Oh Timmeh

[AllentownJake]

You really thought you'd get away with the AIG scam?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXIvW4igKV38

This coupled with a few of your actions this year. The tax breaks through rule interpretation to the banks that are larger than TARP payments come to mind.

I wonder if you are going to get to spend more time with your family, be wearing an orange jump suit, or receive a Presidential Pardon when your crime spree finally stops. Paraguay has excellent weather this time of year as well.

[KG]

1. can't ya tell the warm and fuzzy feelings i get knowing the foxes are guarding the hen house.

:eyes:

[AllentownJake]

2. That analogy doesn't work

Foxes imply they have a useful intent for the hens...i.e. eating.

[chimpymustgo]

3. Tim is doing his masters' bidding.

[Enrique]

4. interesting that AIG wanted to disclose more

and the NY Fed was pushing them to disclose less.

I don't fully understand this, I don't see the NY Fed's motivation.

[AllentownJake]

6. They were settling derivative contracts on a bankrupt entity $ for $

Instead of forcing negotiation.

I'd want to hide that from the public as well. Particularly since all parties thought they'd get a hair cut.

The AIG execs wanted to avoid prison.

[Enrique]

7. ah, I see

and I see Goldman Sachs was one of the beneficiaries...

[laughingliberal]

9. I'm wondering of this administration has done anything that does not benefit Goldman Sachs

It just goes on and on.

[AllentownJake]

10. The answer is no. nt.

[TornadoTN]

5. Geithners appointment was the biggest red flag that things had "changed"

It's almost as if he was thrust upon the Obama administration, either as a Trojan Horse or as someone who wouldn't upset the status quo.

Either way, this was the worst appointment by Obama and even worse is the continued standing by this guy. So much reminds me of the way the Bush administration operated during their tenure. Gives credence to the fact that many of us already know, Big Business and Monetary Interests rule this country.

[AllentownJake]

12. Larry Summers was for me

He advocated exporting pollution to the third world because their poor healthcare system meant they wouldn't notice as much in the 90s and said that women were just not smart enough to be department heads in Science departments when the head of Harvard.

If the President can hand a government salary to such a person, the progressive talk was obviously bullshit.

[QC]

15. Putting Goolsbee in the campaign was a very early clue.

There were lots of early clues, of course, but few saw them or would tolerate any discussion of them.

[AllentownJake]

16. I was dumb

I should have stopped volunteering on the Presidential race and moved to the congressional race locally after the FISA vote. I thought it was just political posturing for the election.

I WAS WRONG.

[Subdivisions]

22. Larry Summers and Tim Geithner ensures the oligarchy has their inside

inside men.

[laughingliberal]

8. It is way past time for this criminal element to be purged from our executive branch

As far as I can tell Volcker is the only part of the economic team that might be worth keeping and we've already heard reports that he is shut out of most decisions. And this just pisses me off. If it was a liberal in the administration drawing fire from Fox news, they'd be out the door before they could pack up their office.

[AllentownJake]

11. Not going to happen

Doing some research today on why Citigroup seems to get such governmental appreciation these days I discovered that former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, Larry Summers mentor, got 17,000,000 in cash and 33,000,000 in options from his retirement as Treasury Secretary till the end of 2008.

So the criminal enterprise is vast, and goes back 20 years at least in our party.

[laughingliberal]

13. The question is can they really keep all this under wraps forever?

Is there never going to be a public outcry?

[AllentownJake]

14. Yes when they stop extending unemployment and cut social security

because they run out of money.

They are giving us some pain killers while they take our Kidneys, most people won't notice till their Kidneys are gone. By that time they will have taken the Gulf Stream to their next target.

[laughingliberal]

17. That, unfortunately, is my impression, also

And are we really seeing, even here, people that just can't see what's coming. Or, are we seeing people who know what's coming but support that agenda?

[AllentownJake]

18. 75% of them believe the talking points ignore actions

or are pacified with an appointment here or there or an executive order every so often. 25% of them support this shit.

[QC]

19. For a lot of these people, it is enough that the president look dreamy in his swimsuit.

We're not talking real cerebral types here.

[AllentownJake]

20. He is a good looking man and can give a very good speech.

Of course we have a profession already set aside for such people...I forget what it is called.

[QC]

26. Amway salesmen? n/t

[AllentownJake]

27. You

:spank:

[TornadoTN]

34. Or in a windbreaker on a billboard

I just about fell out of my chair when I was reading that thread. People were gushing about how proud they were that he was our President, just because he looked good on a billboard wearing a waterproof windbreaker.

They forget everything else that's going on and ignore the obvious. Like you said, not really cerebral types.

[QC]

36. And let's not forget the clamor over those photos of him eating ie cream.

It was like something one would read in the Tiger Beat forum.

[laughingliberal]

23. It's nuts. Like working class RW's who cut their own throats as long as the candidate is 'pro-life'

I always thought Democrats, by and large, were smarter than that. Another illusion shattered.

[AllentownJake]

25. There is about 10% of the population that has the mental capacity to understand things

Of that 5% are benefiting by keeping things the way they are and 5% are fighting to make things better.

The 5% that benefits is better funded and has spent years researching how to manipulate the 90%.

[laughingliberal]

28. Discouraging to say the least. nt

[AllentownJake]

31. All frauds unwind

Just a question if they get to Paraguay when it does or not.

[TornadoTN]

38. You hit the proverbial nail on the head

That's a great breakdown and it fits perfectly.

