Power of Goldman

Goldman Sachs is such a powerful company that everywhere you turn in the world, there is someone from the company dealing with money. Paulson and Geithner both are former employees as was Jon Corozine.  This is getting a bit scary with the problems that have resulted under just these three men.  Is Goldman in charge of our country? Should Goldman have this much power? Can a company with this much power be trusted?


We are just like you, concerned with what is occurring in this country and unable to do much about it.  We write this blog as our small attempt to discuss the issues of the day and try to put our spin on those events.  Some days it feels like we are spitting in the wind, others like we are not alone, and then there are those rare days when we feel that maybe, just maybe, things are turning around and those who "lead" this country are listening.


The following article is of the first category.  How can we control this out of control government, who will not listen to its citizens and uses companies like Goldman as its personnel department.  This incestuous relationship must be part of our problems.  No company has all the best talent in its ranks, yet this one company's people consistently turning up in leadership roles, not only here but abroad.  Something stinks in Rome!


We have always wondered how a Secretary of Treasury (Geithner) could be confirmed when he could not accurately complete his own tax return and not smart enough (or too cheap) to hire an accountant. When he gets caught, he has to pay the back taxes, however, ironically, he does not have to pay penalties and interest.  If we had done the same thing, the penalties would have been significantly more than the taxes and interest combined.  Must be nice to have friends in high places!


Secretary Geithner has gone onto an un-remarkable tenure as head of the Treasury. He has done nothing to improve the conditions which caused the problems nor has he improved our financial standing around the world.  He is like a place-holder until the next Secretary comes into the cabinet.  Should Obama be re-elected could he be so foolish to appoint Corozine to that role?  Heaven help us if that occurs.


Maybe the Goldman pedigree is the reason that Corozine has not taken an infamous "perp walk" that others who stole millions have had to make ala Madoff.  Nothing seems to be occurring with the investigations and no recent hearings. Money disappears and he walks. Something stinks in Washington!


Goldman has too much power, too much political influence here and abroad and too many people in government.  This is bad and unless things are changed, it will only get worse. Time to remove all Goldman employees from their financial positions!


Conservative Tom

Goldman Sachs’ Shadow

February 20, 2012 by Bob Livingston 

PHOTOS.COM

It is well-known that Goldman Sachs recommended stocks related to the housing mortgage mania at the same time that it shorted the stocks.

Goldman Sachs is the ghost over America, and it is a proxy for the elite crime that has wrecked the country and impoverished the middle class.

Goldman Sachs rules the world for the 1 percent.

The U.S. political system — indeed, that of the whole world — is dysfunctional because it is run by Goldman Sachs for Goldman Sachs. It is well-known that Goldman Sachs recommended stocks related to the housing mortgage mania at the same time that it shorted the stocks. Nobody goes to jail, and there are only hand slaps from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Because of the heavy influence of Goldman Sachs in our government and in governments around the world, it operates above the law and takes every advantage for its own people. This is getting to be public knowledge, but the American people are paralyzed as far as any action by the lapdog U.S. Congress. There is nowhere for the people to turn in a nationwide system of organized crime under the aegis of private investment banks. The recent collapse and bankruptcy of MF Global is a huge factor in eroding public confidence. It appears that client funds (investors), even though segregated, were used to speculate for MF Global’s own account.

Jon Corzine, who ran MF Global into the ground, losing vast sums of investor funds, told a Congressional committee that he “didn’t know where the money went.”

Corzine is a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and a former Governor of New Jersey, a bankrupt State. Some people believe Corzine is in line to be the next U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the Obama Administration.

The likes of Corzine, Raj Rajaratnam, Bernie Madoff, Rajat Gupta and a legion of legal gangsters are gaming the system to enrich the Wall Street club. When widespread corruption is on the public stage, how long before the collapse of the whole system?

The pied pipers of Babylon have no clothes and they have no shame. They fear no prosecution because they are the privileged elite. These are the same people who ghostwrite things such as the recent 2012 National Defense Authorization Act and then turn the military loose on the American people whom they brand “terrorists and extremists.”

They are not oblivious to the coming economic collapse and the fact that they may be victims of the wrath of oppressed Americans and subject to public hanging. This is the expected pattern that develops in the chaos and crisis of the collapse of a despotic government. All this is in the next chapter of the default of national governments. It is already beginning for those who have eyes to see. All that is needed now is the trigger.

Goldman Sachs doesn’t stop at the U.S. border. Mario Monti, the new Prime Minister of Italy, the new European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and the freshly appointed Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos are all Goldman Sachs alumni. Add to this Petros Christodoulos, Chairman of Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency, who is a former trader for Goldman Sachs in London. This Goldman Sachs network goes on and on all over Europe.

