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Geithner Pens Another Ridiculous Op-Ed

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Nearly two years after his catastrophic foray into Op-Ed writing, here is Tim Geithner's latest, this time making the hypocritical case to "not forget the lesson from the financial crisis"... which he himself ushered on America as head of the New York Fed. Frankly we are quite sure it is not even worth reading this drivel: the unemployed man walking has been a total disaster during his entire tenure (at both the New York Fed where he supervised all the banks that subsequently fell, and the Treasury), and we are fairly confident that reading anything written by this pathological failure will cost collective IQs to drop by 10 points at a minimum. Hey Tim: is there a risk the US can get downgraded? Any risk?

From The US Treasury

Financial Crisis Amnesia

My wife looks up from the newspaper with bewilderment at another story about people in the financial world or their lobbyists complaining about Wall Street reform.

Four years ago, on an evening in March 2008, I received a call from the CEO of Bear Stearns informing me that they planned to file for bankruptcy in the morning.

Bear Stearns was the smallest of the major Wall Street institutions, but it was deeply entwined in financial markets and had the perfect mix of vulnerabilities. It took on too much risk. It relied on billions of dollars of risky short-term financing. And it held thousands of derivative contracts with thousands of companies.

These weaknesses made Bear Stearns the most important initial casualty in what would become the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. But as we saw in the summer and fall of 2008, these weaknesses were not unique to that firm.

In the spring of 2008, more Americans were starting to face higher mortgage payments as teaser interest rates reset and they could no longer refinance out of them because the value of their homes stopped rising—the leading edge of a wave of foreclosures and a terrible fall in house prices. By the time Bear Stearns failed, the recession was then already several months old, but it would of course get much worse in coming months.

These problems were partly the result of amnesia. There was no memory of extreme crisis, no memory of what can happen when a nation allows huge amounts of risk to build up outside of the safeguards all economies require.

When the CEO of Bear Stearns called that night, it was not because I was his firm's supervisor or regulator, but because I was then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which serves as the fire department for the financial system.

The financial safeguards in the law at that moment were tragically antiquated and weak. Neither the Fed, nor any other federal agency, had the necessary comprehensive authority over investment firms like Bear Stearns, insurance companies like AIG, or the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Regulators did not have the authority they needed to oversee and impose prudent limits on overall risk and leverage on large nonbank financial institutions. And they had no authority to put these firms, or bank holding companies, through a managed bankruptcy that wound them down in an orderly way or to otherwise adequately contain the damage caused by their failure. The safeguards on banks were much tougher than those applied to any other part of the financial system, but even those provisions were not conservative enough.

A large shadow banking system had developed without meaningful regulation, using trillions of dollars in short-term debt to fund inherently risky financial activity. The derivatives markets grew to more than $600 trillion, with little transparency or oversight. Household debt rose to an alarming 130% of income, with a huge portion of those loans originated with little to no supervision and poor consumer protections.

The failure to modernize the financial oversight system sooner is the most important reason why this crisis was more severe than any since the Great Depression, and why it was so hard to put out the fires of the crisis. The failure to reform sooner is why the crisis caused gross domestic product to fall at an annual rate of 9% in the last quarter of 2008; why millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, businesses and savings; why the housing market is still so far from recovery; and why our national debt has grown so significantly.

For all these reasons, President Obama asked Congress to pass tough reforms quickly, before the memory of the crisis faded. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by the president on July 21, 2010, put in place safer and more modern rules of the road for the financial industry. Yet only four years after the financial crisis began to unfold, some people seem to be suffering from amnesia about how close America came to complete financial collapse under the outdated regulatory system we had before Wall Street reform.

Remember the crisis when you hear complaints about financial reform—complaints about limits on risk-taking or requirements for transparency and disclosure. Remember the crisis when you read about the hundreds of millions of dollars now being spent on lobbyists trying to weaken or repeal financial reform. Remember the crisis when you recall the dozens of editorials and columns against reform published on the opinion pages of this newspaper over the past three years.

Are the costs of reform too high? Certainly not relative to the costs of another financial crisis. Credit is relatively inexpensive and growing across most of the U.S. financial system, although it is still tight for some borrowers. If the costs of reform were a material drag on credit growth, then loans to businesses would not have grown faster than the overall economy since the law passed and its implementation began.

Are these reforms complex? No more complex than the problems they are designed to solve. And, it should be noted, most of the length and complexity in the rules is the result of the care required to target safeguards where they are needed, not where they would have a damaging effect.

Is there some risk that these reforms will go too far with unintended consequences? That depends on the quality of judgment of regulators in the coming months as they flesh out the remaining reforms. But our system provides considerable protection against that risk, with the rules subject to long periods of public comment and analysis and with room in the law to get the balance right. The greater error would be for Congress or the regulators, under tremendous pressure from lobbyists, to once again exempt large swaths of the financial industry from rules against abuse.

These reforms are not perfect, and they will not prevent all future financial crises. But if these reforms had been in place a decade ago, then the rise in debt and leverage would have been less dangerous, consumers would not have been nearly as vulnerable to predation and abuse, and the government would have been able to limit the damage that a financial crisis could have on the broader economy. President Obama, along with Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, deserves enormous credit for pushing for tough reforms quickly.

My wife occasionally looks up from the newspaper with bewilderment while reading another story about people in the financial world or their lobbyists complaining about Wall Street reform or claiming they didn't need the Troubled Asset Relief Program. She reminds me of the panicked calls she answered for me at home late at night or early in the morning in 2008 from the then-giants of our financial system.

