FIXERS Author Discusses Bailouts And Wall Street Fraud

BANK BAILOUTS AND WALL STREET CULTURE

LEGALITY IS NOT AN OBSTACLE ON WALL STREET

In this WSJ podcast Author Michael M. Thomas, who worked at Lehman Brothers and then wrote about the financial crisis for the New York Observor, discusses his new book Fixers, ostensibly about a Wall Street consultant on a mission to rig the 2008 election by funneling millions of dollars to a charming young presidential candidate.

Thomas also discusses his favorite financial books and movies.

Related:

Was Obama's 2008 Election Fixed By Wall Street? New Book Raises Suspicions

Comments

[john]

Lie-ablilty covered by derivatives?

[skinflint]

This here is the rail report. January and February were not all that bad, however, look at March. What a shit storm. It's off and not by a little. Friend of mine works the rails and they are laying them off and sliding everyone back. What a mess. Makes one wonder why Buffet purchased NS and then turned down the deal. You'd think an 8 bil dollar hair cut would be OK in this environment.

http://www.aar.org/pages/freight-rail-traffic-data.aspx

[skinflint]

I guess I should not be at all surprised by this vid. What with all the new technologies and stuff. My boss can sit in his air conditioned office and watch his fleet of trucks move. If one sits too long, the phone rings. Ships are that and more.
http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2016/03/_visualization_shows_the_incredible_amount_of_nautical_traffic_on_the_seas.html

[DailyBail]

SKIN

I will check those links out when I get a chance. I hope people took the time to listen to the first half of this podcast. It's an excellent discussion of Wall Street and how the culture has changed over the past 30 years or so.

[DailyBail]

Here are some of Michael Thomas' stories from the Observor. He really did some great work there.

http://observer.com/2009/06/a-claptrap-to-lure-the-groundlings/

The latter is the most crucial ingredient of the snake oil. TARP, TALF and other injections of statutory capital weren’t getting the job done, so Fed and Treasury, in what this space has dubbed “The Great Geithner Giveaway,” decided that the best way to rebuild the Street’s balance sheets, at least notionally, was just to hand the Street all the free money it wanted and let Goldman et al. trade their way back up to solvency. Borrow from the Fed and F.D.I.C. at 0 percent plus a fraction and lend the money to Treasury at 3 percent or so, or do other trades, including what starts to look like a fair amount of program trading in the stock market. And blow a lot of “compensation” smoke to cover the looting.

[DailyBail]

The Great Geithner Giveaway, Part II

http://observer.com/2009/05/the-great-geithner-giveaway-part-ii/

Outstanding piece.

[DailyBail]

“Every report on Lehman that I have recently read is saying that the real toxicity on the Lehman balance sheet is in its commercial real estate holdings and investments. Of no other troubled firm does this seem to be true, only Lehman, which may also explain the Paulson team’s no-bailout call.

http://observer.com/2009/05/friendship-in-the-land-of-lost-content/

[DailyBail]

Every day now, as this sorry story plays out, I find myself wondering whether Obama isn’t a bigger Wall Street con than Madoff. If so, I admit I was fooled. I suppose I should have paid closer attention to the extraordinary fact that the Street was pouring tens of millions into a campaign that on the face of it was likely to be antithetical to the interests of hedge funds, private equity and banks too stupid to survive. I suppose I was somewhat blinded by the conviction that the other candidate was, like death, the unacceptable alternative, but that’s no excuse.

http://observer.com/2009/05/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-the-great-giveaway/

[DailyBail]

MICHAEL THOMAS ARCHIVE

http://observer.com/author/michael-mthomas/

There's a lot more there.

[DailyBail]

Dance to the Music of Geithner

http://observer.com/2009/04/dance-to-the-music-of-geithner/

[DailyBail]

SKIN

So what the hell happened to rail traffic in March. This is a serious drop.

http://www.aar.org/pages/freight-rail-traffic-data.aspx

Great graph in this link.

[DailyBail]

SKIN

This is very cool. Thx.

http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2016/03/_visualization_shows_the_incredible_amount_of_nautical_traffic_on_the_seas.html

[skinflint]

My argument with folks when the voting thing rolls around every so often is that the choice of the lesser of two evils is still evil. There is no way out. That's just the way it is. Regarding the rails, people aren't buying shit so there is nothing moving. At all. Trucking has slowed down considerably. My friend works Curtis Bay and the cuts that are happening now are more deep than in 08. Cars are sitting idle, and they are moving people around. Its a serious shift that no one is talking about. At least not that I have heard.