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Hank Paulson's Speed Dial #1: Goldman Sachs
It would appear that employees of the NY Post can do more than merely plant stories and spread unfounded rumors. Some of them actually do investigative work. Case in point - John Crudele, who has compiled FOIA reports to create a chronological narrative of Hank Paulson's speed-dialing in the days after the Lehman collapse, in a piece titled "The secret to Goldman Sachs' good fortune." The net result: more communication between Paulson and Blankfein during the heart of the crisis than anyone else (including then-President Bush), with the only exception of Ben Bernanke. Just what were these two people talking about so frequently in the two days when the Dow made an 800 point round trip? And just who was leaking the rumors that ultimately were based on information sourced by Hank Paulson himself? Crudele's chronology presents a relevant framework for analyzing just who the critical decision-makers are in US financial markets. Hopefully one day phone transcripts will be released and the full picture of just what information Blankfein was getting straight from his former boss can be reconstructed.
Crudele's post, represented almost in its entirety, due to the extended amount of relevant detail:
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 -- the day
before the one I am writing about -- the stock market performed
horribly.
By the end of the session the Dow Jones industrial
average tumbled 449 points as investors worried about the nation's
financial system. The next morning, Sept. 18, Paulson placed his first
call of the day at 6:55 a.m., to Lloyd Blankfein,
who succeeded Paulson as CEO of Goldman. It's unclear whether the two
connected because Blankfein called Paulson minutes later.
And then Blankfein placed another call to Paulson at 7:05 a.m. for what looks like a 10-minute conversation.
After that Paulson called Christopher Cox, Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman twice; British Chancellor Alistair Darling and New York Federal Reserve head (and now Treasury Secretary) Tim Geithner two times.
Then Paulson took another call from Goldman's Blankfein.
It wasn't even 9 a.m. yet -- 30 minutes before the stock market was to
open -- and Paulson and Blankfein had already exchanged three phone
calls.
This wasn't particularly unusual.
On
Wednesday, Sept. 17, the day the stock market was in trouble, Paulson
spoke with Blankfein five times, including a pair of calls at 7:20 p.m.
and 8:45 p.m. One of the earlier calls -- at 12:15 p.m. -- is listed on
Paulson's log in the same five minute interval as a call to Geithner,
which could indicate that this was a conference call.
If
Paulson did set up a conference call, it would have been an extreme
instance of putting someone who wielded a lot of power -- Geithner --
together with someone -- Blankfein -- who could profit from that
connection.
And all of this doesn't include possible cell
phone calls. The Treasury turned over to me Paulson's official schedule
and phone records after I made a request under the Freedom of
Information Act.
There's no way for me, or anyone else, to
know what Blankfein and Paulson talked about during those first three
calls on Sept. 18.
But it would be reasonable to assume that
the conversation, coming as it did in a period of market turmoil, had
something to do with what was happening on Wall Street.
So no
matter how you slice, dice or excuse it, Blankfein by 9 a.m. would have
had information that was not available to anyone else who makes their
money trading securities. And, as you can imagine, there is a whole lot
of value in that kind of inside access.
Robert Scully, a co-president of Morgan Stanley, called Paulson at 8:50 a.m. on the 18th.
But he appears to be the only Wall Street-type who was in contact with Paulson until Larry Fink, head of the private investment firm Blackrock, called at 12:40 p.m.
By then the stock market was going down again. But the decline wouldn't last long.
Stocks began a miraculous recovery at 1 p.m. on Sept. 18, when rumors
started to spread that Paulson was considering a "government entity to
bail out troubled banks" and that a meeting was going to be held that
night on the matter.
At 1:05 p.m. Blankfein called Paulson
again. Paulson would call Blankfein for the last time that day at 4:30
p.m. when he "left word."
That was the sixth time these two men called each other on Sept. 18.
That's one time less than Paulson spoke with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,
arguably the most important person when the financial markets are in
trouble. But Bernanke didn't get his first call from Paulson until 9:30
a.m. -- and it included Cox and Geithner.
