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Matt Taibbi Asks Why The Fed Gave $220 Million In Bailout Money To The Wives Of Two Morgan Stanley "Bigwigs"
Matt Taibbi has resurfaced with another stunner of Wall Street impropriety which will lead to merely more silence, even more unanswered questions and be quickly buried by the kleptocratic oligarchy.
The Real Housewives of Wall Street: Look Who's Cashing In On the Bailout
Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?
From Rolling Stone Magazine
In August 2009, John Mack,
at the time still the CEO of Morgan Stanley, made an interesting life
decision. Despite the fact that he was earning the comparatively low
salary of just $800,000, and had refused to give himself a bonus in the
midst of the financial crisis, Mack decided to buy himself a gorgeous
piece of property — a 107-year-old limestone carriage house on the Upper
BeerEast Side of New York, complete with an indoor 12-car garage, that
had just been sold by the prestigious Mellon family for $13.5 million.
Either Mack had plenty of cash on hand to close the deal, or he got some
help from his wife, Christy, who apparently bought the house with him.
The Macks make for an interesting couple. John, a Lebanese-American
nicknamed "Mack the Knife" for his legendary passion for firing people,
has one of the most recognizable faces on Wall Street, physically
resembling a crumpled, half-burned baked potato with a pair of
overturned furry horseshoes for eyebrows. Christy is thin, blond and
rich — a sort of still-awake Sunny von Bulow with hobbies. Her major
philanthropic passion is endowments for alternative medicine, and she
has attained the level of master at Reiki, the Japanese practice of
"palm healing." The only other notable fact on her public résumé is that
her sister was married to Charlie Rose.
It's hard to imagine a pair of people you would less want to
hand a giant welfare check to — yet that's exactly what the Fed did.
Just two months before the Macks bought their fancy carriage house in
Manhattan, Christy and her pal Susan launched their investment
initiative called Waterfall TALF. Neither seems to have any experience
whatsoever in finance, beyond Susan's penchant for dabbling in
thoroughbred racehorses. But with an upfront investment of $15 million,
they quickly received $220 million in cash from the Fed, most of which
they used to purchase student loans and commercial mortgages. The loans
were set up so that Christy and Susan would keep 100 percent of any
gains on the deals, while the Fed and the Treasury (read: the taxpayer)
would eat 90 percent of the losses. Given out as part of a bailout
program ostensibly designed to help ordinary people by kick-starting
consumer lending, the deals were a classic heads-I-win, tails-you-lose
investment.
So how did the government come to address a financial crisis caused
by the collapse of a residential-mortgage bubble by giving the wives of a
couple of Morgan Stanley bigwigs free money to make essentially
risk-free investments in student loans and commercial real estate? The
answer is: by degrees. The history of the bailout era reads like one of
those awful stories about what happens when a long-dormant criminal
compulsion goes unchecked. The Peeping Tom next door stares through a
few bathroom windows, doesn't get caught, and decides to break in and
steal a pair of panties. Next thing you know, he's upgraded to homemade
dungeons, tri-state serial rampages and throwing cheerleaders into a
panel truck.
The impetus for this sudden manic expansion of the bailouts was a
masterful bluff by Wall Street executives. Once the money started
flowing from the Federal Reserve, the executives began moaning to their
buddies at the Fed, claiming that they were suddenly afraid of investing
in anything — student loans, car notes, you name it — unless
their profits were guaranteed by the state. "You ever watch soccer,
where the guy rolls six times to get a yellow card?" says William Black,
a former federal bank regulator who teaches economics and law at the
University of Missouri. "That's what this is. If you have power and
connections, they will give you a freebie deal — if you're good at
whining."
This is where TALF fits into the bailout picture. Created just after
Barack Obama's election in November 2008, the program's ostensible
justification was to spur more consumer lending, which had dried up in
the midst of the financial crisis. But instead of lending directly to
car buyers and credit-card holders and students — that would have been
socialism! — the Fed handed out a trillion dollars to banks and hedge
funds, almost interest-free. In other words, the government lent
taxpayer money to the same assholes who caused the crisis, so that they
could then lend that money back out on the market virtually risk-free,
at an enormous profit.
