Dr. Warren Is Still Waiting For Geithner To Answer THE Question
Video: Elizabeth Warren with Lois Romano of the Washington Post (October 8, Runs 7:14)
- ROMANO: I was reading a transcript of a hearing that you conducted with Secretary Geithner. And you had a very good question, which was why is it that the banking institutions and the automobile companies were treated differently, that the criteria for receiving the funds was very different. The banking industry didn't really have to meet much, and the automobile industry did. If I recall right, you asked the question three times. And I'm not sure he ever answered it (go to the 2:55 mark of this link).
- WARREN (all quotes below are hers): If he answered it, I didn't catch it.
- Obviously, it bothered me. That's why I kept asking it. There is such a difference. I mean, just take a deep breath for a second on this. We said with the auto companies you have to have an entirely new business plan. You have to go through bankruptcy. You have to wipe out your shareholders. Your debt holders have to take a hit. Your labor has to take a reduction. Your management team is at risk for being fired; some of them got fired.
- And we said to the banks, take the money, but we didn't ask for any of those things. We didn't ask that they wipe out their shareholders, that they make their debt holders take a hit, that they come up with a new business plan. We didn't ask for any of that. We just said here's the money.
- And I really wanted to understand that. You know, this isn't a political cheap shot that I was engaged in. I want to understand. If it's taxpayer money on the line, if these are described as systemically significant institutions and that's the reason for coming in, did he think the banks were better run? We know there were problems in the auto industry, but I would think this crisis would suggest there were some problems in the banking industry.
- The Treasury Department on behalf of the taxpayer was tough in dealing with the auto industry. Some still think maybe we shouldn't have gone in at all. But I want to make the point, they were tough. They were not tough with the banks, and I want to understand why.
- Well, we don't know where the $700 billion is because the system was initially designed to make sure that we didn't know. When Secretary Paulson first put this money out into the banks, he didn't ask "what are you going to do with it?" He didn't put any restrictions on it. He didn't put any tabs on where it was going to go; in other words, he didn't ask. And if you don't ask, no one tells. And so we have a system that originally put more than $200 billion into the financial institutions basically saying just take it.
- You know, this really has me worried. A year ago when we talked about why we needed to pass the TARP, why we needed a $700-billion blank check written to the Secretary of Treasury, remember what we were saying. We said the big crisis is toxic assets on the books of the banks.
- Today, the banks still have those toxic assets. Almost none of the TARP money was used to remove the toxic assets. Some of it may have been used to write down the total amount. But, in the meantime, those toxic assets, many of them have gotten more toxic, more foreclosures, higher unemployment rate. Now we're starting to move into commercial mortgages creating problems. So the way we described the crisis a year ago is still a very serious crisis today.
- The way I see it is that the financial system itself is quite fragile and the underlying economy, the real economy, is still in a very perilous state.
- The Middle Class has become like the Turkey at Thanksgiving Dinner. Who can get a piece, who can carve off some here, who can make a profit from this piece or that piece there?"
Read the complete transcript HERE
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Oct 25, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Reader Comments (37)
Did y'all catch that bit (the last minute and a half) about the middle class? Cue this bit up next to anything of your choosing from TOTUS. No comparison.
(If the middle class is a Thanksgiving turkey, can I be a drumstick?)
"The problem with this idea [PPIP] is that either the government will pay market prices for the toxic assets – in which case, it will simply accelerate the collapse of our financial system – or pay above-market prices, in which case taxpayers will likely suffer big losses.
There is another option, however, which involves debt holders taking a share of the losses. If steps are not taken to ensure that this happens, the greatest heist in history will have occurred: at least $1 trillion will be transferred from taxpayers to debt holders of failed financial institutions. This must not be allowed to happen."
John Hussman, too. They all get it. "It's about the bondholders, stupid." What the hell is going on?
there is some great stuff in here from warren...geithner still won't answer the question...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8321967.stm
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/55090,news-comment,news-politics,goldman-sachs-and-the-bankers-give-them-bonuses-or-give-them-death
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Uncovering-the-bull-under-the-bailout-8426220.html
http://seekingalpha.com/article/167565-the-secret-paulson-goldman-meeting?source=email
http://www.politico.com/click/stories/0910/nyt_journo_out_with_book.html
Amen to that.
Guess who said the following:
Far from turning around the [George] Bush legacy of deficits and debt, [US president Barack] Obama has made it worse. It has got all the hallmarks of a financial collapse about to happen in America. The US dollar is almost becoming like junk bonds.
