Posted on 04/28/2010 3:36:03 PM PDT by Syncro
WASHINGTON TAKES BREAK FROM PORN SURFING TO BAIL OUT WALL STREET
April 28, 2010
Democrats have decided that in order to prevent Wall Street from starting more financial meltdowns, wrecking the economy and leaving the American taxpayer holding the bag, we need to give more oversight authority to the same government employees who were busy surfing Internet porn as private investors frantically tried to warn them about Bernie Madoff.
The Democrats' financial "reform" bill also includes a $50 billion bailout fund -- that's million with a "B" -- that will save the Democrats from the unpleasant task of having to go on record voting for another Wall Street bailout.
Under the Democrats' bill, the FDIC will distribute the bailout money to Wall Street bankers without Congress having to take any action at all. (In the House version, the slush fund for the Democrats' Wall Street friends is $150 billion.)
True, the billions of dollars will be doled out to banks for the purpose of "dissolving" them. So what? They'll come back under a new name. But the guilty parties will lose no money for making bad bets -- although if the bets paid off, they'd take all the profits. That's what Democrats mean by "accountability."
Not surprisingly, the only politicians opposed to a permanent bailout fund for bankers are the politicians not owned by Wall Street -- that is, most Republicans, and one socialist, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The Democrats' defense of Wall Street's golden parachute is to say Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell used a "talking point" formulated for him by pollster Frank Luntz in opposing the bailout fund.
As Frank Rich explained in The New York Times, the bailout fund is not a bailout fund because "Sen. Mitch McConnell went on CNN to flog his big lie that the Senate reform bill somehow guaranteed bank bailouts -- a talking point long ago concocted for the GOP by its favorite spin strategist, Frank Luntz."
In other words, it must be a lie because ... because Frank Luntz told McConnell what to say and then McConnell said it on CNN!
Yes, and Steve Jobs gets his best ideas from parishilton.com.
Sen. McConnell doesn't need Frank Luntz to explain anything to him, least of all the financial reform bill. A fifth-grader could find out about the permanent bailout fund simply by reading the bill.
You will notice that neither Rich nor any of Wall Street's defenders specifically deny the existence of a permanent bank bailout fund in the Democrats' bill. They just say McConnell used a "talking point" to denounce it. (You might say this has become a "talking point" for Democrats defending the bill.)
Wall Street's defenders also crow that the money in the bailout fund won't come from taxpayers! (There's a newfound sympathy.) No sir, it will come from "the banks."
Why didn't Barack Obama or Chuck Schumer fall out? Why not Rahm Emanuel, who worked for Goldman? Or Greg Craig, who used to work for Obama but just took a job with Goldman?
Read the rest at Ann Coulter.Com
That’s better!
Thank you for asking the Mods to pull THAT one, and for taking the time to re-post THIS one.The HTML glitch in the first one had something to do with FR's "word wrap" function, I think.
"In 2008, Goldman employees gave a record-breaking $1,007,370 to the Obama campaign.
This year, the "securities and investment" industry has already given twice as much money to the Democrats as to the Republicans.
ABC News reports that "the five biggest hedge fund donors all gave almost all their donations to Democrats." Among the biggest recipients of hedge fund money were Senators Harry Reid (Democrat), Chris Dodd (Democrat) and Charles Schumer (Democrat).
Even with the evidence right in front of their eyes, people still believe that it's the Republicans who are in Wall Street's pocket." - Ann Coulter
Yup, this one is much better
Thanks for the suggestion RonDog
It's still better to first go HERE -- to read the full text of Ann's weekly column:
AnnCoulter.com...and then come back to this thread, to post your comments/observations, eh?
:o)
Watching porn is safe sex compared to the unprotected, non-lubricated job the government is doing to us.
"Another idea, based on the ancient concept of personal responsibility, comes from financial writer James Grant.
He proposes that the bankers -- are you sitting down? -- take their own losses.
Let them keep their humongous salaries, Grant writes, but if their bank fails, 'let the bankers themselves fail. Let the value of their houses, cars, yachts, paintings, etc. be assigned to the firm's creditors.'