Cue your Billy Mays voice, because wait, there's more! A key aspect of TALF is that the Fed doles out the money through what are known as non-recourse loans.
Essentially, this means that if you don't pay the Fed back, it's no big
deal. The mechanism works like this: Hedge Fund Goon borrows, say, $100
million from the Fed to buy crappy loans, which are then transferred to
the Fed as collateral. If Hedge Fund Goon decides not to repay that
$100 million, the Fed simply keeps its pile of crappy securities and
calls everything even.
This is the deal of a lifetime. Think about it: You borrow millions, buy
a bunch of crap securities and stash them on the Fed's books. If the
securities lose money, you leave them on the Fed's lap and the public
eats the loss. But if they make money, you take them back, cash them in
and repay the funds you borrowed from the Fed. "Remember that crazy guy
in the commercials who ran around covered in dollar bills shouting, 'The
government is giving out free money!' " says Black. "As crazy as he
was, this is making it real."
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money laundering?
Now, that's what you call receiving a "financial blow job." Getting all the fun(d) without getting your hands wet.
Rolling Stone is a POS mag, but Taibbi has written some great pieces.
You knew there was shit in those loan packages that Bernak didn't want public and it was hard to believe that his concern was limited to the foreign CB loans.
Watch. There's plenty more ugly buried in those doc's. Remember the program includes at least 21,000 loans and it takes a while to peel back the ownership structure where the owner prefers it confidential.
Nothing a couple .308's cant handle!
as usual, am sitting here stunned. what the hell ...... sure could feed a lot of hungry americans with that money ....... better yet, could have given the elderly a much - needed social security benefit raise to compensate them for ZIRP . elderly don't even get to earn interest on their paltry bit of money in a bank account, but, MACK (+others) get their needs met. stop paying taxes people, put the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK out of it's (& our) misery.
You go first.
Don't wait for them to jump, throw the fuckers out the window.
The big macro problem here is that the Generation of 1968 still has a massive presence in Wall Street, money-center banks, and law firms. Until they are purged, the country will continue to suck. From Woodstock to TARP, their legacy is one of disclaiming responsibility and blaming others for the woes they inflict on the country.
John Mack ran his bank into the ground, took TARP money, and should have lost his job. Instead, he remained chairman of Morgan Stanley, and now we found that his wife engaged in these TALF shenanigans. Subpoenas should be flying. Even if Mack's wife did nothing illegal, what the Baby Boomers on Wall Street have lacked is a nice public flaying. If I were in Congress, I would demand a disgorgement of the Mack profits from TALF and a return of those to the Treasury.
I have to agree. This generation seems to be the most selfish generation of them all. Although they claim not to be. I am amazed at the amount of age discrimination I run into when trying to do anything other than work my 9-5.
+1000
The greediest and most entitled generation of all.
It's not generational warfare, its a class war. Try not to obfuscate the issue by regurgitating "information" you've been spoon fed by the corporate media. Your parents or grandparents aren't to blame, it is the structure that is the agent that is sucking you dry and destroying your life.
There will be scum in every generation, as in every race and every religion. We don't destroy everything to save everything, that was the Vietnam model that didn't work so well.Purge the disease and save the sick, hate the sickness not the sickened.
We need all the friends we can muster irregardless of age or generation. Damn those who would destroy us but lets not jettison an entire generation because they lived before us.
it's not generational warfare, its a class war.
Thank You, Standing Clapping.
Those who foist that canard are trying intently to change the debate to their turf. It is to gently change it to us fighting us again.
Those who put forth that POV are the THEM.
"t's not generational warfare, its a class war."
+1
-
"The big macro problem here is that the Generation of 1968 still has a massive presence in Wall Street, money-center banks, and law firms. Until they are purged, the country will continue to suck.
" From Woodstock to TARP, their legacy is one of disclaiming responsibility and blaming others for the woes they inflict on the country."
-1
" From Woodstock to TARP"
Nope, nope, no, no....
Not the same people, nope.
Guaranteed.
