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"The People Vs. Goldman Sachs" - Taibbi's Magnum Opus
By Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone Magazine
The People vs. Goldman Sachs
They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money
than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers,
in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They
came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.
Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate
subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the
criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know
exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel
Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman
executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their
clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall
Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at
the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much
doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.
The great and powerful Oz of Wall Street was not the only target of Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,
the 650-page report just released by the Senate Subcommittee on
Investigations, chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, alongside
Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Their unusually scathing bipartisan
report also includes case studies of Washington Mutual and Deutsche
Bank, providing a panoramic portrait of a bubble era that produced the
most destructive crime spree in our history — "a million fraud cases a
year" is how one former regulator puts it. But the mountain of evidence
collected against Goldman by Levin's small, 15-desk office of
investigators — details of gross, baldfaced fraud delivered up in such
quantities as to almost serve as a kind of sarcastic challenge to the
curiously impassive Justice Department — stands as the most important
symbol of Wall Street's aristocratic impunity and prosecutorial immunity
produced since the crash of 2008.
To date, there has been only one successful prosecution of a financial
big fish from the mortgage bubble, and that was Lee Farkas, a Florida
lender who was just convicted on a smorgasbord of fraud charges and now
faces life in prison. But Farkas, sadly, is just an exception proving
the rule: Like Bernie Madoff, his comically excessive crime spree (which
involved such lunacies as kiting checks to his own bank and selling
loans that didn't exist) was almost completely unconnected to the
systematic corruption that led to the crisis. What's more, many of the
earlier criminals in the chain of corruption — from subprime lenders
like Countrywide, who herded old ladies and ghetto families into bad
loans, to rapacious banks like Washington Mutual, who pawned off
fraudulent mortgages on investors — wound up going belly up, sunk by
their own greed.
But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant
company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming
disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to
enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately,
through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy,
at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness
or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to
Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives
brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would
carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report
describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing?
crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president
and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory
structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away
with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.
Defenders of Goldman have been quick to insist that while the bank may
have had a few ethical slips here and there, its only real offense was
being too good at making money. We now know, unequivocally, that this is
bullshit. Goldman isn't a pudgy housewife who broke her diet with a few
Nilla Wafers between meals — it's an advanced-stage, 1,100-pound
medical emergency who hasn't left his apartment in six years, and is
found by paramedics buried up to his eyes in cupcake wrappers and pizza
boxes. If the evidence in the Levin report is ignored, then Goldman will
have achieved a kind of corrupt-enterprise nirvana. Caught, but still
free: above the law.
...
When it came time for Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein to testify, the banker
hedged and stammered like a brain-addled boxer who couldn't quite
follow the questions. When Levin asked how Blankfein felt about the fact
that Goldman collected $13 billion from U.S. taxpayers through the AIG
bailout, the CEO deflected over and over, insisting that Goldman would
somehow have made that money anyway through its private insurance
policies on AIG. When Levin pressed Blankfein, pointing out that he
hadn't answered the question, Blankfein simply peered at Levin like he
didn't understand.
...
This isn't just a matter of a few seedy guys stealing a few bucks. This
is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and
Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it.
But the prominence of this bank and the high-profile nature of its
confrontation with a powerful Senate committee makes this a political
story as well. If the Justice Department fails to give the American
people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much
as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth:
that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what
you did, but by who you are.
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So chaplain of the Circus. Got any any better ideas? The meltdown has begun!
Taibbi is a POS socialist.
But he has done some great work regarding the financial collapse.
You are well named on this forum.
Yea MATT !.
Like the Rolling Stone of Olde. As good as Kunstler, and Thompson, et al ever wrote.
I mail his stuff to everyone I know. A writer (like ZH) that tells it like it is in the vernacular of the street.
American law... and especially American law enforcement... is exclusively for the benefit of the predators-that-be and predator-class. That is already as clear as can be to anyone not utterly and completely braindamaged. This was clear before this new piece of evidence, but ever little bit helps, I guess.
This is how it has always been and always will be. Because times are tough right now makes it easy to see them taking a skim off the top. That's the only difference.
didn't you say that earlier?
This is what revolutions are made of.
Probably this afternoon, if I get around to it.
Nuts like "Kali" (note: the goddess of death) are the ones in charge of revolutions.
Yeah, revolutions are just awesome.
I know, and living in fear, being a servile, apathetic slob is just so much easier for you, right? Anyway, it's not like you'll be around to see how cruddy things are for your great grandkids, the little ingrates; assuming you'll even have any seeing as women generally don't go for fawning, obsequious, boot-licking apathetic servile dupes.
Bonne Chance bending over and just taking it!