We cannot afford to forget the lessons of the crisis and the damage it caused to millions of Americans. Amnesia is what causes financial crises. These reforms are worth fighting to preserve.

 

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Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:03 | 2216527 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

 

Listen up bitchez. Turbo Tax Timmy....is in da house.

 

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:07 | 2216552 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Timmah The Muthafuckin' Undertaker.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:08 | 2216557 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Even better.

 

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:22 | 2216593 JPM Hater001
JPM Hater001's picture

"Amnesia is what causes financial crises."

WTF are you talking about?  Bankers cause crises.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:30 | 2216626 spiral_eyes
spiral_eyes's picture

Yeah, Amnesia is what causes financial crises.

Amnesia like forgetting that it was Timmy who played his part in the rash of easy money credit creation prior to '08.

Amnesia like forgetting about malinvestment, and Hayek, and that even well-intentioned central banking can exacerbate the worst aspects of the business cycle.

Amnesia like forgetting that just throwing money at the problem prevents liquidation of bad companies and debt, distorts the market mechanism, throws up barriers to entry, and debases capitalism.

Way to fucking go Timmy.

Gold, bitches.

http://azizonomics.com/2012/02/27/gold-is-still-cheap/ 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:44 | 2216799 rufusbird
rufusbird's picture

I read in a psychology book that people spend as much as 80% of their time rationalizing past events to conform to a more convenient current interpretations. I suspect the author may have been underestimating.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:31 | 2216627 LongBallsShortBrains
LongBallsShortBrains's picture

.... I guess he forgot.

Does amnesia make you forget about your employees at tax time?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:15 | 2216901 eatthebanksters
eatthebanksters's picture

The editorial is pro reform...why then, did he disobey Obama when the Prez asked him to break up Citi?  Why has this dirtbag protected the bankster criminals with back door bailouts every step of the way?  What a fucking douche bag liar this guy is...as if he really gives a shit.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:30 | 2217130 ATM
ATM's picture

Why bail them out? Because these fuckers cannot control a company that disappears through bankruptcy!

They bail them out to gain more control going forward and the vested interests take the bailout becuase it saves their bacon. To hell with the future they want their money now and Timmy and the rest of the central planing crew know how to take stealth control of everythig. first you control the money and money supply - check. Then you control the means of money conveyance - check.

The rest is just details. 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:17 | 2216911 AbruptlyKawaii
AbruptlyKawaii's picture

i thot the white dragon society arrested his ass

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 16:21 | 2217926 t0mmyBerg
t0mmyBerg's picture

i actually clicked on the article while reading the oped page last night because I thought it would be a scathing indictment OF Tiny Tim, but in the first sentence when I realized it was BY Mister Tiny, I immediately hit the back button.  I was pissed that I had already wasted 10 or 15 secons of my life even going that far.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 16:28 | 2217980 leon6600
leon6600's picture

my classmate's mother-in-law makes $64/hr on the computer. She has been without a job for 5 months but last month her pay check was $17702 just working on the computer for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more .... http://goo.gl/h2SUx

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 19:41 | 2218567 BigJim
BigJim's picture

$17702? I could have sworn your last bit of spam said it was $17551!

You're not making this shit up, are you?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:03 | 2216532 battle axe
battle axe's picture

When Bear Sterns called me that night I crapped my bad and went crying to Hank Paulson. 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:04 | 2216535 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Always a good call.

 

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:21 | 2216928 nope-1004
nope-1004's picture

"When Bear Stearns called me...."

 

LOL.  More like,

"I got a call 2 months before Bears Stearns went under.  Advice was to buy puts on BS, and a little FAZ.  I made 1400% in about 60 days.  Now my wife looks up from the paper and says, Can't you start another disaster honey? "

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:04 | 2216699 Unprepared
Unprepared's picture

I didn't know the Fire Department was in the business of selling gasoline and matches to pathological arsonists.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:48 | 2217193 Diet Coke and F...
Diet Coke and Floozies's picture

I remember reading somewhere that many arsonists are current or ex-firemen...

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:04 | 2216536 SMG
SMG's picture

Soulless criminal.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:08 | 2216553 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Sooooo....what's your point?

 

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:22 | 2216595 Toolshed
Toolshed's picture

His point is:

It's not Timmy's fault! It is those other bastard's fault and not Timmy's! NOT TIMMY'S FAULT!! NOT TIMMY'S FAULT!! NOT TIMMY'S FAULT!!

Of course we all know it is not ALL Rimmy's, er Timmy's fault. Just mostly.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:41 | 2216648 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Of course we know that and lay all the blame squarely where it belongs.....at the feet of Turbo Tax.

 

Those bastages.

 

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:05 | 2216538 aleph0
aleph0's picture

 

 

Was that his defense plea ?
;-)

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:05 | 2216540 adr
adr's picture

It's OK Tim. You helped usher in the era of total bullshit. The NAR, BLS, ISM got your back. The stock market says 2008 didn't happen.

Who else wants to bet on something insane like +650k for jobs in February and the unemployment rate going to 7.2%?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:05 | 2216543 LongSoupLine
LongSoupLine's picture

How in the hell does he have time to write an op-ed during this extremely complicated TurboTax time period of his?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:52 | 2216669 pepperspray
pepperspray's picture

mucho tiempo

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:06 | 2216546 jcaz
jcaz's picture

It's more fun to watch him speak, and get the full effect of the clueless-deer-in-the-headlights looks......

