Lehman's False Accounting Was Known By SEC and NY Fed Regulators -- Yet They Did Nothing
(L to R) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies while SEC Chairman Christopher Cox Under Secretary of Treasury for Finance, Robert Steele and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner listen during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill April 3, 2008 in Washington DC. Bernanke defended the Feds moves to prevent the failure of Bear Stearns investment bank, saying that its failure could have dealt the U.S. and world economy serious damage.
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At most times there were at least a dozen regulators from the SEC and New York Federal Reserve stationed within Lehman Brothers, with unfettered access to Lehman's financials including the Repo 105 transactons. And they were tipped by a whistleblower. Yet they said nothing.
Hello, Mr. Geithner. Yes, I'm here to deliver another nail for your coffin.
Lehman Brothers executives weren’t the only ones in the building when they were moving billions of dollars in liabilities off their books at the end of each quarter with magic accounting. So were the Feds, The New York Times’s Andrew Ross Sorkin writes in his latest DealBook column.
Regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Fed sent emergency teams to monitor most of the big banks after the collapse of Bear Stearns. They had constant access to Lehman’s books, and not just the dolled up quarterly reporting. So where was the government while all this “materially misleading” accounting was going on?
It now appears that the federal government itself either didn’t appreciate the significance of what it saw (we’ve seen that movie before with regulators waving off tips about Bernard L. Madoff). Or perhaps they did appreciate the significance and blessed the now-suspect accounting anyway, Mr. Sorkin writes.
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Read the column from Andrew Sorkin >>
Mar 16, 2010 at 3:43 PM
Reader Comments (66)
Sorkin: The Feds Were All Over Lehman When The Repo 105 Deals Were Running
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/at-lehman-watchdogs-saw-it-all/
the upsetting thing about this story is the revelation that the regulators were aware it was going on and yet they did nothing...i assumed they were un-aware of it which is a problem on its own...but to be aware, and not raise any warning flags is unforgivable...and shows an insane level of incompetence...
"Dear Despicable U.S. Government Assholes,
“Your response is required by law”. The fucking nerve you have.
Would that be the same “law” that the U.S. Federal government relies on in order to socialize corporate losses by foisting them upon the American taxpayers? Or maybe you meant the “law” which authorizes our government to meddle with and re-write private business contracts between individual parties? Or perhaps you meant the “law” that effectively legalizes torture? Or the “law” that allows the U.S. government to lie about the reasons for its going to war? Or the “law” that permits government wiretapping of private citizen communications for no justifiable reason? Or the “law” that helps artificially support over-priced houses nationwide so that your buddies at Goldman Sachs don’t have to eat the losses generated by their own unbridled greed and fraud? Or are you referring to the “law” you rely upon to kidnap potentially innocent people off the streets, only to have them disappear into your worldwide system of clandestine jails and torture centers? Or maybe you meant the “law” that allows your soldiers to rape and murder little Iraqi girls, plant weapons next to their poor dead bodies and then claim they were ‘terrorists’ so as to get away with it scot-free? Or the “law” that stupidly grants corporations the same rights as an individual?
FUCK YOU!
The “law” in this case; namely Article I, section 2 of the Constitution, calls for an enumeration of citizens every ten years, for the SOLE purpose of apportioning congressional seats among the various states. In other words, the census was never meant to be anything more than a headcount. It was never intended to serve as a vehicle for gathering personal information on citizens.
You and your dear President Buckwheat can go eat shit …and die!!!
Signed,
A fed-up American"
Writing complaints here on the DB is not HALF as effective as openly showing our government authorities how incredibly unpopular they've become. Let's ALL slap them with massive amounts of non-violent, non-cooperation expressed in the form of some very nasty letters in ANY exchange or communication with them! It sure beats flying an airplane into an IRS building. And its probably more effective too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TTC6FJphWA&feature=ytn%3Amptnews
What do you expect. If the inmates take over the prison, they're not exactly going to enforce the rules.
USA ..civil unrest in Nov 2010/2011 time line will prevail next
Titanic heading for wreckage and bamboozled fucked bubble illusion brains............lol
scream on, bash on..................
Harsh reality facts unravel teh future.....crystal clear
lol
Will Weak Wall Street Reforms Wreck the Economy Again?
Fraud was a huge part of the financial crisis-- so why isn't the government going after the fraudsters?
Will Weak Wall Street Reforms Wreck the Economy Again?
Fraud was a huge part of the financial crisis-- so why isn't the government going after the fraudsters?
http://www.alternet.org/economy/146054/will_weak_wall_street_reforms_wreck_the_economy_again
Roaring Salute
Right back at ya!
