[Levin] Joe Lieberman's Cover-Up: Where is Robert Rubin?

National Review Online ^ | July 23, 2002 | Mark R. Levin

[habs4ever]

Yes, they did.

[ravingnutter]

Democrats helped kill some of the earliest attempts to compel accurate accounting practices; helped enact laws making it tougher for aggrieved investors to file lawsuits; and blocked early reform efforts that would have barred the big accounting firms from working as consultants for the clients they audit.

In 1993, a watchdog panel sought to require that stock options be listed as operating expenses, just like salaries, so that overall earnings would be accurately reported. This effort was thwarted by 88 senators, led by Connecticut Democrat Joseph Lieberman. Experts say this episode inspired accountants to devise ever more creative ways to measure profits.

In 1995, nearly half of Senate Democrats and 89 House Democrats helped enact a law (over Clinton's veto) that hindered aggrieved investors' efforts to win lawsuits against firms and auditors that may have misled them. The law also eased penalties on misbehaving CEOs. A prime backer was Connecticut Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, an accounting industry favorite and cochairman of the national party.

In 2000, many key Democrats inveighed against Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt when he sought to end the big accounting firms' practice of consulting for lucrative fees with companies on business strategy while auditing their books in a supposedly objective manner. Levitt saw this as a conflict of interest. But prominent Democrats - among them, New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli - helped the GOP erect roadblocks, including threats to slash Levitt's budget. Levitt finally gave up. But at a hearing last winter after Arthur Andersen's conflicts with Enron were exposed, Torricelli told Levitt: "We were wrong, you were right."

In 2002, the Democratic chairman is a former corporate insider. McAuliffe acquired his Global Crossing stock before the firm went public, with an assist from founder Gary Winnick. Even Joe Conasan, a pro-Democratic commentator, believes that McAuliffe (a party fund-raiser at the time) was granted this perk because of his ties to President Clinton - thus making chairman McAuliffe "an odd spokesman these days for little people screwed over by big bad business."

Corporate greed also a drag on Democrats

[Travis McGee]

bttt

[AmishDude]

That third paragraph is what I remember. If there's a political scandal here, the names are McAuliffe, Rubin, Lieberman, Dodd, Torricelli and Corzine.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Citigroup, J.P. Morgan stock slide as woes mount

NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) - Shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C - News) and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Inc. (NYSE:JPM - News) dropped anew on Tuesday, as concerns grew that the two largest U.S. banking companies may have peddled the type of disguised loans used by bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ.PK - News) to other firms.

[NormsRevenge]

during Enron's final days Rubin played a direct role in attempting to conceal Enron's financial condition from credit-rating agencies. Specifically, on November 8, 2001, Rubin made a telephone call to Peter Fisher, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for domestic finance, seeking Fisher's intervention with Wall Street credit-rating agencies on behalf of Enron when those agencies were about to downgrade Enron's ratings.

PUBLIC ENEMY #1 Robert Rubin (Rube-On 2 U !)

How many trillions are gone so far :->? It ain't even Bush's and Cheney's fault, as we all can clearly see.

Even the NY PoTimesKin agrees ...

[aristeides]

Word I just saw on lucianne.com is too good not to repeat here: Citicorpse.

[Uncle George]

BUMPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[truthkeeper]

bumpo

[NativeNewYorker]

I just read the NYT piece on CitiEnron fraud. Looks like a smoking gun to me.

[CaptRon]

What, may I ask, IS MARC RACICOT DOING WITH THIS INFORMATION!?

[flamefront]

Symbol	Last Trade		Change		Volume	Related Information
C	12:06pm	27.02	-5.02	-15.67%	60,207,500	Chart, Msgs, Profile, more...
JPM	12:06pm	21.01	-3.51	-14.31%	17,515,400	Chart, Msgs, Profile, more...

[flamefront]

OK, you have clear manipulation. When will people generally recognize this all as having been an era of
political markets?

"Don't forget The Plan, Bill."

The Dems have been setting this fall up for a couple years. They now are succeeding and Gephardt wishes for further fall to help buy votes to take the House. No one yet is being arrested. Is this just all to be resolved by letting the bad guys take their money off the table and walk away?

[hchutch]

They just mentioned the failure to call Rubin to testify in front of Carl Levin's subcommittee. This is going to make its way out there.

[hchutch]

This was on Rush's show - the guest host.

[steveegg]

I hope the folks in the pit have someone listening to Rush-of-the-day.

[razorback-bert]

[StriperSniper]

Lie-berman is quoted from a talk show two weeks ago, blaming the stock market drop on President Bush, "The NASDAQ took the worst loss since the 1929 Depression."

And don't forget that the Nasdaq took a 50 percent haircut in the final months of the Clinton administration, the start coinsiding with the Microsoft suit.

[flamefront]

Remember the term of art during the S&L debacle - 'bust out' where all these clowns learned how to screw banks - that rings like the term citicorpse.

[flamefront]

the NYT piece on CitiEnron fraud.