This is news?? They've all been like this. Starting with BSC.....just putting 10lbs of shit into a 5 lb bag for later. The FDIC has done this as well(albeit on a much smaller and quieter scale)....where is the outrage about that process??
On many occasions the receiving bank on the FDIC's process is just told that "yes you own this now"..... why would it be any different at the Fed/Treasury?
Paulson is snitching, and throwing Bernanke under the rug. Maybe cause he knows they can't touch the FED. Who prosecutes the FED anyways for abuse of powers???
people can be outraged all they want.....all they need to do is play the whole "national security" bullshit and they get a free pass to do anything they want. The problem is that, with the passage of the patriot act, the term "emergency" or "exigent circumstances" can be applied to a mother duck walking her ducklings across the street.....
F*ck them all....the looting continues with the bit player's all coming out and saying "gee....we're so sorry about all this".
'This financialization of our consciousness under American style capitalism has become all we know. That's why we fear its loss. Hence the bailouts of the thousands of "zombie banks," dead but still walking, thanks to the people's taxpayer offerings to the money god so that banks will not die. We believe that we dare not let corporations die. Corporations feed us. They entertain us. Corporations occupy one full half of our waking hours of our lives, through employment, either directly or indirectly. They heal us when we are sick. So it's easy to see why the corporations feel like a friendly benevolent entity in the larger American consciousness. Corporations are, of course, deathless and faceless machines, and have no soul or human emotions. That we look to them for so much makes us a corporate cult, and makes corporations a fetish of our culture. Yet to us, they are like the weather just there.' Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Sounds like a criminal act to me. Lewis was in an impossible position, but he could serve as an unindicted co-conspirator. Paulson and Bernanke should be in prison.
'Strangely enough, even as a population mass operating under unified corporate management machinery, most Americans believe they are unique individuals, significantly different from every other person around them. More than any other people I have met, Americans fear loss of uniqueness. Yet you and I are not unique in the least. Despite the American yada yada about individualism, you are not special. Nor am I. Just because we come from the manufacturer equipped with individual consciousness, does not make us the center of any unique world, private or public, material, intellectual or spiritual. The fact is, you will seldom if ever make any significant material or lifestyle choices of your own in your entire life. If you don't buy that house, someone else will. If you don't marry him, someone else will. If you don't become a psychologist, lawyer or a clergyman or a telemarketer, someone else will. We are all replaceable parts in the machinery of a capitalist economy. "Oh but we have unique feelings and emotions that are important," we say. Psychologists specialize in this notion. Yet I venture to say that none of us will ever feel an emotion that someone long dead has not felt, or some as yet unborn person will not feel. We are swimmers in an ancient rushing river of humanity. You, me, the people in my Central American village, the child in Bangladesh, and the millionaire frat boys who run our financial and governmental institutions with such adolescent carelessness. All of our lives will eventually be absorbed without leaving a trace.' Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
"At the urging of U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, Lindbergh wrote a secret memo to the British warning that if Britain and France responded militarily to German dictator Adolf Hitler's violation of the Munich Agreement in 1938, it would be suicide."
So do the actions of the fed and treasury over the past 2 years.
Everything that has been done by the fed and treasury has had one over-arching purpose - bailout/cover-up the ponzi scheme on wall street. People wondered how Madoff could constantly deliver stellar returns. The same scam used by Madoff was used by wall street to garner ever expanding bonuses year after year - lying.
Here's the sad part. After all the well connected bad actors have secured their bailouts, then suddenly money will become scarce. Super freakin scarce. Money for social security? NFW, cut benefits. Money for health care? NFW, cut the benefits. Money for infrastructure? Tolkens at best. Money for education? Eat sh%t and die losers. Pay your bills dead beats. Lower taxes on earned income? Sorry, can't keep that pledge. And we don't want to cut taxes on unearned income as it might upset our fragile markets.
What a sham(e)!
We need to save wall street to save main street. What a crock. We need to let wall street implode to save main street. Let the free market work.
nova said, "Well, after you are past 45 in IT, especially now, it is all over. "
i think it is over for collage makers. shopping cart builders, graphic designers, simple web site builders and superfluous programmers in soon to fail businesses. however, many who have real programming skills and an entrepreneurial bent will prosper by creating new companies. starting a business with their skills should be the focus for adults over 45, not trying to compete with children for jobs as cogs.
the problem with the over 45 set is their legacy post WW2 world view that told them:
1: go to school
2: get a job in a company
3: forget about work when you go home
4: retire happily on the government dole.
that plan worked for a long time but it is over.
the new plan will be:
1: learn and earn where you can
2: make your own job
3: your work becomes your life
4. retire happily if you are able to save and add value with your endeavors.
'The bad news is that we nevertheless remain one of the most controlled peoples on the planet, especially regarding control of our consciousness, public and private. And the control is tightening. I know it doesn't feel like that to most Americans. But therein rests the proof. Everything feels normal; everybody else around us is doing the same things, so it must be OK. This is a sort of Stockholm Syndrome of the soul, in which the prisoner identifies with the values of his or her captors, which in our case is of course, the American corporate state and its manufactured popular culture.
When we feel that such a life is normal, even desirable, and we act accordingly, we become helpless. Learned helplessness. For instance, most Americans believe there is little they can do in personally dealing with the most important moral and material crises ever faced, both in America and across the planet, beginning with ecocide, war making, and the grotesque deformation of the democratic process we have settled for. Citizenship has been reduced to simple consumer group consciousness. Consequently, even though Americans are only six percent of the planet's population, we use 36% of the planet's resources. And we interpret that experience as normal and desirable and as evidence of being the most advanced nation in the world. Despite that our lives have been reduced to a mere marketing demographic.' Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Every American old enough to dial 911 should have one. The phones don't cost much. They still give them away with service. The service doesn't cost much. Put up a wind turbine, power up a tower. The code has all been written. the airwaves are still free, public property. People begrudging the homeless a $20/ month (and falling) device that connects them to society- sick.
Kenneth Lewis is trying to cover his ass. BoA must be in a world of hurt and he is going to blame Paulson and Bernanke for putting a gun to his head.
What we're witnessing is the disintegration of the backroom deals the government struck with the banksters to prop up this mess. If Lewis is hung out to dry, no other bank will take a chance like this again.
Corporations are, of course, deathless and faceless machines, and have no soul or human emotions. That we look to them for so much makes us a corporate cult, and makes corporations a fetish of our culture. Yet to us, they are like the weather just there.
In the end it always seems that morality has to come from the people, not institutions or authority.
The simple fact is that the criminal element will always gravitate to the power structures in a society.
That's why it is always inevitable that the must be cleaned out from time to time.
The more of a stranglehold these criminals have the more difficult and gruesome the task.
We need to wrestle government back from the West Coast, it has resided there for the last 29 years. Stinky. We can start thinking of farming, REOs , bridge collapses, levy breaks, flooding , hurricanes and airplane hits. The rest of the country and people can benefit for a change.
There clearly is more to this story. A govi official told me to break the law is a weak defense.
It takes guts to tell the Treasury Secretary and the head of the Fed "no" when they tell you the world may end otherwise. I doubt anyone would have acted differently.
'Anyway, American and Canadian tourists drive by in their rented SUVs and you can see by their expressions they are scared as hell of those bare footed black folks in the sand around them. Central America sure as hell ain't heaven. But lives there are not what we Americans are told about the Third World either. It's not a flyblown, dangerous place run by murdering drug lords, and full of miserable people. It's just a whole lot of very poor people trying to get by and make a decent society.
I mention these things because it's a good example of how North Americans live in a parallel universe in which they are conditioned to see everything in terms of consumer goods and "safety," as defined by police control. Conditioned to believe they have the best lives on the planet by every measure. So when they see our village and its veneer of "tropical grunge," they experience fear. Anything outside of the parameters of the cultural hallucination they call "the first world" represents fear and psychological free fall.' Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Just anecdotally, I have cut WAY back on purchases from Amazon this past quarter, including purchases for my (1st gen) Kindle. I find myself pausing longer before making purchases in general (or choosing not to). Not because I have to, but because there is some part of me that is telling me not to part with money, not to pay the asking price, etc. Cash is king under deflationary circumstances? Even "great" selling prices (e.g. computer peripherals) don't tempt me, not unless I really need (not want) the item. For items I really need, I do wait for sales or specials or whatever.
I guess I have assumed a "deflationary mindset" about pretty much everything. Like a squirrel putting away nuts for the winter.
Man this is gettin' thrillin' when they start throwin' one another under the bus. Is there anyway we can get them all in the same room on camera?
To..gether....again.
'All of our lives will eventually be absorbed without leaving a trace.'
That's a description of the life of an animal.
NOTHING LACKED
Were I a rat or a bird
I would be worried,
Big shoulders and big head
Stealthy tread
Cat of dread
Scarred tom
Ears torn
Scratched crown
A kingdom come
Of little things
With feathers, wings
One monarch less
His time will not have run
But slowly tracked
His stealthiness
And nothing lacked
Pavel
April 23, 2009
But we are all something much more, even if stunted for a while by the life we are born into. Like most of us, I am from time to time transfixed by money and human approval. Those are illusions we suffer from, not the ground of existence.
