Eric Holder's Newest Witch Hunt

Townhall.com ^ | July 311, 2011 | Bob Beauprez

[Liz]

One of the first crooked show trials was the SEC filing charges against Goldman Sachs, just before the thoroughly corrupt Dodd-Frank "Financial and Banking Reform and Takeover" bill was going through the Congress. The crooks "settled" for a cool U$D half-billion that was negated the day after the bill passed. Dodd (now a Hollywood bigwig) and Frank not only were allowed to cover up wrongdoing - they were tasked with "fixing" the "problem" and writing major laws, rules and regulations covering and governing entire U.S. financial system (The Dodd/Frank bill is commonly called the "Protect Goldman Sachs Bill").

Goldman Sachs Prospers at Taxpayers' Expense
The American Thinker ^ | December 31, 2010 | Fred N. Sauer
FR Posted on Friday, December 31, 2010 by Scanian

If prudent investors can only make .5% on short term assets, how does Goldman Sachs prosper?

Robert Rubin was a very powerful man. After 26 years and rising to the level of Co-Senior Partner, he left Goldman Sachs in 1994 to become Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration. His first major undertaking was during the Mexican bailout of 1995. ...

Rubin drew criticism in Congress for using a Treasury Department account under his personal control to distribute $20 billion to bail out Mexican bonds, of which Goldman was a key holder. For 1998, the first year which we have public financial information on Goldman Sachs, their total revenue was $22 billion and their net profit was $1.256 billion.

It is highly probable that the $20 billion was extremely helpful to Goldman Sachs -- if not essential to its continuing existence. And Robert Rubin had some very powerful friends. "In April 1998 Travelers Group announced an agreement to undertake the $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, and the merger was completed on October 8, 1998.

The possibility remained that the merger would run into problems connected with federal law. Ever since the Glass-Steagall Act, banking and insurance businesses had been kept separate. Weill and Reed bet that Congress would soon pass legislation overturning those regulations... .

To speed up the process, they recruited...to the Board of Directors...Robert Rubin (Secretary of Treasury during Democratic Clinton Administration) whom Weill was close to...." (a short history of Sandy Weill's march to riches) Read more at americanthinker.com ...

YBR more below

[Liz]

Goldman Sachs Will Be Sitting Pretty With Emanuel in the Obama White House
By: Timothy P. Carney, Examiner Columnist, Nov 21, 2008
FR posted by seehunt, 01/29/11

Goldman Sachs always has clout in Washington, as evidenced by the firm’s alumni serving as Treasury secretaries under both Presidents Bush and Clinton. Today, in these tumultuous times of bailouts and meltdowns when the investment banking leviathan needs Washington more than ever before, Goldman can leverage its most valuable asset yet—incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Goldman Sachs is the giant of Wall Street, and more than any other investment bank, Goldman is surviving the current financial storm.

Traditionally a Democratic booster, and one of Barack Obama’s top sources of funds in this past election, Goldman has always had some particularly strong allies within government. Emanuel is one such ally. An interesting early chapter in the Goldman-Emanuel relationship took place in the setting of Bill Clinton’s campaign for the White House in 1992. 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 has 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. And don’t be surprised Goldman soon sitting pretty once again.

WEB SITE http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/ Goldman_Sach_Will_Be_Sitting_Pretty_With_Emanuel_in_the_Obama_White_

[Vermont Lt]

Community Reinvestment Act. It will be studied in economics classes 100 years from now. It produced the environment where banks sold out, or were publicly decried as racist.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Small wonder Goldman Sachs refers to the White House as their “ D.C. office”

[Liz]

5/19/2011
You Won't Read This Story About Goldman
WSJ.com ^ | | David Weidner
FR Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2011 by dirtboy

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in trouble again. Still reading? If you are, you must be a Goldman employee, regulator, class-action lawyer, financial journalist or trolling the Internet for news about Steve Jobs. (See how I dropped the name to make this column more Google-friendly?)

No one seems to care much about Goldman's latest troubles, and many Americans seem numb to more allegations of wrongdoing related to the financial crisis. Yet they keep coming, especially at Goldman.

One of the biggest was last week's disclosure that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's staff has "orally advised" the company that it "intends to recommend ... aiding and abetting, civil fraud and supervision-related charges" against the trade-clearing unit at Goldman.

In addition, Goldman said the Justice Dept is reviewing data related to credit-default swaps and fee arrangements for clearing of credit-default swaps, including potential anticompetitive practices. European regulators are also investigating.

And remember Abacus? That's the collateralized debt obligation created by Goldman that morphed into a $550M fraud settlement. There are more subpoenas on that gem, Goldman said last week. Goldman declined to comment beyond the disclosures it made in its quarterly report and didn't offer any additional comment Wednesday. (Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...

[stephenjohnbanker]

Thanks, Liz.