Quantcast
Feeds: Email, RSS & Twitter

Get Our Videos By Email

 

8,300 Unique Visitors In The Past Day

 

Powered by Squarespace

 

Most Recent Comments
Cartoons & Photos
SEARCH
« Video: Obama Nominee For Deputy Budget Director Crumbles Trying To Defend White House Deception | Main | Wal-Mart CEO: "Serious Inflation In The Months Ahead" »
Thursday
Mar312011

Guest Post From Dylan Ratigan: Step 1 - Fire Tim Geithner

Submitted to The Daily Bail by Dylan Ratigan

A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system is a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs pay themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they don't have to customers who can't pay back the loans.

In those dark days between the fall of Lehman Brothers and before the presidential election, we were often carried through that time by the small glimmer of hope that at least we would soon have a new leader who would hopefully fix this mess and punish those responsible.

Yet in the past 9 months, not only has the administration failed to fix anything, they have actually made things much worse for anyone who isn't a Wall Street banker. Therefore, we are past the point where anyone in power still gets the benefit of the doubt -- the process of taking back our country for all citizens must begin now.

This is why I think we must ask if U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is still the right person for the job. It has become clear recently that, back in his previous role as New York Federal Reserve Governor, he unnecessarily gave billions of dollars of US tax money to banks and insurance companies with few strings attached. And it is now becoming clear that his lack of meaningful action is helping many of these same banks steal more by legalizing their most economically dangerous, socially destructive and self-enriching practices.

Yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press, Secretary Geithner again endorsed House bank reform legislation that would allow, by my calculations, as much as 80%, or $475 trillion, of the bank's $600 trillion in crooked insurance schemes to still be held in secret. It was and is the secret risks held in this very market that led to our collapse in the first place, and that continue to pose massive future risk to the global economy.

Geithner also continued to employ the bankers' favorite and most ludicrous lie : that the taxpayer must somehow continue to pay executives at companies like AIG ungodly sums of money under the threat that, if we don't, somehow the taxpayer will never make their money back. Well let me tell you something, the taxpayer and our nation will never get back the lost wealth taken under these false circumstances and this colossal breach of fiduciary duty. The idea that we must somehow perpetuate this system with our tax money and the future wealth of our children goes against the very American ideal of failure, adaptation and innovation, not to mention of our democracy.

Also last week, the Treasury Secretary endorsed a piece of legislation that, instead of stopping a select few companies from profiting from the implicit taxpayer-guarantee of Too Big Too Fail, seeks to officially condone it. If the most prized skill in our society, economically, is the ability to lend and insure the most money without consequences, then our nation's people are doomed to lose everything in the world's largest ever betting parlor; and that is precisely the system this Treasury Secretary -- Tim Geithner -- is seeking to legalize and institutionalize in America today.

However, the smoking gun for Secretary Geithner comes from a recent Bloomberg FOIA disclosure regarding events from last November. It was then that New York Federal Reserve Governor Tim Geithner decided to deliver 100 cents on the dollar, in secret no less, to pay off the counter parties to the world's largest (and still un-investigated) insurance fraud -- AIG. This full payoff with taxpayer dollars was carried out by Geithner after AIG's bank customers, such as Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale, had already previously agreed to taking as little as 40 cents on the dollar. Even after the GM autoworkers, bondholders and vendors all received a government-enforced haircut on their contracts, he still had the audacity to claim the "sanctity of contracts" in the dealings with these companies like AIG.

None of us were in the rooms when these decisions were made, so I don't pretend to know if Mr. Geithner was the one lone, sane voice of reason fighting against mysterious forces or the primary proponent. However, I fail to see the reasoning for why we continue to rely on those who were in the room when these horrendous decisions took place to be the same people that we choose to deal with their aftermath. There are just certain situations that are not suited for continuity. The best analogy I can think of is that it would be like asking Al Cowlings to spearhead the Nicole Brown Simpson murder investigation under the premise that he knows the layout and the "players" best.

The fact is that there are people who understand all of the intricacies of finance and policy as well as Secretary Geithner, but whose allegiances to the taxpayer are much clearer. People like Elizabeth Warren, Neil Barofsky, Rob Johnson, and Senator Maria Cantwell just to name a few.

To stop the theft from continuing, the most basic rules of capitalism need to be applied to our banks. And the future of our national wealth needs to be safeguarded by the US Government. The current custodian of America's wealth, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is not doing a good job of either. The time for corrective action is now.