"We do not yet have a complete picture of the Federal Reserve's role in these matters because the Federal Reserve has invoked the bank examination privilege."
i would never hire anyone over 30 who wasn't self made, have experience running their own business or making something creatively.
a friend of mine runs a candle making operation in sedona. she posted an ad for a candle maker and got 109 applications when she pulled the ad. many many older "overqualified" former 6 figure types. she of course hired a kid who seemed honest and fun.
the "overqualified" are mostly delusional and looking for someone else to solve their problems.
if you are so overqualified why don't you do for yourself instead of trying to compete for entry level jobs
Maybe the ass kissing has stopped. But, It's not like we didn't know the Treasury was being looted by the screams of Paulson, saying there will be civil unrest unless we keep these banks open. HOOCOODANODE.......
Magical Thinking (profile) wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 9:57 am reply
We need to wrestle government back from the West Coast, it has resided there for the last 29 years. Stinky. We can start thinking of farming, REOs , bridge collapses, levy breaks, flooding , hurricanes and airplane hits. The rest of the country and people can benefit for a change.
I can think of no general class of American more disenfranchised than those on the West Coast. Decades of disinvestment, decades of relative overtaxation. Please, oh please b'rer bear. Plueeze don't throw us po' rabbits into dat b'rer patch.
Well stated ac. Change we can believe in is some thorough housecleaning with hefty, painful, retroactive clawbacks. The players made outlandish short-term gains against eventual, massive long-term losses using variations of past schemes. I want their money first. Prosecutions require too much time.
"It takes guts to tell the Treasury Secretary and the head of the Fed "no" when they tell you the world may end otherwise. I doubt anyone would have acted differently."
He should have called the SEC to solicit their input. And recorded the call.
What is motivating Ken Lewis? Is he trying to keep his job? Is he afraid of criminal prosecution because he knows it is getting worse and setting the groundwork for his defense? Is he pissed the government told him no more money and this is his payback?
He didn't make this decision to speak out without consulting in house counsel or perhaps the board. Somebody told him this was the best way forward for him, but was this best for BofA? Does BofA need a scapegoat to point to when next quarters numbers are billions in the red? All of finance has become so incestous that maybe the ongoing investigations are pulling an entire graveyard out of the closet.
Look Ma, no more rabbits in the hat. Signs are pointing to a big event leading the economy further down.
Remember on the other side of this we have the opportunity to become a stronger and better nation. The road ahead has never been more obscured but we can hope and believe what we choose. Try looking for rays of sunshine when it's cloudy.
Bernanke is seriously demented. He thinks falling prices are bad. What a dope. Contrary to Bernanke's claims, falling prices increase demand. Just look at computers, calulators, flat sceen TVs, autos, bicycles, etc.
Bernanke claims that the Lehman failure was a disaster. I call bullsh%t. It eliminated a lot of the stupidity and fraud from our eCONomy. Falling housing prices are a blessing to the prudent. The sky high housing costs and fraudulent mortgages from 2002 - 2007 were the problem, not housing returning to an affordable level. Same with the overpriced stocks during Greenspan's equity bubble - again, the majority were severely hurt by that foolishness. Only wall street and a few fraudsters benefitted.
We're in for a painful adjustment. But it is NOT because Lehman failed. It is because Lehman existed for SOOOOOO freakin long. The fed is directly responsible for perpetuating Lehman and all the other wall street frauds.
Screw you Ben Bernanke. And screw you too Hank Paulson.
Another straw on the government's credibility back.
Now that the 10 year is back about where it was before Bernanke's QE last month I'm looking forward to the market's reaction next week to ...surprise, surprise QE2.
It takes guts to tell the Treasury Secretary and the head of the Fed "no" when they tell you the world may end otherwise. I doubt anyone would have acted differently
If your involved in the same fraud that will be exposed by inaction, then, really you have no choice.
He didn't make this decision to speak out without consulting in house counsel or perhaps the board - Anonnymous
Perhaps Lewis was being questioned under the Martin Act (enacted after the GD banking mess). No right against self incrimination, no right to an attorney.
"Paulson told Cuomo's office that he made the threat to remove Bank of America's management and board at the request of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke."
i saw ken lewis talking to maria. i didn't listen, just watched their faces, pausing every now and then. very telling. lewis was scared and lying. maria was highly anxious. they both know this sucker is going down. you can see it leaking out of their every pore.
it is clear that the thugs are going to do everything they can to vilify and scapegoat lewis.
Arbitrage Macht Frei wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 10:21 am reply
Any chance we can call it a rapture, and begone with these horrible men leading us into the abyss?
144,000 isn't enough to excise this particular cancer. I'm thinking 800m iron core asteroid.
Real change will come from the people holding their elected officials accountable. Send an email, make the phone call, make an appointment and meet with them. Organize your neighborhood politically and send petitions. We have been a complacent and uninformed society for far too long. The aware among us do have a duty to promote awareness. Blogging to the other aware people might be considered ineffective.
No real news here - they were just playing the system. That's how they were trained to operate, and how they operated. So, what's new?
I love the way the profs in b-school always said, "your first responsibility is always to the shareholders" ... of course the subtext in the class was, "if you can gain access to the cash, take it and run!"
Call it a rupture not rapture. A division in men is beginning, like the schism of a Red Sea, kingmen on one side used to deriving sustenance through rule; freemen on the other under the open sky with hope and toolbelts and strict adherence to the only code which brings prosperity.
lewis could have come out with the paulson threats to his board and he could have revealed material facts (like he was supposed to do by law) when they happened.
but that would have made him honest and courageous.
re: "your first responsibility is always to the shareholders."
There is an angle of this that I have not heard addressed here. I'm a few years out of date on this, but perhaps someone here is a securities attorney and can comment.
The angle is that of a corporation "operating in the zone of insolvency," i.e. about to run out of money. I would argue that many of these large financial institutions were operating well inside the zone of insolvency.
Why is that important?
Because the officers and directors of a corporation operating in the zone of insolvency have a duty not just to the shareholders but to ALL PARTIES WITH AN INTEREST IN THE CORPORATION. That casts a very wide net, and officers and directors are to strike a fair balance (hard to define) amongst the various interests/parties involved. They cannot make decisions solely for the benefit of common stockholders, which would include themselves as stakeholders by virtual of outright stock ownership or ownership of stock options.
I could be out to lunch on this one, and would welcome correction/clarification. But as of 2003, this is how things stood. Perhaps there is some intervening case law that could shed some light?
OT I was looking into what happened to Richard Feinman's doctoral students, and was shocked to discover this:
George Zweig (born on May 30, 1937 in Moscow, Russia into a Jewish family) was originally trained as a particle physicist under Richard Feynman and later turned his attention to neurobiology. He spent a number of years as a Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and MIT, but as of 2004, has gone on to work in the financial services industry.
You get the privilege of working under the greatest physicist, and you're snatched up by the financial sector. What a shame.
Ken Lewis does look like he has broken. I see a man holding on so tight that when he gets alone he shrieks into the emptiness. Millions and power to lose your mind, health and humanity. I'll go with the small town life and hard honest work.
I don't believe Liar Ken any more than Liar Hank - but testifying under oath does color the equation of truthiness to some degree.
Let's face it, Paulson (with Bush in a very minor supporting role, but with the Producer's Privilege to change the script) pulled the Bush/Cheney reprise of "Saddam is going to blow us away with WMDs", except using 'systemic financial collapse' as the watchword instead of visions of mushroom clouds. We'll later find out how much non-torture torture Paulson/Bernake pulled off in a desparate attempt to find the Al-Queda/Saddam link they needed to pull off the Iraq pre-emptive war. TARP was the pre-emptive war of 2008, with the target being the American taxpayer to pay the costs (remember Bush's off-budget war?) of saving the bankers and their buddies. Some day we'll find the smoking gun of evidence that Bush, Cheney and other GOP insiders were giving Paulson the executive push that Paulson turned around on the big banks.
I say close or breakup the top dozen banks, forbid their executive managers from any future fiduciary jobs, and then proceed to a new Spanish Inquisition - using, of course, only the non-torture torture that Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney forced on DoD and CIA.
Yeah the whole mess is riddled with disgusting dishonesty, not to say lying, and pressures that people don't want to own up to, etc., etc. I don't think the public has any notion of what major banks (or minor for that matter) are worth and the government doesn't want us to know. Hoenig (is that the guy?) says that the major banks need to be nationalized and cleaned up and if this isn't done, more rot, etc., will develop and it will be a worse mess further down the road. This administration is just as in bed with the bankers and Wall Street as the Bush administration and that is BAD NEWS for the USA.
FNM, FRE DQs soar. Mish's Global etc.
You can hide a lot of accumulated grift in an epic real estate blowup.
Especially if you incented them through negative real interest rates, time-bomb teaser mortgages, international distributions of securitization, non-recourse terms, and tax-free capital gain tax policy.
Coopt the people to partake in the spoils through a putrifyingly corrupt system. Walla, RE souffle. Systemic speculation upon the credit, land and structures of the kingdom marks the inevitably brutal endgame.
The banksters are being bought. My theory is buyers anticipate good press coverage tomorrow and know that todays headlines are meaningless. .... but that's just my theory.
He spent a number of years as a Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and MIT, but as of 2004, has gone on to work in the financial services industry.
You get the privilege of working under the greatest physicist, and you're snatched up by the financial sector. What a shame.
Haha... I was working for a cheesy paper-thin dot com back in the day and was actually interviewing people with PhDs in Nuclear Engineering from MIT (no kidding) looking for any crap job in a start-up.
BofA is the bloated deadman floating downriver pass the crowd of onlookers.
