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Fraud*
According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".[1] In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain
*As defined in Wikipedia

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Goldman Sachs's Blankfein, "Power Talks"

So Blankfein is not going to give a speech at Barnard on the topic of "Power Talks" due to a scheduling conflict. Here are some suggestions for his topic should he choose to deliver it some time in the future:

Taking Power Away From Government citing Rubin;

Lobbying for Power from Politicians citing Obama;

Power Obtained Through Campaign Contributions Left and Right;

Power and Influence on Education Boards citing Debora Spar;

Gaining Power Through the Justice System citing Dudley;

Power in Regulatory Agencies like CFTC citing Gensler;

Deregulating at Every Powerful Opportunity citing Rubin;

Power in Creating Junk Securities Based on Sub-prime Mortgages;

Power and Money by Betting on the Failure of the Mortgage Market;

Speculative Power in Food and Other Commodities;

etc., etc., etc.

Goldman Sachs CEO cancels lecture at Barnard
By Jeremy Budd - Columbia Daily Spectator

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has canceled a speech he planned to give at Barnard on Oct. 12, though officials said he plans to reschedule.

Barnard’s events website cited travel issues, with a message explaining that Blankfein “must be in Washington D.C. that evening and will be unable to deliver his lecture as planned.” But his absence also allows him to avoid protests that had been planned to coincide with his speech.

In response to Blankfein’s invite, Columbia students had organized “School the Squid” week—referring to writer Matt Taibbi calling Goldman Sachs “a great vampire squid”—including a series of discussions and film screenings focused on corporate greed and abuse of power.

Yoni Golijov, CC ’12 and an organizer of “School the Squid” week, said the Columbia University Activists would have protested if Blankfein spoke on campus.

“CU Activists were planning a teach-in outside the Barnard gates to explain why he is not a responsible citizen nor a role model,” Golijov said in an email, adding that some faculty and at least one other another group had been planning independent protests.

Now, CU Activists will be holding a celebratory gathering outside the Barnard gates on Wednesday.

Blankfein is one of the highest-paid executives on Wall Street, and critics have used him as a figure of corporate greed and irresponsible practices in the financial sector. Others have praised him for keeping the investment banking and securities firm intact, and even profitable, through the economic crisis.

In June, Barnard President Debora Spar was elected to Goldman Sachs’ board of directors.

Blankfein’s speech, scheduled as part of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies Power Talks series, would have come at an awkward time. Thousands of young people—including some Barnard students—have been participating in Occupy Wall Street demonstrations over the last four weeks to protest the financial sector’s role in the economic crisis.

“While debt and unemployment rise across America, Barnard College expects us to celebrate Blankfein as a model of ‘leadership’ and ‘excellence’?” read an email advertising the protest.

Kathryn Kolbert, director of the Athena Center, said that Blankfein was invited among leaders from all segments of society. She said he had not yet given the center another date, but was planning to return.

“We are booked this fall, and for the most part, these things take a while to reschedule,” she said.

Read the article here

3 COMMENTS:

Letstalkotcderivatives said...

No Surprise Here For Me


Now, with the Erste Group we're talking about $5.2 billion.  The Erste Group's balance sheet (assets/liabilities) is roughly $280 billion in size.  And Erste is not exactly a big player in the OTC derivatives market.  Let's look at one of the big U.S. TBTFs and just do a "broad stroke" comparison.  Bank of America, for example, has a $2 trillion dollar balance sheet - over seven times the size of Erste Group.  And Merrill Lynch - now owned by BAC, was one of the bigger players in the OTC derivatives market.  So just on a "scale" basis, it's very safe to say that BAC is likely sitting ten times the amount of undisclosed losses in its derivatives book as the Erste Group.  I would bet a lot of money that the actually losses are substantially larger than that.

But if you want to look at the work published by Wall Street research analysts showing the "financial ratios and condition" of U.S.  TBTFs, nowhere will you see anything mentioned about off-balance-sheet liabilities.  These wind-up circus monkeys simply transpose the GAAP balance sheet data onto a pretty spreadsheet and say "see, the water is fine, c'mon in."  And then this garbage gets regurgitated in the financial media and through the world of financial advisors and brokers who want to take your money as they mindlessly reference this highly flawed research and tell their clients that the U.S. banks are in good shape...it's pathetic.

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2011/10/no-surprise-here-for-me.html

Guest said...

Occupy Wall Street’s Nattering Nabobs of Negativity


http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/10/occupy-wall-street%e2%80%99s-nattering-nabobs-of-negativity/

Joyce said...

Thank you, Voteeveryoneinout, for expanding the list.  I like your list too.  And Obama says Goldman Sachs didn't do anything illegal!  What a crock!

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