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POPSThe Great American Bubble Machine
a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup " which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the asshole chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibilliondollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden parachute payments as his bank was selfdestructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director . . .
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POPSGoldman Sachs The Wizard of Oz and primed to spearhead an assault on the mortgage banks, bringing suits against any suspected of practicing unlawful discrimination, whether on the basis of race, gender or disability." Goldman Sachs played a major hand in these Clinton-era financial policies through Robert Rubin, former Co-Chairman of the firm, who actually announced them on December 8, 1993. Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone: During his (Robert Rubin's) tenure at Treasury, the Clinton White House made a series of moves that would have drastic consequences for the global economy - beginning with Rubin's complete and total failure to regulate his old firm during its first mad dash for obscene short-term profits. Taibbi adds that other Goldman graduates played a major hand when the market crashed, including another Goldman-ex turned Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson: Paulson elected to let Lehman Brothers -- one of Goldman's last real competitors -- collapse without intervention...
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POPSThe Dirty Dozen Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis - and the official
The Maestro HENRY PAULSON WAS CEO of Goldman Sachs (1999-2006); Treasury secretary (2006-2009) WHAT HE DID Pushed for end to debt restrictions for banks like Goldman, then arranged big bailout for Goldman. WORST MOVE TARP proposal just three pages long; made his decisions "non-reviewable." NOW SAYS "I don't think we've made mistakes on the major decisions." The Big Loser DICK FULD WAS CEO of Lehman Brothers (1993-2008) WHAT HE DID Piloted Lehman to largest bankruptcy in U.S. history; earned $22 million the year firm went bust. WORST MOVE Tried to avoid lawsuits by selling his $13 million Florida home to his wife for $100. NOW SAYS Feels "horrible" about Lehman, but insists his management was "prudent and appropriate." Mr. Too Big KEN LEWIS IS CEO of Bank of America (2001-present) WHAT HE DID Created ultimate too-big-to-fail company, buying up Fleet, MBNA, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. WORST MOVE Failed to catch a $15 billion loss at Merrill before buying the
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POPSWill Obama Stop The Goldman to Gov't Express? Specifically, Grassley is concerned about a tax code change that paved the way for the acquisition of Wachovia by Wells Fargo. An ex-Goldman executive was leading Wachovia at the time of that deal. Here's the answer he'll get from Treasury and Paulson: these are dangerous times and anything that was done was for the good of the country. In other words, they'll drag out the old national security argument. Grassley will become a minnow in the next Democrat-controlled Congress. But the Democrats need to take up the baton, turn it into a club and see just what Paulson has been up to. As I've written before, Paulson has admitted that part of his job was to keep in touch with "market participants." Calling his friends on Wall Street - and especially at Goldman - would be an odd extension of the role of Treasury secretary and I certainly would like to know what he felt compelled to tell these folks.
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POPSLarry Summers for Treasury Secretary Of course he's not the only one being mentioned to replace Hank Paulson if Obama wins on Tuesday. Other notables: FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Here's a comprehensive list from Politico on what an Obama administration might look like.
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POPSThe Hill: Soros Floats Bailout Plan with Dems Story, by The Hill's Alexander Bolton, picks up on George Soros' opinion piece in the Financial Times today http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d68e10cc-8f45-11dd-946c-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1 The Hill story speculates that Soros "could jumpstart congressional negotiations in a new direction, especially now that some strategists believe the Paulson-based plan that failed Monday will be difficult to revive." Here's more on George Soros: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_George-Soros_L9II.html
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POPS150 Top Economists Say "Hold Off" on Bailout The economists say: "not urgent right now" and "will create more problems", and "expressed alarm at the haste of lawmakers and the Bush administration to pass legislation". Alot different than what Bush stated Wed night in his "Financial WMD speech" isn't it? Read the advise of these experts who warn: ``The situation may get urgent, but it's not urgent right now. Right now it's a financial sector problem.'' Apparently this helped to slam on the brakes Thursday: Today Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, said he has ``five pages of the leading economists in America that wrote to me and the leadership saying the Paulson plan is a bad plan. It will not solve problems. It will create more problems.'' Not hearing that on the news are we? Ask yourself why the MSM does not quote these credible experts instead of parroting the propaganda of Bush's (Fed) speech that the entire economy will collapse without a deal now.
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POPSWall Street OWNS Obama Where do you think Obama got all that money?? He's been their boy right from the get-go. They recruited him in college through Tony Rezko, iniated him through Ayers and his wife, introduced him to rich and elite political and international power players, Trained him in Chicago, the toughest political turf in the country. All the time flooding his campaigns with their money. And consider this, despite Paulson's "who could see this coming", we ALL saw this financial desaster coming for YEARS!!! So WHY NOW??? Why now when this economic chaos practically hands the White House over to Obama. Its less than 60 days before the election. WHY NOW????
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POPSBu$h's Ba$e Bags Bailout Socialize the risk, privatize the profits. This is the new social capitalism we hear so much about. Funny, it used to be called crony capitalism.
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