Thanks :-)
By Simon Johnson
Last week, Senator Ted Kaufman (D., DE) gave a devastating speech in the Senate on “too big to fail” and all it entails. A long public silence from our political class was broken – and to great effect. Today’s Dodd reform proposals stand in pale comparison to the principles outlined by Senator Kaufman. And yes, DE stands for Delaware – corporate America has finally decided that its largest financial offspring are way out of line and must be reined in.
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/03/15/senator-kaufman-fraud-still-at-the-heart-of-wall-street/
We're only just discovering how widespread the rip-off schemes riddling our economy are.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/146027/how_our_entire_economy_became_a_ponzi_scheme
We will have to resist the temptation to fold in on ourselves and to ignore the cruelty outside our door.
http://www.alternet.org/media/146005/we_stand_on_the_cusp_of_one_of_humanity%27s_most_dangerous_moments
Gullible Cowards Prepare for Civil Unrest next............
Bash on, rant on the web
lol
Im telling you lead us to victory or death we will meet at gompers crib.
The Fed. has given certain companies such as GS 1.7 Trillion dollars to buy this market. The way they did this is they bought the companies Garbage securities and bonds, most of them mortgage securities on the promise that they would BUY the market to drive the indices UP, by large discreet invisible block purchases. This has been done before in 2003 through 2007 they would leak rumors to well known loyal traders on the floor that DEEP pockets are buying this market knowing they would spread the WORD,further encouraging buying demand for STOCKS from bandwagon jumpers.using cash market and the future market . Once this money runs out watch out below, and these companies will be SHORT the Market
FRONT RUN THE BANKER TERRORISTS ASAP NEXT:
CASH YOUR PENSIONS, STOP CONTRIBUTIONS, AND BUY LEAP PUTS ON THE WALL STREET CRIMINAL TERRORISTS CASINO...............................
USA Pensions stacked with worth less zero cost stock options ass wipe paper from Corporate crooks
AMEN
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=av.qKiyQh6gA
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.
The Fed had argued that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. A three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision.
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, “sets forth no basis for the exemption the Board asks us to read into it,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote in the opinion. “If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest, it should ask Congress to amend the statute.”
The opinion may not be the final word in the bid for the documents, which was launched by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, with a November 2008 lawsuit. The Fed may seek a rehearing or appeal to the full appeals court and eventually petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
Right to Know
If today’s ruling is upheld or not appealed by the Fed, it will have to disclose the requested records. That may lead to “catastrophic” results, including demands for the instant disclosure of banks seeking help from the Fed, resulting in a “death sentence” for such financial institutions, said Chris Kotowski, a bank analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
“Whenever the Fed extends funds to a bank, it should be disclosed in private to the Congressional oversight committees, but to release it to the public I think would be a horrific mistake,” Kotowski said in an interview. “It would stigmatize the banks, it would lead to all kinds of second-guessing of the Fed, and I don’t see what public purpose is served by it.”
Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, said the decision was a “major victory” for U.S. taxpayers.
“This money does not belong to the Federal Reserve,” Sanders said in a statement. “It belongs to the American people, and the American people have a right to know where more than $2 trillion of their money has gone.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/03/german-central-bank-admits-that-credit.html
It’s not just Bernanke … the central banks and their owners – the private commercial banks – have been running the printing presses for hundreds of years.
Of course, as I pointed out Tuesday, Bernanke is pushing to eliminate all reserve requirements in the U.S. If Bernanke has his way, American banks won’t even have to borrow from the Fed or other banks after the fact to have reserves. Instead, they can just enter into as many loans as they want and create endless money out of thin air (within Basel I and Basel II’s capital requirements – but since governments are backstopping their giant banks by overtly and covertly throwing bailout money, guarantees and various insider opportunities at them, capital requirements are somewhat meaningless).
The system is no longer based on assets (and remember that the giant banks have repeatedly become insolvent) It is based on creating new debts, and then backfilling from there.
It is – in fact – a monopoly system. Specifically, only private banks and their wholly-owned central banks can run printing presses. Governments and people do not have access to the printing presses (with some limited exceptions, like North Dakota), and thus have to pay the monopolists to run them (in the form of interest on the loans).
The attached link contains FACTS about what the zionists did in Israel.
What Israel doesnt want you to know
It seems that the zionists are in control in the US and have been systematically stealing the wealth of the nation, userping its governmental power and now turning the US into aa larger version of Israel.
Question: Why are zionist dual Israel/US citizens (such as Rahm Immanuel and Lloyd Blankfein) in the positions of the greatest power in the US?
Question: Why did the US attack Afhganistan?
Answer: For pipeline that Unocal could not finance with the Taliban in control. The 3 US forts are next to the pipeline. Hamid Karzai was a Unocal consultant living in the US before becoming the Afghani president.
