Former S&L Regulator Tells Moyers: 'Absolutely' A Banking Bailout Coverup
This Bill Moyers interview is going viral so fast, I can't even keep up with it. And for a very good reason - former S&L regulator Bill Black explains exactly why the current banking bailout is a mistake. There's so much information, you simply have to read or watch the entire thing:
BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover-up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.
BILL MOYERS: You are.
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They're scared to death of a collapse. They're afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we'll run screaming to the exits. And we won't rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it's foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, "We just can't let the big banks fail." That's wrong.
BILL MOYERS: But what might happen, at this point, if in fact they keep from us the true health of the banks?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, then the banks will, as they did in Japan, either stay enormously weak, or Treasury will be forced to increasingly absurd giveaways of taxpayer money. We've seen how horrific AIG -- and remember, they kept secrets from everyone.
BILL MOYERS: A.I.G. did?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we're doing with -- no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson's firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn't want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.
Where Congress said, "We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money." And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.
BILL MOYERS: Even though Goldman Sachs had a big vested stake.
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive stake. And even though he had just been CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary. Now, in most stages in American history, that would be a scandal of such proportions that he wouldn't be allowed in civilized society.
BILL MOYERS: Yeah, like a conflict of interest, it seems.
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive conflict of interests.
BILL MOYERS: So, how did he get away with it?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: I don't know whether we've lost our capability of outrage. Or whether the cover up has been so successful that people just don't have the facts to react to it.
BILL MOYERS: Who's going to get the facts?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: We need some chairmen or chairwomen--
BILL MOYERS: In Congress.
WILLIAM K. BLACK: --in Congress, to hold the necessary hearings. And we can blast this out. But if you leave the failed CEOs in place, it isn't just that they're terrible business people, though they are. It isn't just that they lack integrity, though they do. Because they were engaged in these frauds. But they're not going to disclose the truth about the assets.
BILL MOYERS: And we have to know that, in order to know what?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: To know everything. To know who committed the frauds. Whose bonuses we should recover. How much the assets are worth. How much they should be sold for. Is the bank insolvent, such that we should resolve it in this way? It's the predicate, right? You need to know the facts to make intelligent decisions. And they're deliberately leaving in place the people that caused the problem, because they don't want the facts. And this is not new. The Reagan Administration's central priority, at all times, during the Savings and Loan crisis, was covering up the losses.
BILL MOYERS: So, you're saying that people in power, political power, and financial power, act in concert when their own behinds are in the wringer, right?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's right. And it's particularly a crisis that brings this out, because then the class of the banker says, "You've got to keep the information away from the public or everything will collapse. If they understand how bad it is, they'll run for the exits."
scared the crap out of me.
That said, I'm glad this is going viral. Maybe, just maybe, Americans will now wake from their slumber.
Interview here.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/wa...
Five stars!
" So, you're saying that people in power, political power, and financial power, act in concert when their own behinds are in the wringer, right?"
No shit, duh.
"He wrote this book here and the book says ; He made us all to be just like him So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side".
Frank Zappa
I really like Moyers and his interviews are great, but wasn't he at one time the press spokesman for Lyndon Johnson? He's got to know about all the inside machinations of government and finance.
so he's asking questions to get information out for the viewers, not necessarily for himself.
This is the man that James Galbraith thinks should be our Secretary of the Treasury.
Good stuff...
...never be put in that position.
From a DailyKos diary, explaining why this is bullshit:
n/t
edit: good on ya!
And it certainly does NOT debunk what Black says. Point for point, or in generality.
it debunks Black's whole claim that Obama is acting illegally WRT the banks, finance companies & conglomerations. he just sat there and told bald-faced lies. sorry if you wanted to believe them. he can criticize all he wants, but he can't make shit up and call it 'the facts'.
Seems to me that only certain people have a vested interest in seeing Black labelled as a liar. And, Obama supporters, I was talking about you. Black isn't lying. Obama is just as dishonorable as any other frakking politician. Take off your rose-colored glasses.
I think the DK poster is only questioning the part about the law that may or may not enable appropriate action to be taken with the insolvent banks.
The major point of Mr. Black's interview was that we've been had by the banks, insurance, and other financial companies along with elements of our government who have all conspired to commit theft!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Yep and people are going to make excuses for Obama.