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:39 | 2216646 FMR Bankster
FMR Bankster's picture

Geitner's a real scumbag. Not only has he spent his whole life on the goverment payroll but so did his father. I'm less concerned about the childish BS he puts out on the financial system than his view of how citizens are related to the goverment. His recent comments about people needing to pay more taxes because they are "privileged" to live here. I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else but it's not a privilge granted to me by the goverment.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:07 | 2216550 Confused
Confused's picture

 I was then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which serves as the fire department for the financial system.

 

Akin to the type of fire department in Fahrenheit 451? Only this one burns the US economy......

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:13 | 2216568 jcaz
jcaz's picture

Ya, interesting way for Timmy to put that-  incorrect, first of all.  but true in the sense that the Fed has managed to stomp out real growth for the past 15 yrs...

......

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:46 | 2217060 ButIfNot
ButIfNot's picture

There were rumors that once upon a time, firemen put out fires.  Now we start them.  

 

Anyone else find the recent news stories about licensing thousands of drone aircraft to patrol the skies on the USA EERILY similar to the chase scene in Fahrenheit 451?  Instead of a robot dog with a lethal injection, they'll just drop a bomb on the criminal....

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 19:45 | 2218574 BigJim
BigJim's picture

Just think the fun a drone pilot could have if he went 'postal'!

If I were a mooooooslim terrorist, I think I'd sign up for drone training yesterday.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:08 | 2216555 Conrad Murray
Conrad Murray's picture

Fuck you Geithner. Here is my Op-Ed:

To The People of the World,

For the last 4 years we have sat by as the banksters and politicians rape, pillage, and plunder our countries. We lose our houses, our jobs, our respect, and our dignity, while the gluttonous pigmen feast on our carcasses. They are taking in billions in salary and bonuses, paid for by us through bailouts and taxation.

The price of necessities has been on a relentless march higher as the leaders of countries use Central Banks to print more of their confetti, I mean currency. Yet, these people, who would never lower themselves to the level of a commoner and actually do their own shopping and feel the pain as you do, get on TV and tell us there is no inflation, that there is a recovery.

Their intentions are pure evil and their means sinister. These people tell us the cure to our ills is to sell our children and our children's children into debt slavery, to surrender our natural rights to unelected committees of those deemed wiser than us. It need not be said that these are the same people who got us into this mess.

This ends now. No longer will they piss on our backs and tell us it's raining. This May Day, May 1st 2012, is the day we unite across the globe and rise up against them. Americans will stand hand in hand with our brothers and sisters in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. We will remember the lesson taught to us by Mohammed Bouazizi. By Thomas Jefferson. By Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. That lesson so passionately expressed by Mario Savio and so eloquently displayed in the Decleration of Independence.

Take to the streets and make your voice heard. Find an Apple store and protest wage-slavery. Find a Central Bank and protest the enslavement of generations to a system controlled by the few. Find a political office and protest the strip-mining of liberty. Find the homes of the people who operate these same places and let them know you will NOT be herded like cattle to the slaughterhouse.

Make your voice heard in the digital world as well. Take their websites offline. Drop their tables and databases. They should have expected you in their critical infrastructure systems, show them why. Magnets, how do they work?! Who cares. Bring them into the server rooms and have at it. Set off the fire suppression systems.

There are some who will say this will play into the hands of those who wish to control us in this neo-feudal system. To those slaves, I say, fuck you. What would you have the people do to bring an end to the tyranny? Vote in rigged elections? Call a representative and whine? What good has that done? It is time to stand up and show that not 7, not 700, not even 70,000 people at the top can control 7 billion united in the quest for liberty and dignity.

To my brothers and sisters in Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Chile, Portugal, Colombia, Brasil, and everywhere else Great Justice is needed, I hereby pledge my support to any and all who choose to take part. Two months to prepare, plan, and spread the word.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

Feel free to translate, print, reprint, distribute by any means, use as a fire starter, mock, ridicule, or ignore, this.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:15 | 2216578 Kaiser Sousa
Kaiser Sousa's picture

"There are some who will say this will play into the hands of those who wish to control us in this neo-feudal system. To those slaves, I say, fuck you."

sho ya' right....

i too say "fuck you" to cowardly slaves...

let's get this shit started proper like......

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:28 | 2216579 resurger
resurger's picture

+1 Million Conrad

"If people ever willed to live, it is certain that destiny shall favorably respond"

Qasim Ash-Shabi

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:34 | 2216635 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

Yes!!!!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:41 | 2216647 knightowl77
knightowl77's picture

Can you pick another day? May 1st I will be buying my 4th iPad3....

 

Seriously little Timmy has to go and so do the Marx adherents

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:48 | 2216806 rufusbird
rufusbird's picture

Wait until HS shuts down the internet and you can pick them up cheap at the hock shop!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:02 | 2216691 Biggvs
Biggvs's picture

Before you nail this to every door, fix a typo: "Declaration" of Independence vs. "Decleration". It'll play better. Funny, first time I read it I thought it was "deceleration".

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:17 | 2216736 Conrad Murray
Conrad Murray's picture

Thanks. Blind rage in the morning is not conducive to grammatical decency. I shall fix that error forthwith, although I cannot amend that particular posting of it.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:36 | 2217155 ATM
ATM's picture

May Day?