What I don't understand (other than quantum physics) is how some folks who spout "hang 'em high!" from one side of their mouths can sip the kool-aid from the party that is hell bent on "tax cuts for the rich". There must be some real mental conflict going on in those skulls. I say hang 'em, too, but I don't want to give the tax breaks to folks who don't need them. I like how they are sometimes referred to as "the real economic producers". (Yeah, I know all the arguments...) Surely that doesn't include the wives in the article. See how difficult all this is? That's one reason why I don't get tweaked at these revelations of wrong doing in financial circles. The man-bites-dog news would be that some connected person DIDN'T get largesse from the captive government.
actually, no. Dem's still "believe it's possible" and therefore think "hope is just a tax hike away." The tax cut Right believe "all is lost again so phuck it."
Could be. You'll get no argument outta me. It's all moot by now, eh?
And you were born when? You were where during Vietnam?
There's something you're missing. Looking at it as "an entire generation" is overly general. Most of that generation are in fact the victims. Closer to the truth is this: Supply-siders are still in power at the Fed, in Washington and around the Western world. They believe in Federalism, that there should exist an elite in every country, including the US, and that giving them favorable "supply-side" treatment (including tax treatment) is favorable to the society as whole because it "trickles-down", and because concentrating wealth allows for good business. It's top-down rather than bottom-up. Think Tories in the UK. Most people in the 60s generation believed in bottom-up, but they were overtaken by the elitists (few in number, big on power).
Slap bang rat-a-tang analysis. You hit it out of the park like...Mickey Mantle; when I was young! So there it is...its an historical trait and it has to be flushed out...Reagan/Thatcher same paradigm, same mayhem. Brave new world.
Think Alexander Hamilton, it goes back a long way in this country.
+47
"From Woodstock to TARP, their legacy"
Don't tell me, you were born somewhere around 1935-1945sh right?
That's how much you know. It's like saying that Animal House's fraternaties Delta house and Omega House were the same guys.
Delta House gave you Woodstock
Omega House gave you TARP
It WASN'T ONE generation there yo yo.
I can see Greg Marmalard and Doug Neidermeyer working for GS.
With Mandy Pepperidge being Lloyd's wife.
to those who think the elites are super smart...read the article...REIKI? WTF. Some kinda mystical asianmade con.
These elites are so clueless and out of touch they will latch onto any kind of bullshit. I mean look at Scientology!
The so-called elite is completely out of it. Remember, they get access to all kinds of free pills
Most of the Third Reich elite were off their tits on speed and utterly delusional - what's new?
I hate this shit, don't get me wrong but look at all your own possessions and remember that just as we are exploited/milked by these people, there are those below us in the global hierarchy who are getting a raw deal on our account, and just as you are pissed and want heads to roll... they want our heads to roll
I think your vision is a bit myopic, the poor, the extreme poor, and the middle class are all exploited to provide revenue and control to the uber wealthy. The fact that the middle class might 'use' the products of the labor of the poor of other nations is not a deliberate act by the middle class, it is however a deliberate act by very wealthy who control the means of production and control the labor used within that production. That labor is merely a tool to maximize their profit and induce you to buy so that they might profit, it is a way to acquire your money, while paying a tiny fraction of it to the 3rd world. The impoverished are merely the cost of doing business, a tool to extract revenue from the middle class of the world, while also destroying the middle class of the world.
Someday soon you will be able to buy goods made in America again, the bad news is you won't be able to afford them as your wages will be sub poverty level. The middle class has little control over the means of production and cannot be held largely accountable for the destruction and exploitation leveled upon the poor.
Blaming the middle class for buying goods made in China, is like blaming your car for burning foreign gasoline - your car can't make gasoline, it has to use the gasoline available to it. The problem is "free trade" which is a government policy that we don't get to vote on.
Trav, that is just negative body thetans causing you to say such things.
The long term plays also take thier toll on elite as well. As we are slowly brainwashed, many of them get weak - soft - and similarly brainwashed. The same as new wealth typically only lasting a couple of generations maximum. Most of the rich will likely get wiped out at some point, the same as J6P.