Lewis's plan for BofA was too create the largest Too Big To Fail Godzilla. BofA acquired Mozilla's putrid smelling Countrywide and then the open sewer Merril Lynch. Next, BofA held a gun to its' head believing it could play hostage and gunman threatening to takeout the US economy. It worked for awhile as they dined like kings at the largest smorgasbords; The Fed and Treasury. Lewis's BofA deal was that Bernanke and Paulson would perform the heimlich manuver when BofA's debt gluttony clogged the windpipe. They'd pop the toxic waste out and hide it over at the Fed and Treasury. Fatman Lewis can't believe that Too Big to Fail BofA is gonna be sliced and diced and is singing like a canary.
These smarmy hollow little men must be held accountable for their actions, lest we lose our grip on moral hazard and set an example that rules mean nothing.
Is it possible to be anti-semitic against people who have no semitic blood? I'm talking about the the J-people, or should I start calling them the K-People?
The K-people control more than 70% of everything, Just an observation. How and why did that happen, and how can we use their own techniques in competition with them to level the playing field? I personally don't feel that the power can be redistributed at this point, that's why I just thank God every day for the complete and total economic collapse. That should take care of the problem very nicely for me as well.
War Crimes or Fraud? Going to be some sweaty white guys talking to their attorneys. It is going to be a race to see who can "roll over" on the right people in exchange for consideration.
Popeye - I've been watching that H&S, along with the bottom of the 60-min uptrend channel. Also watching shelf support at 815 and 810. 805 is my "all clear" for shorting - we will have fallen out of the bottom of the 60-min uptrend channel and back into the daily downtrend channel that has been in play since November.
If the H&S plays out (80% probability is my recollection), it targets about 770. That is within a few point of the beginning of the "Geithner Rally" that began on March 23rd with Timmeh's first trip to Capitol Hill.
If the H&S fails, it's a strong continuation signal to the upside and I would be looking for a new, steeper, uptrend channel on the 60-min chart.
TWT, but the resolution of that H&S is critical and everyone watching knows it.
if i ever became super wealthy i would start a high school that taught entrepreneurship and basic business skills as a core focus.
the skill set required for running a small business is not too broad. a child could learn them.
if you are unemployed with skills and nothing to do, wander down to the local SBA and take some of their pamphlets with you to the taco stand and start to dream on how to start a business in your town.
maybe one day you could even own your own taco stand.
Is it possible to be anti-semitic against people who have no semitic blood? I'm talking about the the J-people, or should I start calling them the K-People?
The K-people control more than 70% of everything, Just an observation.
More than 70% of evertying, huh? Sounds pretty scientific.
DOWn Jones wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 1:39 pm reply More headlines to consider as the govt works to hide the results of the stress tests and the real economy :
...
Where is the Dow getting it value from?
anoddamoose,
Assuming the h&s plays out, I'll be gone at spx 790; that's more or less the 50 dma and 38% retracement. 770 is a 50% Fib retracement - and too much to expect, imho. If the H&S fails, I expect a time consolidation rather than a quick reversion to an uptrend. Tight stops in either event. Good Luck.
I think "too big to fail" as a phrase should be replaced with "too essential to fail." A football player's knee isn't "big," but it is essential. This crash has taught us an important lesson. For our economic system to be resillient, any systemic choke points, big or small, should be identified and replaced.
This hasn't been done, because our oligarchs love power through monopolies, and a monopoly is a type of systemic choke point. Would they give up their power to save the system? Why should they?
Business judgment rule may be highly deferential, but the securities laws are not. Lewis failed to disclose material adverse information that would have affected (very significantly) investment decisions, immediately prior to an M&A transaction that required stockholder approval.
End of story. It will be interesting to see what SEC Enforcement and the Justice Department do with this one.
maybe one day you could even own your own taco stand.
think about it.
you were making 100k and paying 40% taxes on that.
you go to buy a truck with your after tax income and pay 20K.
taco guy sells $600 per day in tacos which is enough to draw 50k salary a year but he also gets lots of add backs like:
taco guy buys a truck for 20k using before tax proceeds from selling tacos and drives the truck around just like wage earner guy.
but taco guy uses before tax money so he pays comparably 40% less than wage guy for the truck.
and he can depreciate the truck.
wage guy has 60K take home income - 20k truck = 40k left
taco guy has 50k income and his business pays for the truck. he expenses many of the things that wage guy buys with after tax $ so he pays hardly any income taxes, just 15% payroll.
taco guy is probably better off than overqualified wage guy was when wage guy had a job.
hEY aNOnoymous, this is the best part of that diatribe that you are posting:
"I just returned from several months in Central America. And the day I returned I had iguana eggs for breakfast, airline pretzels for lunch and a $7 shot of Jack Daniels for dinner at the Houston Airport, where I spent two hours listening to a Christian religious fanatic tell about Obama running a worldwide child porn ring out of the White House. Entering the country shoeless through airport homeland security, holding up my pants because they don't let old men wear suspenders through security, well, I knew I was back home in the land of the free."
I'm sorry, I just haven't figured out the proper and acceptable way to begin a discussion on the topic of K-People without being called a derogatory name. If you could enlighten me on a proper way to begin such a discussion so as to avoid a backlash, I would appreciate it. It's just that preprogrammed brainwashed responses from people is what I would like to avoid when speaking on the subject.
commercial rents are going to go way down. you can take advantage of this by starting a small business that fills a basic need or at least a verifiable want.
maybe you can even earn enough to buy the building you work in before inflation is forced somewhere down the road.
Obama loves to say, "The days of [...] are over. [Pause]" So far nothing has changed.
Interesting conference: Pres. makes brief statement; some staffer yells out "Thank you guys [no time for questions]; Pres. sits there and answers a question; "Thank you guys [repeated]" A little confusion as to who was in charge, Obama no pushover.
So whose word do you trust more Lewis, Paulson and Bernanke? Lewis has hedged his statements throughout these excerpts of the deposition transcript with an "aw shuck, I could be wrong, but I thought . . . " Note that nothing is in writing, and not only that when he asks for written particulars he doesn't get them, shouldn't Lewis be on the line for that? Do you believe that Lewis "wasn't sure why he called Bernanke rather than calling Paulson back"? I am not sure that I trust Paulson and Benrnanke either, but on the basis of what has been shared thus far, this isn't much a close call to my mind.
From BofA september 15, 08 newsroom:
Bank of America agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in a $50 billion all-stock transaction that creates a company unrivalled in its breadth of financial services and global reach (aka Too Big To Fail) The combined company would have leadership positions in retail brokerage and wealth management. By adding Merrill Lynch's more than 16,000 financial advisers, Bank of America would have the largest brokerage in the world with more than 20,000 advisers and $2.5 trillion in client assets . The combination brings global scale in investment management, including an approximately 50 percent ownership in BlackRock, which has $1.4 trillion in assets under management. Bank of America has $589 billion in assets under management. Adding Merrill Lynch both enhances current strengths at Bank of America and creates new ones, particularly outside of the United States. Merrill Lynch adds strengths in global debt underwriting, global equities and global merger and acquisition advice. After the acquisition, Bank of America would be the number one underwriter of global high yield debt, the third largest underwriter of global equity and the ninth largest adviser on global mergers and acquisitions based on pro forma first half of 2008 results.
Lewis forgot the only way to enter Hog Heaven is thru the slaughterhouse door. Slice and dice time. Cuomo is gonna take home the bacon.
So whose word do you trust more Lewis, Paulson and Bernanke?
I tend to trust each of them in those (rather rare) moments when they say something it's not in their interests to say. I believe Lewis when he says BAC wanted to avoid anything that would require shareholder disclosure; I believe Paulson when he admits threatening to replace Lewis and the board if they backed out of the deal; I believe Bernanke when his office declines to say anything at all (thus giving me nothing to believe).
What infuriates me is the class of professional board of directors who are mandated to watch over management but never do. They are never held accountable or tarnished. Most of these people serve on several boards getting paid enormous sums for relatively little contribution. Corporate management should be governed by performance and the yearly stock holders meetings. Citi reelecting their entire board of directors is the perfect example of how corrupted this system has become.
Oh me America the Beautiful. A nation with a government that tortures people and lies about it and covers it up and that lets Wall Street trash the economy and then wants people to lie about it and cover it up and that is busy pulling the wool over the eyes of the citizenry and keeping them, the "little" people in the dark. Gee, I think we might be better off with a nice dictator like maybe Salazar or somebody who actually had some principles. Why anybody has a good opinion of the USA and its government is beyond me.
From Bloggingstocks.com: Countrywide acquisition still haunting Bank of America
With all the hoopla surrounding Ken "What's a Guy Got to Do to Get Fired Around Here?" Lewis's company-destroying decision to acquire Merrill Lynch, it's easy to overlook his other boneheaded blunder of 2008: Countrywide Financial.
Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. analyst Paul Miller tells The New York Post that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) could end up reporting losses of as much as $33 billion as a result of the Counrywide acquisition. That's more than twice as much as Merrill Lynch's gigantic fourth quarter loss.
The Post reports that "Across Countrywide's entire loan book, FBR estimates that losses in home-equity loans could hit $17 billion, losses in option-adjustable rate mortgages may touch $11.4 billion and losses in hybrid first-lien loans could reach $5 billion."
Whether those losses are already priced into Bank of America's beaten-down share price is another question, and likely depends on how much worse the economy will get. But two gigantic screw-up acquisitions in one calendar year should be enough to get any CEO fired. Does Bank of America even have a board of directors?
