Geithner Aides Made Millions from the Firms They're Supposed to Regulate
I just don't know what the best options are here, but I'm not feeling reassured that the people advising Geithner were making so much money from the people they're supposed to be regulating:
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Some of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s closest aides, none of whom faced Senate confirmation, earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other Wall Street firms, according to financial disclosure forms.
The advisers include Gene Sperling, who last year took in $887,727 from Goldman Sachs and $158,000 for speeches mostly to financial companies, including the firm run by accused Ponzi scheme mastermind R. Allen Stanford. Another top aide, Lee Sachs, reported more than $3 million in salary and partnership income from Mariner Investment Group, a New York hedge fund.
As part of Geithner’s kitchen cabinet, Sperling and Sachs wield influence behind the scenes at the Treasury Department, where they help oversee the $700 billion banking rescue and craft executive pay rules and the revamp of financial regulations. Yet they haven’t faced the public scrutiny given to Senate-confirmed appointees, nor are they compelled to testify in Congress to defend or explain the Treasury’s policies.
“These people are incredibly smart, they’re incredibly talented and they bring knowledge,” said Bill Brown, a visiting professor at Duke University School of Law and former managing director at Morgan Stanley. “The risk is they will further exacerbate the problem of our regulators identifying with Wall Street.”
Gee, ya think?
[...] Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the department needs people with a deep understanding of markets and the financial system, especially as it works to fend off the worst recession in half a century.
“The secretary thought that the best way to utilize their talents was to allow these individuals to provide advice to the secretary on policy issues through appointments as counselor,” Williams said.
All of Geithner’s counselors are subject to federal ethics rules, including a pledge to avoid contact with their former firms for at least a year, Williams added.
Most officials at the Treasury who have been approved by Congress come from academic, legal or non-Wall Street backgrounds.
Violation of the public trust should be a capital offense.
Instead, it is a Capitol expense.
As an appointment to be Secretary of the Treasury, Geithner himself is a travesty.
He, was head of the New York Fed, his head filled with two glass eyes, when the crooks on Wall Street were running amuck.
He along with the Pope of Hope (R-Government Sachs) were the main go to guys by Paulson the Plunderer after he handed the Congress his three page ransom note.
Larry Summers was groomed by Robert Rubin, the godfather of the crooks.
These guys are made men. Made by the Wall Street Mafia.
What he fails to add is that the number use to be a five year ban on contact with former firms until Bill Clinton (R-Citigroup) overturned it in one of his last acts as the Great Don.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Think about it ,,,our 401k retirement was just another bill created as income for this banking empire...
The government for many years now has been creating policies which they claim is for your benefit and retirement but as we see now after the destruction of our 401k retirement plans,, nothing can be farther from the truth...
Just look how fast this banking empire can wipe your saving and retirement account out and there is no way anyone can do anything about it or stop it from happening again..
Then the government gives them our money to help them recover and be paid huge salaries and bonuses.
None
All of Geithner’s counselors are subject to federal ethics rules, including a pledge to avoid contact with their former firms for at least a year, Williams added.
Aren't you?
Michael Moore PWNED Geithner, and all his sycophants and lickspittles, in C:ALS.
And A YEAR? A WHOLE FUCKING YEAR? Shit, their options don't expire for five of more years...
Where is the "new" Glass-Steagal Act?
oh, yeah, right. The banksters disapprove...
These Wall Strteet fux aren't gonna change until they have the business ends of pitchforks at their fucking throats...
how our country turned to crap.
Does the phrase " the fox is guarding the henhouse" ring a bell?
the raccoons guarding the garbage.
;)
and we're wondering if you'd like us to run your chicken farm for you!"
and we are all getting goat-flocked, on every side, by every conceivable special/corporat interest. Health insurance parasites, crooked banksters, corrupt corporate climate changed deniers, and all with the assistance and complicity of the entire array of corpoRat media...
we, the People, are fucked...
but I agree with you. Is there no end to all this bullshit?!! God help us...if there is such a thing.
...no such thing. Hype maybe...
God hypes those who hype themselves...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
There is no "We,the People." If there was, this shit would stop. Will Americans be able to stop fighting one another long enough to join together and take back our money from the Wall Street cabal?