This is the generation that spent its formative years in constant fear of being incinerated by A-bomb at any moment. Under the media din warning of the "Reds'" imminent obliteration of any given urban center, they were literally living the question of "what would you do today if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?" No surprise that they responded by living in the moment, acting selfishly with little regard for the future costs of their present actions. I would imagine if an experiment was conducted on a group of sentient lifeforms; where they were told they have a fifty-fifty chance of enduring a nuclear holocaust, that they too would act extremely irrational, with little regard to the consequences of their actions. Well, we are all witness to the outcome of that experiment. Also this is the outgrowth of the "free love, free drugs, free, free, free" sentiment. It should be no surprise there is an embedded sense of entitlement. Even further, if one analyzes the predictions of futurists in the 60s, the boomers were sold quite a bill of goods on what the future had in store for them. It was to be a sort of Eutopia, with an abundance of free time to build out culture and the like. A time where the average working man would be transported to work in his personal helicopter to oversea the robots operating industry.
As a boomer I don't think boomers need to have excuses made for them. As with any other large group of people the boomers aren't monolithic. As in any other generation there are evil men, heroes, cowards, and saints in the boomer generation. Most boomers live day by day and do the best they can with what they have, just like most people have through the ages and will continue to do so on into the future. This it's all the boomers fault mantra is put forth by men who make their money spouting such drivel and absorbed by those too lazy or dumb to think for themselves. As it has been, it is, and it will continue to be.
If science can classify generations of mice so to can it classify generations of humans.
If the preceeding generation is to be titled "the greatest generation", the boomers are certainly owed the title of "the myopic generation". And understandably so- their formative years were spent in a world where instant, unforeseen, wide spread death was a real possibility. Drop and cover; your school desk will most certainly protect you from the fallout. With that said, all generations subsequent to boomers are deserving of the title "the apthetic generation". Millions of men and woman aimlessly meandering with no cultural endzone; media-message compliant debt slaves grasping at the fading illusion of the American dream.
No welfare or bailouts for anybody.
An honest system is not possible so
it is better just to recognize the fact and
severely limit government so it doesnt cause
unfairness.
+1. It's so simple, but some asshole is always trying to iceskate uphill...
"severely limit government so it doesnt cause
unfairness."
-
Well, you fucking missed the boat.
You are beyond help.
I wonder if "palm healing" would do you much good if your head was on a f*cking pike?
Lol.
I'm a firm believer in giving people a second chance.
Mack's wife is a palm healer? To me that says: Crucifixion.
Let's see how good she is at her "craft". Nail her to a cross in Central Park, both hands and feet, and see if she can heal herself. If not, she's a fraud. No harm done.
LOL. Thats even better.
+ 4 (both hands and feet)
Eric Holder is going to investigate in this in 3...2...1...1,000,000...999,999...
Who is Eric Holder?
Lead counsel on Dancing with the Stars
He's a whore pretending to be a lawyer.
that comment is offensive to whores...
Inaction Jackson.
Touche. Whores actually do something.
He's busy reading law books, trying to find something to prosecute Julian Assange on.
You mean Eric "Place" Holder?
A judiciary derelict
We need more Matts to shine light on these assholes...'buttlight' so to speak.
No wonder the IRS is worried about people cheating on their taxes....they read this stuff and wonder why they need to toe the line...
Yeah right. They don't seem to have a problem with GE getting refunds.
Ya, I love how all the sudden cnbc is fearmongering their new program on the IRS catching tax cheats. Must be thier community service for getting caught.
And the common man has a moral obligation to pay his taxes why?
Perhaps the most irritating facet of all of these transactions is the fact that hundreds of millions of Fed dollars were given out to hedge funds and other investors with addresses in the Cayman Islands. Many of those addresses belong to companies with American affiliations — including prominent Wall Street names like Pimco, Blackstone and . . . Christy Mack. Yes, even Waterfall TALF Opportunity is an offshore company. It's one thing for the federal government to look the other way when Wall Street hotshots evade U.S. taxes by registering their investment companies in the Cayman Islands. But subsidizing tax evasion? Giving it a federal bailout? What the fuck?
Which bailout?
TARP or Stimulus?
Maybe Matt should be appointed SEC chief or Attorney General.
is uncle sam wearing crazy lesko's dollar sign laden suitcoat?
or vice versa?