THIS JUST IN:
Acclaimed Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibi was found dead in his lower east side walk up apartment. He was found with his hands and feet bound, shot in the chest and stomach and his throat slashed with his tongue pulled through the gaping neck wound, commonly referred to as a "Colombian necktie." A few minutes after being found, the New York City Coroners office issued a press release from their Maiden Lane Headquarters confirming that the wounds were self-inflicted and that in the interest of adhering to local custom, his body was dropped into the East River.
His apartment was littered with old rotten food, handmade tin foil hats and a small library of books, mostly marine biology books, a Frank Fabozzi volume on structured securities and over 20 copies of 'The Catcher in the Rye.'
Clearly, Taibi was a delusional paranoid schizophrenic who's views and opinions should largely be disregarded.
In other news, equity markets soared to new highs while gold and silver plummeted by over 2 tenths of a percentage point providing more confirmation that investors should sell all of their precious metals and buy only equities and asset backed securities.
-h/t Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and CNBC.
xsis, you had me going for a while. three grand jury around this country prosecuting potential hacktivist crime. this is just so very disturbing, i think. much more then this goldman thing.
LOL - You forgot to add that they had to defrost his body as he actually died ten years ago!
Pfft... Ahmedinijad said Taibi died 10 years ago but we all know the Iranians are lying sacks of shit. Do you honestly believe that the Vampire Squid article was part of a false flag operation carried out by the CIA, the Rothschilds, the Mafia and Margaret Thatcher so that Taibi would ultimately "commit suicide" and be "exposed" as a paranoid lunatic so that Goldman Sachs, the Bushes and the Saudi's could continue to hide in plain sight?
P.S. Michael Moore and the Zeitgeist movie people are all similar false flag propaganda. Michael Moore is a robot built by a conservative think tank aimed at galvanizing independents against the left (the only vocal "liberal" is the most unpleasant personality out there who spews nothing but bullshit in a manner that you have to hate? I don't think so). Zeitgeist is government propaganda aimed at making the sheep think that only evil atheists question the intentions and actions of the government.
Debate amongst yourselves.
QUESTION:
Why was Goldman insistent on Morgan not being able to get out of the Hudson deal? Couldn't they have just told Morgan to sell the securities to someone else? Once they were off Goldman's books, what did they care who owned this shit, and if it was such garbage, who was going to buy it anyway?
That's the one part of this story that I don't understand.
Also, the way the screwed the Australian hedge fund Basis is absolutely classic:
"We bought it, and Goldman made their first margin call 16 days later." LOL
What Taibbi leaves out opf his great investigative work is that it was Fed regulation (CRA Act, Fannie/Freddie, Frank, Dodd et al) that indeed encouraged these deeds!
GS was just the best (unscrupulous?) at taking advantage of it. Of course Blankenstare lied. He knew that he was going to get lambasted but never prosecuted. Kabuki theater. What if Blankenstare went viral with all the payouts and favors GS has done for the pols and Fed officials (lil Timmy)?
Cut Fed spending and cut Gov't regulation !
This is the crystalline purity of the truth and the clarity of thought.
Market is one big ponzi...play at your own risk
If you feel like you have a market playing problem call 1-888-RIP-MEOFF (Lloyd will answer)
...... bunch of con men, scammers & paper pushers; agents of the ROTHCHILDS . & if I say the real truth about them, I get junked........ so I'll keep my mouth shut.
You can't even see the thieves right in front of you... instead, you fall back on some bogeyman.
We elect the thieves.
lynnybee, ignore him, he's obviously a government/vampire squid troll trying to get a rise out of people. And if he's not, he's as dangerous as them, a quisling. Or a fat, pimply faced adolescent munching on Cheetoh's in his mommy's basement while jacking off cuz a woman wouldn't even look at him let alone fuck him.
You have a foul mouth for a goddess, even if you are all about death.
But it's just no way to speak to someone who is telling the truth.
So you think you are God! Talk about schizophrenics! Hee hee! Fight club, fight club. Have stayed away from commenting for quite awhile cuz of "the future slaughtered sheep" trolls. Forgot how fun it is sometimes. No better entertainment on a rainy afternoon.
So tell me, would you be sucking Lenin's, Hitler's, Pol Pots cock if you had the chance or would you have killed them. Moron.
Where's the shame in all this ! Didn't their mothers raise these guys right ! If I could, I'd grab that damn BLANKFEIN & OBAMA & ROBERT RUBIN & CLINTON & BUSH & PAULSEN(etc.), grab those damn guys by the ears, march them right into CONGRESS & make them give that money back to the people of the UNITED STATES !
Remember when we were kids ? You remember ? Remember how if your mom or dad found out that you'd taken a piece of candy from the local store, they would first spank you, then, they'd grab you by the collar & MARCH YOU RIGHT DOWN TO THAT STORE & MAKE YOU HAND BACK THE CANDY ! & THEN, YOU HAD TO APOLOGIZE TO THE STORE OWNER & YOU LEARNED YOUR LESSON !