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 14:20 | 2217286 WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot's picture

The above post by "Conrad Murray" is now available in distributable PDF form at http://maydaycalltoaction.wordpress.com/. Enough is enough.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 14:34 | 2217354 Conrad Murray
Conrad Murray's picture

Many thanks kind denizen of the internet.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 14:59 | 2217465 WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot's picture

Now we just sit back and wait for DHS.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:08 | 2216558 Rainman
Rainman's picture

Timmay's amnesia can be summarized in two words....Brooksley Born.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:21 | 2216927 eatthebanksters
eatthebanksters's picture

and two more....Elizabeth Warren...funny how he fears the truth tellers!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 21:03 | 2218739 PubliusTacitus
PubliusTacitus's picture
Those same two ignorant sluts want to regulate your pissing and shitting habits. Same Ivy League horseshit schools as TurboTax Timmah.
Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:09 | 2216559 larry david
larry david's picture

In other words, load up on silver and gold. 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:10 | 2216560 lizzy36
lizzy36's picture

Ummm timmy might have want to look up defination of "moral hazard" before he penned this op-ed.

Who decided to payout 100 cents on the dollar for AIG CDS, who allowed AIG to pay bonuses and then lied about it, who allowed ML to payout massive amounts of bonuses before the BAC deal was done. Odd that FRBNY noted issues with LEH accounting starting in 2006, with more worries in 2007 and did SFA about it.

Also 2 words: Glass-Steagall. 

So simple, no wonder nobody in government wants it. 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:13 | 2216570 battle axe
battle axe's picture

lizzy36, Exactly spot on...good post.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:35 | 2217151 JW n FL
JW n FL's picture

 

 

lizzy36

I am a jew.

I come from a large family of Eastern European Jews.

Some observant, some not.

NONE OF US LEARNED THIS CRAP.

It is racist, anst-semtic, 3rd reich scapegoating, CRAP.

I believe in free speech. I try and stay out of ignorant, racist, lowest common denominator debates. However, if i believe that the debate has become disrespectful, to Zerohedge and what it stands for, i will have the debate temporarily halted. That is not a threat, it is a statement.

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/next-leg-ponzi-revealed-central-banks-begin-buying-us-stocks-outright-starting-today#comment-2215694

 

Let that be a Lesson to ALL! of You Goy Slaves! It is a Statement! of Authority!

Freedom of Speech!

And Censorship of the Truth!

Are at her finger tips!

 

Honestly! You Goy Slaves should have known better than to Anger Your Owner Lizzy!

 

If this sounds familiar! Here is why! Barbra Specter and Lizzy have that same “Jewish Authority over the Rest of us Goys!” We Goys can be silenced whenever it suits our Jewish Masters! And that is NOT! a Threat.. Per Lizzy! That is a Statement! See the video below and see if you can as well recognize the similarity between Barbra and Lizzy? Maybe Lizzy is Barbra? Who knows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Vq_e2Z1ug

 

and for those of you wanting to know.. TruthInSunshine

 shares these views of Lizzy’s! and backs up Lizzy’s power to Silence the Goy Slaves! Truth be Damned!

 

Given the Fact that Lizzy has used Lobby Dollars with Tyler.. to provide herself with a Bully pulpit! And of course more sway than the rest of us.. Because of the Lobby Dollars.. I would implore you Goy Slaves to behave.. shy away from the Facts and the Truth for fear of being politically incorrect by AIPAC’s Standards!

 

It should be as well noted that Tyler has been threatened with a Law Suit for Liable! By the Jewish Lobby here at ZeroHedge!

 

The Truth it seems will not set you free! With regard to your Jewish Owners!

 

Let this be a lesson to ALL of You Goy Slaves!

 

Let us ALL! try to NOT! get Tyler or Fight Club in any Trouble.. even if the FACTS! Are being put forth for discussion!

 

Thank You for Your Time!

 

P.S. You will notice that 50,000 plus reads and over 600 comments later that Lizzy Allowed the Goy Slaves to have their Rant! LULZ!!

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:56 | 2217218 SMG
SMG's picture

JW we all know you are a paid agent of the Luciferian Oligarchy.  Go take your divide and conquer COINTELPRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO) baloney somewhere else, cause everybody here knows who are and what you are trying to do.

JW the people you are working for are PURE EVIL, they feed off of misery and division, they are the ones you should be working against if you have any good left in your heart.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:10 | 2216566 The Swedish Chef
The Swedish Chef's picture

The problem, Timmah, is not the lack of regulation back then. The problem is that you took "the panicked calls she answered for me at home late at night or early in the morning in 2008 from the then-giants of our financial system". 

 

They should have gotten out their own mess. But we couldn´t let that happen, now could we? If the top Wall St. firms failed, where would you go when Obama loses the election?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:13 | 2216569 monopoly
monopoly's picture

What reforms. These parasite banks are bigger then ever, making the same bets they did in 2008. And Geithner has their back. No such thing as failure.

Will not read his dribble. And check out the headline in Bloomberg. "


"U.S. Housing Lays Foundation for Recovery"

This is one of the most absurd pieces I have ever read on their site.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:22 | 2216592 riphowardkatz
riphowardkatz's picture

That may have been one of the most absurd but this was the most absurd piece on Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/bernanke-led-economy-proving-critics-clueless-about-federal-reserve-policy.html  

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:17 | 2216571 Offtheradar
Offtheradar's picture

I love you Timmy!  You can suck my dick anytime you want! Your ears would make great handles...