I'm not gona' lie, I'm jealous.
I wish I could get financing like that.
yeah! we could help do god's work! that guy mack may look like mr pota-toe head w/ horseshoes, but he sure hooked up his old lady and her friend from aqueduct and saratoga! $200 mil!
all the zeros want to murder these people. i understand, but i don't feel that way, myself.
remember doe-eyed pelosi & hanky panky: "We have to do something!"
well, the FED has got this insta-zombie thingy happening, and it's time for niagara falls thru the liquidity hose. yeah they bought shit. that was the plan. all these tapioca rollers just socialized the losses. check out he debt We owe!
but they saved the financial and banking industry and the economy! well, in case you haven't noticed, maybe not. maybe's about the best we can say for them. reflation. okey dokey! but this did happen and those were the rules, and these two chicks got hooked up and re-freaking-flated their fuking accounts!
these are baaad, naughty, haughty girls!
i think tyler oughta invite them to the site so they can tell us how fukin hilarious this musta been. can you imagine!
maybe the non-mack can talk about the 3 year olds coming into the Derby. why shouldn't they be dimon-esque. if he can throw a pie in his own face in davos, let's give these girls a shot @ zH!
I just throw-up
Crony capitalism at its best. Not only do we have the best politicians money can buy, the banksters at the Fed continue to take care of their own right under our noses and we can do nothing......yet.
Stories like this just prove gold and silver are invaluable investment classes because they aren't infinite and can't be handed out like glasses of rain water. I am still reminded that Donald Rumsfeld's missing $2 Trillion is still missing and unaccounted for on budgets...except probably to the taxpayers.
It's magic this paper isn't it? If Gutenberg could only have invented the digital printing press back when the world would be so much more proserous now.
Amerika is now being told by the IMF it must reduce it's deficit. Amerika the [Once] Great.
Fucj gold and silver! Glock .40 is the best solution! God damn these whores.
oh yeah, forgot about that...I guess the next day news drowned out any follow up when on Rumsfeld comment 10 years ago.
But notice the congress is still fighting over a measley $38 Billion.
And then, WT7 was pulled I mean fell destroying all that evidence....
oh yeah, forgot about that...I guess the next day news drowned out any follow up on Rumsfeld comment 10 years ago.
America is NOT being sold by an arrogant IMF. America OWNS the IMF. But in the current context as Caesar runs around his palace with shit covering his ass, even his faithful servants tell him walking, as serfs by his side, in their long, interminable corridors of power, that he needs to take a new tack...and more important...wash his ass. Obviously, Caesar's worshippers are not amused at this 'lese majesty'!
Here is something from Monday:
IMF Plots Role as World's Central Bankhttp://www.thedailybell.com/2038/IMF-Plots-Role-as-Worlds-Central-Bank.html
Shit, I wish I'd thought of that...doesn't appear they'd done anything illegal. Knew I should have gone Ivy League.
i guess your point is the rebuttal to the most recent guest poster's position on why college costs are not worth taking on (at least for the privileged).
C
U
Go Buffs!
N
T
S!
I
fiat money system run amuck ....... more, more & more til we go into hyperinflation. except those that knew how to play the system really won..... they bought up natural resources, land, gold at artificially suppressed prices with their fiat money !! thank you, ROBERT RUBIN .......bankster-in-chief
Charlie Rose can always be counted on to put the right amount of sticky sweet sugar coating glaze on any tool of the powers that be. Now we know one of the reasons why. Watch his interviews with Kissinger, Brezinski, Gates, Gore etc.
it is always interesting to figure out some of the mechanics that make the greatest propaganda machine in the universe work so well. These guys are predictable in so many ways, this is further confirmation. When will people realize what they are doing to us?....what their goals are...why they promote so many lies...why they promote so many wars, taxes and more wars.
Think Charlie Rose will give a fair hearing to "End the Fed"? people really have no idea what the US MSM is up to...many people really think Boehner versus Harry Reid is an important battle...what year was it 2007,2006? that "gay marriage" was the most popular topic of political debate in the MSM?