SHAMEFUL BEHAVIOR ! my dad was so proud to live in this country, he'd be rolling over in his grave if he knew the current state of affairs.
Right on! I woulda been smacked across the room! There is no shame or conscience anymore.
It would be terrific reality TV that every time Blankfein lies, Levin and Coburn punch the red LIE button. Buzzer goes off and Taibbi's big 1100 pound sweating fat guy , who had been fed smoking hot Texas chili all morning, swings down on chains and lays a 30 second white phosphorus explosive fart on Blankfeins head, which is stuck between his ass cheeks.
It would be the start of some justice especially if you think of those people who couldn't sell the turd filled CDOs that were pawned off on them because Goldman Sachs hadn't made enough money on the short yet and it had come from their inventory.
lol! Almost would get me to watch TV
Didn't their mothers raise these guys right
Look at Barbara Bush, Hillary, Or how about McCain's Trophy wife (the millionairess wearing a diamond USMC necklace).....
Mothers?
Morals? Ethics?
Tut-tut Lynbee!
Hail Mary, Hail Joseph Smith, Hail Talmud, Hail Caesar, Hail Darwin- and all that Jazz (Jizz?).
Those things aren't taught these days; too much money in the bank/state/church/university/personal coffers, and too much food on the grocery store shelves, too many condoms at the checkout, and too much pabulum on the television.
There is no oil in the gulf....
Goldman defrauded the markets and then sucked down billions of tax payer dollars while paying themselves insane bonuses with your money.
Fraud in the libertarian world view is a fickle thing. Part of me wants to say the investors who bought Goldman’s junk should take the fall for not doing their due diligence. But the other part of me wants to see Goldman prosecuted for lying to their investors about the quality of the debt they were selling.
Clearly Goldman did engage in fraud – but we must remember that Goldman was simply a bit player in the sub-prime disaster. The cause of the disaster in the first place was central banking monetary policy.
Without the Fed artificially driving down interest rates and flooding the banks with reserve capital, none of this would have been possible in the first place. Without the FDIC, Fannie/Freddie and bailout assurances creating massive moral hazard, banks never would have gotten away with no money down home loans to crack addicts. Without the TARP bailouts to AIG, Goldman would have taken it in the chin. Goldman is the beneficiary of fraud, but that fraud never could have unfolded without the help of the US government.
The cause of the disaster in the first place was central banking monetary policy.
And does Goldman have a seat on the board at the Fed ?
Occasionally TD sounds like the whinny windbag GW. This is one. I'm surprised GW didn't post this first.
Oh wait, GW is whinning and bitching about torture now. That explains it.
Cudos to MT. His articles are great.
Cudos to TD. His site is great. ZH is the best source of economic and financial news on the internet in my view.
But I had a father who nearly drove Mom and us kids crazy with his constant whinning and bitching about all the evils he saw just about everywhere.
6 PM was like religious hour in our home. Everyone had to be quiet so Dad could watch the news ...whinning and bitching all the way through it. Every day. Every fucking day. Year after year.
Looking back, I realize he was one of the most negative insecure people I've ever seen. He had no friends to speak of. Now I understand why.
And yes it rubbed off on me. I was like him.
Fourtunately I eventually saw it, and spent a few years getting that negativity out of me. It improved my personality and my life dramatically.
I'm still fully aware of evils around me. I just don't whine and bitch about them. I refuse to.
If I have anything to say about them, it's along the lines of how someone can avoid them, a positive thing.
A positive statement about the squid is stay away from them, don't deal with them ...and stay away from markets they're a big player in.
Betting against the squid is like betting against the Fed. You're going to lose.
I just think it would be fun to take a big shit in the squid's main lobby.
Hey Cranky:
A positive statement about the squid is stay away from them
So long as Goldman and their ilk have unlimited access to your and your children's credit, then staying away from them is a tad bit difficult.
If you mean via TARP, TALF, QE, POMO, etc, more or less free use of taxpayer money, yes I agree.
But there's nothing you nor I can do about it.
That's the point. Why bitch about it, spreading negativity, frustrating people around you, when there's nothing you nor they can do about it?
If there was something you or they could do about it, ok, do it. But there's nothing to be gained just bitching about it.
I hammer GW's ass. All he does is whine and bitch about things none of us can do anything about, cluttering up this otherwise excellent site with his whinny bitchy off-topic drivel, wasting ZH bandwidth.
I do it because I believe TD may some day take note of it and revoke GW's contributor status.
This is an economic / financial news site. Not a place to whine and bitch about torture, Government Emergency Messages On Your Cellphone, and similar off-topic crap.