There's nothing wrong with speculation, creating derivatives or selling them, especially to sophisticated investors.
The problem is that when the bets go bad, the speculators keep being back-stopped by the government -- i.e., 'by me and people like me.'" - Ann Coulter
I think I picked up some alien script when I first posted that from the source at Coulter’s site
Read the whole column and then post comments, what a unique idea, heh...
They are all part and parcel of the same group
The elites take care of each other, and have no understanding of what the common man needs. Or at least no desire to help out those that they are squeezing every last dime out of.
“Even with the evidence right in front of their eyes, people still believe that it’s the Republicans who are in Wall Street’s pocket.”
And as long as PUBs are reactive, instead of proactive, the lies will continue to have the desired effect. We all decry the deceptiveness employed by the RATs; but the fact is no one calls them out.
For every charge of racism, instead of a long - and boring denounciation - respond with “And you are a child molester. Now that the name-calling is done, can we have an intelligent discussion? Otherwise, I can play “Dirty Dozens” all night long!”
COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU Mother Jones magazine circa Feb 2007 reported on the activities of Mark Florian, Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs' municipal finance division. According to the report, Florian was traveling to statehouses across the US to convince state officials that selling state assets would be "mutually beneficial." One of the scams involved "monetizing state roads. NOTE WELL: Monetizing means G/S bonding (AKA taxpayer debt)----which earns $billions for G/S til the end of time.
Then-NJ Gov Corzine (ex-Goldman head) stationed Goldman Sachs functionaries in state government as the issue of road monetization surfaced. Corzine hired four G/S buddies, including G/S alumnus Bradley Abelow as state Treasurer. Corzine took a road show across the state to sell the monetization deal. However, monetizing NJ roads hit a large pothole and collapsed like a flat tire---b/c taxpayers were onto the G/S bonding-debt scam.
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REFERENCE Goldman Sachs opened an office in Princeton NJ 2006 when Corzine was elected governor (the better to loot the NJ Treasury).
Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Partners
701 Mount Lucas Rd
Princeton, NJ 08540-1911
G/S Hedge Fund Partners advertises it seeks investments in traditional infrastructure sectors including transport infrastructure such as "monetizing" toll roads, airports and ports as well as "monetizing" regulated gas, water and electrical utilities.
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GOOD FOR GOLDMAN, BAD FOR AMERICA (G/S the major toll collector on govt's red-ink railroad)
BY TERRY KEENAN, anchor of Cashin' In, Fox News Sat 11:30 AM.
EXCERPT G/S morphed into a commercial bank to take advantage of gov't handouts, yet Goldman is really a hedge fund on steroids, with trading accounting for 69% of gross revenue in the first quarter........ a big chunk of its trading involves US govt debt -- federal, state and local...... G/S has a huge vested interest in the US digging a deeper and deeper hole.........trading govt IOUs is big business.....one of the few growth markets on Wall Street. IPO's, M&A's, etc, have yet to recover but the US will borrow a record $3.25 trillion in the current fiscal year -- four times as much as in 2008.
With its biggest competitors out of business, G/S is a major toll collector on Washington's red-ink railroad.......a "debt tsunami" that will lift Goldman's fortunes. G/S plays on the bankrupting of America -- the more we borrow, the more they make........ ........but the American public should know this side of the G/S profit miracle.
Through savvy trading and management, G/S set aside $11.4B this year to compensate its employees on a playing field cleared of its top competitors and soon after Uncle Sam bailedout G/S with $10B TARP -- and millions more through AIG, all paid for by taxpayers.
G/S benefits nicely from the govt borrowing binge that was triggered in part by the banking crisis that started in Wall Street's own backyard.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07192009/business/good_for_goldman__bad_for_america_180130.htm
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Goldman is more than surviving the current financial storm. Recently it gave out billions in bonuses. G/S cultivates clout in Washington. And now they have Rahm---their very own WH toadie---pushing their agenda.
THINGS WE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT RAHM EMANUEL Did Rahm reveal all of his ties to financial institutions involved in Obama's trillion dollar federal bailout of financials?