Here piggy, piggy, piggy, don't be afraid of the Big shiny butcher knife--oink oink oink SOUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
It's that kind of a response I'm talking about. Those responses don't get a rise out of critical thinkers anymore because we see them for what they are. I call it the new age of enlightenment.
It appears Bush, Paulson and Bernanke had never been in situations of stark terror in business before, so the bastards couldn't handle it, and took the road of least resistance. The sucker should have went down, been sorted out, and we would have been a much better country for it.
I find it amazing that everyone refers to the BofA/MER " deal". This was never a deal. It was and still is a rescue. MER was failing and the powers that be decided that BofA shareholders should take one for the team. It's a given that Ken Lewis is a dope.
Why isn't anyone calling for the real culprit here....E.Stanley O'Neal. Wake up shareholders.
Disclosure: I worked at MER until Jan. of this year.
Reading between the lines of this self-serving CEO, the conversation actually went something like:
Lewis: Hey, Hank, lay on some of that sweet takeout money, like JPMorgan got!
Paulson: No can do, Ken, got my hands full stuffing it into AIG so it doesn't stiff Goldman on its hedges.
Lewis (huffily): Well, if that's how you're going to be, we'll just walk away from the deal. Humph.
Paulson (icily): I wouldn't do that if I were you, Ken. Not if you and your board want to keep your jobs and your sweet bonuses.
Lewis: That's cold, Hank.
Paulson: Look, I'll see what I can do to swing an extra twenty bil of TARP your way. But keep that tongue under wraps, capice?
1 currency now -yogi (profile) wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 10:48 am
* reply
Cuomo for SEC head? Will be a high profile job in the next few years. Lots of respect for A. Cuomo, but he doesn't lack ambition.
Before anyone pushes Cuomo for higher office, please show us a detailed audit of HUD and all its Housing Programs for the years when Cuomo ran HUD. Cuomo might be part of the problem, not its solution.
question how does the Treasury Secretary replace the CEO and Board of a Private Bank? Don't they first have to take over the institution first?
Also Mr Lewis so you and your board are telling us that you went ahead with a crappy merger and screwed your shareholders because you were frightened of losing your jobs???
as a matter of principle I have started to vote against the slate of directors recommended by management. I encourage all of you who own shares to do the same thing. Lets remember it is the shareholders of CIticorp who re-elected those directors.
The real villains are the fund management companies and pension plans that own the shares and continue to vote for the same board of directors.. Some enterprising lawyer needs to start suing them for dereliction of their fiduciary duties.
Who would have written this letter if Cuomo had been nominated to fill Senator Clinton's post? Would they have done it (so well)?
The letter suggests just how disorganized and bankrupt of ideas the Treasury department has been (and probably still). And how they value unaccountability above all. Don't better solutions usually emerge when you put things down on paper and show some accountability?
Personally I don't think worse of Lewis for this letter, but he's not in a good spot nor particularly love-able to begin with. What exactly does a corporate leader do when told that his company is asked to fall on a sword for the sake of the nation but will get support later - only it can't be disclosed? It's kind of a financial Scooter Libby or CIA type position.
It's sad that we now depend on corporate board minutes to know what our government is doing. In a manner of speaking this shows a greater sense of accountability by the BOA board than our own Treasury Dept.
About the Fed role, I don't know what to think. Bernanke is over the top on certain things. But he seems more organized than Paulson and probably works off a set of principles at least. Of course he is the very elegant head of the cartel ...
We will bear any burden, fight any foe, endure any hardship, and pay any price, to protect the bondholders - because, hey, we live on credit. Debt is wealth, borrowing is income.
So who do you trust? Lewis? Bernanke? Paulson? The whole group has a credibility issue at this point. Funny that BoA credited Merrill with helping their results for the quarter.. at what point will the gov't try to pull a GM and show Lewis the door??
re: the flood of Anon Joe Baggypants posts:
Just 'cause I've been raped by corporate CEOs doesn't mean I'm easy. I'm not now ready to be raped by Joe's communist parasites, too. America! When you've been raped by the best, nothing else will do.
"So whose word do you trust more Lewis, Paulson and Bernanke? Lewis has hedged his statements throughout these excerpts of the deposition transcript with an 'aw shuck, I could be wrong, but I thought . . . ' Note that nothing is in writing..."
So Lewis wasn't smart enough to record phone conversations? The technology is built into any modern office phone system. Recordings can leverage your power exponentially.
This should be Nemo.
First
Rats!!
The lawyers will be happy anyway to taxpayer money for these lawsuits. Let the fun begin.
Does TARP cover lawsuits?
"does not feel it's in your best interest for you to call a MAC, and that we feel strongly"
For Lewis, it was probably 'alleged suicide' versus get sued by share holders.
He chose the less destructive option.
This is news?? They've all been like this. Starting with BSC.....just putting 10lbs of shit into a 5 lb bag for later. The FDIC has done this as well(albeit on a much smaller and quieter scale)....where is the outrage about that process??
On many occasions the receiving bank on the FDIC's process is just told that "yes you own this now"..... why would it be any different at the Fed/Treasury?
Ciao
MS
Paulson is snitching, and throwing Bernanke under the rug. Maybe cause he knows they can't touch the FED. Who prosecutes the FED anyways for abuse of powers???
"we do not want a disclosable event."
As a lawyer I can tell you that would make me happy. Too bad I am not a securities fraud guy.
Ken, here's a rope, a chair and there's the closet. Do us all a favor and hang yourself.
people can be outraged all they want.....all they need to do is play the whole "national security" bullshit and they get a free pass to do anything they want. The problem is that, with the passage of the patriot act, the term "emergency" or "exigent circumstances" can be applied to a mother duck walking her ducklings across the street.....
F*ck them all....the looting continues with the bit player's all coming out and saying "gee....we're so sorry about all this".
Ciao
MS
Bernanke: indict, convict, jail. I will probably have a great dream about that tonight
'This financialization of our consciousness under American style capitalism has become all we know. That's why we fear its loss. Hence the bailouts of the thousands of "zombie banks," dead but still walking, thanks to the people's taxpayer offerings to the money god so that banks will not die. We believe that we dare not let corporations die. Corporations feed us. They entertain us. Corporations occupy one full half of our waking hours of our lives, through employment, either directly or indirectly. They heal us when we are sick. So it's easy to see why the corporations feel like a friendly benevolent entity in the larger American consciousness. Corporations are, of course, deathless and faceless machines, and have no soul or human emotions. That we look to them for so much makes us a corporate cult, and makes corporations a fetish of our culture. Yet to us, they are like the weather just there.'
Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Sounds like a criminal act to me. Lewis was in an impossible position, but he could serve as an unindicted co-conspirator. Paulson and Bernanke should be in prison.
irony = Bernanke and Madoff as cellmates.
"Let's deescalate this!"
Vee moost haff shteely kontrol, und keep oop zee illuzeeoon.
Mine shtiff recht hand und gooze shtlepping veys r nicht helfig.
Does Paulson get the Haken Kreuz for service?
Sycophants, supplicants, siphoners, sinecures, and succubi. Our govt by other names.
That would have to be a kosher prison kitchen.
does anyone doubt now that the Fed is going to lose independence by the time this is over (as if it had much at all)?
I'd rather it would be Paulson.
Does he have sovereign immunity?
Ken could have resigned, right? I wonder what they had on him. . . other than mere insolvency, of course!?!
Or can you eat pork if all your life you've generated it and lived a greasy wallowing unclean business model?
The Spirit of Saint Lewis...
Paulson's assets should be seized and he should be thrown in jail to share a cell with Madoff.
"Ken could have resigned, right? I wonder what they had on him. . . other than mere insolvency, of course!?! "
Sniper rifles?
Kenneth Lewis is trying to cover his ass. BoA must be in a world of hurt
and he is going to blame Paulson and Bernanke for putting a gun to his head.
I suspect not doing your frickin' job and ignoring basic due diligence was
de rigueur among the big banksters and as we know, heavily rewarded.
What an asshat! I wonder what his golden parachute include$.
This socialize the losses process is getting messy, eh?
Paulson has always looked like Daddy Warbucks in appearance and actions, everything slanted towards his CONfederates.
'Strangely enough, even as a population mass operating under unified corporate management machinery, most Americans believe they are unique individuals, significantly different from every other person around them. More than any other people I have met, Americans fear loss of uniqueness. Yet you and I are not unique in the least. Despite the American yada yada about individualism, you are not special. Nor am I. Just because we come from the manufacturer equipped with individual consciousness, does not make us the center of any unique world, private or public, material, intellectual or spiritual. The fact is, you will seldom if ever make any significant material or lifestyle choices of your own in your entire life. If you don't buy that house, someone else will. If you don't marry him, someone else will. If you don't become a psychologist, lawyer or a clergyman or a telemarketer, someone else will. We are all replaceable parts in the machinery of a capitalist economy. "Oh but we have unique feelings and emotions that are important," we say. Psychologists specialize in this notion. Yet I venture to say that none of us will ever feel an emotion that someone long dead has not felt, or some as yet unborn person will not feel. We are swimmers in an ancient rushing river of humanity. You, me, the people in my Central American village, the child in Bangladesh, and the millionaire frat boys who run our financial and governmental institutions with such adolescent carelessness. All of our lives will eventually be absorbed without leaving a trace.'
Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Paulson's assets should be seized and he should be thrown in jail to share a cell with Madoff.
You're putting the cart before the horse. He should be thrown in jail and then have his 'assets' seized.
Put those skeletons back in the closet. Too late?
Ahh, Lucky Lindy.