President Bush only spoke with Paulson twice that day. To be fair, on the afternoon of Sept. 18 Paulson did call John Mack, head of Morgan Stanley (at 1 p.m.) and Merrill Lynch's John Thain(at 1:10 p.m.).
But Fink is the only one who seems to have gotten through to Paulson anywhere near the time the market started rallying.
By the end of the day, the Dow was up 410 points in an astonishing comeback.
Hopefully Tim Geithner is aware of the 1-800 arrangement that his predecessor set up with Goldman Sachs. After all why spend taxpayer money on phone bills when that same money can go straight into the balance sheet of the only company worth calling, for advice on how taxpayers should bail said company out. If this sounds too circular, don't worry, it is.
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Paulson just needs to be as big a person as he is a tall man, and turn himself in for self-dealing while acting as a fiduciary for the citizens of the United States... it also need to be reviewed by the Justice Department, as to whether or not self-dealing in the position as Sec. of the US Treasury constitutes treason.
Am I wrong in praying for vigilante justice for all these assholes?
I'm not religious, so I can't tell you if if its right or wrong to pray for it, but I'm sure as hell hoping for it.
Not a sucker for the opiate-of-the-masses either but I still pray for vengeance
by that standard i guess i am a heroin addict
but i will grant you absolution....
if you're praying for a red hot branding iron
to be shoved up their assholes then you would
be praying for clemency....
if you pray for them being dipped in boiling
hydrochloric acid afer having large strips
of skin removed that might be wrong....
I hope that this is not considered Cruel an Unusual Punishment, but I would lock each one of them up in a bedroom with Hilary Clinton. Under severe duress each would be forced to have every conceivable sex act imaginable, and I have quite the imagination. (Damn! I am puking on my keyboard as I attempt to post this.)
I'll start believing in a higher being again once I start to see lightning from the heavens above remove these scums from mother earth...no human involvement just plain ole divine intervention.........
It's called ethics, damnit. ETHICS!
It clearly looks like ethics are for suckers.
The truth may be the hard way, but for many out there, it is the only acceptable way. After walking my path, and knowing what I know, I am certain that I would never enjoy the perks of dishonest money.
+1
it feels good as you are older to know that you have been honest and kept your integrity and ethical values intact.
I suspect that you will find a way to use your intelligence to win against the bad guys and profit doing so.
Indeed. Even if that profit is to make way for the next generation and better prepare it to meet its challenges. I still hope my book will find its way out of the vault one day.
I'm not saying some shady sh*t went down btw Paulson and GS, but I"m also not saying it didn't...
They were whoring out thier stress test software all over the world. They had inside info on the health of tons of businesses. So of course paulson needed to know how big of a stink to make so he didn't kill to much.
http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=917509
What's with all the hatin' on the Post? I read it every day (along with several others) In general it's a bad paper with a business section that actually isn't that bad. Crudele is the heavyweight, and he's been on this Fed story and good other stories about bullshit govt numbers, for quite some time now.
duplicate
Jesus Christ, OF COURSE he was phoning it all in to GS. Why is this even a question? Because he took some oath? Jesus its amazing how few people understand exactly what game twe're talking about here. It's called: Making Money. And the rules are: There are no rules.
Which is exactly why the entire concept of bankers holding government positions is so hilariously 'wrong' in every respect.
The fact that Americans are scratching their heads and saying, "Gee, do ya think Hank Paulson could have been pursuing some other motive besides the national best interest? Could it be???" just shows how amazingly naive Americans are, and how utterly 'marshmallow' the American press is.
Great comment pal, I'll send you some Florida limes as a prize, you probably need them.
Your comment lacks knowledge in one aspect of the American profile. The economic downturn only hurt 25% of the population. 75% of Americans have no knowledge of or care about the financial industry. 75% of Amercians do not even recognize that we are in a major financial crises.
How much you want to bet that your central bank was one of the fools to short the USD?
Keep on commenting here junior. It gives me something to do. But let me warn you, if you suggest doing something with vaseline, I hear you will be blocked.