Goldman Sachs Will Be Sitting Pretty With Emanuel in the Obama White House
By Timothy P. Carney, Examiner Columnist, Nov 21, 2008
EXCERPT Today, in these tumultuous times of bailouts and meltdowns when the investment banking leviathan needs Washington more than ever before, Goldman Sachs can leverage its most valuable asset yet White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Traditionally a Democratic booster, and one of Barack Obama’s top sources of funds in this past election, Goldman has always had particularly strong allies in government.
Rahm Emanuel is one such ally. An interesting early chapter in the Goldman-Emanuel relationship took place in the setting of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign for the White House. Clinton hired Emanuel as his chief fundraiser.At the same time, however, Emanuel was on the payroll of Goldman Sachs, receiving $3,000 per month from the firm to “introduce us to people,” in the words of one Goldman partner at the time. This is certainly a noteworthy relationship, but it’s one that has almost entirely escaped scrutiny. (snip)
In his four terms in Congress, Emanuel raised $74,750 from Goldman, making the firm his number four source of funds. Goldman has helped Emanuel. How has Emanuel helped Goldman? The most obvious answer, as mentioned in this column two weeks ago, is in Emanuel’s lead role in shepherding the “$700 billion” bailout—first proposed by former a Goldman CEO, Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson—through the skeptical House.
Of course, back in the Clinton days, Goldman benefited from NAFTA and the bailout of the Mexican currency, with Emanuel pushing NAFTA through Congress, and Rubin hammering out the peso bailout.
Did Goldman improperly funnel money to the Clinton campaign by subsidizing Emanuel’s salary in 1992? Did Goldman’s help to Clinton spur the Democratic president to push NAFTA and the Mexican bailout?
The answers to these questions are opaque, and with Emanuel burrowed deep within the Obama White House, the continued relationship between Goldman Sachs and Obama’s right hand man won’t be easy to follow.
Watch which regulations of Wall Street Obama fights for. Watch where the bailout money goes.
SOURCE http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/ Goldman_Sach_Will_Be_Sitting_Pretty_With_Emanuel_in_the_Obama_White_House_112108.html
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Sen. Judd Gregg on FOX News said Goldman Sachs didn't need TARP money after the meltdown. Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson told Goldman and several big banks they had to take the bailout because otherwise it would look like they gained from the crisis.
Keep in mind----these financial geniuses are all "licensed." Financial licenses can be lifted for any number of reasons:
If licensees fail to disclose ownership in investment vehicles.
If licensees fail to file proper documentation with state agencies.
If licensees fail to file reports with State Division of The Treasury.
If licensees fail to file state and federal tax returns (stolen money is taxable).
If licensees fail to pay state and federal taxes on hidden profits.
If licensees fail to account for investment proceeds.
HERE'S HOW JUDGES PREDICATE SENTENCING GUIDELINES:
(1) Amount licensee lost to the Treasury, a pension fund, the taxpayers, state pensioners, etc. (2) What role a licensee had in conspiracy schemes to defraud. (3) Whether a licensee obstructed justice in the course of investigations or, later, during trial.
CONTACT Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (nongovernment regulator of US securities firms)
CALL (866) 776-0800
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Probably some of the SEC'ers were laying off, looking to get positions w/ Madoff. When you realize the scope of Madoff’s fraud, there is no other conclusion one could draw. Even an imbecile could have determined that Madoff was not making trades......merely sending out falsified statements on outdated computer equipment.
The court appointed trustee looking into Madoff's assets unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth...... with assets and businesses in 11 places overseas. Madoff traveled overseas frequently, to his villa on the Riviera----those suitcases he carried were probably full of cash .....not leisure wear.
Madoff was running several simultaneous scams:
(1) a Ponzi fraud that made him personally wealthy;
(2) laundering tax-free money for wealthy businessmen posing as philanthropists,
(3) IRS fraud facilitation for wealthy businessmen;
(4) a protection racket (shielding his investors from scrutiny);
(5) laundering tax-free money that was donated to Democrat candidates (campaign fraud).
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