tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post3137181313441662250..comments2023-11-05T05:09:14.089-05:00Comments on Goldman Sachs: Information, Comments, Opinions and Facts: Goldman Sachs As Job Creator--Not!RobertMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03960912417983904202noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post-66779437506943255232011-12-15T12:46:10.910-05:002011-12-15T12:46:10.910-05:00The Truth Hurts--And Heals (December 15, 2011)
...The Truth Hurts--And Heals (December 15, 2011)<br /><br /><br />Confidence in a systemically corrupt financial system cannot be <br />restored without a complete public exposure of all the lies, fraud, <br />misinformation and complicity.<br /><br /><br />The truth has a unique sting, and an equally unique ability to heal <br />the destruction wrought by dishonesty, fraud and lies. The truth hurts, <br />because the daylight of truth demands changes that the self-serving and <br />those in denial desperately wish to avoid.<br /><br /><br />But there can be no healing or reconciliation without the truth, baldly stated and plainly spoken without artifice or spin.<br /><br /><br />If we can finally be truthful with ourselves as a nation, then we <br />must admit that our financial system is fundamentally based on lies, <br />fraud, embezzlement, misinformation, perverse filters and incentives, <br />shadow systems that mock transparency and regulation, class privilege <br />and the systemic flouting of the rule of law.<br /><br /><br />This is the truth that hurts because it reveals the financial system <br />as one stupendous exploitative fraud; but it also reveals the complicity<br /> and irrelevance of our judicial system and the complete capture of the <br />legislative and Executive processes of governance.<br /><br /><br />There is a system of government in which rule of law is merely a <br />propaganda screen, where financial and political Elites run the show and<br /> escape the consequences of their actions: it's called tyranny. The <br />truth is that we live in a financial tyranny. <br /><br /><br />http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/truth-hurts-heals12-11.htmlKleptocratic Power Elite rulenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post-2801637909543870212011-12-15T12:29:24.475-05:002011-12-15T12:29:24.475-05:00If you want less corruption help Ron Paul..if you ...If you want less corruption help Ron Paul..if you want status quo vote the rest..it might hurt but hurts coming either way!<br /><br />A message from John Tate - Ron Paul Tea Party Money Bomb<br /><br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L441IHctqsM&feature=colikeNo more corruptionnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post-25441818361752002012011-12-15T11:49:27.345-05:002011-12-15T11:49:27.345-05:00Too Big to Stop: Why Big Banks Keep Getting Away W...Too Big to Stop: Why Big Banks Keep Getting Away With Breaking the Law<br />For the country's biggest financial institutions, it's still worth it to break the law, because the government has no way to make the banks pay for acting illegally<br /><br />The issue in the Goldman case was whether the bank properly disclosed that John Paulson, a hedge fund manager, was involved in the selection of securities for the deal, because he wanted to bet against them. This time, Citigroup's own proprietary "trading desk" asked its CDO "structuring desk" to create a debt instrument that it could bet against. The trading desk came up with a list of securities to include in the new CDO and passed it on to the structuring desk, which in turn sent it to a supposedly independent third party that would manage the CDO itself, called CSAC.<br /><br />In one email, the person on the structuring desk overseeing the deal wrote, "This is [the CDO trading desk]'s prop trade (don't tell CSAC). CSAC agreed to terms even though they don't get to pick the assets" (SEC complaint against Brian Stoker, paragraph 32.) Half of the eventual CDO was based on securities chosen by Citi's trading desk (paragraph 42). (Yves Smith has more, from the SEC's order against CSAC--which, by the way, is part of Credit Suisse, another big bank.) Of course, the structuring desk didn't do this just as a favor to the trading desk: "On November 14, 2006, Stoker's immediate supervisor informed Stoker that Stoker should take action to ensure that the structuring desk received 'credit for [the trading desk's] profits' on Class V III" (complaint, paragraph 33).<br /><br />CAPTURED!<br /><br />The absence of a factual basis is a decent legal argument, but I think what Rakoff is really taking aim at is the problem of regulatory capture. For Citi, the settlement boiled down to two things: a $95 million penalty and a promise not to break the law in the future. Anyone who can do basic arithmetic can see that it's worth it to break the law under those terms so long as you have a two-thirds chance of getting away with it (and who thinks the SEC is catching more than one-third of all violations?). And earlier in the case, Rakoff asked the SEC how often it has actually enforced the promise by a bank not to violate the law in the future. The answer: never, at least not in the past ten years (pp. 22-23). <br /><br />In short, a settlement like this seems to have exactly zero value as a deterrent. <br />http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/too-big-to-stop-why-big-banks-keep-getting-away-with-breaking-the-law/249952/You hope they laughnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post-70749733109636697832011-12-15T11:07:34.688-05:002011-12-15T11:07:34.688-05:00Census data: Half of U.S. poor or low income
(AP) ...Census data: Half of U.S. poor or low income<br />(AP) WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number <br />of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping <br />by on earnings that classify them as low income.<br /> The <br />latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as <br />unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new <br />numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have <br />hurt millions of workers and families.<br /> "Safety net <br />programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising <br />even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related <br />and medical expenses, they are considered too `rich' to qualify," said <br />Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who <br />specializes in poverty.<br /><br /><br />http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57343397/census-data-half-of-u.s-poor-or-low-income/Tarp helped who?noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post-36052984466925527582011-12-14T13:52:59.174-05:002011-12-14T13:52:59.174-05:00Corzine Grilled Over MF Global Collapse After Witn...Corzine Grilled Over MF Global Collapse After Witness Suggests Knowledge of Misused Funds<br /><br /><br />Prins says. "When you see 5,500 arrests across this country for the <br />Occupy movement and you see zero on the part of CEOs and senior <br />executives from Wall Street who took trillions of dollars out of our <br />economy, out of the European economy, [and] are going around the world <br />doing the same thing to Asia now, it is absolutely heinous."<br /><br />http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/14/corzine_grilled_over_mf_global_collapseSociopaths dont carenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724181159639068489.post-59823771602097947142011-12-14T12:13:24.050-05:002011-12-14T12:13:24.050-05:00Dear Mr. Blankfien
I am going to shamelessly appe...Dear Mr. Blankfien<br /><br />I am going to shamelessly appeal to your better nature now. Remember when, as a child, your mother talked to you about what kind of man you would be? Well, try to remember how idealistic you were. You probably wanted to do something that would make people happier or more comfortable. You wanted, perhaps, to contribute some new knowledge that would make people's lives better.<br /><br />I'm sure you were sympathetic and empathetic to those around you and, as you grew older, these feelings extended beyond your own group.<br /><br />Ask yourself: When did things go wrong? When did money and the pursuit of wealth become the most important thing to do? How many lives have been ruined by my pursuits? When will The Number be within my grasp--is a billion dollars enough? What kind of example am I to young people who may look up to me? Am I shallower now than when I was a young man?<br /><br />These are hard questions but I think you can give the answers readily enough.<br /><br />Sincerely<br /><br />A Believer in the Better Aspects of Human NatureJEHRnoreply@blogger.com