I know you have country envy. 95 % of the population on earth wishes it was living in America. But we will protect you from the radical Muslims, as long as your prime minister keeps his head shoved up our presiden's you know what.
"The economic downturn only hurt 25% of the population."
Uhhhh, is this the 20%+ that are currently unemployed/underemployed?
Maybe the number of people that signed a mortgage that is now underwater?
Oh, you mean the number of baby boomers that no longer can afford to retire, as a percent of the population, sorry, I must have been thinking of something else.
The most common statement that I heard while working in a factory last year was "at least I still have a job". This was in Nebraska, with 5% unemployment. What do you think it is like in Cali right now?
Keep your limes sonny.
And as for your hilariously incorrect statement "The economic downturn only hurt 25% of the population": Do you or do you not pay taxes, son?
I'm happy here in Norway. And yeah, I'm personally shorting your currency, boy.
Vaseline? You're the one that needs it.
Waterdog, please go back to Yahoo! Finance. You're an idiot.
Waterdog, you're lost.
You think only 25% of Americans were hurt by the downturn? What? ... seriously do you just pull this shit out of your ass?
Only 25% of Americans affected by the crisis???
wtf? Not even close, Waterdog.
@waterdog: "95% of the population on earth wishes it was living in America"
I believe those are the 1946 Harris Poll numbers. Now what I offer is merely anecdotal, but in the few decades I have resided in a half dozen different countries, both OECD and Third World, I have found that the number is significantly lower than what Rush or Bill'O or Beck might claim. I would round the number off at 7%, which includes the 4.6% who currently actually do live in the US. No longer do many pine for the "US lifestyle", nor do anywhere near as many share/like our values.
The world has changed. You should go take a look.
Paulson is brilliant - no email, nothing in writing just conversations and I am sure Lloyd would not have any recording devices on his phone system that monitor for "quality and indictment purposes"
The man proudly proclaims he doesn't use anything but a telephone... does that not set off some serious red flags right there?
Comgine that little tiddy with the fact that he doesn't drink -- and you *know* he's sitting on a mountain of dirty secrets....
You forget that there is an NSA and they will never destroy everything. There are records.
Forget Bush... I bet it's Paulson who has 10,000 acres in a remote ranch in Paraguay.
And I bet a one way airline ticket has already been pre-purchased.
Well, I will be surprised it there is NO phone call between them. After all, Paulson came from GS! Of course, GS will never pay for any of these "allegations" and "implications."
I can't even imagine the conversations.
HP: Ok thing pretty bad right now. Looks like a perfect time to save the world.
LB: Woah, slow down frankenstein. Its only morning. Let the market go down some more and THEN say it.
HP: Say what?
LB: ...that you're saving the world.
HP: Oh right, well I gotta run it by the prez and benny real quick too.
------
HP: We have to save the world mr president.
GW: What?
HP: The deleveraging process is happening to fast. If it keeps going...
GW: What in the hell are you talking about.
HP: The financial system is crashing. Everyone is selling!
GW: English please.
HP: Banks need money. If they don't get it you're going to have to enact martial law and be president longer than you have to.
GW: Well then, give them money, what are you stupid? ....How much do you need?
HP: Five percent.
GW: OK
surely someone can throw out a better attempt than this...
not if by better you mean more accurate. you pretty much got it to a T
not if by better you mean more accurate. you pretty much got it to a T
Tumbling Dice, thats about right, I have it as
Paulson: Have you guys made enough money on your short positions yet? Should we throw the people a rally here to let them know we are working for them?
Blankenstein: Yeah, and were readying S&P purchases. You should make the big announcement we have been drawing up over the last couple weeks.
Paulson: You mean the one we planned up at the barbeque in the Hamptons in the summer of 2007.
Blankenstein: Yep, this meltdown has got the people rallying right to Obama just like we thought. Not only do we have this, but we will get through totally on top for at least another 4 years.
Paulson: When should I announce? I should talk to the President first and just clue him in on what we will do.
Blanky: How about wait til the afternoon? Weak shorts will be in and we will run and gun the market up after we've got our S&P buy orders filled in the morning.
Paulson: Got it.
