Who Told Tim Geithner To Go F*CK Himself?
I've posted this story a few times, but it never gets old. The correct answer is Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack.
Upstairs, Mack was on the phone with Mitsubishi’s chief executive, Nobuo Kuroyanagi, and a translator trying to nail down the letter of intent. His assistant interrupted him, whispering, “Tim Geithner is on the phone—he has to talk to you.”
Cupping the receiver, Mack said, “Tell him I can’t speak now. I’ll call him back.”
Five minutes later, Paulson called. “I can’t. I’m on with the Japanese. I’ll call him when I’m off,” he told his assistant.
Two minutes later, Geithner was back on the line. “He says he has to talk to you and it’s important,” Mack’s assistant reported helplessly.
Mack was minutes away from reaching an agreement. He looked at Ji-Yeun Lee, who was standing in his office helping with the deal, and told her, “Cover your ears.”
“Tell him to get fucked,” Mack said of Geithner. “I’m trying to save my firm.”
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CNBC Video: John Mack tells the Geithner FU story...
DailyBail
Updated with news of John Mack's retirement from Morgan Stanley.
Reader Comments (13)
Dealbreaker original...
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2357
Mind you, I wouldn't hesitate two seconds to claw back every penny of pay going back to 2004, give or take.
Not a bombshell, but may shed further light on Friedman's role, especially, for people who haven't been watching like we have.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100116/ap_on_bi_ge/us_aig_probe_paulson
I have emailed every story i've written on th subject to Reps. Issa and Towns, plus to the Oversight Committee staff with an introduction requesting that they call Friedman and Paulson to testify on these issues....
And lo and behold, last night it happened...i've never felt better about the work of this site than i do this morning...we actually made an impact...and strangely, the news came yesterday, which was the 1 year anniversary of the launch of the daily bail...
Now, here's what I want to know from Friedman and Paulson....
1) Who was at the meeting where the decision was made to save AIG...was Lloyd Blankfein included? if you remember, for at least a week leading up to the announced bailout of AIG in the fall of 2008, Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner ALL SAID PUBLICLY that there would be NO BAILOUT for AIG...every day they were asked about it, and the response was always, NO SUPPORT for AIG...they are on their own...
Then suddenly, we wake up the next morning and the AIG bailout has been announced,,,FULL GOVERNMENT BACKSTOP...
So what happened to change their minds SO DRASTICALLY? I mean for a week it was emphatically NO BAILOUT -- aig and its counterparties are ON THEIR OWN, then suddenly it became YES BAILOUT literally overnight...and then we learned (though much later) that counterparties would get 100%...and then lastly we learned, that TREASURY ACTIVELY SOUGHT to COVER UP the fact that Payouts were made at PAR...
Now, through sources, we have heard that on the night of the decision to bailout AIG there was a meeting of minds...and that perhaps Blankfein was at this meeting...
BTW, my understanding was the Blankfein WAS absolutely at that meeting. It's been thrown around as fact in many conversations I've heard over the past 15 months, and I had assumed it was true. Otherwise, wouldn't Lucas Van Praag already be telling everyone that it's just a conspiracy theory? Maybe I've missed something somewhere.
Anyhow, I have to admit that I did my own version of an end zone dance when I saw Friedman's name right there on the Yahoo news page. Because that means that more and more people, at least in congress, will start to see how deep this sh** goes. Very gratifying to know that you had a role in making it happen.
Mazel tov, indeed.
as for Blankfein at the meeting to save AIG, i haven't taken the time to look into it this morning any further...been doing background reading for friedman paulson story i'm going to write...
but my memory tells me that there have been conflicting accounts...some say there was a 4 person meeting and blankfein was there...others have said not...i really don't remember it with enough certainty to say for sure that blankfein was involved...
but i will do the research and get it figured out before i write anything on the situation...
and i did the same end zone dance as you...my heart popped when i saw friedman's name included in the paulson article...
Even more color on the Friedman situation...let me paint a scene...
Friedman is CHAIRMAN of the NY FED at the SAME TIME as he was on the board of directors at GOLDMAN SACHS...
In December and January, with Goldman stock tanking he buys 52,600 SHARES...
HERE'S THE KEY: he purchased these shares WITH INSIDE INFORMATION that Goldman would be getting a $14 BILLION payout at PAR from AIG....
Think about it...NO ONE outside of this small circle KNEW that AIG counterparties would be getting 100 cents on the dollar...and FRIEDMAN TRADED on this information...and then the new york Fed ACTIVELY worked and pressured AIG to NOT DISCLOSE payouts at PAR to their shareholders...
A $14 billion boost to your bottom line (it was found money) that NO ONE else knows about besides you, would seem to me to be just SLIGHTLY POSITIVE for the stock...
The real question is WHY the SEC has not investigated Friedman for this illegal stock purchase...
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Here's the text from a CNN article spelling out the details:
The New York Fed's general counsel, Thomas Baxter Jr., defended Friedman's recent stock purchases, which occurred while the Federal Reserve was weighing the waiver request. Friedman bought 37,300 shares worth $3 million in December, according to the Journal. He didn't check with the Fed, and lawyers at the New York Fed told the Journal they were not aware of the purchases until the newspaper contacted them last month.
Friedman then bought another 15,300 shares in January, the day after the waiver was granted. The two blocks of stock have risen a total of $3 million (now $8 million) in value.
1. What happened to Friedman, if anything, other than he resigned from the NY Fed?
2. Mack talked about clawbacks at M/S--what clawbacks? Heard clawbacks the last couple of years???
3. Mack commenting on the conversion to bank holding is enlightening...would M/S and/or GSuchs have survived but for the conversion and access to the Fed discount window? I think not. Sh!t, Mack had to go to the Japs for $9bil, for Christ's sake...
4. Mack and his wife are thieves (and as a Dukie, that's tough to admit)--see Taibbi's RStone article on Mack's wife and the TALF program...
1...nothing so far...if you search the site i have updated the story on friedman with a bloomberg story on a congressional investigation underway...it's been a long time since that story however, and i've read nothing new...
2...not sure on his clawback reference...nothing has happened there at all...or we would have heard all about it i'm sure...
3...you are correct...discount window saved morgan stanley and goldman...they were absolutely done otherwise...
4...and don't worry, i will bring that story back to the top every 2 weeks for the rest of the year...it's absolutely outrageous...
"Sooner or later, this is going to blow up in our faces, and it won't be one lower-level guy with a $2 billion loss we'll be swallowing. It'll be the CEO of another rogue firm like Lehman Brothers, and it'll cost us trillions, not billions."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-2-billion-ubs-incident-rogue-trader-my-ass-20110915
I think he's off by an order of magnitude to the low side when it comes to losses we'll see, but you get his point: this doesn't end well. Get ready.
What a joke of a country we live in...maybe the Amish have it right???
Happy retirement in NC and the upper east side JMack...you and your thief wife can suck it!