"At the urging of U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, Lindbergh wrote a secret memo to the British warning that if Britain and France responded militarily to German dictator Adolf Hitler's violation of the Munich Agreement in 1938, it would be suicide."
Another time, another turn of the screw.
I'd imagine that Hank was more concerned about the travails of his son's professional soccer tram, than the country's.
Typical Soccer Dad
This raises serious questions
So do the actions of the fed and treasury over the past 2 years.
Everything that has been done by the fed and treasury has had one over-arching purpose - bailout/cover-up the ponzi scheme on wall street. People wondered how Madoff could constantly deliver stellar returns. The same scam used by Madoff was used by wall street to garner ever expanding bonuses year after year - lying.
Here's the sad part. After all the well connected bad actors have secured their bailouts, then suddenly money will become scarce. Super freakin scarce. Money for social security? NFW, cut benefits. Money for health care? NFW, cut the benefits. Money for infrastructure? Tolkens at best. Money for education? Eat sh%t and die losers. Pay your bills dead beats. Lower taxes on earned income? Sorry, can't keep that pledge. And we don't want to cut taxes on unearned income as it might upset our fragile markets.
What a sham(e)!
We need to save wall street to save main street. What a crock. We need to let wall street implode to save main street. Let the free market work.
nova said, "Well, after you are past 45 in IT, especially now, it is all over. "
i think it is over for collage makers. shopping cart builders, graphic designers, simple web site builders and superfluous programmers in soon to fail businesses. however, many who have real programming skills and an entrepreneurial bent will prosper by creating new companies. starting a business with their skills should be the focus for adults over 45, not trying to compete with children for jobs as cogs.
the problem with the over 45 set is their legacy post WW2 world view that told them:
1: go to school
2: get a job in a company
3: forget about work when you go home
4: retire happily on the government dole.
that plan worked for a long time but it is over.
the new plan will be:
1: learn and earn where you can
2: make your own job
3: your work becomes your life
4. retire happily if you are able to save and add value with your endeavors.
the bubble jobs have evaporated.
'The bad news is that we nevertheless remain one of the most controlled peoples on the planet, especially regarding control of our consciousness, public and private. And the control is tightening. I know it doesn't feel like that to most Americans. But therein rests the proof. Everything feels normal; everybody else around us is doing the same things, so it must be OK. This is a sort of Stockholm Syndrome of the soul, in which the prisoner identifies with the values of his or her captors, which in our case is of course, the American corporate state and its manufactured popular culture.
When we feel that such a life is normal, even desirable, and we act accordingly, we become helpless. Learned helplessness. For instance, most Americans believe there is little they can do in personally dealing with the most important moral and material crises ever faced, both in America and across the planet, beginning with ecocide, war making, and the grotesque deformation of the democratic process we have settled for. Citizenship has been reduced to simple consumer group consciousness. Consequently, even though Americans are only six percent of the planet's population, we use 36% of the planet's resources. And we interpret that experience as normal and desirable and as evidence of being the most advanced nation in the world. Despite that our lives have been reduced to a mere marketing demographic.'
Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
OT re cellphones a few threads back.
Every American old enough to dial 911 should have one. The phones don't cost much. They still give them away with service. The service doesn't cost much. Put up a wind turbine, power up a tower. The code has all been written. the airwaves are still free, public property. People begrudging the homeless a $20/ month (and falling) device that connects them to society- sick.
Government generated data as a material event? There's a genie they don't want to let out of the bottle.
Ken Lewis, Ken Lay, Charles Keating, Charles Ponzi... same stories different decades. "If we had been left alone everything would have worked out."
MER---merde
I think I hear the sound of Black Shiny FBI Shoes.
Kenneth Lewis is trying to cover his ass. BoA must be in a world of hurt and he is going to blame Paulson and Bernanke for putting a gun to his head.
What we're witnessing is the disintegration of the backroom deals the government struck with the banksters to prop up this mess. If Lewis is hung out to dry, no other bank will take a chance like this again.
Corporations are, of course, deathless and faceless machines, and have no soul or human emotions. That we look to them for so much makes us a corporate cult, and makes corporations a fetish of our culture. Yet to us, they are like the weather just there.
In the end it always seems that morality has to come from the people, not institutions or authority.
The simple fact is that the criminal element will always gravitate to the power structures in a society.
That's why it is always inevitable that the must be cleaned out from time to time.
The more of a stranglehold these criminals have the more difficult and gruesome the task.
"Ken could have resigned, right? I wonder what they had on him"
There clearly is more to this story. A govi official told me to break the law is a weak defense.
OMG
We need to wrestle government back from the West Coast, it has resided there for the last 29 years. Stinky. We can start thinking of farming, REOs , bridge collapses, levy breaks, flooding , hurricanes and airplane hits. The rest of the country and people can benefit for a change.
There clearly is more to this story. A govi official told me to break the law is a weak defense.
It takes guts to tell the Treasury Secretary and the head of the Fed "no" when they tell you the world may end otherwise. I doubt anyone would have acted differently.
There will be no more story. Funnel billions to BAC, send stock price soaring, no more 'class actions'.
'Anyway, American and Canadian tourists drive by in their rented SUVs and you can see by their expressions they are scared as hell of those bare footed black folks in the sand around them. Central America sure as hell ain't heaven. But lives there are not what we Americans are told about the Third World either. It's not a flyblown, dangerous place run by murdering drug lords, and full of miserable people. It's just a whole lot of very poor people trying to get by and make a decent society.
I mention these things because it's a good example of how North Americans live in a parallel universe in which they are conditioned to see everything in terms of consumer goods and "safety," as defined by police control. Conditioned to believe they have the best lives on the planet by every measure. So when they see our village and its veneer of "tropical grunge," they experience fear. Anything outside of the parameters of the cultural hallucination they call "the first world" represents fear and psychological free fall.'
Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Just anecdotally, I have cut WAY back on purchases from Amazon this past quarter, including purchases for my (1st gen) Kindle. I find myself pausing longer before making purchases in general (or choosing not to). Not because I have to, but because there is some part of me that is telling me not to part with money, not to pay the asking price, etc. Cash is king under deflationary circumstances? Even "great" selling prices (e.g. computer peripherals) don't tempt me, not unless I really need (not want) the item. For items I really need, I do wait for sales or specials or whatever.
I guess I have assumed a "deflationary mindset" about pretty much everything. Like a squirrel putting away nuts for the winter.
Others?
Man this is gettin' thrillin' when they start throwin' one another under the bus. Is there anyway we can get them all in the same room on camera?
To..gether....again.
So, the person who answered the phone for Paulson was Dick Cheney?
Just kidding, but it sounds like him.
swamp otis (profile) wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 12:51 pm reply
Yes, on paper it sounds really good. Reality? Can we say pissed people who feeled betrayed and worthless?
"does anyone doubt now that the Fed is going to lose independence by the time this is over (as if it had much at all)? "
By the time this is over there won'[t be a Fed or a USG for that matter, don't kid yourself.
'All of our lives will eventually be absorbed without leaving a trace.'
That's a description of the life of an animal.
NOTHING LACKED
Were I a rat or a bird
I would be worried,
Big shoulders and big head
Stealthy tread
Cat of dread
Scarred tom
Ears torn
Scratched crown
A kingdom come
Of little things
With feathers, wings
One monarch less
His time will not have run
But slowly tracked
His stealthiness
And nothing lacked
Pavel
April 23, 2009
But we are all something much more, even if stunted for a while by the life we are born into. Like most of us, I am from time to time transfixed by money and human approval. Those are illusions we suffer from, not the ground of existence.
Text of Cuomo letter on Merrill Lynch takeover
"We do not yet have a complete picture of the Federal Reserve's role in these matters because the Federal Reserve has invoked the bank examination privilege."
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Text-Cuomo-letter-Merrill-Lynch/story.aspx?guid={B8E72006-7E48-402A-BC65-589141E2E520}
Anonymous wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 9:49 am
All of our lives will eventually be absorbed without leaving a trace.
Yep.
enjoy
Vintage Color Photos of US cities - SkyscraperCity
(if this doesn't brighten my day, I don't know what does. Oh DOW 36,000 would ; =36K a shorting opportunity of lifetime
)
i would certainly rather hire a 30 year old.
i would never hire anyone over 30 who wasn't self made, have experience running their own business or making something creatively.
a friend of mine runs a candle making operation in sedona. she posted an ad for a candle maker and got 109 applications when she pulled the ad. many many older "overqualified" former 6 figure types. she of course hired a kid who seemed honest and fun.
the "overqualified" are mostly delusional and looking for someone else to solve their problems.
if you are so overqualified why don't you do for yourself instead of trying to compete for entry level jobs
It always seemed odd that BofA bought Both before they hit bottom. The smell gets stronger!
Maybe the ass kissing has stopped. But, It's not like we didn't know the Treasury was being looted by the screams of Paulson, saying there will be civil unrest unless we keep these banks open. HOOCOODANODE.......
Magical Thinking (profile) wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 9:57 am reply
We need to wrestle government back from the West Coast, it has resided there for the last 29 years. Stinky. We can start thinking of farming, REOs , bridge collapses, levy breaks, flooding , hurricanes and airplane hits. The rest of the country and people can benefit for a change.
I can think of no general class of American more disenfranchised than those on the West Coast. Decades of disinvestment, decades of relative overtaxation. Please, oh please b'rer bear. Plueeze don't throw us po' rabbits into dat b'rer patch.
