly became a media sideshow, with Republican lawmakers trying to trip Warren up and embarrass her.
One congressman, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), became infamous overnight for berating Warren and accusing her of lying about her scheduling with the committee. It turns out that Haller, again carrying water for financial corporations afraid of new regulations, was behind the scheduling controversy at the heart of the McHenry confrontation with Warren.
According to e-mail correspondence obtained from Judicial Watch, Haller oversaw the scheduling of the Warren testimony. According to Flavio Cumpiano, a congressional liaison for the CFPB, Haller reportedly changed the time of the hearing at the last minute, then misled Warren staffers by promising to end the testimony by 2:15 pm that day. In the emails, Haller denies ever agreeing to 2:15. But, Haller had been informed that Warren could not go beyond 2:15:– Monday May 23 8:43pm: Haller writes to Flavio Cumpiano, a congressional liaison for the CFPB, the night before the hearing to make “an [sic] late change to 1:00.” At 11:00pm, Cumpiano responds to figure out a better time.– Tuesday May 24 morning: After Haller and Cumpiano go back and forth with e-mails about which time would be best, a phone conversation occurs between Haller and Adewale Adeyemo, chief of staff to the CFBP implementation team, and a schedule is set. At 10:11am, Cumpiano e-mails Haller: “Hi Peter. I understand from Wally -copied here- that you both spoke and she’ll [Elizabeth Warren] testify from 1:15pm to 2:15pm. Thanks, Flavio.”– Tuesday May 24 afternoon around 2:15pm: McHenry, with Haller sitting behind him, accuses Warren of trying to evading the committee by trying to leave at the agreed-upon time. When Warren noted that McHenry’s aides had agreed upon the schedule, McHenry elicited audible gasps in the room by declaring Warren a liar: “You’re making this up, Ms. Warren. This is not the case.”– Tuesday May 24 2:32pm: As Warren leaves the hearing room, Haller fires off an e-mail to Cumpiano demanding that he “please confirm” that he did not “confirm the end time.” Later that afternoon, Cumpiano responds by reiterating that Haller had confirmed the 2:15pm end time, and had even told Adeyemo that he would inform McHenry of the schedule during the call.McHenry seemed to have a mission that day. As Crooks and Liars blogger Karoli pointed out, before the hearing started, McHenry appeared on CNBC and accused Warren of lying about the nature of her advice to the consumer protection agency. The scheduling controversy at the hearing appears to be little more than a cover for McHenry to smear Warren as untrustworthy.Haller, who is visible to the C-SPAN camera in a seat near McHenry, shakes his head at Warren when she said “we had an agreement for the time this hearing” (time stamp 00:55).
ThinkProgress reached out to Haller for comment on this story, but the Oversight Committee refused our request.Goldman Sachs has spent millions this year lobbying on new Dodd-Frank mandates, and has sent its representatives to private meetings about the implementation of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules.
The Warren incident provides more fodder to critics who say Issa has turned his Oversight Committee over to lobbyists. In comments to the press, Issa’s spokeswoman did not deny that Haller worked previously [for] Goldman Sachs or that he covers financial issues for the committee.
Public Citizen’s Bart Naylor commented on ThinkProgress’ story last Friday, noting “Chairman Issa must take every step to ensure that his investigations are unclouded by any appearance of conflict. The next time Chairman Issa sends a scolding letter to regulators and asks that they contact Peter Haller, he should disclose that Mr. Haller worked at Goldman Sachs.”
5 COMMENTS:
He should investigate, make public, and get rid of congresses "exemption from conflict of interest" laws. Regular people know the score...just listen...
Warren Buffett is once again the recipient of mana from Washington in the form of Law and Financial Based Capitalism (LAWCAP and FINCAP). This means that he can buy BOA preferred stock risk free with a government backstop while the general stock buying public gets low priority (shafted) should the company declare bankruptcy. All eyes await news from "Bernak" Ben Bernanke in hopes that he will drop more money from helicopters via QE 3. Gold takes a pounding at the hands of CME margin paper pushers. Once again LAWCAP and FINCAP win because Goldman and the other White Shoe Boys don't have to put up margin or capital on uber-leveraged derivative instruments. Why should they have to when they get all the profits as the taxpayer backstops them with billions in bailout money. Generation Death continues to speak to denial out of the Japanese region and Fukushima. Other comments and analysis of current events.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmkbRCZA-ok&feature=youtube_gdata
Goldman Launches Probe For To Find Out Who's Behind The @GSElevator Twitter Account
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-twitter-2011-8#ixzz1W9p2tNQ1
They take us for fools with rationalization...
Why can’t we tell Henry Paulson is a hero?
Commentary: Mixed legacy for former Treasury, Goldman boss
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-cant-we-tell-henry-paulson-is-a-hero-2011-08-26
Two words. Brooksley Born.
As head of the CFTC from 1996-1999, she warned Greenspan, Rubin, and Summers about the potential disaster lurking in the derivatives market, specifically with regard to credit default swaps.
The Three Stooges, along with then SEC chairman Aurthur Levitt, assured the Executive Office that she did not know what she was talking about and that CFTC regulation of these instuments was not needed.
We now know differently.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-cant-we-tell-henry-paulson-is-a-hero-2011-08-26?siteid=rss&rss=1#comment6141863
Ka-ching again...
Some Of Your Taxpayer Assets Will Be Sold Off To 'Vulture Funds,' In Case You Were Interested
These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going to be sold to private investor conglomerates at extraordinarily large discounts to real value.
You and I will not be allowed to participate. These investors will come from the private-equity and hedge-fund community, Goldman Sachs and its derivatives, as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds that can bring a billion dollars or more to each transaction.
In the process, these investors will instantaneously become the largest improved real estate owners and landlords in the world. The U.S. taxpayer will get pennies on the dollar for these homes and then be allowed to rent them back at market rates.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/taxpayer-assets-vulture-funds_n_937063.html
You want to talk about Henry Paulson being a hero? I think not and here's why:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson
Paulson was a creator of CDOs while at GS, the same CDOs that led to the financial crisis; he was an incompetent interventionist; he basically covered up the fraud of the banks by buying their toxic assets; he had many conflicts of interest and resolved these in favor of Goldman Sachs especially; etc.
Not a hero!
There were other ways to approach the banking crisis: banks could have been broken up into constituent parts and each been made viable that way; the FDIC could have had the big banks go through bankruptcy proceedings that would have gotten rid of all the bad executives (who committed accounting control fraud) and kept the bank working with new execs (as it does with smaller banks); some of the bailout money should have been given to the people who were defrauded by mortgage servicing companies (that were encouraged by the banks) rather than giving that money to the banks who just gave themselves bigger and better bonuses; etc., etc.,
Henry Paulson did not give a fig for all the people whose wealth in pensions, savings and mortgages was stolen by the banks through fraudulent means.
NOT a hero except in his own mind!
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