Goldman Sachs Admits to 'Improper Behavior' At Yesterday's Banking Hearings
Really, doesn't this whole thing have the feel of a show trial? "Let the people have their moment and then we can get back to business as usual." I figure, if this is what they're actually admitting, God only knows what else they were up to:
WASHINGTON — Goldman Sachs' chief acknowledged Wednesday that the investment bank engaged in "improper" behavior in 2006 and 2007 when it made huge bets on a housing downturn while peddling as safe more than $40 billion in securities backed by risky U.S. home loans.
Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chairman and chief executive, made the surprising concession at the opening hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a 10-member panel that Congress created to investigate and lay out for the public the causes of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Blankfein and senior officers of three other of the nation's most prominent banks told the panel that serious flaws in their risk models and business practices contributed to Wall Street's meltdown and the massive taxpayer bailouts that followed. The commission also heard testimony that the banks and quasi-government mortgage giant Fannie Mae recklessly took on as much as 95 times more risk than they could cover, and that Wall Street excels "at pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people."
Blankfein faced the toughest questioning.
Commission Chairman Phil Angelides, a former California state treasurer, warned Blankfein that he'd be "brutally honest" in his questioning. He asked why Goldman thought it was necessary to take out protection against investment-grade mortgage securities it was selling by purchasing insurance-like contracts known as credit-default swaps. Angelides likened it to selling a car with knowledge it had faulty brakes and then taking out an insurance policy on the buyer.
"I do think the behavior is improper, and we regret . . . the consequence that people have lost money in it," Blankfein told Angelides.
I don't want Blankfein's feigned regret. I want him to have to live the rest of his life eating ramen noodles and living in a cardboard box on the street, just like the people who lost their life savings have to do.
Until Wednesday, Goldman had insisted that it was merely managing its risks when it placed "hedges," in the form of wagers against the housing market, various venues including in secret offshore deals, with insurance giant American International Group and on a private London exchange.
In November, McClatchy reported exclusively that Goldman failed to tell investors about its contrary bets while selling $39 billion in risky mortgage securities it had issued, and another $18 billion in similar bonds issued by other firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress are investigating Goldman's swap dealings, said knowledgeable people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
While conceding that its contrary bets were improper, Blankfein said that in most cases Goldman took those positions to offset bets it had underwritten for clients seeking to wager on a housing downturn.
"Bread and circuses"..."Opium for the masses"...call it what you want Susie.
It all means nothing. No one is being fined, held personally responsible, or going to jail.
It's all about getting through the news cycle and then moving on. New markets to plunder ya know.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Consider the below news along the same lines of Golden-Sacks er I mean Goldman Sachs.
We're in BF trouble, just give it 5 to 10 years.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
cuz I got a feeling I'm going to be eating a lot more of them...
as long as we can afford them!!!
Same old, same old...just a bunch of posturing for the President these people are...Congress and CEOs alike...
sorry for the extreme cynicism...but I'm completely bummed out....
... your cynicism ranks in the minor leagues ..
These financial entities have the power to create and burst bubbles, staying one step ahead of everyone else in their wagering. It's not fair.
It's outrageous that they can wager on failure. There ought to be no "short" selling. All the bets ought to be on success.
When the industry bets that there will be a housing downturn, they also do their best to facilitate that downturn so they can cash in. They built the housing bubble up with crazy loans and now have popped the bubble -- on purpose.
These trials are kabuki to calm the masses, but the politicians are still bought and paid for by the industry.
Goldman Sachs -- biggest campaign contributor to President Obama in 2008. Follow the money. They're gonna get a kabuki slap on the wrist.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/3...
has a pre-ordained verdict, with a judge showing up with a black cap. It doesn't exonerate the defendant; it serves as cover for the death sentence. The trick is to finish the trial before the sentence is carried out. Refer to the Stalinist model.
I confess to longing for a bit of this vis a vis the Bushies. At least so far as actually bringing a case to actual justice.
the consequence that people have lost money in it," Blankfein told Angelides.
Then it's only proper that you take those big wads of cash you've got sticking out of every crack and crevice around the office, home, cars, yachts, etc, and make as many of those people whole as is possible, you creepy, lying sack of crap bastard.
Because if you were betting on it to fail, I'll assume you had a large hand IN that failure. That means the fix was in, and the millions suffering because of your game fixing never had a chance.
me-oww!
I know this is Off-Topic but it was worth passing on......
Did this chalk face, gerber baby teeth closet republican actually think he could big foot his way into the New York Senate Race... He stands for the complete opposite of what Democrats stand for.
Helicopter Harold is not even a Blue Dog, he is a Red Dog, plan and simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgBmQMSmCrY&fe...
Obama had the Banksters over to his digs at the house painted white, for a chat and he said:
Now, what the working class dupes of the democrats, millions who have lost everything, were supposed to think they heard from that statement was something like:
But what Obama really meant is:
I have a hunch a similar thing will go down in Congress.
Washington DC is a city of bought men (and a few women).