~~~~~~
Paulson: Wow, George, you see the TV this morning, things are looking REALLY bad out there.
Bush: Oh, Hank, that's just Blazing Saddles again, yeah its got some rough scenes, but hang in there.
Paulson: Actually, I'm talking about the stock market and the economy. As your expert in the financial industry, I want you to know I have it under control. Planning a big announcement for later today.
Bush: Oh right, Hank, I have totally trusted you since I was told you were getting the job.
~~~~~
Paulson: Game on Blanky. Right after you sit down for lunch. Bushy has no idea. How's Obama's poll numbers?
Blanky: Still rocking. I will let his folks know right away.
I remember that day vividly and I've been reading Cruedele's column since he's been writing about it. I'm glad you're acknowledging since he seemed to be standing out there all by himself. There's no doubt in my mind that Paulson tipped GS off and I believe certain records were deleted (a few minutes of HP's day) from what Cruedele was able to obtain, hiding the fact that he spoke to someone at GS (most likely LB). Isn't there the ability to go back to the trading records to see who was buying that afternoon when the market reversed course so abruptly? I'm not saying anyone will do that since that too will be difficult to get it but these records should exist somewhere.
They were (or will be) WTC-7'd.
I've wondered more recently if we'll get a repeat of Germany in the 1970s when bankers were blown up or kidnapped. Just saying there are a lot of hurting, driven to irrational thought folks out there...Would not surprise me.
Some index funds to use Barclays Capital float-adjusted bond indexes
Several of Vanguard’s index funds will be switching to Barclays Capital’s float-adjusted bond indexes from the Barclays indexes that currently serve as the funds’ target benchmarks. According to Vanguard, the new benchmarks better represent actual liquidity in the marketplace and should help insulate Vanguard’s bond index funds from securities whose prices may be distorted by significant reduction in supply as a result of Federal Reserve buybacks. The term “float” refers to the amount of a given security available for public trading; it excludes amounts such as those held by company insiders, affiliates, or governments. “We believe that float-adjusted indexes more accurately represent an investor’s opportunities in a particular market,” said Gus Sauter, Vanguard’s chief investment officer, in a release announcing the shift. “Whenever possible, Vanguard’s index funds will seek to track benchmarks that follow this best practice.”
The Vanguard Group plans to switch 12 of its bond index funds to benchmarks designed to exclude the hefty chunk of bonds the government has purchased through its buyback program. Other fund providers may follow suit. Eight existing and four proposed Vanguard bond index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds will switch to tracking the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index and its sub-indexes by year’s end. Unlike the indexes now in use, the new indexes adjust for so-called float, or the number of shares currently available for trading, a practice more commonly associated with stock benchmarks that seek to disregard shares owned by governments, company insiders or corporations, which have no intention of selling. Vanguard says the new bond benchmarks more closely represent actual liquidity in the market, and thus should help insulate the funds from price distortions created by the Fed’s buybacks. The money manager says it expects no significant change in the risk attributes, including duration, of the bond index funds.Barclays – (July 30) Barclays Capital Announces the Creation of the US Aggregate Float Adjusted Index
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC and publisher of leading broad market bond benchmarks, today announced the launch of the US Aggregate Float Adjusted Index, a new benchmark of the dollar denominated investment grade bond market that excludes Treasuries, agencies and MBS held in Federal Reserve accounts. The new index will be published alongside the firm’s other leading indices, including the Global Aggregate, US Aggregate, Pan European Aggregate and Asian Pacific Aggregate. With an inception date of July 1, 2009, the new benchmark will offer investors a rules-based market value weighted index as a complementary alternative to the flagship US Aggregate Index, which includes agencies and MBS held in government accounts. The underlying constituents of the US Aggregate Float Adjusted Index will be the same as those of the US Aggregate Index, but net purchases and sales by the Federal Reserve will be excluded from the float adjusted index on a monthly basis, thereby reducing the market value weight of these securities. Sub-indices of the new index will also be available, including a US MBS Float Adjusted Index created specifically for mortgage investors.