Citing Bill Brown, former managing director at Morgan Stanley, for the proposition that Geithner's aides' former employment might "exacerbate" the "risk" of "regulators identifying with Wall Street" ignores the obvious. First, I presume Brown isn't worried about corrupting the minds of impressionable Duke law students. Second, who else is qualified to understand the complex financial transactions occurring on Wall Street? Indeed, one of the reasons Madoff, as only one example, was able to continue his fraud for so long was because the regulators at the SEC are overmatched. Frankly, there's an awful lot of SEC regulators who are lawyers, who are smart but have no training in the kind of sophisticated models used on Wall Street. Worse, these regulators hate to look stupid, and so there's a lot of head nodding concerning matters they can't possibly understand.
I understand the "fox guarding the hen house" analogy, but in this case you need a fox to catch a fox. And to the extent there exist potential ethical issues, it's the job of Congress to pass appropriate legislation in order to prevent issues from becoming problems.
Heard a financial press writer saying much the same thing over the summer. They were charged with watching what's going on, but some of this stuff is far too complex for anyone to understand...anyone who isn't making five times the salary of a financial journalist.
And that's what it takes...pay a commission on identifying fraud. It doesn't make sense in (m)any other industries, but it sure does here....get some seriously bright people in the SEC and pay them HUGE money.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/bentle...
n/t
. . . the regulators are not sufficiently versed in the models to understand them. You can't hire liberal arts majors with law degrees to investigate mathematicians and physicists.
You may think my point a distinction without a difference, but it's not. Regulation of what you can and cannot do is an altogether different question than whether your regulator is equipped to understand what he or she is looking at. For example, EPA doesn't send lawyers out to paper mill effluent to determine whether it complies with federal standards. It sends chemists and biologists, i.e., people trained to understand the science. Similarly, you can't have lawyers asking quant jocks questions concerning their more exotic trading models.
old boys network, the fed, the banks, weird stock options that only they can understand. goldman sachs has gamed the system for so long and made so complex the regulators dont understand........ and they have the gov. by the balls....
it's only a matter of time before china starts calling in trillions in t-bonds they bought, same with the saudis, and others who finance our bush debt....created with complements of the bankers who de regulated everything.... default swaps? we dont have to show you no stinkin' default swaps, you couldn't understand it, no one does....
everyone got something to hide, except for me and my monkey....
...better watch that monkey too.
including a pledge to avoid contact with their former firms for at least a year,
Aaahh...a little golf can't hurt. How about if they wear masks and rubber gloves? condoms?
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
not change I can believe in. This is beginning to look a lot like Bush III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEqKZPO2_L4
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I don't believe much of what is in the bibble, but this one hits the nail right on the head.
As long as there is money to be made in politics, politicians will be "evil".
Not all current US politicians fit this statement, but enough do, such that our current political system is as corrupt as any political system in the world.
We as a country seem to be entering the "end times", but not those end times slaveringly envisioned by the fanatical christians - we are ending our role as a world dominating power.
This financial fraud is still ongoing. It has not ended.
It is being papered over. The stock market is up big since the March low and it is back to business as usual, as anger dissipates in a positive market.
Last weekend a mortgage talk show host said that one could even go INTEREST ONLY for X years in order to increase ones LEVERAGE.
Excuse me? What has been learned about excessive leverage and interest only payments? Yet they are still being pushed. Interest only is being pushed to be allowed in reworked mortgages, according to a story this week. Another disaster waiting to happen- but it kicks the can a little further down the road.
But the can is going to hit a wall. The only question is when, not if.
Janet Tavakoli, whose forte is structured finance, said recently that the chances are greater now, of a deflationary collapse, than they were in 2007.
But nobody wants to listen. Shut up, the Dow is moving up through 10,000.
People forget there were 2 recessions in the Great Depression. The first was worse than the second. It could be that this time, the second will be worse than the first, considering that the problems are being papered over instead of being fixed.
greater now, of a deflationary collapse, than they were in 2007
Well, assuming that you're three olders, you'll just have to up the milligrams on your Viagra.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
and if it's broken beyond repair, you recycle it and create something new. Before it's too late to save the people that want a democracy from those that dig their bribes.