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:14 | 2216573 Waterfallsparkles
Waterfallsparkles's picture

Trying to set himself up for a speaking career after his current job.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:28 | 2216615 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

There is a complete lack of specificity. Claiming as the author of this article does that "all bubble problems can be solved with new bubbles" is not the answer. Simply put the risk by and large has been taken out os the system as a "no I'm not going to lend to you unless you have a government bailout letter" mentality takes hold. The fact is Wall Street needs an answer to the deficit more than anyone...and unless and until governments stop creating programs and start creating tax revenues there will be little to no room for the Faber-esque wheeling and dealing that is Wall Street's bread and butter. (Can't WAIT for the war in the M.E. btw....

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:14 | 2216577 Moneyswirth
Moneyswirth's picture

He's done an awesome job.  He's saved us from the abyss.  He's told us several times.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:45 | 2216656 knightowl77
knightowl77's picture

Don't forget Obummy, he apparently inherited this mess...who knew?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:16 | 2216581 Shizzmoney
Shizzmoney's picture

How can anyone vote for Obama, with a good conscience, when this motherfucker is still head of the Treasury?

He must of laughed after he wrote this shit.  Reform? Its a mockery.  These motherfuckers like Obama, Romney, Geithner.....are mocking the working people who actually contribute to society.

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:18 | 2216586 Below Zero
Below Zero's picture

His wife also reminded him how he couldn't get a boner back in 2008 and still can't. What's with that Timmy?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:38 | 2216642 tabasco71
tabasco71's picture

He'd seduce her, but she's apparently too busy reading newspapers

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:20 | 2216588 riphowardkatz
riphowardkatz's picture

I get mad at myself for pitying him.

Dammit, why this on a Friday? Are you a masochst or am I?

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:20 | 2216590 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Does that asshole have blankets draped over the mirrors in his house like a fucking vampire? Because after writing that bullshit I am sure his soul [if he has one] would shrivel up and wither away if he saw his own reflection in a mirror, again, if he has a reflection.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:27 | 2216613 ISEEIT
ISEEIT's picture

 You should have listened to Tyler and not read the crap. Just as when obama starts flapping his gums you need to walk away. These people are evil and toxic.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:43 | 2216652 tabasco71
tabasco71's picture

Yep, Obama has surely revealed himself as a total douche... even dispatching Bin Laden, he couldn't even keep his powder dry enough for a second term

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:23 | 2216594 vegas
vegas's picture

The only thing worth fighting for "Turbo Tax Timmy" is to get your ass out of the US Treasury Dept & the empty suit Chalky Soetero out of the White House ASAP.

 

http://vegasxau.blogspot.com

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:23 | 2216596 tabasco71
tabasco71's picture

Right, so.... oh forget it... whats the point....... prick......... 2008... your wife..... more regs...... observer.....  somehow not responsible.... good chap.... fought his corner.... bewilderment.... not perfect... best we could do...

I finally can't resist the urge to scream FUCK OFF!!!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:24 | 2216598 Benjamin Glutton
Benjamin Glutton's picture

An op-ed in lieu of answering the subpoena that he is continuing to dodge,imo.

========================

The financial safeguards in the law at that moment were tragically antiquated and weak. Neither the Fed, nor any other federal agency, had the necessary comprehensive authority over investment firms like Bear Stearns, insurance companies like AIG, or the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Regulators did not have the authority they needed to oversee and impose prudent limits on overall risk and leverage on large nonbank financial institutions. And they had no authority to put these firms, or bank holding companies, through a managed bankruptcy that wound them down in an orderly way or to otherwise adequately contain the damage caused by their failure. The safeguards on banks were much tougher than those applied to any other part of the financial system, but even those provisions were not conservative enough.

A large shadow banking system had developed without meaningful regulation, using trillions of dollars in short-term debt to fund inherently risky financial activity. The derivatives markets grew to more than $600 trillion, with little transparency or oversight. Household debt rose to an alarming 130% of income, with a huge portion of those loans originated with little to no supervision and poor consumer protections.

=====================

NOT MY FAULT!!!!! hilarious.

=======================

Of DOW JONES DAILY BANKRUPTCY REVIEW

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. LEHMQ and its creditors late Thursday said they want to subpoena Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to question him under oath over allegations J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., (JPM) illegally siphoned billions of dollars from the collapsing investment bank in the days before it filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

In a filing accompanying Lehman's filing, made in U.S. District Court in Washington, Lehman's official committee of unsecured creditors said Geithner has thus far refused to comply with an Aug. 9, 2011, subpoena, and it wants a court to force Geithner to give a deposition by a March 16 deadline.

"Despite being a crucial fact witness on these issues, Secretary Geithner has refused to appear at a deposition in accordance with a valid subpoena issued by the Committee," the committee's lawyers said in the filing. Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time of the Lehman collapse.

The Treasury Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lehman-bros-subpoenas-geithner-in-jp-mo...

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:47 | 2216995 Jason_1sandal
Jason_1sandal's picture

Maybe that is his deposition...?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:25 | 2216601 Kaiser Sousa
Kaiser Sousa's picture

Dear Tim Geithner -

 

......................./´./)

....................,/¯../

.................../..../

............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`¸

........../'/.../..../....../¨¯\

........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')

.........\.................'...../

...........\.............. _.·´

............\..............(

..............\.............\

...............\..............\

................\..............\

.................\...............\

Sincerely,

The Collective

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:33 | 2216631 resurger
resurger's picture

Kindly use both hands

+1

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:42 | 2216650 Kaiser Sousa
Kaiser Sousa's picture

noted...

volunteers for design requested...