Comment
We discussed this back in May and June and said:The indexers are correct in including the MBS bought by the Federal Reserve as part of the float if they assume these securities will be sold back into the market once the economy improves. For now, this seems to be a likely scenario once the Federal Reserve wants to unwind its balance sheet. See the story above as it sure implies the Federal Reserve is going to eventually see these purchases back into the marketplace.
If, however, the Federal Reserve changes its mind and decides to hold these securities to maturity, then the float has been permanently reduced and the indexers have their weightings wrong.
Apparently bond managers are now concluding the Federal Reserve is not going to sell their holdings acquired through their QE operations. So, they are demanding the calculation of, and in the case of Vanguard, the adopting of “float-adjusted” indices as their benchmarks.
If this is the beginning of a trend, it has the potential to be a big deal. As the Federal Reserve buys, weightings in the float-adjusted indices fall (see the first table below). Managers seeking to keep their weightings constant will then sell the same securities the Federal Reserve purchases. Effectively this “undoes” the Federal Reserve purchases and defeats the purpose of the program. In the end, it merely changes the ownership of securities and does little to push yields lower.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/09/is-the-market-about-to-%e2%80%9cundo%e2%80%9d-the-federal-reserve%e2%80%99s-purchases/
Nice work Gloomy!
I hope Crudele pursues this. And if he doesn't Cheddar Bob will. The complete contents of those phone calls are public information.
I hope Crudele continues to pursue this, and I suspect he will. The contents of those phone calls needs to be put on the public record.
Crudele's done some interesting stories. Good one here.
AIG fails in September 2008, and GS and others get paid out at 100 cents on the dollar for CDS contracts.
However,on July 28, 2008, SCA and Merrill settled a deal involving 3.74B of CDS for $500MM (13.3 cents on the dollar).
http://www.bondbuyer.com/article.html?id=200807291MOE0451
On August 1, Ambac settled a CDO exposure of $1.4B for 850MM (61 cents on the dollar).
http://www.bondbuyer.com/article.html?id=2008080146D32WSN
There are many more examples.
Given such recent and directly comparable transactions involving CDS insurers and counterparties, why did AIG pay 100 cents on the dollar less than two months later? Does the involvement of the government and their former employers have anything to do with it?
Why did the MSM ignore this angle?
How dare the NY Post be so conspiratorial ;) Are they insinuating there were winners and losers handpicked by conflicted government officials? That's not what I heard on CNBC or from New York Magazine.
... winners and losers handpicked by conflicted government officials...
Right there, pretty much sums up everything wrong with letting the government control the economy. Winners and losers picked not based on skill, better plans, proper reading of fundamentals, etc. etc. etc. - nope, winners and losers picked by the delivery of campaign cash and connections.
I wonder, if a company that has gone out of business because of favoritism of another company over theirs could sue the government if this information is 1. accepted by the public and 2. found to be illegal (seems the two haven't mixed well as of late)?
anyone read the VF article on sir henry linked couple weeks ago?
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/henry-paulson200910?...
if you can read between the lines, you'll find everything you need to know on the relationship between HP & LB in that article:
=Paulson laughed when he remembered calling Lloyd Blankfein to tell him that he’d be taking the Treasury job after all, and that Blankfein in turn would take over as head of Goldman Sachs. “I think I surprised and delighted him,” Paulson said. He “thought it was great for the country—and for him.”=
=In Paulson’s conversations with me, many casual references gave the impression of a man continually on the phone with players on Wall Street, and at one point he singled out Blankfein (along with Ben Bernanke) as someone “at a different intellect level than some of the rest of us.”=
perhaps henry isn't the smartest guy in the room.
perhaps henry knows that he's not.
perhaps henry knows that lloyd is much much smarter than he and can see very complex problems in a way that he can not.
perhaps henry knows that lloyd is obviously going to take advantage of this privileged info that he has to give lloyd, so that lloyd can help him solve the complex problem.
perhaps henry knows that whatever lloyd does to take advantage of this information (even though he doesn't know exactly what that is) will also be to his benefit in helping to solve the very complex problem before him.
perhaps henry knows that there is someone in the next room less smart than he -- his boss.
of course none of this is explicitly spoken and it's all being done for the sake of the country of course
it would be really really interesting to see who was buying and what instrument they were using on 9/17 at around 1 p.m.