The following is quoted from Marc Faber in his Gloom, Boom & Doom Report of Dec. 31:

Two other heavyweight members of Goldman’s European network have also figured large in the euro crisis: Otmar Issing, a former member of the Bundesbank board of directors and a one-time chief economist of the European Central Bank, and Ireland’s Peter Sutherland, an administrator for Goldman Sachs International, who played a behind the scenes role in the Irish bailout.

Marc Roche then goes on to explain that Goldman Sachs’ trading room benefitted from this “capital of relationships.” That may certainly have been the case, but we need to put this network of “friends” in the proper perspective. The other large financial institutions, and for that matter all major corporations, also have their “friends” in high places, plus their lobbyists who can influence the legislative process. In addition, judged by the performance of Goldman Sachs’ stock, the investment bank’s connections have lately been less useful. So, I am not a member of the Goldman Sachs detractor fraternity, as I know well that Goldman only did what all the other financial institutions have done, which is to use the dysfunctional political system and the money-printing central banks to their advantage. However, I will say that Goldman Sachs perfected the art and was therefore better at it.

The point I am driving at is that a reckless meritocracy creates an enormous economic and political mess. Yet, investors are looking at the very same people to solve the problems by implementing appropriate fiscal and monetary policies. But, if one looks carefully at the proposed measures (mostly money printing), it is apparent that they will merely postpone remedying the structural problems and not solve them. I have mentioned this because I see an increasing number of pundits who advocate money printing as the only solution to the problem of bank insolvencies.

If after reading the following article, you are not intensely sick, you are part of the problem!  When you read about the Dodd-Frank bill and how it did not do what it was "supposed" to do; how Maxine Waters will be the new head of the House Financial Services committee; how Hank Paulson went to his friends on Wall Street and told them what he was about to do (inside information); and how members of congress cannot be charged with insider information, it will tell you it is time to fire the whole bunch!

We send our Representatives to Washington to represent us, however, it appears as if they only represent our most base instincts. Theft, stealing, criminality, vice and influence peddling all become norms and honesty and morals goes out the window. They become the privileged ones and we get the honor of providing them with the best employee benefits in the world, not only while they are in office but for all of their and their spouses lives!

And if you are one of their friends, you get a pass on anything you do or you get special help in advancing your agenda.  Soros gets a special deal on IndyMac Bank, Countrywide lending give special rates to Dodd, Corzine does not get prosecuted and the list goes on.

Isn't it time that we hold them responsible?

Conservative Tom





Jail Cells for Corzine, Soros, Waters, Paulson, Frank, Pelosi, No One

John Ransom


Newt Gingrich made headlines in October because he suggested that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should go to jail for authoring the so-called Dodd-Frank banking reforms. Taken together the “landmark” reforms look a lot like an Obama speech: very wordy, very partisan, but full of inaction, cross-purposes and the typical liberal confusion about economics, society and man.

The legislation crafted by Dodd and Frank has reformed none of the systemic failures in our banking system, but it sure has made it harder for banks to loan money, or for you and me to buy a house.

Much of the failure of the housing sector to recover since 2008 can be laid at the feet of the misshapen and misanthropic Dodd-Frank reforms. And much of the failure of the economy in general to recover since 2008 can be laid at the feet of the failure of the housing sector to recover.

Loaning money was not a problem when Dodd and Frank both were getting favors from the industries they regulate. Dodd got a VIP loan from one of the most reckless sub-prime lenders, Countrywide; and Frank got his live-in lover- boyfriend, husband, wife, whatever- a job at Fannie Mae, the largest of the government mortgage mills- and Frank went on to staunchly defend Fannie as safe and sound in the run-up to the mortgage meltdown.

So naturally when Congress was looking for a pair of geniuses to fix the banking sector, Dodd and Frank had comedic resumes that stood out. It’s the way Congress has always done business.

"All being corrupt together," wrote E.L. Godkin, of Congress in 1873, "what is the use of investigating each other?" Godkin made a name as a muckraker and a reforming journalist who helped found the periodic magazine The Nation. Note that Godkin was a fierce critic of socialism.

But of course Frank and Dodd’s chances of seeing a jail cell are not just remote; the chances are nonexistent mostly because they would be judged by others who share the same ethical lapses that Dodd and Frank do.

You are either part of the club or not.

And it’s gotten to the point that we are just not even surprised anymore at the depth of depravity of our political class.

The TV news magazine 60 Minutes recently did an expose of how members of Congress, most notably our former Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi and our current Madam Speaker John Boehner, have possibly traded stocks on non-public information for their own benefit. And the reaction from Congress has been a tepid attempt to make Congress follow the same insider trading laws that the rest of us have had to follow for decades.

