Posted on 08/27/2009 6:37:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
AMERICANS should boycott the stock market.
No, I'm not kidding. And this isn't going to be one of those funny columns.
In fact, I'm deadly serious that investors shouldn't risk any more of their money until there are promises of a thorough investigation of Goldman Sachs.
Over the past few years I've looked into the much-too-cozy relationship between Goldman and Washington.
I've suspected that this Wall Street firm has been acting, in essence, as an arm of the government. And I am also pretty sure that if Goldman and Washington have something secret going on, the investment firm isn't doing it for altruistic reasons. There's money to be made.
In 2007 I reported in this column that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson let the cat out of the bag when he confessed on a cable TV show that it was "my job to talk regularly to market participants . . ."
Paulson had been the chairman of Goldman right before taking the job as head of Treasury.
So, if he felt it was his "job" to talk with people on Wall Street then who else would he speak with if not his old friends at Goldman?
The head of the US Treasury would, of course, know lots of secrets. In the olden days, this would be called "inside information."
And despite Paulson's contention it would be entirely inappropriate for him to discuss sensitive matters with people who could profit from the information. It is, in fact, illegal. And the penalty could be jail time.
What has been of particular interest to me is whether Paulson contacted his friends at Goldman after a lunch with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thurs., Aug. 16, 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I have noticed that Goldman Sachs predictions are wonderful counter-indicators.
They predicted oil prices to continue to rise sharply once it had gotten to $146/bbl. Wonder how many sheep were shorn on that play.
I have been “boycotting” the stock market since January of 2008, this after being an investor since 1971. I don’t believe I’ll be going back in anytime soon.
Actually, that's half-true.
GS and MS will feed predictions to the pundits on the financial talking head channels and those will be breathlessly (and uncritically) repeated.
GS and other investment banks in the meantime have been priming the commodities exchanges and driving up the prices. Once they figure they have taken the escalator up as far as it will go, they will start shorting the markets even as the predict they will keep going higher, in order to get the suckers lined up.
Making nothing is an signficant improvement over losing half.
At the time I got out I put all I had into CD's of varying maturities, none over 3 years with the average yield on all about 4.5%. As these mature I will have to make a decision as to where to put the money, but the first of them will not come due until a year from this November.
My retirement funds are in the stock market. What do you suggest folks like us do?
When I invested in the stock market I did so with a longer term approach. I sold out everything in early 2008 when I became convinced that the Obamination would win the Dem Nomination and possibly the Presidency. I luckily only lost 10%. How can I dare to get back in and invest long term when the “rules” are changing at the whim of this administration?
At this point I am more into saving every penny I can. Stocking up on necessary items, buying gold/silver and preserving savings seem to be the safe route until the hostility towards our free-market system ceases.
“GS and other investment banks in the meantime have been priming the commodities exchanges and driving up the prices. Once they figure they have taken the escalator up as far as it will go, they will start shorting the markets”
Folks, we have a WINNER!
As crazy as this sounds, I think the market is being manipulated to help Obama. Remember this:
Dow Jones is pushing out newly bankrupt automaker General Motors and financial giant Citigroup from its industrials index in favor of Cisco Systems and Travelers Companies, Inc., respectively.
and this:
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Citibank Top Donor to Obama Inauguration:
Citibank employees were big campaign contributors to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign.Not a bad rent-seeking “investment”.Obama voted for TARP.Now Newsmax reports:
Employees of Citibank, which received $45 billion in rescue funds in the federal bailout, have contributed the most to Barack Obama’s inauguration fund, at least $113,000 as of Wednesday.
And the bank is lobbying behind the scenes for more money from the second $350 billion installment of federal bailout funds, according to The New York Times.
Among the contributions from Citibank executives is $50,000 from Ray McGuire, the bank’s co-head of global investment banking, and $50,000 from Louis Susman, the recently retired vice chairman of Citigroup, the Huffington Post reports.
Susman also bundled $300,000 in donations for the inaugural committee, according to Politico.com.
Bundlers are fundraisers who collect checks from friends and associates and deliver them to a campaign or committee.
Citigroup employees also gave $586,000 to Obama during the 2008 election cycle.
This is the flow of how the socialist redistribution of wealth works.TARP money for Obama’s inauguration,which only insures more TARP money! We have a feeling Chris Dodd and Barney Frank don’t mind Citibank making campaign contributions to politicians with TARP money.Citibank may be on the verge of insolvency( because of their inability to run a prudent bank) but they have the money to be the biggest donors at Obama’s inauguration! Is Barack Obama(Democrat-Citibank)?
Goldman Sacs was Obama’s largest contributor(as well as the other entities involved in the crash) and the market collapse was timed to help him win.
As most people know the Federal Reserve Systems is a private company. If you don’t believe me look it up in the yellow pages right next to Federal Express not in the Federal Government blue pages.
Even more interesting is that one of the OWNERS of the Federal Reserve System is Goldman Sachs. Gee is this a conflict of interest? I believe so.
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/fed_banking_fraud.htm
This bank would assume control over the American economy by controlling the issuance of its money. After a huge public relations campaign, engineered by the foreign central banks, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was slipped through Congress during the Christmas recess, with many members of the Congress absent. President Woodrow Wilson, pressured by his political and financial backers, signed it on December 23, 1913.
The act created the Federal Reserve System, a name carefully selected and designed to deceive. “Federal” would lead one to believe that this is a government organization. “Reserve” would lead one to believe that the currency is being backed by gold and silver. “System” was used in lieu of the word “bank” so that one would not conclude that a new central bank had been created.
In reality, the act created a private, for profit, central banking corporation owned by a cartel of private banks. Who owns the FED? The Rothschilds of London and Berlin; Lazard Brothers of Paris; Israel Moses Seif of Italy; Kuhn, Loeb and Warburg of Germany; and the Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Sachs and the Rockefeller families of New York.
Did you know that the FED is the only for-profit corporation in America that is exempt from both federal and state taxes? The FED takes in about one trillion dollars per year tax free! The banking families listed above get all that money.
Almost everyone thinks that the money they pay in taxes goes to the US Treasury to pay for the expenses of the government. Do you want to know where your tax dollars really go? If you look at the back of any check made payable to the IRS you will see that it has been endorsed as “Pay Any F.R.B. Branch or Gen. Depository for Credit U.S. Treas. This is in Payment of U.S. Oblig.” Yes, that’s right, every dime you pay in income taxes is given to those private banking families, commonly known as the FED, tax free.
Depends on when you will need the money and where it is in the stock market. I am not a qualified money manager although I have been doing it for myself for about 35 years. I would say get advice from a professional and have ready the info he will need to make the best decision for you.
This includes what you now have, what are you able to add to it on a regular basis, what are your expenses now and down the road (fixed), when will you be retiring and when will you need the money you have/are saving and what level of risk are you willing to assume.
Every plan is different and there is no set allocation for retirement savings.
Ammunition is way up.
Most the volume on the market in the last few months can probably be traced back to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. This is the plunge protection team as they are wrapped around the FED and treasury like a vine. The free market is now the government manipulated market.
Clinton realized with his former GS guy Rubin that the stock market value is considered by the public as equivalent to the health of the economy. If the stock market is up, all is well and you get reelected. They have taken it to new extremes in an attempt to keep the Obama PR machine rolling. If you risk your money in the current market, just realizes they can pull the plug on it anytime they feel like it and pocket your money. Not for the faint of heart.
The return on their trades is also statistically impossible. (so I’ve read)
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