 

 

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (16)

In the spirit of piling on, here's Professor William Black on Tech Ticker this morning. In dealing with GM, AIG, CIT, etc., Black says even a socialist would have negotiated better deals for the taxpayer than Tim Geithner. Black also guffaws at Geithner's notion that capitalism is always one step away from armageddon. (Don't recognize the loss on that CDO or we all die!) Should we get rid of capitalism, then? No, we just need to get rid of the Bailout Socialists in the White House and at Treasury.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/364593/Geithner-%22Burned-Billions%22-Shafted-Taxpayers-on-CIT-Loan-Prof.-Bill-Black-Says?tickers=cit,aig,xlf,skf,gs,c,bac
Nov 2, 2009 at 1:33 PM | Unregistered CommenterJames H
Breaking Up the Big Banks, and Why Congress Won't Do It
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/breaking-up-the-big-banks_b_334814.html

By Robert Reich
Nov 2, 2009 at 2:15 PM | Registered CommenterDailyBail
An Object Lesson in Governmental Failure: Derivatives reform
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006000
Nov 2, 2009 at 2:16 PM | Registered CommenterDailyBail
Wall Street Has a Gambling Problem
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-maria-cantwell/wall-street-has-a-gamblin_b_340252.html


By Senator Maria Cantwell
Nov 2, 2009 at 2:18 PM | Registered CommenterDailyBail
Thank you Dylan for posting here. I agree with you completely. I'm glad MSNBC started posting your videos....I sure complained to them about it often enough when your show first started. I try to post them over at goldmansachs666.com whenever you talk about goldman and I've posted a few over at betrayedbyobama.blogspot whenever I can as well. Keep up the good work!
I just don't understand why, with all the voices calling for this nonsense to stop and return to sanity, that Congress doesn't act (or maybe I do and just don't want to admit the possibility that they think if it all comes out then the US goes into instant depression and rioting). The thing is, it's going to come to that anyway if things DON"T change. No jobs, unemployment rising, ALT-A and option ARMs about to hit, more foreclosures, a self-feeding cycle growing every month.

Somebody better listen.
Nov 2, 2009 at 7:51 PM | Unregistered CommenterRobertM
Dylan, do you really think there are enough good people in government for this to be salvageable? I don't. Your analysis is heart breakingly informative, but with all due respect you are way too kind to Geithner. You aren't in a position to come right out and say it so I will: Geithner is a criminal--a C R I M I N A L--plain and simple. He would be in jail for what he's done if he didn't have this particular job. It's absurd.

Great link, JamesH. They don't even need to hide anything anymore, do they?
Nov 2, 2009 at 10:44 PM | Unregistered CommenterSonic Ninja Kitty
Keep up the great work Dylan. Maybe the education is coming slowly to the US population at large, but the tide is definitely turning. I love your Al Cowlings Simpson murder investigation analogy. It is very fitting.

I agree with Sonic Ninja Kitty. Geithner should be dismissed from office and then immediately indicted for conspiracy to defraud American taxpayers. If not that, then they can ship him to Gitmo as an "enemy combatant".
Nov 3, 2009 at 2:25 AM | Unregistered Commenterspideydouble
If that photo of Geithner isn't photoshopped, it's perfect. His pose had me looking for the strings that Wall Street uses to manipulate its marionet.
Nov 3, 2009 at 11:29 AM | Unregistered CommenterCD
I think Geithner is actually describing the time when Obama taught him how to do the Chicago-style, bully your enemies, reward your friends thug hug.
Nov 4, 2009 at 1:54 AM | Unregistered Commentergobias
Geithner should be dismissed from office and then immediately indicted for conspiracy to defraud American taxpayers. If not that, then they can ship him to Gitmo as an "enemy combatant".
***********************

Where he can serve in a cell next to Paulson...
Nov 4, 2009 at 9:50 PM | Registered CommenterDailyBail
thank goodness for DYLAN !
Mar 31, 2011 at 7:58 PM | Unregistered Commenterlynnybee
There's more history between obama and the bankers including geithner then people realize it will never happen unless he wants to go. Obama's owned by the banks.

Barack’s Wall Street Problem is Now America’s

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/21/baracks-wall-street-problem-is-now-americas/

Barack’s Wall Street Problem is Now America’s

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/07/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-donat.html

Goldman Sachs was top Obama donor

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-20/politics/obama.goldman.donations_1_obama-campaign-presidential-campaign-federal-election-commission-figures?_s=PM:POLITICS
Mar 31, 2011 at 8:02 PM | Unregistered CommenterLiberatedCitizen
Geithner needs to be on a chain gang shackled between Bernacke and Greenspan...and a host of others.
Apr 1, 2011 at 4:55 PM | Unregistered Commenterrobertsgt40
At some point it will dawn upon Ratigan that the central purpose of Government is the looting of the governed.
Apr 1, 2011 at 4:59 PM | Unregistered CommenterBill Jones
Not only gambling also moneyholics, powerholics, they indulge in all of the holics everything is in excess. History is repeating itself, Caesar, Egypt, Poland, Germany and now the United States are being eaten alive by them. Read your history; who wrote the Scofield Bible? Hint: Starts with a R ends with child a smooth and transitional incorporation of Jewry into the Prostent beliefs for those with little minds of course. Check yourself...history is the play; this has been played over and over again. Stupid people never learn, never.
Apr 2, 2011 at 10:34 AM | Unregistered CommenterTeresa
if only he had strangled jim cramer before departing cnbc
http://www.deepcapture.com/category/1-the-players/
Apr 2, 2011 at 10:58 AM | Unregistered Commentermcurb

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.