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:25 | 2216603 Moneyswirth
Moneyswirth's picture

In related news, I've noticed over the last few weeks here at ZH, the increase of ads for a) Barack Obama and b) Japanese dating sites.   Such consistency.  If you go with either one, you're going to get fucked.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:31 | 2216628 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

visiting the odd porn site will get you the asian and or russian dating ads, I'm not sure what you've done to get Obama ones though.  I get a lot of ads for credit cards (lol) and pain medecine for joints (ankles and knees)...not that kind of joints Google!!!  

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:54 | 2216675 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Google has you in the stupid & lonely Japanese male category. Better vist some gold and silver sites to get a better class of adverts. 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:56 | 2217007 Jason_1sandal
Jason_1sandal's picture

I have zero ads.... how awesome is that !! ??

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:26 | 2216610 DavidJ
DavidJ's picture

Geithner, you wall street kiss a**.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:27 | 2216612 Dick Darlington
Dick Darlington's picture

Here's something for Timmah to think about...

U.S. Food-Stamp Use Reached Record 46.5 Million in December

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:28 | 2216614 azzhatter
azzhatter's picture

The fuckwad of the fuckwads, Timmay the Keebler elf took time off from blowing bankers to write an op-ed. Isn't that special? Fuck you in the ass with a cerrated steak knife motherfucker

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:28 | 2216618 Internet Tough Guy
Internet Tough Guy's picture

Red meat for ZH.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:28 | 2216619 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

Alltogether now, "You're a wanker Timmay Geitner Timmay Geitner...you're a wanker and YOU KNOW YOU ARE!!!" 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:28 | 2216620 slewie the pi-rat
slewie the pi-rat's picture

ok;  i didn't read one word!

aaaaand...safe!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:29 | 2216623 TrustWho
TrustWho's picture

If the CEO and political crooks were convicted for the fraud they committed, maybe one CEO, Bob Rubin, Allen Greenspan and Barney Frank, we could depend on self-regulation instead of Dodd-Frank. How can the banks settle with State AGs for $26 billion  without committing criminal acts? Actually, three years ago the banks needed to be bailed-out, so where did they get $26 billion?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:29 | 2216624 dcb
dcb's picture

I won't read him, larry summers, greenspan, Ilisten to the bernank because it's hard to avoid. these people all beloing in a work camp in seiberia. they exemplfy all that is wrong with this countrry. how you can be a complete failure, but if you are a good suck up and make enough money for others you will be rewarded

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:32 | 2216629 betterlockaway
betterlockaway's picture

I'll bet his wife is "bewildered" a lot.  The guy is a tool and he just does not get it.  At least H. Paulson knew what he was doing.  Tiny Tim could not trade his way out of a paper bag.  Career administrator.  Lifetime dumb dumb. 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:56 | 2216681 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Tanks in the streets unless you give me $800 billion now, no strings attached. I'll fix what we broke.

That H. Paulson, amerikas most wanted bank robber?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:34 | 2216633 krispkritter
krispkritter's picture

Yep, I feel dumber for having read that.  No mention of throwing those responsible in jail? "from the then-giants of our financial system" Giant criminals you mean? Pedantic white-washing drivel...this guy is a 'then-giant' sockpuppet and should be swinging from a lightpole somewhere along with his cronies and soon.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:35 | 2216634 solgundy
solgundy's picture

he's a bagman for Soros, just follow his career stops

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:42 | 2216649 mc_LDN
mc_LDN's picture

Tim Geitner aka One of Satan's inept little helpers. In fact thats insulting Satan.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:46 | 2216660 CEOoftheSOFA
CEOoftheSOFA's picture

On Bloomberg this morning they talked about how true Turbo's words were. They said that we should be grateful to Timmy and quit complaining about the small stuff like regulations, inflation, debt, etc. He saved us from financial collapse f'crissakes!
I need whatever they are smokin.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:55 | 2216822 Widowmaker
Widowmaker's picture

They are smoking US men and women serving their country in wars across the earth.

Still want some?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:49 | 2216664 Benjamin Glutton
Benjamin Glutton's picture

Tim's Op-Eds sans funny Greenspan brown nose humor and transcribed laughter seem somewhat bland.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:54 | 2216673 Joe Davola
Joe Davola's picture

Is there some risk that these reforms will go too far with unintended consequences? That depends on the quality of judgment of regulators in the coming months as they flesh out the remaining reforms. But our system provides considerable protection against that risk, with the rules subject to long periods of public comment and analysis and with room in the law to get the balance right. The greater error would be for Congress or the regulators, under tremendous pressure from lobbyists, to once again exempt large swaths of the financial industry from rules against abuse.

 

I'm sure all those who got Corzine'd will take comfort in the extra-stringent rules you put in place, Timmah. 

 

Donald Fagen nailed this mentality:

 

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

 


Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:59 | 2216686 Zappalives
Zappalives's picture

Nightfly album.

Very approbo.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:57 | 2216683 Zappalives
Zappalives's picture

When the CEO of Bear Stearns called that night, it was not because I was his firm's supervisor or regulator, but because I was then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which serves as the fire department for the financial system.

 

Ya see guys and gals.....I,m kinda like a fireman.Ya know as in "HERO"

 

Yeah....thats it....I'm a hero.