With all the players getting thrown under the bus this might mean good news for GM, do they make busses?
Bumpersticker on Ken Lewis' car:
"Ben and Hank made me do it."
Well stated ac. Change we can believe in is some thorough housecleaning with hefty, painful, retroactive clawbacks. The players made outlandish short-term gains against eventual, massive long-term losses using variations of past schemes. I want their money first. Prosecutions require too much time.
Put the squeeze on and the canary sings.
" Ken just save Merrill shareholders and we got you... We'll take care of it"
Industry and government hand in hand.
"if you are so overqualified why don't you do for yourself instead of trying to compete for entry level jobs "
They are afraid they really don't have it and facing reality is to tough! In their world it is better to be a has been then a proven never was!
"It takes guts to tell the Treasury Secretary and the head of the Fed "no" when they tell you the world may end otherwise. I doubt anyone would have acted differently."
He should have called the SEC to solicit their input. And recorded the call.
What is motivating Ken Lewis? Is he trying to keep his job? Is he afraid of criminal prosecution because he knows it is getting worse and setting the groundwork for his defense? Is he pissed the government told him no more money and this is his payback?
He didn't make this decision to speak out without consulting in house counsel or perhaps the board. Somebody told him this was the best way forward for him, but was this best for BofA? Does BofA need a scapegoat to point to when next quarters numbers are billions in the red? All of finance has become so incestous that maybe the ongoing investigations are pulling an entire graveyard out of the closet.
Look Ma, no more rabbits in the hat. Signs are pointing to a big event leading the economy further down.
Remember on the other side of this we have the opportunity to become a stronger and better nation. The road ahead has never been more obscured but we can hope and believe what we choose. Try looking for rays of sunshine when it's cloudy.
Bernanke is seriously demented. He thinks falling prices are bad. What a dope. Contrary to Bernanke's claims, falling prices increase demand. Just look at computers, calulators, flat sceen TVs, autos, bicycles, etc.
Bernanke claims that the Lehman failure was a disaster. I call bullsh%t. It eliminated a lot of the stupidity and fraud from our eCONomy. Falling housing prices are a blessing to the prudent. The sky high housing costs and fraudulent mortgages from 2002 - 2007 were the problem, not housing returning to an affordable level. Same with the overpriced stocks during Greenspan's equity bubble - again, the majority were severely hurt by that foolishness. Only wall street and a few fraudsters benefitted.
We're in for a painful adjustment. But it is NOT because Lehman failed. It is because Lehman existed for SOOOOOO freakin long. The fed is directly responsible for perpetuating Lehman and all the other wall street frauds.
Screw you Ben Bernanke. And screw you too Hank Paulson.
Another straw on the government's credibility back.
Now that the 10 year is back about where it was before Bernanke's QE last month I'm looking forward to the market's reaction next week to ...surprise, surprise QE2.
"He should have called the SEC to solicit their input. And recorded the call. "
They would have sold BOA to GS for $1.
The tall timbre of Lewis's lies has a particularly sweet sound, the prelude to the perfect maelstrom.
It takes guts to tell the Treasury Secretary and the head of the Fed "no" when they tell you the world may end otherwise. I doubt anyone would have acted differently
If your involved in the same fraud that will be exposed by inaction, then, really you have no choice.
All, In the post, I've added the letter from Cuomo to Congress.
best to all.
Remember the Madoff investigator who said he feared for his life? et. al.
A saying I used to hear from Russians all the time:
Do not trouble trouble unless trouble troubles you.
He didn't make this decision to speak out without consulting in house counsel or perhaps the board - Anonnymous
Perhaps Lewis was being questioned under the Martin Act (enacted after the GD banking mess). No right against self incrimination, no right to an attorney.
Martin Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Martin Act & Lewis?
Comedy writes itself sometimes.
Rob Dawg
Dickens-men make their own chains. We need mobility. They screwed it up out there. Shallow, phony, segregated-for sure.
Oops... link fixed. Now linking to current letter in post.
best to all
As long as the head vampire remains untouched these minions will continue to cause havoc.
Barackula: The Musical
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be consumed?
So he that beareth false witness for gain; whosoever seeks profit in another's misery.
Will he not be consumed?
Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
He will make whole unto the uttermost farthing through iterations of time until his debt be repaid.
The Martin Act & Lewis?
Very funny!
Perhaps fate has a sense of humor.
guantonimo for the suicide bankers and all their complicit tools!
these "untouchables" have destroyed millions and millions of lives and trillions and trillions of dollars with fraud.
use rico, use anti terror laws, strip away the corporate liability shield for directors of financial institutions.
stop them.
Any chance we can call it a rapture, and begone with these horrible men leading us into the abyss?
Clusterstock has all the attachments as well:
Andrew Cuomo's Angry Letter To Regulators
I failed "the litmus test".
You're next !
"Paulson told Cuomo's office that he made the threat to remove Bank of America's management and board at the request of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke."
CNNMoney.com: 404 Page Not Found
i saw ken lewis talking to maria. i didn't listen, just watched their faces, pausing every now and then. very telling. lewis was scared and lying. maria was highly anxious. they both know this sucker is going down. you can see it leaking out of their every pore.
it is clear that the thugs are going to do everything they can to vilify and scapegoat lewis.
he deserves it for being a fluffed up tool.
Arbitrage Macht Frei wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 10:21 am reply
Any chance we can call it a rapture, and begone with these horrible men leading us into the abyss?
144,000 isn't enough to excise this particular cancer. I'm thinking 800m iron core asteroid.
Real change will come from the people holding their elected officials accountable. Send an email, make the phone call, make an appointment and meet with them. Organize your neighborhood politically and send petitions. We have been a complacent and uninformed society for far too long. The aware among us do have a duty to promote awareness. Blogging to the other aware people might be considered ineffective.
No real news here - they were just playing the system. That's how they were trained to operate, and how they operated. So, what's new?
I love the way the profs in b-school always said, "your first responsibility is always to the shareholders" ... of course the subtext in the class was, "if you can gain access to the cash, take it and run!"
Opps, the investigators investigating the investorgators.
Call it a rupture not rapture. A division in men is beginning, like the schism of a Red Sea, kingmen on one side used to deriving sustenance through rule; freemen on the other under the open sky with hope and toolbelts and strict adherence to the only code which brings prosperity.
lewis could have come out with the paulson threats to his board and he could have revealed material facts (like he was supposed to do by law) when they happened.
but that would have made him honest and courageous.
he is just a pussy.
cry in prison, pussy.
If someone could point me to the line in the constitution - or even a SCOTUS opinion about - the "bank examination privilege" I'd appreciate it.
Or is this like "double secret probation"?
The sweaty Cheshire Cat, cleverly disguised as Hank-has disappeared.
Dogma ain't gonna hunt on this caper, reason always prevails eventually.
re: "your first responsibility is always to the shareholders."
There is an angle of this that I have not heard addressed here. I'm a few years out of date on this, but perhaps someone here is a securities attorney and can comment.
The angle is that of a corporation "operating in the zone of insolvency," i.e. about to run out of money. I would argue that many of these large financial institutions were operating well inside the zone of insolvency.
Why is that important?
Because the officers and directors of a corporation operating in the zone of insolvency have a duty not just to the shareholders but to ALL PARTIES WITH AN INTEREST IN THE CORPORATION. That casts a very wide net, and officers and directors are to strike a fair balance (hard to define) amongst the various interests/parties involved. They cannot make decisions solely for the benefit of common stockholders, which would include themselves as stakeholders by virtual of outright stock ownership or ownership of stock options.
I could be out to lunch on this one, and would welcome correction/clarification. But as of 2003, this is how things stood. Perhaps there is some intervening case law that could shed some light?
OT I was looking into what happened to Richard Feinman's doctoral students, and was shocked to discover this:
George Zweig (born on May 30, 1937 in Moscow, Russia into a Jewish family) was originally trained as a particle physicist under Richard Feynman and later turned his attention to neurobiology. He spent a number of years as a Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and MIT, but as of 2004, has gone on to work in the financial services industry.
You get the privilege of working under the greatest physicist, and you're snatched up by the financial sector. What a shame.
Ken Lewis does look like he has broken. I see a man holding on so tight that when he gets alone he shrieks into the emptiness. Millions and power to lose your mind, health and humanity. I'll go with the small town life and hard honest work.
wonder, how many of those will be completed:
LOS ANGELES | Projects & Construction - SkyscraperCity
I don't believe Liar Ken any more than Liar Hank - but testifying under oath does color the equation of truthiness to some degree.
Let's face it, Paulson (with Bush in a very minor supporting role, but with the Producer's Privilege to change the script) pulled the Bush/Cheney reprise of "Saddam is going to blow us away with WMDs", except using 'systemic financial collapse' as the watchword instead of visions of mushroom clouds. We'll later find out how much non-torture torture Paulson/Bernake pulled off in a desparate attempt to find the Al-Queda/Saddam link they needed to pull off the Iraq pre-emptive war. TARP was the pre-emptive war of 2008, with the target being the American taxpayer to pay the costs (remember Bush's off-budget war?) of saving the bankers and their buddies. Some day we'll find the smoking gun of evidence that Bush, Cheney and other GOP insiders were giving Paulson the executive push that Paulson turned around on the big banks.
I say close or breakup the top dozen banks, forbid their executive managers from any future fiduciary jobs, and then proceed to a new Spanish Inquisition - using, of course, only the non-torture torture that Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney forced on DoD and CIA.
