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My Date With Elliot Spitzer
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why New York’s former governor and federal prosecutor, Elliot Spitzer, wanted to invite me to dinner. He wasn’t flogging a book or promoting a movie, and he certainly wasn’t running for office again. But I went anyway, thinking perhaps the notorious “Client No.9” might let me peek at his infamous black book.
Elliot, who showed up wearing a classic New York blue pin stripped suit that seems oddly out of place in San Francisco, is currently teaching at the City College of New York, writing, and running his family’s commercial real estate empire. Elliot argued that the advantages that the US enjoyed over the rest of the world in 1945, such as a monopoly in skilled labor, are now long gone. The driver of the world economy has switched from America to Asia in the nineties. As a result, income distribution here has morphed from a bell shaped curve to a barbell, with both the wealthy and the poor increasing in numbers, squeezing the middle class.
The financial crisis compressed 30 years of change into two, taking us from libertarian Ayn Rand to pay czar Ken Feinberg in one giant leap. Having cut his teeth prosecuting the Gambino crime family in the eighties, Elliot had some views on the need for more regulation. We only need to enforce the laws on the books, not pass new ones. The “white collarization” of organized crime has been a secular trend since the sixties. He said the ethical lapses in the run up to the crash were best characterized by a quote from Merrill Lynch’s Jack Robins; “What used to be a conflict of interest is now a synergy.”
Elliot further opined that AIG getting 100 cents on the dollar was the greatest scam in history. The US did not extract a high enough price from highly paid executives and shareholders of financial institutions for failure, and should have let more firms go under.
As for his own scandal last year, Elliot admitted that he failed, that his flaws were made publicly apparent, and that other politicians should be smarter than he was. Although Elliot had some good ideas, I was still puzzled over what this was all about as I ploughed through my crème brulee. Perhaps the governor has a pathological need to be in front of the spotlight, even at the risk of flaming out.
And no luck with the black book.
For more iconoclastic and out of consensus analysis, you can always visit me at www.madhedgefundtrader.com , where the conventional wisdom is mercilessly flailed and tortured daily, or listen to me on Hedge Fund Radio at http://www.madhedgefundtrader.biz/ .
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How much did Spitzer pay you for your ... um ... services?
I call bull**** on this mtg. My friend works for SF Chronicle, no stories on him in the last month where he was more than mentioned tangentially. No reports of him being in SF at all recently. Trust me, this is the most gossipy town--we catch all the VIPs, celebs who are around town. There's no way to go into a restaurant w/o the maitre d' dropping the 411 on high visibility customers.
My own theory is that MHFT smokes some really good weed (maybe a little too much opium laced) and imagines all these wonderful interviews (that of course never contradict his own fabulous advice).
What a missed opportunity. That his "scandal" is even mentioned is just a waste of breath, he was set-up because he was about to file a lawsuit against the subprime mortgage lenders. Who the hell cares who his dick is in, it's really none of our business, it's just distraction. You wonder why ZH is anon? Spitzer's a prime example.
When you are guilty of the very same things that you are supposed to be and did prosecute, then that is my definition of a hypocrite.
On the other hand it is miniscule compared to the fraud perpetuated by the hypocrites that were accusing him. He is definitely the lesser of two evils.
I don't think that he would have gone along with the GS and other scams so he had to be eliminated.
Agreed, but everyones a hypocrite from time to time. It's just a shame to watch his family have to get put in a spotlight for his indiscretion and more to the point what he was pursuing at the time get flushed down the toilet. Reminds me of the movie "The Firm".
Mr Spitzer is a wise man. And that Ashley chick was hot...
It's OK for i-Bank and Central Bank executives that run this country to have Escorts come to their offices and blow them while the executives bang rails off the Escorts tits.
Eliot Spitzer has an affair and he is the most evil person in the world according to the MSM.
The Neoliberals promote if it feels good do it, don't ask and don't tell. But when Eric Massa won't play ball and vote for a putrid Health Care bill oh wait, your now a fag that may foul up our clean political air.
The corruption is so obvious now that even the most common brain dead American is figuring out that we have one massive problem on our hands that caused them to become broke.
Well, I guess sexual hypocrites in particular get what they deserve...incompetent heads of state(s).
From his website:
For only $149 you too can get a 3 month subscription to the Mad Hedge Fund Trader's daily letter! This includes special email alerts following important market moving events! Hurry! His traffic is exploding! Prices will go up! You too can eat lunch with the Mad Hedge Fund Trader! A three course lunch, 45 min. power point presentation and many surprises! All for the low price of $95!Premiun tickets where you can lick the spittle off the Mad Hedge Fund Traders chin are only $250!
MHFT is my favorite fictional blogger.
Is he a close personal friend? No. Does he have an ego? Yes. Does he make me some nice money? YES! Go through his archives and check the market. He may be full of himself but that's OK. He definitely isn't full of 'it'.
I was reading this About page on the MadHedgeFundTrader's site and in his distinguished career I don't see anything about his military background. Did I misread, or wasn't he invited some weeks back to the Presidio for military gathering because he is/was an officer in the Armed Services?
Elliot Spitzer needs to shut up and show me.
When the DOW is 10 I will believe we have found truth.
Wait -- we were listening to Ayn Rand at some point? Her flunky Greenspan doesn't count.
More regurgitated garbage from madhedgefundtrader
+1
Why do republicans want to create more and more "wellfare queens"??
Is it to doom SS and Medicare and then to shut it down??
Eliot just said that globalization is equalizing the wages all across the globe and it is unstoppable.
I used to watch Commander McBragg on Sunday AM TV when I was a kid.
...and now (unfortunately) I see him on Zero Hedge.
LOL IE! That is exactly what he sounds like.
I started reading this guys blog a few months back, and it was quickly obvious that this guy is living in a fantasy world (nice way of saying he's a habitual liar).
Hence, I as greatly disappointed when he started showing up on ZeroHedge.
I'm still waiting on the post regarding the breakfast between this guy and Jesus.
you are on the ball - my sentiments exactly, also broadcast here for several weeks now. The guy is a joke, a fraud.
No, he cancelled that one - Leonardo de Vinci, the Buddha and Gandi were round that morning. Afterwards they fed apples to Shergar in the garden.
I think it's in the Zero Hedge archives.
Do provide some context:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_McBragg
Elliot Spitzer should be the next president of the United States, but in puritanical USA, if you sleep with an escort, you're toast. In France, it wouldn't even make front page news. In my opinion, Spitzer gets it and wasn't afraid to take on powerful Wall Street crooks. That's why they burried him. Too bad, but I do hope he makes a comeback.
The system actually encourges the occasionial truth sayer in order to perpetuate the myth that all things are redemable, including politicans and the system itself. But go too far and you'll be slammed or snuffed.
So what did Elliot Spitzer do to go too far? It's OK to point to the peripheral players but never point your finger too close to home. This is what Spitzer did and a few days later, what was commonly known among the powers-that-be, that Spitzer had a "problem" with the ladies, became front page news. Remember how it went down, late Friday and all weekend, every newspaper and TV news program in lock step, speaking as one. Almost as if the media was being directed. Whoops, don't go there.
Anyway, for those who would like to read what was said by Spitzer in a Washington Post opinion editorial that placed a bulls eye on his back, click the link below. Didn't the stench of sub-prime start to really get bad a few months later? Coincidence, that's all.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html
message: don't F with the NYSE (or dick grasso) and certainly don't get too close to ....