The Banking Oligarchy Attacks Elizabeth Warren And STSS

The attacks on TARP Oversight Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren have begun. We have been waiting for the backlash since she started making noise in January.  Executives at Citigroup and Bank of America dispatched their agent of misinformation Wayne Abernathy.  First he went to Politico and, today, it was Thomas Cooley at Forbes who picked up the knife. The rapid appearance of three negative articles (Megan McArdle chimed in uselessly as well) regarding Warren is a sign that she has begun to frighten the powerful banking oligarchy and their K Street machine.

Most surprising about the attacks is their weakness.  The criticisms amount to claims she has swayed beyond her charter (wrong), that she's a liberal (meaning what exactly?), and that her solution to the banking crisis is ideologically biased.

Those are fighting words so let's do this thing.

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The Angel & The Anti-Christ (Warren Vs. Geithner Video)

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testified Tuesday before the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) headed by Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren. Questions focused on AIG, accountability of bank executives, bailout transparency, and future bank bailouts.

Youtube clips are after the jump.

See also:

Geithner's Prepared Letter

Warren Slams Geithner Again

Elizabeth Warren Suggests The Bailout Road Less Traveled

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TARP Prosecutor Neil Barofsky Gets His Day In The Sun (Video)

Treasury Special Inspector General for the TARP, Neil Barofsky, made public his long-awaited report Tuesday morning.  It's a dense 250 page document that wiped out my entire Tuesday.  Among the more interesting assertions: the Geithner PPIP could facilitate money laundering by organized criminal enterprises; Barofsky and staff are pursuing 20 criminal investigations into various forms of bailout fraud; and a report addendum from Treasury agency lawyers argues that firms participating in the Geithner bank bailout program (PPIP) would likely be subject to compensation restrictions.

Links and video after the jump.

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Fed Prez Hoenig Breaks From Bernanke: "Let Insolvent Banks Fail"

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Roubini: "Suckers Rally --The Market Will Retest The March Lows"

Roubini is occasionally hilarious. "Green shoots? I see only yellow weeds."

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David Faber & Art Cashin On Regional Banks, TARP And Stress Tests

Two short clips after the jump.

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The Political & Financial Cartoons Of Steve Breen: Winner 2009 Pulitzer Prize (Slideshow)

Yesterday Steven Breen of the San Diego Union Tribune won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for 'Editorial Cartooning.'  And our angry intern built a slide show in his honor.  Click here to start the show.

See also:

Financial Cartoon Collection

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Budget Hypocrisy: How Can You Tell When Robert Gibbs Is Lying?

His lips are moving. 

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is a condescending troll.  I leave the room when he breaks into his soft voice.  Jennifer Loven from the Associated Press and ABC's Jake Tapper question Gibbs why the Obama administration was grandstanding about saving $100 million in his proposed budget when Gibbs downplayed the significance of $8 billion in earmarks less than a month ago.

This is some beautiful stuff.  Can't really explain the joy I get from watching Gibbs get slapped around.

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Bailout Justice: Will Ken Lewis Survive As CEO Of Bank Of America (CNBC Video)

Robert Reich tees off on Lewis and oligarchic, chrony capitalism.  Bravo.

4 clips are below the fold, 3 where Lewis gets reamed by various partygoers and 1 clip with Maria from Monday where he attempts to ream you..

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Bailout Comedy: Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All US Dollars (Brilliant Video From The Onion)

Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All US Dollars.

A quick dose of genius financial satire from the Onion (1:44).

"The die poisoning causes your internal organs to rot from within until you puke up your guts and die. I said no questions. There really is no time to think about this. Just listen to me and send in your money."

See also:

Is It Time to Close the National Money Hole (Onion Video)

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A Night With The Bears: Ian Gordon, Meredith Whitney And Nouriel Roubini With Eric Sprott (Video)

A Night With The Bears at Toronto's Elgin Theatre.  Hosted by Sprott Asset Management, the event put four of the world's most pessimistic market watchers — Eric Sprott, Meredith Whitney of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, Dr. Nouriel Roubini of New York University and Ian Gordon, author of The Long Wave Analyst newsletters — in the same room to share their views on the economy and the markets.

Clips are below the fold.

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Protesters At Chicago Tea Party Confront CNN Reporter (Must See Video)

Updated on Apr 20, 2009 at 2:22 PM by DailyBail

The link has been FIXED.

Hat tip to James for posting this clip in comments.  I'll have more on this video in the morning, but for now just watch it. It's a series of off-camera confrontations a CNN reporter was having with the crowd at the Chicago Tea Party.

Apparently, the crowd grew angry with the reporter because she was selecting wacko protestors to interview in order to make the entire rally look pitiful. 

It gets very interesting at the 1:45 mark.

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Bailout Comedy The Daily Show: Jon Stewart Wonders About The Goldman Sachs Connection To Washington

In the latest edition of 'Clusterf**k to the Poorhouse', Jon starts to put the pieces together: Henry Paulson, Ed Liddy (CEO of AIG) and Robert Rubin (former CEO of Goldman).  The only salient rub he didn't mention was the inappropriate inclusion of Lloyd Blankfein at the Paulson meeting last Fall where AIG's fate was decided.

Also, and not coincidentally, his writers stole my puppy gag about how to make the financial crisis seem more palatable. I know people from the Daily Show read my stuff because I see their IP addresses in my logs.  Feel free to use what you want, just have me on the show, damnit.

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Stiglitz Slams Geithner, Summers, Obama and Goldman Sachs

Considering what we do here, is there really a need to explain the anger people feel about using borrowed money to bail out failed, private banks for their extreme leverage and risk, while their executives and employees made hundreds of billions in bonuses over the last decade.

Count me in the group that is extremely disappointed with President Obama for his continuation of the Bush-Paulson bailout doctrine. Continued capital injections while we whistle by the graveyard is just another way of saying 'Hello, Tokyo!" The Geithner PPIP is a taxpayer-leveraged give-away to the least deserving cretins since Enron was still breathing.

The time has long since passed for half-assed measures. The adult discussions need to begin. Bank shareholders and taxpayers have been hurt. Bank bondholders are still whole. Bill Gross is kicking our ass. Wall Street owns Washington.  George Carlin said it in his unique way.  Dylan Ratigan might have been fired over it.  Simon Johnson won't stop writing about it.  Glenn Greenwald proved it with links, and Matt Taibbi had a few thoughts as well.  But Geithner, Summers and Obama won't even acknowledge it.

Not to be outdone, Nobel laureate Dr. Joseph Stiglitz chimed in Friday with another round of truth for the disconnected troika.

The videos after the jump are as must see as it gets. Stiglitz nails it.

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