A senior Senator from Australia. Leading Australian paper The Age adds:
In unusually pessimistic comments for a senior political figure, Senator Joyce said the US Government was running such large deficits and building up so much debt that it was in a similar position to Iceland or Germany before World War II.
http://www.teapartyexpress.org/
All throughout the recent Tea Party Express national bus tour we kept receiving calls from people around the nation who lived far away from the route our buses took across America. We vowed at the time to keep the Tea Party Express effort alive – and that’s exactly what we are doing.
Join us from October 25th to November 11th, 2009
as we tell Congress and the White House: “Enough!”
Let’s stand up and stop the bailouts, cap and trade, out-of-control spending, government-run healthcare, and higher taxes! We’re back and determined to take our country back!
Anything Less Than Full Disclosure is Unacceptable
by Ron Paul
Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve. Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts.
With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under scrutiny. This translates into a lot of political pressure on Congress. With all the House Republicans signed on as co-sponsors and over half of the Democrats, HR 1207 has enormous bipartisan support. It would be disingenuous for Washington not to embrace the principles behind this bill after all the promises for transparency. How can one credibly argue for more transparency in government in one breath and defend the secrecy of the Federal Reserve in the next?
http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,tx14_paul,blog,999,All,Item%20not%20found,ID=091026_3574,TEMPLATE=postingdetail.shtml
Our founders would NOT have allowed that to happen because that is EXACTLY what they fled England from (also known as: Tyranny).
This is depressing. Warren is saying everything that should be said...on TV...in congressional hearings...in reports. But she's not removed from the position or silenced--they just ignore her and everyone else, and keep on going about corruption, fraud, and theft. ..."ah fuck it. It's out in the open. Whatever... they're not going to do anything about it.."
We've all heard it a million times. America is the "Land of the free and home of the brave."
Is it? Is it really?
I've had people write to me and tell me they agree with this campaign to Kick Them All Out but they are afraid to sign on, make themselves known for fear of ending up on some list. I had a good friend tell me the same thing one day while talking on the phone. He confessed that he was afraid our conversation was being listened to by the government and that he may end up on some list. He wasn't shaking in his boots scared. It was more of a "Big Brother is watching" sense in the back of his mind but it was there nonetheless. It was a definite concern that should never have been in his mind in the first place. This is supposed to be a free country, isn't it?
We Are Either Going to Fall To Tyranny Or We Will Conquer It
http://kickthemallout.com/
This is depressing. Warren is saying everything that should be said...on TV...in congressional hearings...in reports. But she's not removed from the position or silenced--they just ignore her and everyone else, and keep on going about corruption, fraud, and theft. ..."ah fuck it. It's out in the open. Whatever... they're not going to do anything about it.."
She was powerless from the get-go...more a chaperone than anything else...but she has fought back with media exposure...she fights with her only weapon and it's been a pretty impressive showing from her and barofsky.
This is off-topic, but just saw it-- its a discussion on the Dallas bomber kid, "10/26/09 Judge Napolitano on Dallas Terror Suspect" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxGuHRj0ubc
They don't need to hide what they are doing anymore. They are content in the mastery of their plan, they have had over 100 years to perfect it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj4crMCg-XY&feature=player_embedded#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJhsfPGL6To&feature=player_embedded
DAILYBAIL
Gets pissed again and again for what?
Take it down, NOW!
I used to get excited or depressed when the stock market was up or down. Now it doesn't matter! Geithner and crew are flushing what little money Americans have been able to accumulate down the toilet.
I hope some of our representatives in Washington will find a way to stop them from robbing and destroying our country.
Hillary and Pelosi are ugly and stupid.
Sarah Palin’s drool is more patriotic than Hillary and Pelosi have in sum.
The rules are a bit particular but I am a quick study. Thanks for the help.
4rc
She's much different than Obama in intelligence...did you actually listen to her? She is dumber than a box of rocks.
August 2, 2009 | DailyBail
she is ugly and stupid.
August 3, 2009 | Sell Short
Della, though I appreciate your comment, you like many others are confusing her policy with her intelligence...
I can assure you that she has the lowest IQ of any Governor...it took her 5 universities to get a communications degree...
There are others who can deliver a small government message who have more intelligence in their drool than Palin has in sum.
August 14, 2009 | DailyBail
Loves VOODO rituals..lol
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=43809919
Raw Video: Palin Saved From 'Witchcraft'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIOD5X68lIs
House Health Bill – 1990 pages
“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren`t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” Ayn Rand
I thought that was bullshit back then, but know I wonder who really won...
McCarthy is probably rolling in his grave.
I'm not a fan in anyway of Pelosi...not sure why you would think that...i rip her every chance i get...but since she is not mentioned as a possible Presidential candidate I don't focus on her..