The peculiar severity of our current banking crisis is due to three factors: 40:1 leverage, Henry Paulson as CEO of Goldman Sachs and his role in this 2004 decision by the SEC.
Ratigan understands and agrees. These 2 clips from Fast Money might even have gotten him fired.
See also:
We've all seen the faux Obama 'get tough with AIG' speech, when the administration knew about these bonuses since last Fall. It's Slick Willie, specious populism and extremely disconcerting for the sheeple paying attention (you and me). The transparent rub is talk a good game and then find a crafty manner of doing the opposite. Witness the following:
Whitney apparently scheduled today as media day. A stop in the morning for an interview with Steve Forbes then a few minutes before the close with Maria Bartiromo. We have video and transcripts from both appearances.
It takes 3 licks to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop and one question repeated 3 times to get through Tim Geithner's fast-talking wall of bullshit.
Let me repeat, cabinet members are not supposed to obfuscate. They exist to tell the truth and explain the obfuscation of their President. They are clarifiers of sorts. Geithner is a born muddler.
TARP Watchdog, Elizabeth Warren, making a hand gesture in reference to Tim Geithner. The cynical title aside, I'm a huge fan of Harvard's Elizabeth Warren and the work she is attempting to do as the head of the COP (Congressional Oversight Panel) for the first $700 billion of TARP bailouts.
In all fairness to the Obama administration, Black levels similar charges against Bob Rubin and Bill Clinton along with Hank Paulson and George W. Bush. The explosive interview was aired Friday night on Bill Moyers Journal.
As readers know, Obama and Geithner love the failed bank CEOs. The executive pow-wow was held last Friday at the White House and we put together a picture gallery of the high school dance. Ken Lewis, Vikram Pandit, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein and John Mack in all their failed glory.
I'm starting to build the photo galleries and cartoon slideshows now available in the right column at the top. I have 1,000 images waiting to be manually loaded. I will try to add 50 or so new images per day until caught up. Below is what I've added so far.
financial, economic, recession, bailout
Apr 7, 2009 at 3:58 PM