They shovel trillions to the Banksters, who turn it into a huge profit thereby claiming billions in bonuses for their executives for being such !@#$ing geniuses, all in exchange for millions in campaign contributions shoveled to the politicians.
What a phucking racket!
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Obama's pitchfork comment struck me as rhetorical excess. It was a mistake on his part to think that the CEO class of bankers, a class crafted on the notion that greed is good, could possibly behave any differently. The right's response was the teabaggers. Obama's horde bears pitchforks while the opposition bears rifles.
You didn't get the gist of my comment.
Obama's phrase was only for the cameras.
The Bankers are his best buds.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
...it seemed like just more disingenuousness to me. Obama is Bush with more wholesome PR and a better vocabulary.
But you are spot on, regarding the rifles -- one shudders to think what else has been pilfered from US army bases, like Ft. Hood -- vs the pitchforks. The religious right has all the guns, the willingness to use them, and they are Wall Street's/GOP's true electoral base. When civil war breaks out -- and an economic collapse in the US will surely bring it about -- liberals won't stand a chance.
The fascists will win, but like the Nazis', their claptrap empire will crash down on their heads in a short time. Just look at how easily a handful of jihadists make them wet their pants, and handle their toughest, most heavily armored regular soldiers and mercenaries.
this is nothing short of bad theatre. they know most have no idea what a credit default swap and/or derivative are. the financial elite/wall street write the rules and know how to bend the rules. the damage to the american economy is of no consequence to them.
and being able to pre position yourself short knowing damn well they were going to fail.
There you have it,
Sugar frosted loopholes
Can be a part of your
Unbalanced justice,
Tricks for the rich
With essential
criminals
Now with less moral
Fiber...they're tragically
Suspicious!
LuLu
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
... than it is to ask for permission.
"Good" for them...
these guys are rich and we're left holding a bag of toxic steaming crap, and we're paying them for it!
And they are still kicking people out of their homes and into the streets all across America and repossessing these properties. And we're bailing these guys out?
need to be burnt to the ground.
Cue the Kabuki....
almost cut in half...and inflation is (ever present and startin' to show it's ass)
...and Obama has spent more than every single president (combined) in history and The U.S. treasury and the U.S. taxpayer...are the most "indebteded people's" in world history.
(all we got left is whats left of the constitution...
Factories are all gone too...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Ron Reagan. The missing factories part. And of course dub-ya. In fact the 8 years previous to Obama really set the shit off.
And the Constitution was ripped apart by FISA (the 70s) and the reign of CheneyBushCo...
Are you really drawing a line at 20 Jan 2009, calling it a blank slate, and saying this is all Obama's doing? Because right now, you are looking like one of the biggest idiots on the board, if that's the case.
me-oww!
Sorry, I'm late, I've been listening to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0lUXnAs-U
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Uh? What?
I think you misspelled Bush somehow.
If there were "serious flaws in their risk models and business practices [that] contributed to Wall Street's meltdown ", why are these "geniuses" still employed?
Talk about a conspiracy to screw every last average citizen in this country! Damn.
Religion will be the downfall of Humanity.
brokers licence? wall st. trading permit? SEC approval? corporatehood? ...that should be revoked?
this "corporate entity" (goldman sachs) should lose their privelege of being able to legally do this shit...somehow.
like a DUI or something? ...mandatory 1 year suspension?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
"Yeah, we fucked you good didn't we (snicker snicker)?
Well, what are you going to do about it?
That's what I thought.
We hosed you down good, and you loved it!
Why else do you think we are going to split all that bailout money that used to be your tax cash amongst ourselves?
Not because we care what you worthless losers think, that's for sure!
You just keep that spigot turned on the money flowing or we'll pack up and leave the country broke, you understand?"
Some of these guys need to make the "externally facilitated supreme sacrifice".
is it just me ... or did they wait to admit this until a catastrophe for the media to focus on ?
Nice out of the MSM analysis by TRNN
What will come OUT from this Inquiry ?
Would you prefer the noose, the chair, or firing squad?
Can't argue with anyone here. Cept for maybe Milktoast.
Top ramen. yep. You can do some pretty interesting things with ramen noodles. I'm sure we'll all get some more practice at that very soon.
I will say this, I like Angelides. I hope he gives them hell.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
social parasite is to nationalize all banking and finance and abolish the the Fed. Nothing else is going to work.
Nobody likes to think that they've been 'had'. Quite natural. But in the case of Obama supporters, well...it must sting twice as bad.
The fix was in on June 6, 2008. Obama and Clinton met with all the big-shots on the planet in secret in Chantilly, Virginia and not very much was said by the Pomeranian Press Corps. And guess who was at the meeting? Geithner and his bankster friends.
Who's the boss? Who is?
and "...who holds the leash?"
Great point. See my comment about 'posturing' above. Okay, so I put President Obama outside of the posturing...shouldn't have.
This sort of behavior actually passes for intelligence in the US.
Meritocracy indeed.
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