I agree. Therefore, I offer you some constructive criticism. "Whinny" is a noise that a horse makes. "Whiney" is the sound of a cranky old geezer for being corrected for a simple grammatical issue.
Not at all. Correction noted.
I actually wondered it I had the correct spelling. You answered it. Thanks.
And by the way, I'll call out these scum for what they are all day long, wiht no apologies. I don't care that you're tired of hearing it. If you've given up, too bad for you. It's called capitulation. Some of us actually give a shit.
Christ. Just what we need. More "who cares" attitude. Great idea.
I never said nor implied I don't care.
I just don't waste time bitching about it.
but you will take all the time you feel you need to bitch about those that bitch about it.
Really, I'm sorry your dad was such a boor, but it sounds like complaining was all he had; I mean since it kinda seems like he didn't have YOUR support or anything.
What on earth did MY support have to do with it?
Was it my job to go "ok dad, we understand your frustration, carry on, let it out, get it off your chest"?
Day after day? Day after FUCKING day? Year after FUCKING year?
Sorry, but I'm not an enabler of sociopathic behavior.
It doesn't sound to me like your Dad was the one who suffered from that particular affliction; it sounds like he cared.
Will Sunstein give you a bonus if you succeed?
Good job ... spreading TPTB's most important ammunition against the sheep ... "resistance is futile"!
Just because you have given up doesn't mean others should also give up. "Let a thousand flowers bloom" was Mao's invocation to the young to each act individually in a common cause: So do your bit to both withdraw consent and spread the same message.
Good job ... spreading TPTB's most important ammunition against the sheep ... "resistance is futile"!
Apparently you don't read very well:
If there was something you or they [or I] could do about it, ok, do it.
So, what's the plan? I assume you have one since you're bad-mouthing me for being unaware of one.
So do your bit to both withdraw consent and spread the same message.
Is that it? Is that your plan? Whine and bitch about it, hoping you'll eventually stir people to revolt I presume? In a rapidly-growing police-state specifically engineered to prevent such a revolt?
A million-man march on Washington perhaps?
When did that ever change anything?
So, what's your plan? Surely you have one.
You're not only a whining old fool but also illiterate! You certainly shouldn't be trusted with a computer?!
Since you didn't understand my post, I'll extract the relevant phrases for you so that you don't get confused by the added complication of having to read full sentences:
....both withdraw consent and spread the same message....
Presume away! ... but it isn't either said or implied in my post. I repeat: "....both withdraw consent and spread the same message...." That's all that's needed to disable them.
Pull your head out of your ass, start "withdrawing your consent" ... and stop encouraging others to just give up and submit.
Hey Cranky
I had to leave the other day, but there is a plan and you are part of it. Talk about the daylight theft of the nation's future.
Talk to anyone who will listen. Most people are hurting.
And this forum on ZH is a great source of ideas.
I think a "million man march" to Washington has already been done. Try waking up your friends and neighbors.
I like you. Cranky or Not.
"When Levin asked how Blankfein felt about the fact that Goldman collected $13 billion from U.S. taxpayers through the AIG bailout, the CEO deflected over and over, insisting that Goldman would somehow have made that money anyway through its private insurance policies on AIG. When Levin pressed Blankfein, pointing out that he hadn't answered the question, Blankfein simply peered at Levin like he didn't understand....This isn't just a matter of a few seedy guys stealing a few bucks"
This crap is just so typical of anti bank blubber which occurs here and elsewhere. it is on a level one would expect from people who get their infomation about financial markets, from Rolling Stone magazine.
Blankfien did a terrible job of answering questions in the Senate enquiry, but i will answer for him: The US taxpayer, through its government, bought shares in AIG to keep it from insolvency. The company then used the funds which derived from the shares to pay its bills. That is the point of putting capital into a company: so it can continue in business. The US taxpayer bought AIG, and AIG used its funds to pay its bills. simple.
What was the alternative? well, somehow, the US taxpayer could - if normal commercial law could be set aside - buy AIG, and AIG NOT pay its bills. Not sure how a company which is not in bankruptcy and still trading decides to not pay its contractual obligations, but apparently if it owes money to banks, then that would all be ok? So, having cheated its creditors (remember: these are companies to whom AIG sold insurance), then what would be left of its business? would you buy insurance from a company which just chose to not pay out on the contract because it didnt want to take the loss?
if the US taxpayer felt that AIG shouldnt pay out on its insurance contracts ie the business it is in, then AIG should have gone into bankruptcy. simple as that.
it is lamentable that this sort of garbage is repeated here on ZH. even compared to other constantly biased crap, this stinks. it has nothing to do with what anyone thinks about the US taxpayer, or AIG, or banks or anything. it is a dead simple recognition of the fact that IF you buy shares in a company to keep it from insolvency then it MUST pay its billls. if it doesnt pay its bills, then its creditors will wind it up. same everywhere in the world.
why lloyd blankfein was so incapable of expressing that i have no idea.