 

Thank me later.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:11 | 2216694 The Count
The Count's picture

Geithner is just another totally overrated, incompetent, high finance bonehead. Same league as Pauson, Ruben, Greenspan.... Coincidence that most are of the Jewish faith? Probably not. While Jews are clever, they are not really smart or we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. What most Jews do not understand is that by them insisting on making a big point of their faith, along with all the arcane rituals and beliefs, they are playing into the hands of antisemites by perpetuating jewish cliches. Not that Muslims or Catholics are much better though. Religion, TV, Sports and Foodstamps. Takes care to control 98% of the population. As you can see I am an equal opportunity bigot.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:04 | 2216696 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

 

 

He seems to come out with his views during tax season.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:10 | 2216714 sbenard
sbenard's picture

Timmay, the Treasury Keebler elf. Lot's of credibility there!

And you haven't even touched on Timmy's role in the Asian currency crisis!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:13 | 2216720 Bastiat009
Bastiat009's picture

Geithner is a crook and a moron. Obama is surrounded by crooks and morons. I don't think he could stand to face a smart person who would tell him that he had done exactly what he has always opposed when somebody else was president. This is what happens when you judge somebody on the color of his skin. Racism is stupid and a racist election can only lead to stupid decisions.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:13 | 2216724 JiminGA
JiminGA's picture

What's really hilarious is Geithner's recounting his failure as NY Fed Chairman, basically saying he didn't do his job. Either he didn't know how shaky Bear Sterns was or didn't care.  Either way, he was a failure and continues as such in his current role as Obama's head cashier.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:53 | 2216817 Widowmaker
Widowmaker's picture

He can quit any time he wants.  He's not speaking truth, and that is how you know.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:14 | 2216726 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

 

 

I never again want to see the words "Barney Frank," "enormous," and "pushing" in the same sentence.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:20 | 2216743 Genzero
Genzero's picture

And he was promoted into his current position!

The Peter Principle in resplendent glory.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:23 | 2216753 Snakeeyes
Snakeeyes's picture

Here is my take.

Geithner ignores the role that Clinton and the National Homeownership Strategy (NHS) played in stimulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get reckless and grow like Tribbles from Star Trek.

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/geithners-misleading-defense-of-dodd-frank-ignores-role-of-government-in-the-financial-crisis/

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:25 | 2216756 New American Re...
New American Revolution's picture

I asked my daugher, Amy, what she thought was the greatest danger to America, and she said it was nuclear war... and malaize.   

I've got this rush of deja vu all over again.

Tim asks his wife so he can write in the letter that he is not really a flaming gay blade like Ben Bernanke that everyone thinks he is under that cheap Dr. Strangelove herpes rag on his head.   It also allowed him to let the world know that he's a pussy and the real brains behind the throne is Tim's wife, and that 2008 she was on the perpetual rag so don't blame him.  

"Yes! that is my wallet.  Yes! those are my pants.   But I wasnt' there, YOU don't have any proof, and I didn't do anything wrong."

Thank you Tim, you can go back outside and play like a good automatron, here's a cookie for being a good boy.... AND STAY OUT OF THAT KNOT HOLE IN THE TREE!!!   

Goddamnkid....

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:29 | 2216767 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Fireman Timmy

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:50 | 2216779 Widowmaker
Widowmaker's picture

"We saved the banks but lost America."  - Tim Geithner

How is that not a call to arms to every single "American" that got fucked by Federal Reserve Inc run by that ass-clown and his perpetual fraud machine?

Strip that motherfucker of his citizenship (obviously he doesn't care about it) and throw his family in the desert to fight like everyone else for royal sand-nigger oil and record bonuses. 

Traitor-Tim Geithner needs his life re-arranged in order to redefine priorities and forfeiture.

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:37 | 2216782 loveyajimbo
loveyajimbo's picture

Timmy Fagella is a true 'roid, but this is widely known... when you have three such, in Cabin Boy Tim, the corrupt dunce AG Eric Holder, and the douche bag crook Gensler at the CFTC... then one can assume the guy behind them is also a failure, a dunce and a confused little puppet of his bankster backers.  Ole Swannie River BO

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:42 | 2216794 rufusbird
rufusbird's picture

So we all get to drop to the lowest common denominator of Timmy's wife's IQ?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:59 | 2216838 sbenard
sbenard's picture

It never ceases to amaze me how many Americans are either so gullible, or so foolish, that they are willing to sell their freedom and buy the lie of President Perfidious and his other czars! They deserve the tyranny they get, but the rest of us don't!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:00 | 2216842 sbenard
sbenard's picture

It never ceases to amaze me how many Americans are either so gullible, or so foolish, that they are willing to sell their freedom and buy the lie of President Perfidious and his other czars! They deserve the tyranny they get, but the rest of us don't!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:03 | 2216854 ljag
ljag's picture

I still can't get over that 60 Minutes piece on Frontline where Larry Summers, Rubin and Greenspan asked Brooksley what she thought about fraud. I can just see her mouth drop in utter amazement when told by one of the above dolts "The market will take care of fraud". At that precise moment I'd bet money that she was hoping she had packed her Ruger in her purse for surely she would need it just to exit the room.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:17 | 2217056 Cycle
Cycle's picture

If i had the time I would start a campaign to put a larger than life  bronze statue of Brooksley Born smack at top of the steps to the Federal Reserve.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:09 | 2216878 DavidC
DavidC's picture

The last time I hit anyone was in 1978 (true) - I find an irrestible urge to want to hit Timmah...