Question: Why did the US attack Iraq twice including the faking of the Iraqi attack on Kuwait (proof in Russian satallite photos)?
Answers:
1) Sadaam Hussein supposedly threatened to sell oil in currencies other than US dollars
2) For the benefit of genocidal Israeli zionist which apparently want the entire Middle East cleansed and subjugated for their use. And to destroy the Sumerian artifacts that explain clearly and in much greater detaail the old testiment and the nature of the "gods" on this planet. The Sumerian artifacts completely invalidate the current Judeo-Christian-Muslim organized religeous old testiment interpretation. CAN'T HAVE THAT, NOW CAN WE?
Just some things to think about as our freedoms are systematically taken away by the zionists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydADBfviZOo
these israelis are the most brutal nation on the earth, they have insulted every prophet , Every religion including thier own which they never accepted , did conspiracy Against Jesus , and were thrown out of everywhere because of thier conspiracies . Whoever had pity and mercy on them was bitten by them, They are Parasites , Just see how that ruthlesss Sharone was. killing thousands of innocent childern, and they pose innocent , they talk of human rights and all of that which they have never had
I don't believe in any Religion bull shit , we are all Children of One mighty Creator...........
Bankers Al Qaeda & Israel = all wars since WW-I
Bernanke Says Large Bank Bailouts ‘Unconscionable,’ Must End
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBzldmyPmc9o&pos=3
Exactly.
"Hey, I got yours, you cover mine. We're all in this together. And the best part, they're all too stupid to know what's going on. There is no limit to what we can take from them. None."
If we let them skate on this...if we let them pass this healthcare bill, we will live with it for the rest of our fucking lives...The rest of our fucking lives!
How would like to take this one to your grave?
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/810.html
Ben Franklin on the JEW
"I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. That menace, gentlemen, is the Jews. In whatever country Jews have settled in any great number, they have lowered its moral tone; depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themselves and have not been assimilated; have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which that nation was founded by objecting to its restrictions; have built up a state within a state; and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially, as in the case of Spain and Portugal. For over 1700 hundred years, the Jews have been bewailing their sad fate in that they have been exiled from their homeland, as they call Palestine. But, gentlemen, did the world give it to them in fee simple, they would at once find some reason for not returning. Why? Because they are vampires, and vampires do not live on vampires. They cannot live only amongst themselves. They must subsist on Christians and other people not of their race. If you do not exclude them from these United States in the Constitution, in less than 200 years they will have swarmed here in such great numbers that they will dominate and devour the land, and change our form of government, for which we Americans have shed our blood, given our lives, our substance, and jeopardized our liberty. If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude the Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves. Jews, gentlemen, are Asiatics, let them be born where they will or how many generations they are away from Asia, they will never be otherwise. Their ideas do not conform to an American's, and will not even though they live among us ten generations. A leopard cannot change its spots. Jews are Asiatics, are a menace to this country if permitted entrance, and should be excluded by this Constitutional Convention."
He was right.
Actually, Jews have had an enormous influence on european culture from the moment they infiltrated greco-roman world.
That culture being the religious and moral double standards.
Christianity is based on judaism and venerates a guy who called non jews 'dogs' and proclamed himself God. In that sense even he believed in Jewish supremacy.
Jewish literature and thought is replete with examples of the belief that they are the master race, the chosen ones.
When we read old testament, we can see that the Jews committed the first genocide in history 5000 years ago, to settle in Judah. They blamed God for their genocide, citing he commanded them to do it.
Then they developed a religion out of this fact and subsequently pushed this thought onto the western civilization through christianity.
So Ben Franklin was right in principle, but wrong on christians being different.
After all, christians do venerate a dead Jew even though he said he was only sent to the Jews, and thus probably prove him right for what he called them ( dogs ).
No wonder than that a madman lunatic such as Hitler, kind of took the Jewish idea of master race and adopted it. I guess he just did not like the idea of being an under-dog.
Fascism is now dead, thank God, but unfortunately Zionism is alive and well for 5000 years now.
Fascism would never have come about had it not been for an existing template of thought.
Islam is also an abrahamic religion and promotes holy war, same thing.
So I can forgive Jews for financial malversations.
I can symphatise with their suffering, many innocent people have perished in WW2.
I want them to have their own country, I even want them to be respected and loved, if only they could deserve precisely that.
But keeping the master race thought alive and well together with genocide that follows - that I do not forgive, and neither will God.
And not God that Jews and others created. But simply God.
I am a white european, I have read the bible and I wish I had not.
Because it shows the sickness of the human mind that is simply unpardonable.