I want "someone" to pay my bills too. He could express it, he doesn't want to. Can't seem like a welfare queen now can he? Accessory to the crime, morally, if not legally. If I knew I got rich from being paid from someone who made their money killing people, I am just as guilty. What do the JW's call it? Ostracization? Oh, no, shunning. There is no shame anymore.
What they could have done, AIG and the government, was to make Goldman take pennies on the dollar, as the ex head of AIG said he told the government to do and which he knew he could force Goldman to accept. But the government, made of Goldman ex employees, made sure Goldman was paid in full. Are you one of those people who gets a dick up the ass by the republicans and then says how wonderful they are feeling?
tao - I agree, except for that GS and the rest support DEMs...check the contributions to campaigns.
Speaking of contributions to liberal causes, I have always found this list of corporate sponsors absolutely stomach-turning. Scroll down through there and you'll see a perp walk of financial corporate felons, including the accounting firms that make it all possible.
The HRC is the country's leading gay rights organization. I'm gay--and yah, I know gays aren't really popular here in the Fight Club--but as a gay guy, I can't say that I want the HRC or their sponsors speaking for me.
Your points are duly noted. But going out on a limb I would say the issues that piss off most ZH readers include the following:
1. Special favoritism for certain businesses by the gubbermint
2. Gubbermint agencies who are supposed to make sure AIG's of the world do not happen but are told to look the other way
3. Bankers, who after the special treatment they get from their peeps in DC turn around and use taxpayers money to pay out the largest bonuses ever
4. Lack of accountability for any wrong doing what-so-ever.
5. Business as usual after collapsing the economy while the same perps plan the next bubble/rape of the people
Feel free to junk if you disagree...
+ 111 Gimper.
Thanks Clown....we may all need some acid tabs before this is all over :-)
absofuckinlootly
Agreed. Even the socialist libtards on this site would find common ground with us economically enlightened ones on that.
Do the psycho gold and silver bugs concur?
How about, according to you and jm, a plain old psycho? Agreed and well put gimp
I agree with Gimp's concise analysis too . . .
As for the information being found in the Rolling Stone, it’s simply not the appropriate editorial material the business pages of the New York Times or any of Murdoch’s news organs would handle in that their relationships with the investment banks are symbiotic. IOW, they wouldn’t want to risk their support from the ruling establishment, including the Fed, by printing factual material about plunder in the financial markets.
As for people who get their financial information from outlets such as Rolling Stone and internet sites such as Zero Hedge, the significance of this practice is that the story material we’re dealing with on these sites is far more significant than banking practices. In a word, this government cover-up is a part of the major takeover of the equity markets, the housing industry and insurance companies… all substantial fraud pushed against millions of innocent American citizens that the mainstream media has allowed and promoted.
The taxpayers were blackmailed into saving AIG and the banks. If AIG and the corrupt banksters had been allowed to fail, the nation, and the taxpayers and the markets would be better off than they are today.
J.R. the prophetic interludes are getting old. Who are your constituents? I correlate my input personally. You do not! Prove it other wise. You know who I am. P.S. get long @ 80.50
alex..."if the US taxpayer felt that AIG shouldnt pay out on its insurance contracts ie the business it is in, then AIG should have gone into bankruptcy. simple as that."
This is the nub of the matter...although it is mentioned way too far down in your post. The US tapayer was NOT consulted, as then I think all know what the answer would have been. Chapter 11 !
Now the taxpayers might have wanted to go further with Chap 7 and hold all the execs personally responsible. It is lamentable you do not entertain that outcome.
However, you go into the "bankruptcy or not" weeds. The real issue is the Fed and Treasury involvement and self serving regulations. Wihtout these there is no "broken window" to begin with.
More lamentable than the ZH posts on banks, is your focusing on the methods to manage the inevitable outcomes (diastrous) accompanying Fed intervention and Gov't regulation rather what encouraged the misdeeds (Gov't regulaiton and Fed interevention).
taxation w/o representation, hmmmm.
agreed. great moniker!
/alexanderstollznow
This crap is just so typical of anti bank blubber
What was the alternative?
The only crap thus far is your weak apology for the criminals.
The alternative was receivership of Goldman and AIG.
Decimating the entire country under the guise of "saving the Too Big Too Jail" is with us now, and will be with us for generations.
Goldman's crappy bet should have been born buy Goldman, not my children.
P.S. Fuck off and die, your breath is smelling like Paulson's ass.
it is a dead simple recognition of the fact that IF you buy shares in a company to keep it from insolvency then it MUST pay its billls.