DavidC

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:56 | 2217009 Loose Caboose
Loose Caboose's picture

Go ahead.  I'll hold your jacket.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:18 | 2216899 Boxed Merlot
Boxed Merlot's picture

Having all the regulations in the world won't do a thing without enforcement.  Bill Black makes an extremely important point regarding the S&L crisis years ago.  At that time it took 1000 agents to work that event.  After 9/11 the FBI transferred 1000 white collar criminal investigators to follow the money trail of "terrorists", leaving the remaining 120 agents to the work everyone was doing until then.  By the way, those agents were never replaced.  Then he goes on to state in a recent interview:

"To give you another idea of scope, to investigate Enron, and Enron was complex, but it was nowhere near as big and as complex as Washington Mutual. It took 100 FBI agents. So you can see that with 120 nationwide, at most you could have done one major case. But instead, they divided them up in what the military would call, Penny Packets, which is to say two or three agents per field office. And that means they cannot investigate anything substantial. So they were put on relatively smaller cases. And they being diligent FBI agents, they worked those cases, and that’s where they wrote the memos, okay we found this, prosecute these people, don’t prosecute these people. The FBI in late 2007 – 2008, figures out this cannot work. Remember I told you there were over a million cases of mortgage fraud a year and that overwhelmingly it’s lenders who foot the fraud, the lie in the liars loan."

 - excerpted - William Black: Why Nobody Went to Jail During the Credit Crisis"

 

We currently have 120 agents patrolling 50 states.  It's no wonder Corzine will never be found.  No one is looking.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:19 | 2216920 SmoothCoolSmoke
SmoothCoolSmoke's picture

So............. if we do not have enough traffic cops, let's repeal all traffic laws.  Have I got that right?

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:26 | 2217112 Boxed Merlot
Boxed Merlot's picture

That's another way of looking at it, sure.  With less than 3 cops per state, it's the wild wild west all over again.

 

I'm not bringing this up as an argument for an increased police state, it's simply an observation that all an increase in laws will do is increase transgression.

 

Voluntary adherence to the rule of law is imperative to a civil society.  There will never be enough LEOs to enforce what our government executives and legislatures have, are and intend to foist on us. 

 

The best way in achieve voluntary complience is to develop trust.  Uniform application of laws to all people is the foundation of trust building.  The US judiciary is to blame for our current demise in their rubber stamping coercive agreements with criminals as paid in full.

 imo.  

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:17 | 2216908 SmoothCoolSmoke
SmoothCoolSmoke's picture

I love Dick-head Bove on this:

Basically, Geitner could have prevented the financial collapse if, years before, when he was a member of the FOMC, he would have pushed to limit the risks the banks where taking.

BUT NOW...any regs designed to limit risks banks can take (Volker Rule,etc), ARE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.

Talk about a hypocritical jackass (and bank shill)

 

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:19 | 2216922 Rand Mises Hayek
Rand Mises Hayek's picture

Simply pathetic.

Tiny Tim lies because his pay check depends on it. Get a real job Turbo Tim.

Be a man and take responsibility for our actions. Hook Nose Creep.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:37 | 2216961 Stackers
Stackers's picture

Amnesia causes financial crisis ? ..... Uh, and here I thought it was gross mismangement, fruad, fractional reserve banking and leverage. Go figure

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:37 | 2216962 Catullus
Catullus's picture

Japan called. They said "go fuck yourself".

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:45 | 2216988 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

When did you get the call from Lehman Timmy Boy?

Howe did GS survive? They were more levereaged than Bear.

You would have gotten calls from Citi, BOA, JPM, as you should have if the Fed did not bail them out w/ taxpayer money.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:56 | 2217008 RichardENixon
RichardENixon's picture

Apparently Timmy is the one with amnesia, because he forgot to make any mention of John Corzine and MF Global. Or maybe amnesia is not the reaon he didn't mention that, who knows.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 12:57 | 2217011 Watts_D_Matter
Watts_D_Matter's picture

Amnesia?!  You little nut-less, Poindexter looking twerp...Is that why you had tax issues in the past....

Do me a favor you nitwit...you work for me....go eat a shit sandwich with peanuts and corn in it!

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:22 | 2217099 Inspector Bird
Inspector Bird's picture

Seriously?

"There was no memory of extreme crisis, no memory of what can happen when a nation allows huge amounts of risk to build up outside of the safeguards all economies require."

No memory?  I'm sorry, I completely FORGOT about The Depression. 

Furthermore - "all economies require"?  Really?  Economies REQUIRE safeguards?  It's a rule?  There's a law?  I wonder where he saw that rule.

Economies don't require anything but good, clear, common sense be applied if you hope to avoid disaster.  The rest of the stuff is garbage put forth by people trying to protect their gains or rig the system.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:37 | 2217157 Richard Head
Richard Head's picture

Geithner might be the biggest cock sucker in public office.  And there's a lot of competition.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:40 | 2217166 cdskiller
cdskiller's picture

There is no person I have ever, in my life, wanted to beat up more than Tim Geithner. In an alley, with a dumpster conveniently nearby in which I would deposit him so he could rest up for the painful walk home.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 13:52 | 2217211 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

The guy is treated well by the hosts of other countries, but he has no credibility so they don't pay any attention to him.

The Chinese just about laughed him out of their country.

The odd thing is he still thinks he matters.

 

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 14:42 | 2217395 Bansters-in-my-...
Bansters-in-my- feces's picture

Resistance i.s...Fu.t.i..l...e

....................................FUCK YOU. Timmy Weasel Giethner...!!!.......

You are a terrorist at large.

Fri, 03/02/2012 - 15:12 | 2217544 smiler03
smiler03's picture

Readers seem to be rating the message rather than the messenger.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!