Everyone else including the writers for SNL have finally figured out that tax-cheat Tim Geithner is neither qualified nor even intelligent enough to be Treasury Secretary. Think I'm being harsh? Read this immediately. It's a painful kick to the nutz from former PM of Australia Paul Keating that calls into question Timmaaay's intelligence. I will have more on this soon including some lovely video of Chris Whalen ripping into T.G. He's getting his deserved comeuppance this weekend from DC all the way to Sydney.
In this clip from SNL last night entitiled 'Tim Geithner Is Open To Suggestions', TG admits he has no idea what to do to solve the banking crisis, and so he is offering a $420 billion reward to the first person with a good idea over the phone.
In the second video, after the jump, an angered President Barack Obama turns into The Rock Obama and handles things slightly differently. Dwayne Johnson 'The Rock' was the host last night and handled the comedy exceptionally well.
The best part of the sketch is when The Rock Obama receives a call saying that AIG needs more money. The audience goes wild. Now explain why the real Barack doesn't do the same.
It's game over for AIG cash injections, by the way. Mark my word. Something changed in DC this week. Those pigs will not get another dime.
You guys can hate me later for all the bad news I bring. Remember, don't forget what's important in life and now enjoy some comedy.
These videos are available 24/7 anytime you're on the site. There is a 'Bailout Comedy Video' tab at the top of every page on the site.
Share the link with a friend or 2 with a quick email. It's a safe and painless way to spread the word and educate your friends and family at the same time. It is much appreciated.
Inside you will find stuff from SNL, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Leno, Craig Ferguson, Wanda Sykes, Niall Ferguson, Paulson, Bernanke, WalstreetPro2, Bill Maher, Ron Paul, and more.
This is a very difficult issue. I've been reading and thinking about it for almost 12 months and I admit that it's not a slam dunk 'no' as I wish it were. But it actually becomes less complicated for me when a Keynesian like McTeer advocates its removal.
Side note: On the 2nd video inside McTeer admits to buying Citigroup last fall at $15 per share. How could the former President of the Dallas Federal Reserve be so blind as to not realize the end game for Citi., you wonder? Firstly, because he's a failed Keynesian who believes in miracles. And secondly, it's a perfect demonstration that even former Fed Presidents don't do their homework, and, more damningly, don't understand the extent of the problems at some of our banks. I say it all the time, but I can show you tens of thousands of people who have known since at least last Spring that Citi would eventually find a home in the land of nada, home of the zeros. Why were we so smart? Because we read every single piece of research out there both positive and negative, and we don't subscribe to the investment philosophy of hopes, dreams and sugar-coated rainbows.
Back to the point. By nature, I am vehemently opposed to any suspension of reality. That's pretty much how we got into this mess in the first place. All the players packed on the leverage year after year, all of them convinced they could safely unload assets worth 35 times their capital base at or near par as soon as the music stopped. Trillions in assets.
Did no one stop to consider that every investment bank was dancing the same death waltz?
Just who the hell did they think they were going sell to, when all the natural buyers for securitized assets would also be looking to sell?
The answer is that no one was thinking. Reality had been suspended back in 2001 by reprobate Alan Greenspan when he dropped rates to 1% in an attempt to re-inflate the punctured technology bubble. The same irrational exuberance that he feared back in 1996, he was now stoking mightily to keep the embers hot. It worked for about 5 years, and then one day it didn't.
The winners were the bankers with in excess of $100 billion in bonuses paid on ficticious profits in a very short span. And the losers are now you, the American taxpayers who are being asked to clean up the banker party at a cost of trillions. There's $1.2 trillion of Citigroup vomit in that corner. Over on your left, please ignore the $500 billion in Fannie and Freddie trash left lying around. And to your right, see that drunk, disgusting passed-out fucker, Cassano from AIG. He was doing shots of tequila until 4 am with the bankers from Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Goldman. Ken Griffith and his Citadel punks left early this morning and took all the remaining booze with them, so you can't even have a drink while you clean up.