Seriously wake the F up...preaching to the choir here I know.
If someone set it off, Wall Street would burn.
This story angers me...........................
This would be the second one today that makes me ill enough to puke. How does THIS go unpunished?
They'll just go fire Gary Aguirre. Again. That'll make it well.
Or trot Madoff out and run his ass through court again.
Good one!
nt
And we thought that the oligarchs were in Russia and Nero fiddled as Rome burned.
WTF
Bipartisan response will probably be, Hey it's better than giving it ti Libyan banks. Oh wait!
something very wrong here . . .
Interesting to see John Mack and Bill Gross both have the same Alma mater -Duke. Probably just a KO-winky dink.
Duke was Jed Clampett's dog. You must mean Dook, the collitch in Durham, NC.
Wonder if either ever played on the Lacrosse team...just saying
This shit makes me so fucking mad.
YouTube videos of Wall St. trophy wives being guillotined.
Guillotinez!
Not the wives faults...these are just payouts to keep all the troops happy.Make sure that Charlie Rose supports the reponsible CFR line on central banking.
The source of the payouts is the real evil. I mean sure the wives are bitches...not saying they aren't...but you play into their hands when you get all misogenistic and class warfare and shit. If you really want revenge it is best not to boradcast it first.
Its spelled 'misogynistic.' Nothing more tasteless that the internet for entertainment. It would be a perfect venue for a picnic and a head-roll.
Skulls and Bones Bitchez Are gonna get theirs, I can feel it
In a just world, they would be nothing but "skulls and bones" by the time we get done with them.
But we lack leadership...we have no Danton, no Robespierre...and no Lenin, Trotsky, or Bukharin or Dzerzhinski for that matter....
Hammer and Sickle bitchez!
How much are you paid to peddle this hasbara?
http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/bolshevik_revolution/chapter_02.htm
LoL.
Until these people and the politicians that enable this, are found floating in The Hudson (or Potomac), the pillaging will continue unabated. Enjoy.
Ameircans are the best, most generous, kind-hearted people ever!
You think I'm bullshitting or patronizing? Well, would you, after being ripped off of your job, retirement savings, equity on the house, give your money to Wall Street for free, and then borrow from Wall Street at 5%?
You say that's the fucked up government? But but but isn't our government the most democratic, freely and fairly elected one? So one must assume the people did all this willingly.
People, it's time to wake up, stand back to the mirror, bent down, take a look at your asshole and see how much bigger it is. You know why? It's because the shaft is still in there, right now.
Middle class my ass. You have a choice in the next 10 years: eithe join the top 1% or join the revolution.
Or come to Canada and join Leo's pension for citizen's team
Nah, right before the revolution US will just invade Canada. That ought to be good for delaying the revolution for a year or two, what with all that sand oil and cheap meds.
time to ask the prez if this is the change he promised. a major change for the worse.
bully pulpit & claw back time?
most likely its just more proof that the dems are puppets of the billionaires just like they say the repubs are.....
And I thought this was bad...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwis...
It is - but on a different scale.
While we are often pretty tough on the banking crowd here at Zero Hedge with a little digging one can learn to appreciate how they view the world from the things they do and their lifestyles. To that end this is the first in an occasional series 'Getting to know your bankers' and it is my hope that you approach it with an open mind.
In this edition meet John L. Thornton
Goldman Family Photo of John Thornton with Hank and Thain
John takes the plunge soon after Bear goes down and buys a(nother) house
More on John's house
John at Brookings
John as a regulator
Muckety John
John as HSBC Chair
(Video) John on faith, globalization, the meaning of life and the priority of harmony (stability) in China and China's new found religious tolerance (except for Falun Gong or any other public expression of religion)
Awesome post - Zer0Head this would make an EXCELLENT series - great job!
What Palm Beach really needs is a tsunami of Biblical proportion.
Figures.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-11/fed-director-s-bank-burned-twice-on-one-project-as-loan-to-ceo-s-kin-sours.html
Hope their Uterus's fall out
Ok that's the ticket now we are getting somewhere.
BASTILLE! BASTILLE! BASTILLE!
Wouldn't that be 'uteri'? As in, "Their uteri should be violated with cacti."