Yeah the whole mess is riddled with disgusting dishonesty, not to say lying, and pressures that people don't want to own up to, etc., etc. I don't think the public has any notion of what major banks (or minor for that matter) are worth and the government doesn't want us to know. Hoenig (is that the guy?) says that the major banks need to be nationalized and cleaned up and if this isn't done, more rot, etc., will develop and it will be a worse mess further down the road. This administration is just as in bed with the bankers and Wall Street as the Bush administration and that is BAD NEWS for the USA.
Cuomo, A State AG, telling on The Feds. Does this mean the South is gonna rise again?
They were debtly afraid of WMD's
Withdrawals of Mass Deposits
OT,
There is almost a perfect head and shoulders on the hourly spx. There's no batman cape, but .... other than that
More headlines to consider as the govt works to hide the results of the stress tests and the real economy :
Jobless Claims Bounce Higher
- CNN Money
Existing-Home Sales Fall 3% in March
- MarketWatch
UPS 1Q Profit Plunges More Than 55%
- Associated Press
Commercial Properties Fall to Foreclosure
- Boston Globe
For Struggling Homeowners, Decisions Are Way Too Long
- Hartford Courant
GM Considers Shutting Factories for Nine Weeks
- Washington Post
Where is the Dow getting it value from?
FNM, FRE DQs soar.
Mish's Global etc.
You can hide a lot of accumulated grift in an epic real estate blowup.
Especially if you incented them through negative real interest rates, time-bomb teaser mortgages, international distributions of securitization, non-recourse terms, and tax-free capital gain tax policy.
Coopt the people to partake in the spoils through a putrifyingly corrupt system. Walla, RE souffle. Systemic speculation upon the credit, land and structures of the kingdom marks the inevitably brutal endgame.
Where is the Dow getting it value from?
The banksters are being bought. My theory is buyers anticipate good press coverage tomorrow and know that todays headlines are meaningless. .... but that's just my theory.
He spent a number of years as a Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and MIT, but as of 2004, has gone on to work in the financial services industry.
You get the privilege of working under the greatest physicist, and you're snatched up by the financial sector. What a shame.
Haha... I was working for a cheesy paper-thin dot com back in the day and was actually interviewing people with PhDs in Nuclear Engineering from MIT (no kidding) looking for any crap job in a start-up.
I'd like to know who Paulson was working for and who Bernanke is working for because it sure as hell isn't America.
BofA is the bloated deadman floating downriver pass the crowd of onlookers.
Lewis's plan for BofA was too create the largest Too Big To Fail Godzilla. BofA acquired Mozilla's putrid smelling Countrywide and then the open sewer Merril Lynch. Next, BofA held a gun to its' head believing it could play hostage and gunman threatening to takeout the US economy. It worked for awhile as they dined like kings at the largest smorgasbords; The Fed and Treasury. Lewis's BofA deal was that Bernanke and Paulson would perform the heimlich manuver when BofA's debt gluttony clogged the windpipe. They'd pop the toxic waste out and hide it over at the Fed and Treasury. Fatman Lewis can't believe that Too Big to Fail BofA is gonna be sliced and diced and is singing like a canary.
These smarmy hollow little men must be held accountable for their actions, lest we lose our grip on moral hazard and set an example that rules mean nothing.
Is it possible to be anti-semitic against people who have no semitic blood? I'm talking about the the J-people, or should I start calling them the K-People?
The K-people control more than 70% of everything, Just an observation. How and why did that happen, and how can we use their own techniques in competition with them to level the playing field? I personally don't feel that the power can be redistributed at this point, that's why I just thank God every day for the complete and total economic collapse. That should take care of the problem very nicely for me as well.
The Thirteenth Tribe
Where is the Dow getting it value from?
Remember that the DOW is valued in paper US Ponzi Notes, not actual wealth.
War Crimes or Fraud? Going to be some sweaty white guys talking to their attorneys. It is going to be a race to see who can "roll over" on the right people in exchange for consideration.
How could coercion of Ken Lewis by Paulson leave BAC immune to shareholder lawsuits? It comes across almost as force majure when it comes to MAC.
Go long lawyers.
Popeye - I've been watching that H&S, along with the bottom of the 60-min uptrend channel. Also watching shelf support at 815 and 810. 805 is my "all clear" for shorting - we will have fallen out of the bottom of the 60-min uptrend channel and back into the daily downtrend channel that has been in play since November.
If the H&S plays out (80% probability is my recollection), it targets about 770. That is within a few point of the beginning of the "Geithner Rally" that began on March 23rd with Timmeh's first trip to Capitol Hill.
If the H&S fails, it's a strong continuation signal to the upside and I would be looking for a new, steeper, uptrend channel on the 60-min chart.
TWT, but the resolution of that H&S is critical and everyone watching knows it.
if i ever became super wealthy i would start a high school that taught entrepreneurship and basic business skills as a core focus.
the skill set required for running a small business is not too broad. a child could learn them.
if you are unemployed with skills and nothing to do, wander down to the local SBA and take some of their pamphlets with you to the taco stand and start to dream on how to start a business in your town.
maybe one day you could even own your own taco stand.
Where is the Dow getting it's value from ?
IYF, XLF, RKH
Cuomo for SEC head? Will be a high profile job in the next few years. Lots of respect for A. Cuomo, but he doesn't lack ambition.
Looks like Kenny boy had a close brush with suicide.
Joe Bageant: Escape from the Zombie Food Court
Thanks Anonymous. One of the best and enlightening reads I have had in a while.
"Where is the Dow getting it value from? "
You are confusing price and value.
Is it possible to be anti-semitic against people who have no semitic blood? I'm talking about the the J-people, or should I start calling them the K-People?
The K-people control more than 70% of everything, Just an observation.
More than 70% of evertying, huh? Sounds pretty scientific.
Michael, your ignorance and prejudice is showing. Might want to cover up. Or better, just leave and never come back.
Aren't these banks too big to sue? They're obviously too big to fail. Too big to succeed. They're Too Big anything you can think of.
It's nice to be Too Big.
How could coercion of Ken Lewis by Paulson leave BAC immune to shareholder lawsuits?
business judgment rule is a highly deferential standard of review
DOWn Jones wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 1:39 pm reply More headlines to consider as the govt works to hide the results of the stress tests and the real economy :
...
Where is the Dow getting it value from?
Already priced in?
anoddamoose,
Assuming the h&s plays out, I'll be gone at spx 790; that's more or less the 50 dma and 38% retracement. 770 is a 50% Fib retracement - and too much to expect, imho. If the H&S fails, I expect a time consolidation rather than a quick reversion to an uptrend. Tight stops in either event. Good Luck.
From Barrons - Insiders Transactions Ratio:
http://online.barrons.com/edition/resources/media/b-insider.gif
To me, this doesn't look good - second opinions welcome!
I think "too big to fail" as a phrase should be replaced with "too essential to fail." A football player's knee isn't "big," but it is essential. This crash has taught us an important lesson. For our economic system to be resillient, any systemic choke points, big or small, should be identified and replaced.
This hasn't been done, because our oligarchs love power through monopolies, and a monopoly is a type of systemic choke point. Would they give up their power to save the system? Why should they?
rps - great recap!
Michael - I sincerely hope you choke on some gefilte fish. Soon. Very, very soon.
Business judgment rule may be highly deferential, but the securities laws are not. Lewis failed to disclose material adverse information that would have affected (very significantly) investment decisions, immediately prior to an M&A transaction that required stockholder approval.
End of story. It will be interesting to see what SEC Enforcement and the Justice Department do with this one.
It's nice to be Too Big.
Ask a hog, life ends at the slaughterhouse. BofA is going there.
maybe one day you could even own your own taco stand.
think about it.
you were making 100k and paying 40% taxes on that.
you go to buy a truck with your after tax income and pay 20K.
taco guy sells $600 per day in tacos which is enough to draw 50k salary a year but he also gets lots of add backs like:
taco guy buys a truck for 20k using before tax proceeds from selling tacos and drives the truck around just like wage earner guy.
but taco guy uses before tax money so he pays comparably 40% less than wage guy for the truck.
and he can depreciate the truck.
wage guy has 60K take home income - 20k truck = 40k left
taco guy has 50k income and his business pays for the truck. he expenses many of the things that wage guy buys with after tax $ so he pays hardly any income taxes, just 15% payroll.
taco guy is probably better off than overqualified wage guy was when wage guy had a job.
hEY aNOnoymous, this is the best part of that diatribe that you are posting:
"I just returned from several months in Central America. And the day I returned I had iguana eggs for breakfast, airline pretzels for lunch and a $7 shot of Jack Daniels for dinner at the Houston Airport, where I spent two hours listening to a Christian religious fanatic tell about Obama running a worldwide child porn ring out of the White House. Entering the country shoeless through airport homeland security, holding up my pants because they don't let old men wear suspenders through security, well, I knew I was back home in the land of the free."
Why is BAC stock up?
I'm sorry, I just haven't figured out the proper and acceptable way to begin a discussion on the topic of K-People without being called a derogatory name. If you could enlighten me on a proper way to begin such a discussion so as to avoid a backlash, I would appreciate it. It's just that preprogrammed brainwashed responses from people is what I would like to avoid when speaking on the subject.
that last sentence there, Michael, that's the whole problem.
commercial rents are going to go way down. you can take advantage of this by starting a small business that fills a basic need or at least a verifiable want.
maybe you can even earn enough to buy the building you work in before inflation is forced somewhere down the road.
