Eliot Spitzer: A Secret Scandal (Govt. and Big Banks deceived the public)

[marmar]

from Slate:



A Secret Scandal
The government and the big banks deceived the public about their $7 trillion secret loan program. They should be punished.

By Eliot Spitzer | Posted Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, at 1:34 PM ET


Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth: At the time you made the statements to the bank, you actually were unemployed, you had a $1 million mortgage on your house on which you had failed to make payments for six months, and you hadn’t paid even the minimum on your credit-card bills for three months. Do you think the bank would just say: Never mind, don’t worry about it? Of course not. Whether or not you had paid back the personal line of credit, three FBI agents would be at your door within hours.

Yet this is exactly what the major American banks have done to the public. During the deepest, darkest period of the financial cataclysm, the CEOs of major banks maintained in statements to the public, to the market at large, and to their own shareholders that the banks were in good financial shape, didn’t want to take TARP funds, and that the regulatory framework governing our banking system should not be altered. Trust us, they said. Yet, unknown to the public and the Congress, these same banks had been borrowing massive amounts from the government to remain afloat. The total numbers are staggering: $7.7 trillion of credit—one-half of the GDP of the entire nation. $460 billion was lent to J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley alone—without anybody other than a few select officials at the Fed and the Treasury knowing. This was perhaps the single most massive allocation of capital from public to private hands in our history, and nobody was told. This was not TARP: This was secret Fed lending. And although it has since been repaid, it is clear why the banks didn’t want us to know about it: They didn’t want to admit the magnitude of their financial distress.

The banks’ claims of financial stability and solvency appear at a minimum to have been misleading—and may have been worse. Misleading statements and deception of this sort would ordinarily put a small-market player or borrower on the wrong end of a criminal investigation.

So where are the inquiries into the false statements made by the bank CEOs? And where are the inquiries about the Fed and Treasury officials who stood by silently as bank representatives made claims that were false, misleading, or worse? .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/11/the_7_trillion_secret_loan_program_the_government_and_big_banks_should_be_punished_for_deceiving_the_public_about_their_hush_hush_bailout_scheme_.html

[geckosfeet]

1. Indeed. Where are the inquiries?

[tomp]

17. the inquiries are hidden away somewhere....

...with hope and change. probably at gitmo.

[Uben]

2. Banksters deserve a fair trial.......

.....and a proper hanging. It's the least we can do!

[truedelphi]

33. Thank you for a good laugh. n/t

[PETRUS]

3. K&R

[dballance]

4. Okay, Since the Supremes made corporations "persons" when is jail time for them?

[snagglepuss]

5. It's hard to process the enormity of this deception. nt

[CarmanK]

6. US needs to HIRE SPITZER to go after the crooks on Wall St.

It should come as no surprise that I think this is a logical step. Spitzer should be hired by the DOJ to head up the investigation into WALL STREET CHICANERY and to bring charges against the real criminals hiding behind the corporate shield. We know that the BUSHIES peppered the DOJ with incompetent political hacks in order to politicize the DOJ actions and oversight. It is time to clean house, especially in NY and CA, AZ, FL. WI and OH and get these crooks off the streets.

[truedelphi]

34. You are overlooking the fact that the US government used its

Super Hero Dept of Homeland Security powers to wire tap Eliot Spitzer's bank accounts and see how he spent his money.

Then upon finding that he was spending his money at the same brothel that many Republican war criminals were using to support a sex addiction, the US saw to it that Eliot Spitzer was outed with a scandal, and he was removed from his office as governor of state of New York..

This is key - because as governor he could have started unraveling the many true crimes of Wall Street, and it would not be surprising if Tim Geithner would have been the first of those charged,
and perhaps even charged with RICO violations. (While head of the NY Fed, Geithner manipulated monetary events so that his friends at Goldman Sachs and AIG received far more than they should have received.)

Instead, lil Timmy continues on as Secretary of the Treasury, with all his many malicious-toward- America's-Middle-Class-activities - and Bernanke knows his misdeeds of lending out between nine to fourteen trillions of dollars (Money that has been repaid only with worthless investment papers) will never be punished either.

All is well in Big Banking Land.

[bvar22]

7. Eliot Spitzer is one of the very few voices I trust.

He has earned it.






You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
Solidarity99!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Enthusiast]

21. Me too.

[certainot]

8. it's obama's fault!

some idiot was going to say that so i'd thought i'd beat them to it...

[JJW]

9. Who selected Geithner & Bernanke?

[certainot]

11. it made sense to pick a guy who knew where the bush skeletons were and how things

worked under the table and believe the guy was interested in using his position to save the economy of the united states of america from complete disaster and sabotage by the bush crime family as opposed to one of a bunch of outsiders who may have been nobel winners but who may have wilted under bush crime family pressure- especially when so many of the obama voters were new and naive and easily confused as to how to get the backs of those they'd just elected.

wasn't bernanke a bush appointee?

[marmar]

12. Geithner's main interest is saving his Goldman Sachs friends from liability for their messes.....

..... not saving the American economy.

[certainot]

13. i think he was more interested in saving the US economy than jailing sm players responsible for

tanking the economy in what was part of a huge op to destroy obama and get repubs back in ASAP.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. Leonardo DaVinci said:

He who refuses to punish evil commands it to occur. I agree.

[certainot]

29. you expected obama to do it? the left never got his back from the beginning.