How did all this happen. Suspension Of Reality.
And now the players want to do it again, only officially this time. I don't see how it will help except to gut one of the most important principles in valuing assets. Truth about price.
Do we really want to change the rules so that these characters can start dancing again? It would be much simpler to simply allow certain banks forbearance on their current regulatory capital requirements. It could be done most effectively on a case-by-case basis.
I admit it's a very nuanced issue. Convince me in comments that I'm wrong but I'm sticking with guns Cabrera on this one. Might as well give her the shout-out she deserves. Excellent work the last 12 months on behalf of taxpayers, Michelle. It has not gone un-noticed.
Chanos had some great insight into mark to market yesterday. Take a look.
Hedge fund manager James Chanos from Kynikos Associates was the guest host on Squawk Box on CNBC yestereday morning. Both videos are excellent viewing for those interested in the truth about the banks, mark-to market accounting, and financial executives going to federal prison.
In the second clip, Chanos touches upon a point I've been making regarding MTM accounting. Simply, that no one uses MTM accounting for the majority of their assets, and so a suspension of regulatory capital requirements would accomplish the same goal of forbearance, but in a much cleaner way.
Chanos has been right about this crisis from day one. Apparently he has been involved in official discussions of late pertaining to the criminality of certain executives. Without naming individuals, he mentions Lehman Brothers and the $150 billion discrepancy that appeared on their books after declaring bankruptcy. He seems quite certain there was fraud and that executives will be wearing orange jumpsuits soon. That's his phrase, not mine. He also mentions AIG and says that we will see executives sent to prison for their role in that collapse.
How ya doing, Dick Fuld and Joe Cassano. We hope that investigators have already seized the passports of both of these individuals.
This is the video clip that has people laughing this morning. It's Jon Stewart from The Daily Show last night tagging Rick Santelli and CNBC.
I think it's very funny if not slightly misleading in parts. Jon seemed upset and the crowd was genuinely disappointed that Santelli cancelled or bailed out on his apperance on last night's show. He asks if they would have liked to have seen Santelli, and they go nuts with applause. He attempts to zing Santelli a few times, but likely hopeful to have him as a guest in the future, he backs off and launches the majority of his comic attack upon CNBC the network. And those 6 minutes of the clip are incredibly well put together. It's a video collage of CNBC idiocy and save for not understanding that Fast Money is a trader's show, it gets everything right. I love to ridicule CNBC but I will also always stand up for the truth tellers. And Dylan Ratigan is one.
On the other hand, the breathless, orgasmic clip of Maria Bartiromo fondling John Thain is priceless. I'm going to say something we all believe. Maria Bartiromo is a
This is a 9 minute video of Bill Gross of PIMP-CO Investment Advisors. He tells the Fed and Treasury what to buy so by extension we taxpayers are his street bitches. (I'm not a misogynist in real life. I just play one on the web. If my language makes you enraged, call Geithner right now at 202-622-2960. Tell him to stop listening to Bill Gross and to start listening to you.)
I haven't watched it because I can't. I tried. I gave him about 8 seconds and I stopped it. I could feel his book opening and he was about to tell somebody at the Treasury who they needed to bailout next.
I think he was going to say GE. Which only means 1 thing. He's finished building his position in GE paper.
Somebody shoot me. I'm so sick of writing this blog.
When I was just a trader I could bypass this shit easy. Mute button, turn the chair. Now I have to present it and it's killing me slowly, yet assuredly.
He probably talks about the bank bailouts and says we need to keep injecting capital and crossing our fingers. And he likely tells Bernanke to start buying more GSE paper. Oh and he's not done building his position in the securitized asset-backed stuff yet so he won't mention that.
Those are my guesses. Somebody watch it and tell me in comments. You could be saving a life by not making me watch Bill Gross. And if it works out, we'll just make it a regular policy for all Hairdo Bill videos.
Give your brain a break and watch some comedy. This 7 minute video from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart features Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News. They discuss politics, Congress, failed banks, the FDIC and even Twitter.