Christy is thin, blond and rich — a sort of still-awake Sunny von Bulow with hobbies.
She has a Royal Wedding to prepare for, after all! C'mon! How else is a trophy wife to an A-lister supposed to get by? What the hell good is her hubster if he can't funnel taxpayer money into her shopping account? And how would it reflect on us as a country if one of our A-listers wasn't properly dressed and bejeweled for a Royal Wedding?
You people simply don't understand what makes the world go round!
Disgusting sickening reprehensible abuse of power and influence. The ruling elite continue to stick it to the rest of us.
And Martha Stewart does time for "insider trading".
What a crock of shit.
Her crime was donating to the wrong party at the wrong time.
GREAT POINT - and I am certain that Martha can whip up an impressive crock of SHIT & serve it elegantly to Mary Schapiro at the SEC - Could be a great interview for Charlie Rose...Martha put that CROCK POT down!
Rome is burning brighter than ever. Prosecute the fraud already.
I can't wait to hear what comrade Osamabama has to say. Oh did you hear that Trump says Obama isn't an American?
Cool - shit is everywhere
He's about as much of a comrade as Lloyd Blankfein is.
Trump isn't saying that Obama isn't American, he's saying that Obama isn't eligible to be elected President because he was born in a foreign country (Kenya).
Did Trump pretend that Obama's presumedly circumcised state made him truly un-american, like a fishy dishy in a mad hatted USA? It would pour salt on the wound of doubtful birth certificate; like suggesting Cassius Clay was Elijah Mohammed's bastard son! And not the king of the boxing world. Oh, daddy! when we were kings...and they sang "Ali Boumayé" at Kinshasa, the rumble in the jungle! And "mayhem at Manila" to follow like a sequel to end all sequels!
"Before she would do so, Fukino said, she wanted to inspect the files — and did so, taking with her the state official in charge of vital records. She found the original birth record, properly numbered, half typed and half handwritten, and signed by the doctor who delivered Obama, located in the files. She then put out a public statement asserting to the document's validity. She later put out another public statement in July 2009 — after reviewing the original birth record a second time."
But Fukino is right, it's the agenda that's important, not the facts. There are plenty of reasons to dis Obama without this ludicrous claim.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42519951/ns/politics-more_politics
1) that info comes from MSDNC (er MSNBC) so immediately it lacks credibility
2) we're supposed to rely on the word of this person? Why can't anybody else see this thing?
I call Bullshit.
"Before she would do so, Fukino said, she wanted to inspect the files — and did so, taking with her the state official in charge of vital records. She found the original birth record, properly numbered, half typed and half handwritten, and signed by the doctor who delivered Obama, located in the files. She then put out a public statement asserting to the document's validity. She later put out another public statement in July 2009 — after reviewing the original birth record a second time."
But Fukino is right, it's the agenda that's important, not the facts. There are plenty of reasons to dis Obama without this ludicrous claim.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42519951/ns/politics-more_politics
A good case could be made that the money given those two blond whores is far better spent than the money to fund NPR.
Ok for those still stuck in the Right/Left false dichotomies,
Change those two examples to National Parks and Libraries.
Hows that?
Yep. We need to bail put the elite while the gettin is till good enough for them to re-stock their lifeboats, expand their holdings overseas and be ready for a US disaster.
It seems to me that Matt Taibbi -- as well as most of the commenters here -- are focusing on the wrong issue.
Those crooked rich people. This worthless generation of executives. This moronic administration.
Hold on. Am I missing something? It seems to me that the only issue here is the Federal Reserve. They are a private, for-profit institution that the treasonous administration and congress of 1913 gave our country to.
Isn't that right?
If you have a private institution that can create money that Americans are required to accept -- well then, what the hell do you think they will do? They will give arbitrary amounts of money to their friends.
They will start by using their godlike power to make sure that they have complete control of the political process. They will end by doing the kinds of things that this article describes.
They have been allowed to create at least $ 1.2 trillion without even mentioning it to our congress! And actually, probably trillions more I don't know about.