Despite some strong indications of ethical lapses not just jail, but even strongly-worded censure is out of the question.

This week it was revealed that at the height of the financial crisis at Fannie Mae, secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, stopped by some Wall Street offices and shared with traders his plan to have the government seize the assets of Fannie Mae, while he was publicly telling investors and the press the opposite.

Congress won’t investigate, and it practically won’t comment on the matter either.

Former US Senator, New Jersey Governor and Obama pal, Jon Corzine- according to vice president Joe Biden, Corzine was the first person Obama called for economic advice after the election and a key architect of the stimulus law passed by Obama- ran futures firm MF Global so solidly into the ground in a little over a year after being bounced from office that the firm dipped into customer accounts to pay their bills. Not only is that an ethical problem, it’s also illegal. No arrests have yet been made as of December 1st. Charlie Gasparino at Fox News says that as much as $1.2 billion dollars in customer money may be missing.

Oops.

And that’s how Congress will treat it.

Sure it issued a subpoena to Corzine.

But don’t expect the man to ever face jail time.

Now that the government is firmly in the business of business, expect the graft to multiply.

Our government subsidizes not just government guaranteed loans, as seen in the green graft Solyndra scheme, but government guaranteed profits to prominent campaign contributors.

As our featured writer Mike Shedlock observed on Monday, in 2009 the FDIC turned over a bank to an investment group led by George Soros that in one year made more than a billion dollars in profit- more than the group invested to buy the bank- despite the federal government still being on the hook for $11 billion in potential bad loan losses.

From the LA Times:

The billionaires' club of private financiers who took over the remains of IndyMac Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. turned a profit of $1.57 billion last year on the failed mortgage lender -- more than they invested less than a year ago.

Yet under the sale agreement, the federal deposit insurance fund still could lose nearly $11 billion on bad loans that the Pasadena institution made before it was sold last March and renamed OneWeste agreement, the federal deposit insurance fund still could lose nearly $11 billion on bad loans that the Pasadena institution made before it was sold last March and renamed OneWest Bank.

And soon, thanks to Barney Frank’s retirement, we could be looking at Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-God Help Us) in charge of tweaking the Dodd-Frank reforms as the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. Waters, named by Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington as one of the most corrupt politicians in DC, is under an ethics investigation for trying to secure a federal bailout for a bank she is personally, financially involved with.

Jail time? Ha!

Look for the House to tell Waters how very disappointed they are with her as she ascends to the number one post on the Financial Services Committee, while the US continues its descent into hell.

Corzine Gets Kid Glove Handling

Followers of this blog know that one of those who constantly comment on these posts is a fellow by the name of David.  We really appreciate his comments and his thoughtful approach, although we might not agree with what he says, that is ok.

In a previous comment, David said that we never post anything negative regarding Wall 

Street or the banks.

Today's posting is somewhat about Wall Street. It is the hands off, good guy approach the 

news media has taken with MF Global and most notably Jon Corozine, its CEO.  The 

following article is just an example from ABC News.  There is no mention of the millions of 

investor dollars that are missing. No accusation blaming the former New Jersey governor. 

The very limited discussion was about what he would do next.

If there were a Republican running a company which had "missing" 

investor dollars, there would be screaming for his/her head.  Occupy Wall Street would be

carrying signs for the executive's immediate firing.  Yet, Corozine gets a free pass.  This

is the press in 2011.

MF Global Faces Investigation, Jon Corzine's Future Uncertain

By SUSANNA KIM | ABC News – Tue, Nov 1, 2011

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  FBI Reportedly Investigates MF Global, Jon Corzine's Future Uncertain (ABC News)

The story of MF Global's downward spiral, with former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine at the helm, is only starting to unfold, though some may say it was a predictable one.

With news that federal regulators are investigating whether the broker-dealer is missing customer money, the company's failure may have larger repercussions to the financial system.

"I think it will add to the complexity of the situation and will add to more skeletons," Jody Lurie, corporate credit analyst at Janney Capital Markets, said. "This won't be as much of an open-and-shut case as we would expect."

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday that MF Global "reported possible deficiencies in customer futures segregated accounts held at the firm."

The two agencies determined that a bankruptcy proceeding led by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), as opposed to a bankrutpcy trustee, "would be the safest and most prudent course of action to protect customer accounts and assets."

MF Global's problems are mostly related to its exposure of $6 billion to European sovereign debt, part of $41 billion in total assets, according to Janney Capital Markets. The company's stock price declined more than two thirds last week after Moody's and Fitch downgraded the firm's debt. The company's board had met this weekend in New York to consider its options, including a sale, which ultimately failed.