600 local limbaugh stations regularly sell club gitmo coffee cups and t-shirts, some of the bigger ones do it along with your state university football and basketball games. without complaint. if that shit never gets a complaint how can we expect our reps to stick their necks out on torture?

a lot of new voters, whether because of age or because they finally got off their asses and started paying attention, may have thought that but it is simply not a rational reading of the strength of the right in this country and their ability to wreak havoc. they lied us into wars and sabotaged the economy on the way out and have done some amazingly corrupt and anti democratic crap the las thirty years i've been watching. and gotten away with most of it, no matter who was in charge.

making things worse the ignorant left has no organized opposition to the right's best weapon, 1000 think tank coordinated radio stations that get a free speech free ride while they swiftboat and lie about liberals and their candidates and causes all day to 50 mil people. so as a group the left can't say they got obama's back from the start nor are now. how far can we really expect our reps to stick their necks out fi we give the right a total free speech free ride to chop at them all day?

millions in the streets didn't stop the iraq attack because they didn't go to the main megaphones for the lies - the talk radio stations - where a few blowhards with big microphone drowned them out.

i've been watching politics for 30 years and obama is better than we deserved. the left has allowed a 10% minority yell over them, short circuit the democratic feedback mechanisms democracy needs, and take free potshots at their reps all day. and because the left allowed the bush crime family to steal two elections many of the relevant govt agencies are still riddled with their lackeys.

look back over the real history of US politics since the bush crime family got reagan in with the first october surprise, very possibly downed a plane with 13 yo samantha smith because she was becoming the anti reagan and threatening their PR ops with star wars and other war machinery, central america,election theft, etc.

a black man was not going to put the bushes and roves in jail without national consensus, which is impossible as long as the most powerful man in the republican party is rush limbaugh,( because the left lets it be so).

[Enthusiast]

23. Close scrutiny of their actions

show us that this is simply not true. I am devastated. When we elected Obama I thought we were electing a wonderful person, someone on our side that would uphold the rule of law. I was sadly mistaken. The actions of the Obama DOJ have so far amounted to a monument to corruption and fraud. I couldn't be more disappointed. I suggest you closely reevaluate your position.

[certainot]

28. it was never possible for obama to waltz into the white billionaire's house and kick ass and bring

justice. a lot of new voters, whether because of age or because they finally got off their asses and started paying attention, may have thought that but it is simply not a rational reading of the strength of the right in this country and their ability to wreak havoc. they lied us into wars and sabotaged the economy on the way out and have done some amazingly corrupt and anti democratic crap the las thirty years i've been watching. and gotten away with most of it, no matter who was in charge.

making things worse the ignorant left has no organized opposition to the right's best weapon, 1000 think tank coordinated radio stations that get a free speech free ride while they swiftboat and lie about liberals and their candidates and causes all day to 50 mil people. so as a group the left can't say they got obama's back from the start nor are now.

millions in the streets didn't stop the iraq attack because they didn't go to the main megaphones for the lies - the talk radio stations - where a few blowhards with big microphone drowned them out.

i've been watching politics for 30 years and obama is better than we deserved. the left has allowed a 10% minority yell over them, short circuit the democratic feedback mechanisms democracy needs, and take free potshots at their reps all day. and because the left allowed the bush crime family to steal two elections many of the relevant govt agencies are still riddled with their lackeys.

look back over the real history of US politics since the bush crime family got reagan in with the first october surprise, very possibly downed a plane with 13 yo samantha smith because she was becoming the anti reagan and threatening their PR ops with star wars and other war machinery, central america,election theft, etc.

a black man was not going to put the bushes and roves in jail without national consensus, which is impossible as long as the most powerful man in the republican party is rush limbaugh,( because the left lets it be so).

[Enthusiast]

22. Thank you.

[tomp]

18. some idiot was going to deny it...

...so i posted upstream.

[lostnote12]

10. "Honey Dew"..???........Too bad Spitzer fell victem

.........to the ole "tap" your phone and discover a little daliance on the side scenario.....I still beleive that as NY AG he could have helped expose the Wall street corruption before it excalated to the orgy of greed that it became.....

[Samantha]

14. He was taken down BECAUSE he was going to reveal

details about the housing market bubble and ensuing crash. The investigation into his private life just before he did so was not an incidental occurrence.

[lostnote12]

15. that is my take as well...n/m

[Enthusiast]

24. Precisely.

[fasttense]

16. And his final recommendations would keep government officials from

taking stolen loot.

"Finally: Demand that politicians return all contributions made by the institutions that got hidden loans. Pressure the politicians who continue to feed from the trough of Wall Street, even as they know all too well how the banks and others have gamed the system and the public."

We'll let you steal from our government as long as you pay us some of the loot.

[Enthusiast]

25. That is beautiful.

[Enthusiast]

20. They should be punished.

They should be punished. They should be punished. They should be punished. They should be punished.
They should be punished. They should be punished. They should be punished. They should be punished.
They should be punished. They should be punished. They should be punished. They should be punished.

[txlibdem]

26. Everyone at The Fed connected with this crime should be jailed

And everyone who should have been watching them or regulating them should at the very least be fired with no pension, if not jailed themselves as complicit.

This is a theft of half of the entire GDP of a nation! Why aren't these f**kers in jail?!?

[bertman]

27. Too late to REC, but here's a KICK. Only 26 RECS. Hard to believe. This is what is

wrong with our country. The financial elites control EVERYTHING.

Thanks for posting this, marmar.

[txlibdem]

36. It was easy for them to push away a few hundred kids and old people: OWS

I wonder what would happen if a million of us got together to demand justice and an end to wall street domination...

Then I wonder if 2, 3 or even 10 million could make their voices too loud to drown out...

[Hotler]

30. k&r n/t

[yurbud]

31. Do you ever get the feeling our whole financial system is about to collapse like the Ponzi scheme it

is?

[blkmusclmachine]

32. Massive and long-term. Now we know why all the Bush holdovers since 2008:

It's a syndicate.

[pghtytfan]

35. Question

Did anyone see "Client 9" was it worth the 2 hours?

[Jefferson23]

37. K&R for Spitzer. n/t