The point on the PCA law doesn't negate everything Black is saying or make it all bullshit.
there are over 200,000 members at Daily Kos. these are individual people with their own points of view, and there are frequently way over the top critical diaries there saying all kinds of outlandish shit. you obviously don't know what you're talking about, as the diarist in question here has criticized Obama consistently when he hasn't liked his policies, and praised him when he does.
he was responding to a diary which accused Obama of breaking the law, which was based on the claims Black made in this interview. claims which were flat out false, and made up by Black himself. he claimed Obama was committing impeachable law-breaking offenses. and he was 100% wrong.
y'all have to read more carefully, you'll embarrass yourselves less often.
was when he said "you can rely on deposit insurance." The FDIC and FSLIC do NOT have sufficient reserves on hand to handle massive bank and/or S&L failures. If you watch his face, you can tell he's dissembling at that point.
“The appropriate Federal banking agency shall, not later than 90 days after an insured depository institution becomes critically undercapitalized—(i) appoint a receiver (or, with the concurrence of the Corporation, a conservator) for the institution;...”
I would interpret that to mean, if FDIC has insured any deposits in the institution, then the government could proceed to place the institution in receivership.
However, if that is the law, I wonder why no one has gone into Federal Court to get an injunction to have it enforced.
(I think slowly) - The interview did say that the current management was being retained so that the true state of capitalization wouldn't be known. Perhaps, that is being done in part to prevent a trigger of the PCA law. I heard a report elsewhere saying the same thing, that "Regulatory Forbearance" was being used regarding these bank, a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding solvency.
All in all, I found the interview with Black quite credible.
Fuckin' idiots???!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
After reading a piece about KOS at ABC nightly news, Markos was ready to join the CIA, the same illustrious group that created John Perkins of " Diary Of An Economic Hit Man". He explains in his book that if a foreign government doesn't do what the powers to be in the US want, they basically get rid of you by either causing your government to be overthrown and if that doesn't work, they assassinate you as they did to Trujhio of Panama.
Black was on the front line and we should all take what he says very seriously.
just, sad.
it makes one look a little closer at the REST of the "conspiracies" that "just couldn't be."
They are real, thats the problem, the "ARE" and not "just couldn't be" Obama and Geithner and caught and so is the rest of them supporting this garbage.
....every administration that I can remember has hired foxes to watch the hen house. Why does this shit surprise anyone?
"He wrote this book here and the book says ; He made us all to be just like him So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side".
Frank Zappa
Congress will do nothing because these bailed out institutions donate the most for their reelections.
Another argument for campaign finance reform. It's not good to have politicians owing more to these big businesses than to the voters.
I watched it on TV last evening and posted about it on two threads here on C&L. I've also emailed it to a number of my family members and friends who have been calling me nuts for two years - ever since I started telling them the economy was gonna' crash. The G20 thing going on now, is just another cog in the financial machine running over the 'people' all over the globe. They won't stop taking our money and our lives until we make them.
When a person of this caliber and integrity speaks the truth in such a public and up-front way, it should certainly cause any 'honest' folks in our government to take some definitive action - like getting rid of Geithner and getting the FDIC to work on these banks.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman were great, as usual. Mr. Black was a new face, a very compelling speaker, with much info that was new to me. I'm concerned about the DKos diary linked to by ronin122 - can anyone here comment on whether Bank Holding Companies are in fact exempt from the mandated takeover regulations that Mr. Black was talking about? Thanks.
Someone beat me to it. Is it really so hard to believe they conspire? Really?
'The devil crept into Heaven, God overslept on the 7th, the New World Order was born on Sept 11th.' - Immortal Technique
Thats what I am saying, Conspiracies happen, theorising is necessary to figure them out. If you are against this then you are anti intellectual.
I wouldn't mind seeing him as Treasurer too.
He seemed so jovial, laughing and grinning even while he was telling us how crooked the system is. Black would be like Steve Martin when he argued that presidents should know how to play the banjo, because bad news doesn't seem so bad when it's accompanied by a banjo.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
What's worse than the banksters' cronyism is the completely unhinged vulture capitalism they've set loose upon the financial world. The USA and UK are refusing to cooperate with the rest of the G20 and outlaw the fraudulent practice of naked shorts. These hedge fund gangsters drive companies into bankruptcy, forcing down their stock prices by short-selling stock they don't even own. Once they've gutted their target they collect once again on the parasitical Default Credit Swaps they've taken out on the same company they just ruined. It is nothing short of grand theft robbery, too bad we don't have a President with the guts to name a Special Prosecutor to indict and convict these bastards.