Take your money out of the banks as fast as you can. Show them that you don't care about them, and that in fact you don't like them. Stop helping them with your money.
What in the hell is complex about putting your money in a credit union? At least they don't take risks, because it's mandated by law that they do not. What a concept?
With the tax payers paying for failed banks, people are not going to remove their money to credit unions.
I already closed my savings account and got strange looks from the bank representatives when i told them why. So far there has not been a line of people following my lead.
although the actual number of credit unions has declined.
Fed Governor Daniel K. Tarullo said in June:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/spee...
"The importance of traditional financial intermediation services, and hence of the smaller banks that typically specialize in providing those services, tends to increase during times of financial stress. Indeed, the crisis has highlighted the important continuing role of community banks...
Statistics in this paragraph and the next are based on a definition of the term "community bank" that includes independent commercial banks and thrifts with assets less than $1 billion and banks and thrifts that are subsidiaries of holding companies with total banking assets less than $1 billion, all in 2008 dollars. The term "big bank" is defined to include all other commercial banks and thrifts
For example, while the number of credit unions has declined by 42 percent since 1989, credit union deposits have more than quadrupled, and credit unions have increased their share of national deposits from 4.7 percent to 8.5 percent. In addition, some credit unions have shifted from the traditional membership based on a common interest to membership that encompasses anyone who lives or works within one or more local banking markets. In the last few years, some credit unions have also moved beyond their traditional focus on consumer services to provide services to small businesses, increasing the extent to which they compete with community banks."
Time's long overdue that these deceitful scumbags were exposed and prosecuted for bribery and corruption.
And now we have the right man to do it.
Alan Grayson.
to Ron Paul's audit the fed "team"
I think it's great that Grayson put aside partisan differences to join up with Ron Paul.
Grayson rocks.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I agree. I'm not a big Ron Paul fan, but that doesn't mean he can't have some good ideas. Audit the FED? - You bet!
I don't like everything about Ron Paul (pro life) but,
(a good idea) ...is a good idea!!!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
after all, they have been allowed to act like the National Bank that it is for more than 95 years.
Consider that this is an entity that was formed without a Congressional Mandate, Constitutional Order or Amendment, and without Congressional oversight. That's like asking the fox to hang around after he's raided the henhouse.
I complained about Obama picking Geithner for Treasury Sec because I worked with this Bastard when I worked for the Fed Reserve. Any government regulation that didn't fit in with looting Wall Street, Geithner wasn't hearing it.
And he helped orchestrate the shyt that resulted in tax dollars bailing out those banks while making sure Goldman Sachs, and his buddy, former Treasury Sec Hank Paulson, make out like fat bandits and filled their coiffers with all that money.
If China calls in 10% of what the U.S. owes, this country is PHUCKED.
The law that created the TARP says that any revenues from the sale of a bailed-out bank's troubled assets should go to the reduction of the public debt. But the Treasury Department says that principal repaid by banks participating in the Capital Purchase Program is fair game.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) was the first to question the legality of the Treasury's plan to recycle bailout dollars. "If you look at the law, it's pretty clear any money returned from these banks goes into the general fund of the United States and not a revolving bank bailout fund," said Sherman in an interview with the Huffington Post. The law is clear that revenues from the sale of troubled assets should go back to the taxpayer, but it's silent on repaid principal...
Senator Thune tried to stop this practice but his amendment failed. This provided backdoor justification for recycling. After last week's Senate vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said that, in light of the vote, bailout recycling should be allowed.
So Reid and the boys are now explicitly endorsing exactly what is contrary to what TARP is for. All of sudden, 700 billion becomes trillions and so on.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/senato...
So what to do. That is the question isn't it. Right now I am hoping that Barney Frank will start regulating. I'm hoping that congress will put some kind of oversight in place. Barney Frank talks like he is behind this but who knows.
...jumped on board with Ron Paul and supports the audit the fed bill but...
I'm a little leery of Frank because when the crash happened a year ago, Barney Frank had no warnings whasoever that it was going to happen...