"It's a bit unusual how the event unfolded," Patrick O'Shaughnessy, equity research analyst with Raymond James & Associates, said.

O'Shaugnessy said he agreed that the bankruptcy unfolded relatively quickly.

How much blame can be placed on Corzine is unclear, though he did have an "aggressive" plan during a volatile period, said Lurie.

The problem was that MF Global, initially a "middle-man" in trading, had too much risk relative to its size, she added.

"MF Global has more narrowed business focus. Their exposure to Europe was a lot bigger than their size," she said. "Their liquidity levels were not robust enough to handle that risk."

Describing MF Global's second quarter results on Oct. 25, Corzine expressed some optimism in the company's future, despite a drop in revenues to $205.9 million for the second quarter, compared with $240.3 million for the same period last year.

"Over the course of the past year, we have seen opportunities in short-dated European sovereign credit markets and built a fully financed, laddered maturity portfolio that we actively manage," Corzine said at the time. "We remain confident that we have the resources and expertise to continue to successfully manage these exposures to what we believe will be a positive conclusion in December 2012."

Brought on to lead MF Global into the next level as a financial institution, Corzine had come from politics after being ousted as CEO of Goldman Sachs. His career as CEO of Goldman Sachs spanned from 1994 until 1999.

An article in New York magazine from July 2005 reported that he was booted out of the company in a coup that took place after he had gotten the bank's gigantic IPO approved and had gone skiing with his family.

"While he was away, three members of Goldman's five-member executive committee, led by Corzine's co–chief executive, Hank Paulson (the man he appointed and who still runs the company), staged a palace coup, stripping him of his CEO title and his power," the magazine reported in 2005. (Paulson is no longer Goldman's CEO; from 2006-08, he served as Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush.)

Corzine was devastated and humiliated, so much so that he was determined to stay on for several months but worked from his car, the magazine reported.

He eventually left Goldman a richer man in terms of dollars, but "like an athlete who suddenly finds himself out of sports, Corzine needed to satisfy his continuing hunger to compete," the magazine wrote.

He became New Jersey senator from 2001 to 2006, then governor from 2006, leading the state through a government shutdown and a crisis in municipal funding that many localities and states had to endure. His tenure ended when current Gov. Chris Christie defeated him in 2009.

Lurie said it is anybody's guess what Corzine will do next.

"I don't think he's necessarily crying for money. If he wanted to throw in the towel, he very well could. But I think it leaves it up to what people make of it," she said.

Like Corzine's, the futures of the company's 2,900 employees are unclear, though the Financial Times reported employees in the office in London were told not to work but were not sent home.

Lurie said MF Global's bankruptcy has spooked the financial system, even diminishing the positive effect of the Greek debt deal last week.

"But now with this news from MF global falling apart in two weeks of being in the spotlight reminds us it's easy for financials to get caught up in market skepticism," Lurie said.

The bankruptcy demonstrates that while many financial institutions are in better positions now than they were in 2008, a liquidity scare can still cause a firm to deteriorate very quickly. It took only two weeks since the first discussion about MF Global's inadequate capital for the company to file for bankruptcy, she said, though there were earlier warnings.

In August, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an independent securities-firms regulator, instructed MF Global to boost its required net capital because of its exposure in Europe. And ahead of the company's second quarter results on Oct. 25, Moody's downgraded the company's debt to "Baa3" from "Baa2."

"Once Moody's downgraded the company and after the company posted a very poor quarter, the rest was a very quick process, somewhat akin to a run on the bank where perception of weakness becomes the reality," Patrick O'Shaughnessy, equity research analyst with Raymond James & Associates, said.

On Tuesday, Moody's downgraded the company further to "Caa1."

MF Global had disclosed its European sovereign debt position as early as its May 2011 10-K filing with the SEC, but it wasn't until Moody's downgraded MF's debt rating in late October that investor and client concern really started to rise, said O'Shaughnessy.

O'Shaughnessy said what was most surprising was the inability of Corzine and MF Global to "be on the same page" with the ratings agencies in terms of what level of risk and leverage was appropriate.

"A downgrade to junk for a firm with MF's profile and funding structure is essentially a death knell, so one would have expected MF to do everything possible to retain its investment grade rating," he said.

The SIPC announced Monday it is initiating the liquidation of MF Global, headquartered in New York City, under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970, as opposed to the federal bankruptcy code.

The SIPC can arrange the transfer of MF Global's brokerage accounts to a different securities brokerage firm, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. If the SIPC is unable to arrange the transfer, the failed firm can be liquidated and the SIPC could send investors certificates for the stock that was lost or a check for the market value of the shares.