Jim Cramer declared "The Depression Is Over!"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/04/jim-...
Of course, that means we're really boned now.
First, there was only very belated acknowledgment that we were even in a recession, much less a depression. Now the depression, until now never acknowledged as happening, is over? How can the depression be over when the deleveraging at the heart of any depression is far from over? Have all debts suddenly been wiped out or just those of the zombie banks through suspension of mark to market accounting?
Tom Ferguson in a series of interviews said what was going on with the banks is called "Regulatory Forbearance", a don't ask, don't tell policy regarding the banks solvency.
how fucking STUPID the bailout is.
Apart from the fraud and the cover-up, the problem is that the bailout won't work to rejuvenate the economy. That's not just me saying so. It's Baker, Black, Krugman, and Stiglitz, for example.
Obama, I assume, wants a second term.
He sure as hell isn't going to get one the way he's handling the economy.
Which I just don't understand.
Something's going on.
You are finding out what we in the Ron Paul/Kucinich 3rd party movement have been saying, they are BOTH CORRUPT! do go for Bob Barr though, he is a trick. Just vote third party, even Ralph Nader or Mckinney if you do not like Paul, there is kucinich too. Just do not go for a Dem or Repub unless they are fighting the banks in EVERY WAY FOR REAL.
Really?
have gone into full-on bullshit conspiracy theory mode.
Barack Obama hasn't solved every little problem and met all of these sad folks' needs just as they want in the 70-some days he's been president, so they're ready to throw him out, get all worked up about somebody else, and then get disappointed in them too when they have to live in the real world and make adult decisions about complicated matters.
Now wait a second. This is not so much about barack as it is that there is behavior that has continued across at two administrations that seems to be throwing a lot of money at institutions that show signs of having engaged in fraud and other criminal activity.
Please don't give me this seventy days crap. They have anounced their plan and it is full steam ahead in the same direction as Paulson.
Barack even stated in Europe in reference to whether America caused the financial crisis that he wanted to look forward instead of backward.
Thank you.
Your welcome.
Thanks RP for your posts
His documentation is in the book.
What's with your prejudice against reading anything outside the internet?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
There's a distinct difference between conspiracy theorists: Kennedy Assassination, moon-launch faked, 9-11 type conspiracies, and potential criminal conspiracies for which there is a legal definition for.
You can look it up in the Black Law Dictionary.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Except what you talked about before where all true too, just people haven't made it that close to reality yet. But whats happening here is a GREAT start so breath this video is because its pure truth and if this gets peop[le to open their eyes then GREAT.
Diminish the critic not the critique. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The way the banking bailout is being handled has stunk from the very beginning. Maybe this guy's right, maybe not. A real investigation by Congress wouldn't hurt. But, then again the people in Congress are owned by the same Banks that apparently own Treasury.
Just watched the entire interview.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/wa...
Very good, everyone should watch it at some point, either when it comes on television, or online. Warning, it will make you angry.
Among other things, receivership (nationalization) was advocated by Black, so, along with Krugman, Galbraith, and so forth, yet another voice that the Obama administration is taking the wrong tact with Geithner's public/private toxic asset approach.
You guys are starting to make Glenn Beck look rational.
Does Black have a site with actual documented evidence relating to the current situation?
Black doesn't need a site to "document" his evidence. None of what he states is secret. It is being done right in front of our faces.
He also has authored a book on the subject.
And unlike the reichwing "writers" knows the subject he writes of.
He's also a former regular and knows something of the subject on which he is writing and speaking. And his beef doesn't seem to be against Obama so much as it is against Geitner (sp?).
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Geithner.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The "secretive" nature of this thing is no secret. Only because the psychology of it has been dominant since Bear Stearnes was failing, back in March 2008. This "house of cards" is propped up largely by a sort of inter-connected ponzi scheme, world wide, with all the players agreeing to sort of play by the same set of rules to keep the scheme going. If one or more of the players goes under, the whole house of cards might collapse. Read Cohan's book "House of Cards".
Black needs no evidence to back up his claims of a massive conspiracy between the banking institutions and the federal government, other than one book and an interview with Bill Moyers?
Not exactly the textbook definition of critical thinking. If there is this massive conspiracy, how have the banks managed to keep the hundreds, if not thousands, of people needed to stick to the same game plan?