When did they let you into Aryan Nations?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Franklin_Prophecy
Just posted Views from various debating heat going on in USA Web Rants
LOL
BYE BYE TITANIC RIDE................
Boating to safety before the TITANIC WRECK......................
LOL
AMEN
BAMBOOZLED BRAINS>>>>>>>>>>>BASH ON>>>>>>>>>RANT ON>>>>>>>>>COWARDS WITH NO BALLS
Visit Pushhamburger dot com
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March 22, 2010
America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship
Stewart Dougherty
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5789/pub_detail.asp
The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.
The enslavement of the American people has been orchestrated by a pernicious Master Class that has taken the United States by the throat. This Master Class is now choking the nation to death as it accelerates its master plan to plunder the people’s dwindling remaining assets. The Master Class comprises politicians, the Wall Street money elite, the Federal Reserve, high-end government (including military) officials, government lobbyists and their paymasters, military suppliers and media oligarchs. The interests and mindset of the Master Class are so totally divorced from those of the average American citizen that it is utterly tone deaf and blind to the justifiable rage sweeping the nation. Its guiding ethics of greed, plunder, power, control and violence are so alien to mainstream American culture and thought that the Master Class might as well be an enemy invader from Mars. But the Master Class here, it is real and it is laying waste to America. To the members of the Master Class, the people are not fellow-citizens; they are instruments of labor, servitude and profit. At first, the Master Class viewed the citizens as serfs; now that they have raped and destroyed the national economy, while in the process amassing unprecedented wealth and power for themselves, they see the people as nothing more than slaves.
America’s public finances are now so completely dysfunctional and chaotic that something far worse than debt enslavement and monetary implosion, terrible curses unto themselves, looms on the horizon: namely, a Master Class-sponsored American dictatorship.
Throughout history, the type of situation in which America now finds itself has been a fertility factory for tyranny. The odds of an outright overthrow of the people by the Washington and Wall Street Axis, or more broadly, the Master Class are increasing dramatically. The fact that so few people believe an American dictatorship is possible is exactly why it is becoming likely.
Bro, anyone even REMOTELY familiar with the legacy & philosophy of Ben Franklin would recognize that the letter you attribute to him is simply a forgery. ALWAYS RESEARCH YOUR SOURCES before posting !!!!!! DD = Due Diligence.
Allow me to repeat that;
A-L-W-A-Y-S
R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H
Y-O-U-R
S-O-U-R-C-E-S
OK Boss
civil unrest time line SEP 2010- 2011
Ponzi Nation: How Get-Rich-Quick Crime Came to Define an Era
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-kroll/ponzi-nation-how-get-rich_b_498395.html
Get a clue!
THESE FACTS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SCREAM ON BAMBOOZLED COWARDS IN USA REPUBLIC
AMEN
The American Dream is Over, It Was A Wonderful Life
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/03/18/it-was-a-wonderful-life/
Agreed.
Although I would add that the disfunction & chaos are NOT limited to just the American FINANCIAL sector. Every single one of the three major branches that comprise the U.S. government seem to have gone off the deep end, completely Loony Tunes, Fucked-Up-Beyond-Any-Repair-style *BONKERS*.
Hence, we get a Supreme Court (I symbolically crap on their collective faces) that thinks it's WISE to allow CORPORATIONS the same rights as INDIVIDUALS. Good luck with THAT and with having a 'government of the people, for the people, etc" AT THE SAME TIME!. That ruling ALONE made by these judicial ass-smears will do more damage to our democracy than 5000 Osama Bin Laden's could ever even DREAM of obtaining.
The stupidity of the U.S. Supreme Court also shines thru when 'Justices' like that dipshit SCALIA open their mouths and prove they have no fucking clue how to distinguish between their OWN religious beliefs and their understanding of the U.S. Constitution. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-r-stone/justice-scalias-cross_b_314752.html)
The executive branch -led by President Obankster- is OPENLY a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. End of story. He's OBVIOUSLY a meat-puppet (as Ken so APTLY puts it) who's manipulated thru an invisible hand shoved up his anal opening. He's just blah, blah, blah.
The legislative branch is a freaking BEEHIVE of clusterfuckish activity aimed principally towards fattening the personal bank accounts of those who work there. And those of their friends & relatives, of course. There no longer exists any ideological divide between both major parties, as both have merged themselves into a single greaseball party of lobbyist-cock sucking whores.
So there you have it; complete and utter CHAOS and DISFUNCTION practiced with INTENT & PURPOSE. The U.S. government is like someone who shoots themselves in the foot, likes it, and decides to reload in order to shoot itself again over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over & over again.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/tea-party-protests-nier-f_n_507116.html