And to pay out $16 BILLION dollars in bonuses you Smuck.
PhukU
Wecome to ponzi india boy
What floor of GS do you work on?
Stollznow, you're an idiot. How much are they paying you to troll here?
The US taxpayer, through its government, bought shares in AIG to keep it from insolvency.
The US government, mis-appropriating (stealing) taxpayer money, bought shares in AIG to keep it from insolvency.
There, fixed it.
And why did they do it?
Put it in bankruptcy and wind it up, otherwise we have state supported crony capitalism and deep malaise and cynicism, instead of a quick but painful reset and sustainable recovery.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the typical bankruptcy, creditors do not usually receive one hundred cents on the dollar.
Another thing, let’s go back one more step. If the USG doesn’t bail out an AIG that failed completely through its own efforts, there would be no need to pay its bills. People exposed to AIG would have eaten the cost. But that would be capitalism, and that only exists in theory, not in fact, in the US, unless one is a small bank in Georgia or a Blackened Cajun Catfish restaurant.
Hop Sing! Kim Duck Dong) want those poppy fields plowed asap!
Well said chindit.
Hello TCT. wait for the 30 bid/cover in early NY.
no chance of buffett getting any of this on him, i s'pose...
Hey there Slewie. May your week find you prosperous. Last I checked Warren was buffing his culinary skills. ( no pun intended).
Goldman Sachs partner Sydney Weinberg was asked why his company had formed so many closed-end funds so rapidly in 1929. His reply was: “Well, the people want them”
Meanwhile the Fed is emulating sheets to hopefully unwind these landmines in the paper world as we note as kicking the can. Do not take offence, but if the Washington Post cannnot make dent in this I wish whoever good luck. Any Government has it survival in mind and only its direct needed players. Let us cut out the noise. Other Government interest have a longer timeline than our current legislation process wishes to convey, we all know this. We noted this direct context decades ago. In the seventy's we exported alcohol carb kits to brazil as they learned there lesson and there energy minister who if i remember correct from Georgia Tech made it so. There are enough on ZH who remember facts on how this all transpired. In 1978 I made impellors to export to Brazil which then were send back for line assembly. I wish only to convey what I have seen for over three decades. We have seen so much how they function no one remembers how they do function I guess. Spin it anyway you wish it has never been about working folks. There is no free lunch. When we automated to cnc we got wiped out from predatory capital if you remember cookie jar raids for lbo and many lost there pension savings until the law changed. The senate has issues beyond words as we all know. I seen the comment "well this party did this and this party did that." You have no idea... it is up to you, not them to vote your pocketbook since I see no party at all. Peace
This is TREASON against the American people.
Precisely! My lovable monkey boy.
"As long as the people have the Freedom of speech, as long as they can talk about revolution without being jailed, fined or prosecuted, they will not take up arms".
TREASON, FOR SURE! However, nothing will change. The Rothschilds & Rockafuckers will keep bribing the assholes that are supposed to be running Amerika and we will keep taking it up the arse! IMHO this is starting to resemble Nazi Germany. I thought Tabbi was a shill for Obummer, however, he has written some outstanding pieces re the financial shitstorm. Oh, and by the way END THE FED!
Maybe GS can parachute in that Rocket-Docket Judge from Florida for the trial? We could get this sorted out in about 24 hrs.
As the justified anger of the American people, and people of the world, builds, and collapse draws nearer, it's important to understand that it is not the people vs. 'some elite', nor the poor vs. the rich, nor the proletariat vs. the capitalists.
Instead, it is the easy money crowd vs. the hard money crowd - i.e. the Debtors vs. the Savers. Gold is the anti-Fiat, the anti-Debtor..
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2010/07/debtors-and-savers.html
Ants and grasshoppers
++
Morlocks and Eloi..
Goldman Sachs is just another layer of abstraction....
Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago: I told myself it was beneath my dignity to arrest a man for pilfering firewood. But nothing ordered by the party is beneath the dignity of any man, and the party was right: One man desperate for a bit of fuel is pathetic. Five million people desperate for fuel will destroy a city. That was the first time I ever saw my brother. But I knew him. And I knew that I would disobey the party. Perhaps it was the tie of blood between us, but I doubt it. We were only half tied anyway, and bothers will betray a brother. Indeed, as a policeman, I would say, get hold of a man's brother and you're halfway home. Nor was it admiration for a better man than me. I did admire him, but I didn't think he was a better man. Besides, I've executed better men than me with a small pistol. I told them who I was: The old man was hostile, the girl cautious, my brother... seemed very pleased. I think the girl was only one who guessed at their position.
One man desperate for a bit of fuel is pathetic. Five million people desperate for fuel will destroy a city
And THAT is the reason you will see martial law invoked when things get tight. Give us 5-10 years and Peak Oil REALLY starts to bite.