That's the one problem with the forums on this site; everybody's so angry they see massive X-Files-esque conspiracies everywhere.
Some stick to the part of the game plan they know about and are well-rewarded for it. Nobody except those at the top knows what the "plan" really is, though some who are smart enough have figured it out. I suppose they stay and join the others at the trough or get out because it scares the shit out of them.
Dude. i have been watching and experiencing unethical behavior by banks since 1984 when I opened my first account.
Several of the items Black speaks of were detailed in "House of Cards" which the author, an insider to the mortgage mess, describes the fraudulent CDO's that weren't just improperly rated, but consisted of mortgages that DID NOT EXIST.
There is evidence of industry fraud, AIG was revealed to have defrauded the government a few days ago.
I had worked in a bank for over 14 years, and much of what he's saying rings true, although further research would be warranted on our parts.
Why are the failed executives being kept in place in banks they destroyed to the point that they required bailouts?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
someone needs to say it. people here have gone batshit crazy. truly sad.
Sat, 04/04/2009 - 15:16 — Mattand
Odd how someone who accuses Black of making accusations without documentation accuses Black without documentation.
And the idea of a Congressional investigation of what went wrong to cause the biggest financial crisis in 60 years like they had 60 years ago is somehow without merit, is without merit.
And oncelor, run along now, grown ups are talking. Come back when you have something to say other than school yard insults.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
onceler
Is that "people", or "you people"? It might make a difference you know. Is that ALL of us, or just the ones you're thinking about in your mind? If I say "Americans"... "bat shit"... and "crazy"... all together... What would I really mean?
far left loon >.<
Beck is just capitalizing to make his career, the realy smart people just listen to his guest, not him.
"This is exactly what former IMF Chief Economist Simon Johnson warned about in his vital Atlantic article: that the finance industry has effectively captured our government...
find it's way on C&L, I was starting worry lately with a lot of the threads here. Both parties are at fault.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
They've been having a party without our being invited, and at out expense.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
In the first place, though, the interview seems to conflate the two kinds of banks. Those that are the traditional commercial bank and those that are investment banks. Banks such as AIG, Goldman, Lehman,
Bear Stearnes and numerous others (often referred to as "shadow banks") don't have traditional deposits.
They aren't covered by the FDIC. The "run" on these banks is from financial institutions and others world wide who are holders of securities (such as credit default swaps). This is why they're called "too interconnected to fail". And if the investment bank(s) can't meet the calls (which they couldn't for liquidity reasons), then everything in the global network falls apart. On the other hand, there are your big trad banks (Citi, BofA, Wells Fargo) that have consumer deposits covered by the FDIC. However, to the extent they're players in the investment field, they're exposed to the same perils as are the investment banks.
I don't know about a "coverup" per se, but I do know from reading Willam D. Cohan's excellent "House of Cards", that back in March 2008 when Bear Stearnes was about to collapse, the Fed intervened via Goldman Sachs to keep Bear alive. And Geithner, Paulson, Bernanke were the Fed/Treasury players then. But they intervened for the very reason of fear that the PERCEPTION alone of a big player failing could start a run on investment banks in general. Finally, the other danger of PERCEPTION is that it drives the stock market and can often apply the fiscal coup de grace when stocks tumble.
I didn't see the whole interview, but I do hope that there was some clarification about both the differences and the overlapping similarities between the banks. Oh, yes, the investment banks are
not regulated to the extent traditional banks are, and whatever oversight there is comes from the SEC.
Now, as to that "solvency" question for BofA, Citi, Wells, etc.....
What affect does the fact that all of these investment banks purchased, in some cases just one, a trust to fall under the regulation umbrella of a different regulator.
Didn't Gramm-Leach-Bliley allow commercial banks to combine with investment banks, and insurance companies. Isn't that how Citybank became CityGroup? So, I'm not so sure we have two separate and distinct banking classifications anymore. Anyway, the PCA law only seems to require presence of federally insured deposits, which I assume that CityGroup and Bank of America have.
Anyhow the so called "coverup" is something called "Regulatory Forbearance". I did a little of the Google and came up with this.
I think it is a coverup of the banks solvency, but I'm not so sure that it's illegal to do so. (They're not solvent, which is why they're at the government trough). So long as these banks aren't declared "insolvent" the goverment isn't obligated to put the institution into receivership. So, the loophole is avoiding the declaration of insolvency.