Michael - they would welcome your "discussions" here:
Home Page
PS: bring your sheet
Obama loves to say, "The days of [...] are over. [Pause]" So far nothing has changed.
Interesting conference: Pres. makes brief statement; some staffer yells out "Thank you guys [no time for questions]; Pres. sits there and answers a question; "Thank you guys [repeated]" A little confusion as to who was in charge, Obama no pushover.
So whose word do you trust more Lewis, Paulson and Bernanke? Lewis has hedged his statements throughout these excerpts of the deposition transcript with an "aw shuck, I could be wrong, but I thought . . . " Note that nothing is in writing, and not only that when he asks for written particulars he doesn't get them, shouldn't Lewis be on the line for that? Do you believe that Lewis "wasn't sure why he called Bernanke rather than calling Paulson back"? I am not sure that I trust Paulson and Benrnanke either, but on the basis of what has been shared thus far, this isn't much a close call to my mind.
From BofA september 15, 08 newsroom:
. The combination brings global scale in investment management, including an approximately 50 percent ownership in BlackRock, which has $1.4 trillion in assets under management. Bank of America has $589 billion in assets under management. Adding Merrill Lynch both enhances current strengths at Bank of America and creates new ones, particularly outside of the United States. Merrill Lynch adds strengths in global debt underwriting, global equities and global merger and acquisition advice. After the acquisition, Bank of America would be the number one underwriter of global high yield debt, the third largest underwriter of global equity and the ninth largest adviser on global mergers and acquisitions 
based on pro forma first half of 2008 results.
Bank of America agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in a $50 billion all-stock transaction that creates a company unrivalled in its breadth of financial services and global reach (aka Too Big To Fail) The combined company would have leadership positions in retail brokerage and wealth management. By adding Merrill Lynch's more than 16,000 financial advisers, Bank of America would have the largest brokerage in the world with more than 20,000 advisers and $2.5 trillion in client assets
Lewis forgot the only way to enter Hog Heaven is thru the slaughterhouse door. Slice and dice time. Cuomo is gonna take home the bacon.
Walla, RE souffle.
Would that be "Voila"? Because if so, LOL.
So whose word do you trust more Lewis, Paulson and Bernanke?
I tend to trust each of them in those (rather rare) moments when they say something it's not in their interests to say. I believe Lewis when he says BAC wanted to avoid anything that would require shareholder disclosure; I believe Paulson when he admits threatening to replace Lewis and the board if they backed out of the deal; I believe Bernanke when his office declines to say anything at all (thus giving me nothing to believe).
pavel said, "Remember the Madoff investigator who said he feared for his life?"
he feared for his life because he was dealing with terrorists.
W taught us what to do with terrorists.
let's roll.
guantonimo for these bitches. waterboard them till they tell us where they hid their looting booty.
What infuriates me is the class of professional board of directors who are mandated to watch over management but never do. They are never held accountable or tarnished. Most of these people serve on several boards getting paid enormous sums for relatively little contribution. Corporate management should be governed by performance and the yearly stock holders meetings. Citi reelecting their entire board of directors is the perfect example of how corrupted this system has become.
Oh me America the Beautiful. A nation with a government that tortures people and lies about it and covers it up and that lets Wall Street trash the economy and then wants people to lie about it and cover it up and that is busy pulling the wool over the eyes of the citizenry and keeping them, the "little" people in the dark. Gee, I think we might be better off with a nice dictator like maybe Salazar or somebody who actually had some principles. Why anybody has a good opinion of the USA and its government is beyond me.
From Bloggingstocks.com: Countrywide acquisition still haunting Bank of America
With all the hoopla surrounding Ken "What's a Guy Got to Do to Get Fired Around Here?" Lewis's company-destroying decision to acquire Merrill Lynch, it's easy to overlook his other boneheaded blunder of 2008: Countrywide Financial.
Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. analyst Paul Miller tells The New York Post that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) could end up reporting losses of as much as $33 billion as a result of the Counrywide acquisition. That's more than twice as much as Merrill Lynch's gigantic fourth quarter loss.
The Post reports that "Across Countrywide's entire loan book, FBR estimates that losses in home-equity loans could hit $17 billion, losses in option-adjustable rate mortgages may touch $11.4 billion and losses in hybrid first-lien loans could reach $5 billion."
Whether those losses are already priced into Bank of America's beaten-down share price is another question, and likely depends on how much worse the economy will get. But two gigantic screw-up acquisitions in one calendar year should be enough to get any CEO fired. Does Bank of America even have a board of directors?
Here piggy, piggy, piggy, don't be afraid of the Big shiny butcher knife--oink oink oink SOUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
stress test results must be out early....
It's that kind of a response I'm talking about. Those responses don't get a rise out of critical thinkers anymore because we see them for what they are. I call it the new age of enlightenment.
Lay it out for us then, Michael. Don't couch it in obscurities or weird innuendo.
"W taught us what to do with terrorists. let's roll."
I would like to think that occurred, but sadly I think that one of our own fighter jets took it out killing all aboard.
It appears Bush, Paulson and Bernanke had never been in situations of stark terror in business before, so the bastards couldn't handle it, and took the road of least resistance. The sucker should have went down, been sorted out, and we would have been a much better country for it.
I find it amazing that everyone refers to the BofA/MER " deal". This was never a deal. It was and still is a rescue. MER was failing and the powers that be decided that BofA shareholders should take one for the team. It's a given that Ken Lewis is a dope.
Why isn't anyone calling for the real culprit here....E.Stanley O'Neal. Wake up shareholders.
Disclosure: I worked at MER until Jan. of this year.
Reading between the lines of this self-serving CEO, the conversation actually went something like:
Lewis: Hey, Hank, lay on some of that sweet takeout money, like JPMorgan got!
Paulson: No can do, Ken, got my hands full stuffing it into AIG so it doesn't stiff Goldman on its hedges.
Lewis (huffily): Well, if that's how you're going to be, we'll just walk away from the deal. Humph.
Paulson (icily): I wouldn't do that if I were you, Ken. Not if you and your board want to keep your jobs and your sweet bonuses.
Lewis: That's cold, Hank.
Paulson: Look, I'll see what I can do to swing an extra twenty bil of TARP your way. But keep that tongue under wraps, capice?
It will be interesting to see what SEC Enforcement and the Justice Department do with this one.
About as interesting as watching paint dry. True to form, they will do nothing.
1 currency now -yogi (profile) wrote on Thu, 4/23/2009 - 10:48 am
* reply
Cuomo for SEC head? Will be a high profile job in the next few years. Lots of respect for A. Cuomo, but he doesn't lack ambition.
Before anyone pushes Cuomo for higher office, please show us a detailed audit of HUD and all its Housing Programs for the years when Cuomo ran HUD. Cuomo might be part of the problem, not its solution.
question how does the Treasury Secretary replace the CEO and Board of a Private Bank? Don't they first have to take over the institution first?
Also Mr Lewis so you and your board are telling us that you went ahead with a crappy merger and screwed your shareholders because you were frightened of losing your jobs???
as a matter of principle I have started to vote against the slate of directors recommended by management. I encourage all of you who own shares to do the same thing. Lets remember it is the shareholders of CIticorp who re-elected those directors.
The real villains are the fund management companies and pension plans that own the shares and continue to vote for the same board of directors.. Some enterprising lawyer needs to start suing them for dereliction of their fiduciary duties.
Who would have written this letter if Cuomo had been nominated to fill Senator Clinton's post? Would they have done it (so well)?
The letter suggests just how disorganized and bankrupt of ideas the Treasury department has been (and probably still). And how they value unaccountability above all. Don't better solutions usually emerge when you put things down on paper and show some accountability?
Personally I don't think worse of Lewis for this letter, but he's not in a good spot nor particularly love-able to begin with. What exactly does a corporate leader do when told that his company is asked to fall on a sword for the sake of the nation but will get support later - only it can't be disclosed? It's kind of a financial Scooter Libby or CIA type position.
It's sad that we now depend on corporate board minutes to know what our government is doing. In a manner of speaking this shows a greater sense of accountability by the BOA board than our own Treasury Dept.
About the Fed role, I don't know what to think. Bernanke is over the top on certain things. But he seems more organized than Paulson and probably works off a set of principles at least. Of course he is the very elegant head of the cartel ...
We will bear any burden, fight any foe, endure any hardship, and pay any price, to protect the bondholders - because, hey, we live on credit. Debt is wealth, borrowing is income.
So who do you trust? Lewis? Bernanke? Paulson? The whole group has a credibility issue at this point. Funny that BoA credited Merrill with helping their results for the quarter.. at what point will the gov't try to pull a GM and show Lewis the door??
Money Never Sleeps
irony = Bernanke and Madoff as cellmates.
Thinking Hank the Hammer would be the husband in that relationship.
wow, wouldn't be surprised if lewis goes the way of the FRE CFO and hangs himself. pretty ugly position he's in.
re: the flood of Anon Joe Baggypants posts:
Just 'cause I've been raped by corporate CEOs doesn't mean I'm easy. I'm not now ready to be raped by Joe's communist parasites, too. America! When you've been raped by the best, nothing else will do.
"So whose word do you trust more Lewis, Paulson and Bernanke? Lewis has hedged his statements throughout these excerpts of the deposition transcript with an 'aw shuck, I could be wrong, but I thought . . . ' Note that nothing is in writing..."
So Lewis wasn't smart enough to record phone conversations? The technology is built into any modern office phone system. Recordings can leverage your power exponentially.