With a nickname of "Hammerin", old Hank has obviously been a tool for most of his life. Lloyd had a nice firm grip on Hammerin's shaft I'm sure.
It is quite possible that most of the information flow was in the other direction. I suspect Paulson called Blankfein not to give information, but to get it. Treasury is far removed from the "action" and in a fast-moving, volatile situation, Paulson likely felt like he was flying blind. Who better to call than the head of the many-tentacled Goldman squid? Not only would Blankfein have been in a position to monitor and report on the situation more effectively than Paulson, but importantly, Paulson could trust Blankfein and speak somewhat candidly to him, as well as request advice.
This is a possible explanation that's easy to ignore when imagining the other nefarious possibilities, but it's probably the most likely.
We can speculate a lot, but see my post above - the FACTS are, AIG counterparties got paid out at 100 cents on the dollar, while less than 60 days earlier, nearly identical transactions were settled for anywhere from 15 to 60 cents on the dollar, with the settlements being dependent on the strength of the insurer (weaker insurers settled for less).
Given AIG was about to collapse, what would they have settled for? 10 cents on the dollar?
Who knows what was said? We do know what was done.
Ya know, you may be right. Maybe Paulson asked Blankfein whether he thought it was a good day to be buying stocks. With the Dow down 300, Lloyd said, "hey Hanky, the sun is shining and birds are chirping so why don't you go and buy some stocks?"
Then Hanky-poo called his broker at Merrill Lynch and went hog wild driving the Dow back to even by the end of the day.
Yeah, that must've been what happened. Man...you are good.
Why isn't there a grand jury ?
The grand got deflated down to tree fiddy?
TO: LB
I’ve opined before about your little PR problem you’ve got with the firm and this story marks a good time to do it again.
Let’s cut to the chase real quick…..what we have here (as well as most of the other Goldman sagas, i.e. HFT, dark pools, frontrunning, AIG CDSs, short selling CDOs, conviction buy list trading paradigms, ad infinitum) is a critter that quacks like a duck, has water rolling off its back like a duck, and its got these big orange webbed feet. I think we got a duck here LB.
Now, there’s probably no way in hell that any prosecutor is going to be able to pull enough out of you or your former boss to make a case, in this particular instance at least, unless there’s a smoking gun. However, politics in the USA, as you well know, has a much different standard than that in a criminal matter and therein lies the big, big problem you have.
Little birdies are saying that this PR matter is really becoming a huge problem and it is dragging a bit on you and the firm (except the prop desk players, naturally). Like I said before, you are genuinely smart enough to know that it is not going to go away (yes, hope springs, blah, blah, blah). Hell, every single financial blog out there curses Goldman daily and these folks just are not going to quit. Obama’s base at HuffPo headquarters get pretty much a daily dose of the crap that comes out of Goldman; HuffPo often gives you the headlines and your own little big news section. The "conservative" group out there sure as hell isn't tickled about their money going to Goldman and the other banks. The NY rags are beating up on you pretty good when they get good FOIA information on your telephone lovefest with Hank. In keeping with their style to satisfy the hunger of their readership’s disdain of Goldman, they even run stories about your wife pissing and moaning about waiting in line. I don’t think this shit is ever going to go away LB, except for the forces of the markets.
By “markets”, I’m not talking about the financial ones that your firm has way too much domination in. I’m talking about the political market where millions upon millions of American citizens view Goldman Sachs as the personification of what went wrong in our financial system of greed, dishonesty, some would say fraud, lack of integrity and lack of ethics. As history has shown about the American culture, once they feel they have been taken advantage of, they can become pretty pissed and ornery and it seems to me that they are not only there now, but they are starting to boil.