Yes on the outskirts of Moscow after the wall fell our people buried there frozen dead in the spring. One day I should post that letter. That tithe of that day should echo any word you put before reliance. Those letters of acountability back to us monthly we supported to the ruse of the day are the cornerstone to the oral tradition of my which my children are taught. Indeed we must be viligant and wise.
Lord Blankfein stared like a deer in head lights when Levin pressed and said that he didn't answer the question. That's because he's used to people staying on script. Levin went off script. Blankfiend probably then called Timmeh, Barry, and Benny and called for another suicide attack to smarten this cowboy up. Smarten isn't even a word.
What a brilliant simile. It graphically captures the essence of what GS was doing that even John & Mary Q Public can understand.
But the really unmitigated gall rests in the fact that none of the parasites has even the decency to feign remorse. These are truly souless non-entities (I wont dignify them by calling them people).
One last thing: It strikes me in reading this that Lloyd B may be becoming a liability to his firm, and he may instead prove an easy scapegoat to deflect public and prosecutorial anger. And although he went to Harvard (and thus some might think this could save him as part of the "elite"), he's not OF Harvard. He's not old money/old connections. He's a climber who might all too conveniently meet his end by being thrown under the (metaphorical) bus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMoalQ9A18
As a newbie to ZH I am a bit surprised by the comments on this and other content. Justice is as arbitrary as death. To see stupid ass Pol Pot dick smoking comments means that some of the people on this site do not belong. What is happening in the U.S and around the globe is not random. It is failed policies.
The pol pot comments were in regard to funky monkey boy saying the united states has been the deadliest regime ever.
Have a junk fuckface. Welcome to fight club. Don't complain about the comments until you've been around for awhile.
Oh, and make your point clear instead of dorking around.
lol, be gentle, my lovable weinerdog, this one is just waking up. The red pill hasn't taken full effect yet. But the fucking world sucks and if we don't do something, we are all gonna eat shit and die. lol.
Doing something may very well involve dying (and eating shit along the way). But its better than letting the world continue to suck.
; )
a'right
im steppin in. if i have to know previous pissing contests, what is the point?
the dorking around i will be doing will be more specific.
your crital analysis will always be appreciated -
control of content space is different than awareness
Watching Taibbi on Spitzer...I like Matt.
I like Ashley Dupre..
Pure poetry.
Folks are kidding themselves if they think Goldman will get anything other than a slap on the wrist for their misdeeds.
It is really intriguing. Most of the comments I read here are of the "just another kleptocrat getting away with murder". There is another saying and it goes like this, "all that is required for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing". Think about it.
Well who's going to step up and put a stop to this? Short of citizen revolt and bloodshed, clearly no one. And what are the citizens doing right now? Drooling over the flat screen watching teenagers cavort around in a slappy ass singing competition.
Bottom line: There are no good people, only livestock to chew their cud.
The People of Walmart*
What not to wear..
The who's are getting restless.
That's who. Patience.
humans need leaders to really get shit done. anyone with enough of a public following and not lobbyist sponsored would be suicided the minute there was a real chance of a leader actually attaining this public position and duty that would threaten to usurp the stranglehold of the power over the global banking clusterfuck.
nothing will happen golden sacs, since they have the largest mercenary force in the world backing them, and as for Taibbi, much love and respect, but a dangerous game with the devil always ends in a double-tap....
7 billion good hardworking people on planet earth 10,000 NWO fakes,con,s and crook,s. There names Google New World Order Members.
Convert your fiat monopoly paper for physical Gold Silver today and stop paying any fiat bills today . All they are doing is buying time to steal more of your wealth. Sleep Well Silver
Avarice and Greed
Are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Drowning in the oceans of history..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ket-ndpxhPg
And these FOOLS do/did this only to have a larger accumulation of FIATS.
I have been pondering the "produce nothing of value" sentiment assigned to these Bankster fucks. Its cold comfort, but ensuing corrective acts at our hands sans any legislative acts will be our "Cake" and icing too. Those and our (hopefully) collective betterment may be the only value we yield from the antics of these FOOLS.
Or, as TD may put it: And Scene: people with fricking lasers attached to their heads suddenly rise en masse and scorch Bankster scum with abandon..
"the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are"
Put me on the list with the other three who have quoted this phrase.
One only has to follow the criminal history of Lindsey Lohan, though it is more complicated than it appears, as there are many less prominent individuals that have extensive criminal arrests without conviction because factors as obscure as ensuring the continued employment of those in the legal professional can even play a role. Still, regardless of who you are, your future potential to be a "contributing" member of society is the biggest determining factor in the sentencing.
"...that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are."
And it works both ways, as Edgar Steele found out this week (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ68o1a1H70).
" if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are."