The rest of the interview talked about the "AAA" rating on the securities. I agree that is was fraud and have said there should be prosecution. The interview said Bush pulled 500 white collar investigators in the FBI and reassigned them to terrorism, but declined to backfill them, leaving the way for unfettered white collar crime. Don't know if that is true or not, but have no reason to not believe it.
Also said was that we're taking the Japanese approach and likely to get the Japanese result. That's what Krugman, Galbrieth, and others economists are saying.
"The rest of the interview talked about the "AAA" rating on the securities. I agree that is was fraud and have said there should be prosecution. The interview said Bush pulled 500 white collar investigators in the FBI and reassigned them to terrorism, but declined to backfill them, leaving the way for unfettered white collar crime. Don't know if that is true or not, but have no reason to not believe it."
That is true. There have been at least a couple of stories in the New York Times in the past year or so. The FBI repeatedly asked for more agents to investigate fraud, but was blocked by the Bush Justice Department. Here's a link to the article from October 2008:
Will Obama's walking a line close to the bailed out institutions engender America's trust in him?
Will his motives seem corporatist or concerned about sifting through the garbage to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak?
If his administration is at working helping cover up what actually happened, we can have no security that they'll fix the problem with OUR money, nor will it contribute to solving the global economic crisis.
Doesn't everybody get the idea that what's going on now is only a delaying tactic, that really everything is headed for that crash that the big boys are so afraid of? Won't their sins be exposed THEN if not now? And I don't see how it can be an event very far in the future.
It almost seems like the stall tactic is only supposed to last long enough to really loot the treasury before the entire bottom falls out. This crew of insiders hasn't made a single move, that I have seen, from a position of power. No tough strings attached to bailout money. No sunshine allowed in the process. No charges of fraud. No leaders of the universe sent packing.
Every plan is centered on making sure the banks get a good deal and no risk while the taxpayer gets shit and all of the risk.
:)
I always thought Summers and Geithner were the weak links in the "Yes We Can" change I was voting for.
Please, please Obama, let these Banksters go before they make you look like a fool!
This is not really news, but he did connect all the dots in one succinct interview. It was a great service to all who watched. (I went to PBS and watched the whole thing before coming here.)
Money is paper, it's all based on TRUST and a triple AAA credit rating, which we already knew can be bought and paid for if you know the right people.
So it appears the Europeans are correct and we can blame this mess on the USA. Sorry guys, but how else can you look at it? Foreign countries were buying AAA rated stuff from American banks, which turned out to be nothing but rubbish.
Not to worry. America is #1, and can do no wrong. Wave flags, go shopping, threaten naysayers with unsurpassed military might.
[Yes, I am cynical. No, this is not directed at C&Lers who knew these things already.]
far left loon >.<
Two things, first, although loans are based on Trust and the AAA credit rating, currency is primarily based on our GDP. But the GDP has been hurt by trade imbalances, outsourcing our manufacturing base and borrow- and-spend policies.
Second, the ancient Cynics were not as we define cynicism today, but were to a certain extent ascetics looking down on what we call the "rat-race" for wealth and luxuries.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I am a bit of an ascetic, and my cynicism would be about looking down on the rat-race, and not trusting those in power. But you've probably guessed that by now. I do, however, have great faith in the "average person"; their hearts and good intentions (but not necessarily their intellect.)
Money is based on your GDP, TRUE, but the GDP has not increased and the money supply seems to be. There is the potential for erosion of faith, making its value decrease. And there is that pesky matter of government bonds, the treasury is empty, and the Chinese are worrying about/questioning their worth. It's all very precariously balanced at the moment. If China won't buy your IOUs, who will?
far left loon >.<
"This is not really news, but he did connect all the dots in one succinct interview. It was a great service to all who watched. (I went to PBS and watched the whole thing before coming here.)"
That's a key point to those that keep trying to dispute the information presented. Little of what was presented was new. Black was very good at tying it all together in a way that was easier to understand.
Will anyone step forward to do the investigations and prosecutions that should occur? For those that don't believe Black, do you believe that the largest financial meltdown in history shouldn't be investigated?
How viral is this? Viral enough to reach every household?
Phil Gramm (or whatever the effers name is) might want to hide out for a while. The "whiners" might be angry.
I'm still waiting for the straw that will break the American public's back-- to rise up and demand answers and action.
far left loon >.<
Lets depend on the FDIC they're fine... Sure let one or two big banks go, then check your FDIC'S bank account balance! I'm afraid you'll find the FDIC finds themselves in the same frigging position as AIG was or is in.
