This is Wall Street

[Joanne98]

As Republican nihilists carry out their war on working Americans, it's important to understand just how rotten is the industry they rushed to deregulate and bail out. And yes, there were Robert Rubin, Chuck Schumer and some Clintonistias among the deregulators -- but let's be real. With the exception of Lincoln and TR, the GOP has always been Wall Street's party. And now we're getting a sense of just how corrupt the Street has become.

Bernard Madoff is one of the most prominent and influential financiers in America. Now we know he allegedly engineered the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, a fraud worth at least $50 billion. The fraud has snared many big names and forced at least one charity to close. Of course, regulators ignored years of red flags.

As we obsess over Blago and his pretty wife Patti, awaiting some connection to the president-elect, I hope we also pay close attention to Madoff and all he represents. He is Wall Street, not some outlier bad apple. The Wall Street that gave us years of job killing and community ravaging mergers; financial weapons of mass destructions called derivatives -- that have now exploded, and the worst collapse since the Depression. Their financial plays helped hollow out America's real economy and leave Red China holding $2 trillion in dollars.

And all that came from the "legitimate" activities that made billions for the financial elite as Americans saw their pay stagnate and now see their jobs cut, 401(k)s gutted and houses foreclosed. Yet all those billions weren't enough. The elite apparently also had to run real Ponzi schemes, so unquenchable is its venality. And yet Washington has given it as much as $2 trillion in assorted bailouts, no questions asked. So tell me why American auto workers, making an average $28-an-hour but enjoying some help from a union, are somehow greedy bastards who should be thrown out of work?

http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/12/this-is-wall-street.html

[pa28]

1. How long before Madoff's victims want TARP money?

Citing the "vital economic role" of the super rich? How long will it be before media shills on CNBC start advocating the idea?

[Joanne98]

2. Actually foreign banks are already asking for TARP money.. They say they are eligible

under the WTO rules. A complicated thingy I haven't bothered to try and figure out yet. But I was thinking when I'm layed off again in two weeks, I might start waging war against that institution!

[pa28]

4. Criminal action here?

I really hope the new Congress makes a serious effort at accountability and analysis. The analysis and hard questions we should have had before handing over the first dime.

I've read conflicting stories on whether or not Hank Paulson actually did sell his shares in Goldman Sachs before becoming treasury secretary. The government buys billions of dollars worth of preferred stock from them at inflated prices and then shovels over a hundred billion at AIG which has now evaporated as "counter party collateral" - and of course GS was one of the primary counter parties.

Would it surprise anybody if mortgaging the treasury was really about saving Hank Paulson's holdings? Did he break the law . . . Oh that's right the TARP gives him immunity from any future prosecution. LOOoL! what a scam.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

3. CNN's front page has not had one hint of the Madoff story in the past 2 1/2 days.

Have they talked about it on the CNN boob tube? ~I don't watch it.

[annabanana]

5. This is one of those stories that will be "alluded to" but never covered

by corpomedia. You will hear the bobbleheads mention one piece of fall-out or another, but they will never actually explain why this or that thing is crashing down....

(rec)

[Citizen Number 9]

8. Do you mean like this CNN and Fortune coverage?

'Financial Psychopaths' Wreak Havoc

Is this the sort of article or analysis that you won't see?

[bbgrunt]

6. k and r.

[marketcrazy1]

7. say goodby to hedge funds!

I have been waiting (praying) for something like this, we need a BIG player to come clean, this is not the only 50 billion dollar ponzi scheme running out there. next week should be interesting as the fallout reveals the losers. this guy could be the one who brings it all down, I pray for his safety!