The political powers that be to whom Goldman ingratiates itself are painfully aware of the huge embarassment that Goldman and the other banks are to their continued survival. Yeah, there are lots of Goldman alumni throughout the US government, but we all know who they are and they aren’t going to be able to stop the Obama machine (or the 2010 mid term teams or the 2012 presidential candidates machines) from throwing Goldman under the bus once the tipping point has been reached. As soon as it tips, the political structure in this country will have a magnificent opportunity to use Goldman as the smelly old scapegoat that the firm has become. I'm kind of looking forward to Chuck Schumer's mad dash to the cameras to denounce Goldman; I honestly think that day will come. At least I hope it does.
The apology and "force for good" crap was a bunch of silly nonsense LB. I could outline some things that Goldman could do to attempt to reconcile with the American people, but I would probably be laughed at and accused of being incredibly naïve and Goldman probably wouldn’t take my suggestions anyways.
Once the politicians respond to the uprising about our financial mess, and they will, I’ll bet the financial markets will then render their verdict. Let’s not forget just how quickly Bear, Lehman, and ML disappeared.
+1
deadhead, was it you who posted the William Wallace quote the other day as a good guide to what the banksters need to do to reconcile with the citizens of the United States and many around the world?
Here are Scotland's terms: Lower your flags and march straight back to England, stopping at every home you pass by to beg forgiveness for 100 years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that, and your men shall live. Do it not, and everyone of you will die today.
--- William Wallace, BRAVEHEART
No, it was not me.
An interesting quote for sure.
I'M NOT FINISHED! Before we let you leave, your commander must cross that field, present himself before this army, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own ass.
-- WW
So, it was you Gilgamesh!...
WW's words describe honest and complete justice so well...
There is not a single more determined and productive entity out there than a politician trying to assign blame.
wow, very well spoken! and true, certainly.
just remember DH, in 1932, when the head of GS testified before the Pecora Commission, their stock was trading at 1 3/4.
yet they're still around today, still wreaking havoc, almost 70 years later.
Goldman scum. Douchebags all. Where is the prosecutor who has a pair?
He's going to be the next governor of NYS. See a pattern here?
Perhaps we could recruit the guy that likes to play games with those naughty little hookers.
Take a cue from history. The only way to achieve revolution is to completely eliminate the entrenched vested interests. Don't just put them in jail - they would still control the system. I'm referring to complete elimination. These people are enemies of humanity and the common good.
There is one undeniable truth that I have learned from 23 years of regulatory and private industry compliance auditing. The truth is that, the individual who does not think that he will get caught creates the easiest audit trail to follow and document and, the individual who knows he will get caught and how he will get caught, creates the hardest audit trail to follow and document.
It just astounds me that people who knowing commit financial felonies and conspire to commit future financial felonies, use a cell phone, computer or land-line phone to plan the act. The true stupidity of these individuals is that they use their own communication device.
Congress has long ago given up all moral authority on this issue. But, go figure. When you lay down with whores, expect to wake up with STD's.
Goldman and Bank of Amerika run the markets along with Geithner, and beagle boy Ben. There is no free markets, only welfare capitalism and socialism for capitalism.
good articles; good articles 4 slow news day ..http://www.. hat tip: finance news & opinion updated daily
Surely the NSA has actual audio recordings of these conversations !!
Any trace of those recordings have long gone the route of Countrywide recordings.
Alas, this is just another conspiracy theory. So it is to be disregarded. And I think we need to investigate the author's childhood. Now that is a real story.
My goodness, CNBC continues to act as if, nothing in this whole entire meltdown had no criminal elements. This exposes how horrible they are as a worldwide financial network.
Johnny C rocks, he has a big pair and no blinders...jcrudle@nypost.com...feed him
Tyler - You deserve a Pulitzer Prize.
I totally agree!
Paulson should face the the music.
I do not believe phone conversations are recorded.
So do not expect a transcript.
After the past scandels the rules changed and
voicemails where the exception.
All emails have to be kept but not the content of
voicemails.
Paulson used to make tons of calls everyday and
everyone at Goldman played voicemail phone tag with
each other as a way to communicate.
Paulson never once used email because that left
a paper trail.
I used to have a friend who worked at a large investment bank based overseas.