Uhhh...........and for writing like this you expect the Pulitzer?
The TRUE Anti Thespian that man is. Nice work!
+sarc
Blood boiling yet? It's in this piece on AIG that Taibbi plumbs the depths of the U.S.'s economic nightmare. Coming soon to a theater near you.
Short the Dow, SP500, R2000 and the sector of your choice. Key a Lexus. Do unto others...
(+1 Kali)
Except an old, used Lexus. It may belong to a friend....
I respect your concuring input. I respect your understanding of fun and banter even more.
sarc/off
Cheers.
sarc/none.
Yup
Excellent piece Mr Taibbi. Just make sure to stay out any hot tubs in the near future. Only downside is the great Eric Holder will not do anything about any of it. I think Kunstler has convinced me; "Eric Holder" is actually just a photograph glued onto a piece of ply wood.
The largest rip off in the history of mankind, and still no Hollywood blockbuster with the usual glitzy stars...I wonder why?
I was just in Kandahar the other day. Perhaps I'm speaking out of school or violating the official Secrets Act, but I saw this mock-up of 200 West at the SEAL Team Six base. I realized Obama will stop at nothing to get re-elected. I might have to reconsider my own vote in light of this new information.
Grasshopper, you need some Dong! Beat it!
What about Goldman Sachs clients? Why would any decent individual or a company do business with them? Madoff had no illusions about the people for whom he was supposedly managing money- neither did his clients: they thought he was ripping off someone else so they could collect rent on their money. That was ok by them!
Everyone that does business with GS has the same morals as Madoff's investors. One of GS clients and proud of it is the fat pig Rush Limbaugh. That should tell you where the Republican and the Tea Party stands: right behind Goldman Sachs.
It took a rock 'n' roll magazine! A magazine that 30 years ago I used to read in my school library for "the stink" on the Stones, reviews of latest LPs (yes, old), reviews of movies, etc.
Conclusion: there is no government of the people, by the people, etc. It's all seafood (aka squid). Vive la Republique!
Korbin Dallas says it all! RU Mickey Rourkes soon to be ghost?
This just in from Taibbi: "Was pleased to learn this afternoon that Newt Gingrich is formally announcing his run for the White House. I literally cannot wait to get back to covering the insane reality show that is the presidential race, especially since the Republicans seem determined to run the most entertaining collection of mutants seen on earth since Tod Browning's classic Freaks."
We live in hell
Kali lets go Bali. Royal Pains and SyFy. Lighten up and learn the real markets. You know RBI just raised rates and is on a tightening framework?
A tour de force. One might wonder how this might add to the proverbial straws on the camel's back.
"To date, there has been only one successful prosecution of a financial big fish from the mortgage bubble, and that was Lee Farkas, a Florida lender who was just convicted on a smorgasbord of fraud charges and now faces life in prison"
Next joke...please.
When I hear a Henry Paulson or a Timmy Cheater Giethner,or a Jamie Dimon,then we can say big fish.
But until I hear that same big black dude is banging his balls off Loyd Blankfein's ass,and Loyd is doing 20 hard ones,this big fish thingy is a joke.
The Englishmen have a "little people fetish"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7XBGOG46uM
Finally. I have a couple hours in Oceana. What is your trade and ask me? I'll tell you 94 on the dxy. Is that good for a starter? Plus you are a friend!
I did not discuss the front two decimals on that 94 Rusty.
.0094?
Look@ the charts H1. B-Bands are flat. Set your stop
- will do. thanks
GS controls the Obama administration in a pervasive way. They're everywhere like coachroaches.
Because of GS's massive power the Justice Dept, that' an oxymoron, will stand passively and watch Goldman rob investors, and US taxpayers with impunity.
Eric Holder should be fired, or asked to step down from office.
PiPs on your Winie Bung Hole Junior!
Did God save the hand of Justice? God saved Humanity! Go short FED!
I'm long
Hangings
Headless corpses
Hangings
Headless corpses
Hangings
Headless corpses
Wanker, banker, skanker doo!
I see, we see, they see you.
Do nothing, nothing will they do,
Throw at the people their massive poo.
Eat it, swallow it, you drivelling horde,
See us stuff it, watch us gourd,
Watch us steal it, take you toward,
A Hell we can escape by Fjord.
A banker, wankers, paradise,
That lucky, pucky, pair of dice,
The double sixes Congress nice,
That screw job on the citizens thrice.
"When Levin pressed Blankfein, pointing out that he hadn't answered the question, Blankfein simply peered at Levin like he didn't understand...."
Lloyd Blankfein Lloyd Blankfeind Lloyd Blank Feind
"Roid Bank Fiend"
Hang High blank find
Swinging lifeless, fine blank
Signal to future banker fiends
So when's the Pitch Fork Party coming ?