Though I maintain a Twitter account to broadcast our stories occasionally, I agree with Williams that few of our lives are interesting enough for personal Twitter updates. Further, a certain unattractive self-importance is built into every message. And for the update narcissists who tweet hourly as many do, the rest of just don't care to know that much about your life.
Put me in the category that believes Twitter will eventually collapse from the weight of too much useless information.
The insurance business is supposed to be simple and relatively stable. It's not difficult to sell insurance, collect premiums, hedge your risk elsewhere with re-insurers and then invest the remaining premiums conservatively.
So what the hell happened? Shockingly, it involved greed. We'll explain it inside.
The Daily Bail crafts a mix of mayhem and pain from offices somewhere in Bloomington, Indiana. For those who don't know, Bloomington is the proud home of Indiana University and 40,000 sometimes studious students. When not cracking the books for Drs. Theodore Megremis, Greg Udell and Ash Soni or any of our other 2,000 outstanding professors, the students here either get soaked at our multitude of bars or think about IU hoops and our 5 national championships. Yo, Purdue. How many NCAA titles you guys got? Zilch and nada. That's what I thought.
Some people dislike conservatives. Other people detest liberals. Smart people hate Notre Dame football. Me, I have a problem with AIG and Joe Cassano.He's the dweebish riptard who ran the un-hedged, hedge fund that destroyed AIG.
I debated approximately 7 seconds before deciding on the above title. It's late and that means my objectivity is shot. But it's my personal site and even though I've somehow got thousands of you sick voyeurs stopping by daily to witness my self-destruction, I really just started this blog to tell the truth. And the title is the only truth that eases my pain.
I made a promise in a previous post that from now until the day he's finally indicted, Cassano'sname will be highlighted and linked at the beginning of every post even remotely concerning AIG.
He earned $280 million in salary and bonus while at AIG before being fired last February. And swallow this, he's still getting a million per month as a consultant to the company he destroyed. A million of your kids' cash every month. The actions of this one individual have so far cost taxpayers $180 billion, and as night follows day, the bill will eventually be at least $300 billion. One guy. Read the links I've provided and you will see. Somehow, I need visceral revenge and this is all I've got.
So from me and 300 million pissed-off Americans, fuck you Joseph Cassano, you irresponsible asswipe.
Seriously. Is it just me or does this guy have a perpetual case of stupid face?
These clips of Treasury Secretary Timmaaay Geithner speak for themselves. He is a willfull tax cheat who now spends his days robbing your kids blind. But don't get mad, watch instead how the idiot plays jazz hands all the way through both videos.
Geithner, as Jimmy Rogers says, you are not only a current failure, but you carry a long history of poor performance as head of the New York Fed. It was your job to police Wall Street and yet you didn't see the crisis coming. I can show you thousands of people who foresaw what you did not.
Why were you so reckless and irresponsible in the conveyance of your duties. Oh, no one's asked you that question. Well, I just did. You are the annointed poster-child of regulatory malfeasance and ineptitude. And a pitiful disgrace as keeper of our Treasury.
We have another video from disco fingers after the jump.
And honestly, you leave us no choice. We're bringing back this guy to make us feel better about getting screwed over by you. Watch it, afterwards you will either hate me or feel a hell of a lot better.
I've been working behind the scenes all afternoon on this.
We are looking into the possibility of beginning the process to file a FOIA Freedom Of Information Act request pursuant to aig counterparty disclosure. If there are any federal lawyers reading and you don't mind giving me some advice on a few small issues, please contact me: thedailybail@gmail.com.
From now on and until the day he is indicted for costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions, Joseph Cassano's name will be highlighted at the beginning of every AIG article I write. He was the head of the financial products division of AIG London that brought down the entire company and is now helping to bring down our nation.
We present this video without comment. He likely stole our phrase asshat but has accomplished greatness with it nonetheless. It is The Fly from Ibankcoin.com.
Mar 8, 2009 at 1:35 PM