Whenever my friend would call me from the office, there was a conspicuous beep every twenty seconds or so. My guess this was to let all parties know they were being recorded.
this she-it makes me sick.
it was so obvious at the time that Paulson and Goldman were coordinating government announcements with market manipulation.
and Goldman is STILL doing it with Geithner and their government plants.
I'm out here trading. And then these thug gangsters are running a communist-rigged game STEALING from traders.
I want a FREE MARKET back. Goldman MUST be broken up and a FIREWALL needs to remove all Goldman and Wall Street hacks from Washington.
I'm sick of these communist government manipulators.
BRING BACK FREE MARKETS!
Intelligent service provision to customers to ensure and improve quality of service around algorithm-selection, execution quality, market structure, technical advice etc.
Goldman and Bank of Amerika run the markets along with Geithner, and beagle boy Ben. There is no free markets, only welfare capitalism and socialism for capitalism.
good articles; good articles 4 slow news day ..http://www.. hat tip: finance news & opinion updated daily
You can't bring back something that never existed.
Someone should use FOI request w/ regards to banning
of shorting financial stocks. I shorted Wachovia, and
was considering short MS and GS, but I had stepped to the
sidelines, once the gov. took over Fannie and Freddie.
I haven't been back on the field since, as that was the
signal. But, banning the shorts was the truly un-American
changing of the rules in the middle of the game. Just glad
I had already stopped playing.
As a side, someone dig up and post Maria's interview using her mouth to serve Paulson during that period. Something like all I can say is "America is so lucky to have someone like you at a time like this".. it was totally sick.
@ Tyler
It is worth remembering that Hank Paulson's very first jobs out of university were in the Nixon Administration - the first in an obscure corner of the Vietnam-era Pentagon practising black ops, the second on the Nixon White House Dirty Tricks Team under John Ehrlichman.
He schooled in using foul means to achieve his ends from an early age. Is it any wonder he scaled the greasy pole at GS so very nimbly? Is it any wonder that once back in government he used his power for against the public interest?
London Banker,
This goes WAY beyond PARTISAN conspiracies.
Goldman is an equal opportunity hack and only idiots don't see that.
Look at Paulson's political contributions and if anything I view him as someone pulling the wool over Bush's eyes.
This is an ELITE problem where the biggest banksters have co-opted Washington and are running it like a thug communist mafia operation. They get idiot Bush elected and step all over him. They get inexperienced Obama that everyone loves and step all over him too.
This is about Wall Street vs real America and free markets.
This action can only be waged via multiple sources and methods. Thanks TD for doing your ever more essential part.
chairmanoffice@sec.gov we would love to here from you!!
Good point here
Goldman and Bank of Amerika run the markets along with Geithner, and beagle boy Ben. There is no free markets, only welfare capitalism and socialism for capitalism.
good articles; good articles 4 slow news day ..http://www.. hat tip: finance news & opinion updated daily
why do you keep spamming the comment threads?
zero hedge, and why did my original comment about handfree's spamming get deleted?
There's no way for me, or anyone else, to know what Blankfein and Paulson talked about during those first three calls on Sept. 18.
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Well, yes. Unless, of course, the NSA has something there and they decide to do some leaking.
As much as we would love to see these players (Paulson, Geithner, Bernanke, GS) do the perp walk, the feds won't do anything if they feel it would generate civil unrest. I would bet everything I have that the FBI already has the evidence to take down all of the players in this financial disaster but doing so would throw this country and probably the entire world in to chaos as it would undermine every government and the world financial system. It's the same think that keeps Blagojevich on the street. He knows that if it goes to court the evidence will also bring down the Obama administration. The FBI won't do that because taking down Obama would throw this country in to a tail spin. Taking down Blago isn't worth it. So Blago struts around on prime time TV like a celebrity instead of rotting in prison like he should. Same exact thing with the Fed, Treasury and banks.
Please, everyone go back to reading about Madoff like your supposed to. Obama is elected. The perfect salesman. And the Fed and Goldman ain't going anywhere.
Madoff. Madoff. Get Madoff.