Sure we need the facts... but you'd better gett'em straight buddy.
Amended: Cut & paste into a search field, [fdic requests 500]
Study the symptoms not the virus...
I'm gone now, it's time to watch Batman and Robin with Robert Lowery and John Duncan, and then listen to The Adventures of Superman.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Bill Black may want to sleep in a different motel every night from now on. That really isn't the kind of thing people say if they want to stay healthy.
What he is saying is that they did this on purpose to reap the bonuses in the good times and now to steal tax dollars to reap the bonuses in the bad times. It's the same thing that happened with Silverado, just to a much larger degree.
People at his level can't say stuff like that in this country and still walk the streets. We may soon hear of Mr. Blacks unfortunate "suicide" due to drugs or financial distress.
Wake up people, he is pulling back the curtain and shoving it in your face. How much more shit are you willing to put up with?
If you really want to make this viral, then keep posting this story.
The whole interview at
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/wa...
is much more damning than the polite clip you show here.
THis video has to go viral, this is awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PC9fkLMZmo&fe...
This is worth listening too aswell, especially know that you know both sides are in on this including Geithner and Obama. ALL the Dems and Repubs for the most part are in with the bankers.
OMG OMG!!!! The world is ending!!!! Jesus I'm tired of this bukshit.
You signed up on this site only 20 minutes ago to type that?
And you can't even spell your expletive?
That was Black's whole point. The bankers think Americans will run for the exits, but he thinks that Americans have more backbone than that, and can handle the truth, whatever that might turn out to be, after a thorough investigation of what happened.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
will make the Bush defenders look like amateurs
I believe Black's analysis for the following reasons:
(1) The US Treasury Department has quietly been such a revolving door for Goldman-Sachs that G-S is looked at as a nearly-government institiuion (see Johnson, et al, below. They have not gotten nearly the attention and publicity in the past as industrial and oil companies have gotten with other government agencies in regard to revolving doors;
(2) Black's assertion is given more credibility and may not be alone in his conclusions (see a former IMF chief economic advisor's assertions- Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, ... www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice, and Nobel Prixe winner Joseph Stiglitz's Globalizaion and its Discontents on the mis-uses of IMF monies in the past.
(3) Paul Krugman (whom I assume you are all are knowledgeable about) agrees that the power of the financial giants -the banks that have brought us this mess - need to be confronted and ovecome and is critical of Obama for not doing so;
(4) For a historical perspective that fits the current crisis and bailout into the pattern repeated since the WWI you will find "A Centry of War" by William F. Engdahl to be invaluable. If you can survive the first or second reading this powerful and perceptive book you will no longer be surprised at assertions like Black's, you rather will be expecting them - see http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Intervi... and www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net for the books(s);
(5) Obama may have had little real choice in who he appointed to Treasury since any US president is largely caught in the broad political web of the financial powers that be when it comes to economics and bailouts. And most come to office vaguely or incompletely understanding the dynamics driving our economy and financial establishments and need to depend on advisors. Obama admitted as much during the campaign.
In order to be able to govern, U.S presidents all find it necessary to gain the support of the business community at some point. Pure populist support is never sufficient in itself.
6) If those don't satisfy you in trying to understand the extent of manipulation of governments and ecomonies by the US and its giant financial houses read Amazon.com: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism ...by Naomi Klein available at Amazon.(see http://www.amazon.com/Shock-Doctrine-Rise-Dis... );
Reading all of these, most particularly Engdahl, will require something of you beyond simple venting, and will make many of the authors of the comments I have read here seem very foolish and naive, indeed.
I am and was an early Obama supporter but I am not blind.
I saved the top two, and will probably check out Naomi Klein in the library.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Bill is going to be on my show (90.1FM in Houston) or kpft.org if you're outside Houston.
I would be happy to submit your questions/comments. Drop me a line
sundaymonitor@journalist.com
I was reading different articles and opinions on this "Bailout". It really is a scam you know.
1. Lending our tax dollars to bail out "too big to fail" banks.
2. The banks lend it back to us 'with interest'
3. The Federal Reserve (not federal or reserve) controls the money dispersement AND the banks.
4. Too big to fail is a scare tactic.
5. Remember whomever controls the money(The Federal Reserve).... controls all and answers to, reports to, is accountable to NO ONE.
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