I might add that the 5% who keep fighting to keep things the way they are have no political affiliation as a group - they are made up of the elites and powerful from both sides of our ridiculous system.

[AllentownJake]

39. They align themselves with who is in power and use the campaign finance

system to ensure they are the ones calling the shots whether the congress is controlled by democrats or republicans.

They have moles in both parties that ensure that whatever legislation is passed they get their pound of flesh.

[dgibby]

24. Forget the kidneys.

These bastards aren't going to be happy until they cut your beating heart out of your chest and eat it in front of you, along with fava beans and a nice Chianti!:grr: And there are some who will gleefully volunteer their livers for the pate.

[G_j]

21. K&R!

[Nikki Stone1]

29. Congressman Darryl Issa again. The man who brought CA the recall and Arnold.

AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee....

Issa requested the e-mails from AIG Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche in October after Bloomberg News reported that the New York Fed ordered the crippled insurer not to negotiate for discounts in settling the swaps. The decision to pay the banks in full may have cost AIG, and thus taxpayers, at least $13 billion, based on the discount the insurer was seeking.

The e-mail exchanges between AIG and the New York Fed over the insurer’s disclosure of the transactions show that the regulator pressed the company to keep details out of the public eye. Issa’s comments add to criticism from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, who wrote letters in the past two months demanding information from Geithner, 48, about the costs of the AIG bailout......

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXIvW4igKV38

[TornadoTN]

33. Issa is a jerk, but irrelevant in the scope of this

I really don't care who brought the e-mails to light, it's information that all of us need to know. It just confirms to many of us what is going on behind the scenes in this administration.

[Nikki Stone1]

35. Issa is interesting to me as a SoCal resident

He's had his fingers in a lot of interesting pies.

[TornadoTN]

37. Oh, there's no doubt about it

Plenty of dirt is sure to abound on him. I'm just saying, I'm glad we got the news on this, even though the source is Issa.

[Nikki Stone1]

50. You know, I have my suspicions about Issa

and his intelligence connections. Of course, as AIG was an intelligence cover, it would make sense that the Issa would have the info on this.

[kentuck]

30. What did the President know and when did he know it?

Seriously. Did he know this shit about Geithner?

[AllentownJake]

32. Regardless he knows now

Therefore action should be expected.

Seeing the tax rule interpretations have been defended by the White House, my guess is he knows more than we do.

[Little Star]

51. Don't hold your breath waiting for that action. n/t

[bvar22]

40. Heck of a job, Timmy!

"President Barack Obama said he has “complete confidence” in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the furor over bonuses paid by American International Group Inc. shows the urgent need to overhaul financial market rules.

In the face of criticism of the Treasury secretary from Republican lawmakers, Obama said Geithner has been making “all the right moves” in dealing with the financial crisis and the situation surrounding insurer AIG."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPNnF.2ezVaY

This is a little old (March 18th), but Obama's press conference praising Geithner was eerily reminiscent of Bush's praising of FEMA director Michael Brown after Katrina...."Heck of a Job, Brownie!"

[laughingliberal]

44. Heck of a job redux. No doubt about it. nt

[Little Star]

53. It does bring "Heck of a Job, Brownie" to mind. n/t

[NashVegas]

41. Why Are We Not Protesting College Campuses' Economic Schools?

They're the ones turning out these geniuses.

[TornadoTN]

43. It's not necessarily the colleges or professors

I received my MBA from a pretty good school and had a lot of smart, enthusiastic, and liberal classmates. We had good professors that were a good mix of all of the schools of thought on economics and business.

Most of us had to go out and find jobs like most Americans. But there were a few of my classmates that were wealthy and affluent, mostly conservatives, that had jobs already lined up or were given the fast track to the high-profile positions.

My opinion is that the people like that are identified and recruited to take those types of positions, so that one day they can be the next Summers or Geithner. That's what most companies want because it doesn't disturb the status quo that they have in place.

[AllentownJake]

45. Geithner and Summers are both legacies

You raise a very good point.

[TornadoTN]

46. A lot of my conservative classmates were legacies

While most of the liberals in my cohort were first in their families to ever go to college.

My Managerial Economics professor was a big Keynesian, so it rubbed off on me because it made sense. He told me that I should focus on getting hired in the public sector, because the private sector isn't going to like a Keynesian in their midst. I still pushed my angle and even wrote several papers on the coming economic crisis (this was 2004-06) and how to fix it once it started.

Several companies interviewed me for positions, but they were all eventually filled with some of my conservative classmates. Luckily, I already had a good position and my HR manager told me that my professors spoke glowingly of me but some were quick to point out that I had a pronounced liberal leaning and that it might hurt my prospects in the private sector. I'm fully convinced that most companies try to keep hiring the same mentality people so as not to disturb their current machine.

[Hardrada]

47. I have suspected for some time that the very sharp young people

who could be national leaders are identified and co-opted while still in college. I always wondered about the very early prominence of the Clintons for instance. So the initially non-elite are early on guided in their careers to preside over our misfortune.

[bullwinkle428]

42. I have yet to see or hear an interview with that guy, where he doesn't

come off as an incompetent, stumbling clown!

[taught_me_patience]

48. Kick. n/t

[AllentownJake]

49. Kick

[cherokeeprogressive]

52. And a pushhhhhh... backtothetop. n/t

[jgraz]

54. Timmeh needs to go. Now.