If they can do that -- why does anyone here even imagine that this country is a democracy? I cannot undertstand it. Because they let us sit at the children's table and argue about whatever issues they deem appropriate? Our "two" political parties get to argue about health care and who fooled whom into going into which war -- while these guys rule the world.
We're bitching about the bars of our cage, when we should be watching the jailer, and planning.
I heard (Gerald Celente as source) that during the bailout the Fed issued $20 Trillion. $1.2 doesn't seem so big now.
Yes, exactly, of course you are right. Taibbi's too full of rage and bile to look at the big picture.
Not that there isn't plenty to get outraged about. But Taibbi really lets it get in his way.
Taibbi most likely is a "useful idiot" to the real criminals behind the scenes that use the Obamas, Blankfeins, Dimons, etc. as their puppets.
Wrong. It's not the "big picture" that will finally get us off our asses and into the streets. It is the "little things" like this: easy to understand, easy to grasp, and certain to outrage. Taibbi knows what he is doing. Now it is our turn.
Exactly Chindit13. People don't really have to know the 'Big' picture.
The guy in Tunisia didn't know the 'Big' picture. A catalyst is a funny thing.
It could be like a school of fish all of a sudden deciding to turn. Everybody at once. Like Tunisia
If you want to understand the reason for this, Watch this short video about Communication.
Watch particularly at 8:00. We are near that point.
Boy saying the 'King's naked' event.
Language as a window into human nature.
http://www.wimp.com/humannature/
So, in other words, operating a pitchfork is just inside your skill set. Barely?
Well, there are "crooked rich people" and a "worthless generation of executives" and a "moronic administration" but, you're right--the real issue here is the Federal R. I like this: " "We're bitching about the bars of our cage..." We definitely need to plan. Peacefully.
and with a cat mask on. and nails.
Mick
Who gave them that power? Who turns a blind eye to it? Who lets the endless milking of the government go on and on? Of course the average citizen, but more importantly the people in Washington that are supposed to be representing us. They get elected term after term on lies that spew from their mouth until they are elected. If they really have integrity they are fighting the 95% that don't, maybe they get worn down and change sides or just become ostracized. Kind of like a corrupt police dept. . It boils down to a human trait called greed.
FED it is, mick.
oh yeah. must get a catalyst. get people into the streets.
you don't say that.
if you're going to have the FED "backstop" the financial system and allow private losses to be socialized, then maybe people should accept the FED, too. you can't have it both ways.
terrible terrible mistake to do it that way, imv.
and, i can't have it both ways, either. the mis-allocated capital and zombie limited liability stck companies are still here. maybe, instead of carrying this nonsense any further, we start calling a spade a spade and get the hell away from reflation. for the duration!
time to mark to market. vast, vast, realms of layered fraud. true banksterism.
fool us once.
it's hard for me to imagine people so evil or so styooopid that they wouldn't just like to get the damned liquidations over with and get on with economic activity, at this point. how the hell could it be more expensive than this fiasco? what are we? fiat-bots?
that's when i realize that our entire system has been hijacked by fascists, internationalists, and very secretive people and processes. i just love a good story, don't you?
...to be continued...
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — David Sokol knew of progress towards a possible Berkshire Hathaway bid for Lubrizol Corp. before he bought almost $10 million worth of stock in the lubricant company, according to a new regulatory filing.
So he ripped of Warren Buffet. I'd shake his hand.
What I would like to know is, ... why isn't this being reported by NYT, WSJ, WAPO, etc?
In asking, you have answered the question.
it was, sort of
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/business/economy/02fed.html?_r=1
Next time the Street sheers the sheeple, it will be sure to have enough Financial PATSYs to help cover up the pillage. Sure these goons will outsource the help of mercenaries too. BTW, Taibbi is a bought and paid for (BAIT & SWITCH) goon just like the rest of these talking mouth pieces. Rolling Stone is a joke. Rolling Stone covers these stories like it is cutting edge when in fact everything has already been covered by alternative/independent media by a far greater extent. Try reading Greg Hunter if you want some good coverage of the straight dope. Now Greg is hitting balls out of the park and has a lot of courage for telling these stories.
Did you even read the article?
WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO ABOUT IT?