...which is strange considering he was chairman of the house banking oversite comittee.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
"WILLIAM BLACK: Well, the earliest effort is—should be a real wake-up call, because it’s horrible. Barney Frank has proposed legislation on financial derivatives that essentially exempts what are called over-the-counter derivatives from most regulation, and it is over-the-counter derivatives that have been a major cause of this crisis. So that’s utterly insane. There’s no conceivable justification for it. And he stacked the hearing. There were nine witnesses; eight of them were from the industry and, of course, testified that they were vital to the world. The ninth witness was the only person who was in the least bit skeptical, and he was promptly gaveled down, unlike the others, by the chair. So it’s not only a farce; they’re willing to have us see that it’s a farce. They are so little afraid of public opinion and outrage that they’re not even taking steps to cover up the cover-up. ..."
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
William K. Black (remember, he was the senior regulator during the S&L crisis, and is a Professor of both Economics and Law) -says that the Prompt Corrective Action Law ((PCA)), 12 U.S.C. § 1831o, not only authorizes the government to seize insolvent banks, it mandates it, and that the Bush and Obama administrations broke the law by refusing to close insolvent banks.
The guy knows what he is talking about.
William K Black
James K Galbraith
Michael Hudson
Joseph Stiglitz
These are my goto guys…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
(if u havent already) for todays interview w/Black ...
Excellent journalism (as always.)
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
The battle to get the Audit the Fed bill really is NOT in the House of Representatives. The votes in the House are there. It is the Senate where this bill is being held up by none other than Harry Reid.
I see your Ron Paul and raise you Senator Bernie Sanders. S. 604 Federal Reserve Sunshine Act
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17172196/S-604-Fede...
...is very "milquetoasty"
some say it's "watered down"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/hand...
I dont think that (Bernie's version) "trumps he house version" of the bill...but at least its something. maybe someone will talk Bernie into "stiffening up" a little?
The Fed has never really been "audited" in the 95 years since it "acquired" its "printing monopoly" on American money.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Regulatory Capture is a term used to refer to situations in which a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead acts in favor of the commercial or special interests that dominate in the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for large firms to produce negative externalities.
Read "Debunking Too Big To Fail Myth" to see what Nobel economists all across the board are saying.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/166432-debunk...
- The big banks are NOT insolvent. If they were, they would prove it.
- There have been NO prosecutions of chief executives of large large nonprime lenders that would expose the “epidemic” of fraudulent mortgage lending that drove the crisis.
- The Obama administration and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have refused to investigate the nature and causes of the crisis. And the administration selected Timothy Geithner, who with then Treasury Secretary Paulson bungled the bailout of A.I.G. and other favored “too big to fail” institutions, to head up Treasury.
- Now Lawrence Summers, head of the White House National Economic Council, and Mr. Geithner argue that no fundamental change in finance is needed. They want to recreate a secondary market in the subprime mortgages that caused trillions of dollars of losses.
No fundamental reform can be passed when the proponents are pretending that there really is no crisis or need for change.
I don't like everything about Ron Paul (pro life) but, +
I'm a liberaltarian.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
You have a MAJOR mistake in your text.
Several of the big banks ARE insolvent. Stiglitz et al have been saying that for sometime.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
.
prufread prufread prufread
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Still a LONG way to go, but good news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/business/16...
A key House committee voted on Thursday to regulate, for the first time, trading in the arcane financial instruments known as derivatives, which have been linked to the financial crisis that shocked Wall Street and cut into the savings of millions of Americans.
The 43-to-26 vote by the Financial Services Committee was mostly along party lines and was a big step in President Obama’s proposed overhaul of rules covering the nation’s financial system.
Geithner, as well as Larry Summers, were two picks Obama made that, I believe, were/are horrible mistakes that will haunt him forever. They both need to be removed from their posts and go back into the private sector.
They'll go back once they sucked as much money out of the system and into whichever financial firm they intend to land at.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
not mistakes!!!
...although I do hope Obama is haunted forever...and I hope "they both" get fired too!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
on Bill Moyers last friday: The FBI needs another thousand agents to investigate all the fraud in the financial services indutry that has gone on and continues to go on.
Then some big time harings and send the malefactors of great wealth to jail.
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