Archive for category Congress
Wall Street’s Likely Strategy for Financial Reform
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Wall Street, financial industry on June 21st, 2010
Citigroup – another Wall Street financial behemoth – has just released estimates regarding how hard financial reform might negatively effect Wall Street banks’ earnings.
I have news for Citigroup. One of your own – a Wall Street investment banker – seems to think differently.
If you recall back in January of this year, Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, and several of his fellow Wall Street CEO’s testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission regarding their complicity in the global financial crisis. First, Lloyd “Doing God’s Work” Blankfein had the audacity to claim that these events “will not happen again in my lifetime.”
So Lloyd, we can disregard the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund financial collapse in 1998 that almost resulted in a global economic meltdown – click here, here, here, or here. Or how about the dot.com bubble of 2000 – click here or here. And now this more recent Global Financial Crisis? Even though they all three occurred over the course of a mere 10 years?
Lloyd, are you saying you only have a couple of years to live? Has Hell been put on notice to reserve a room?
After that self-serving testimony, the closest any one of them came to admitting that they completely screwed-up the financial system was the statement of Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack: “We did our own cooking and we choked on it.” Well not exactly John; you did your own cooking, the American public choked on it, all while you and Blankfein continue to dine on caviar, Oysters Rockefeller, Fillet Mignon and lobster.
So while doing the usual “deep research” into that day’s Congressional hearing, I stumbled upon an investment banker’s blog, and referenced some of his brash and flippant statements in this post - Inside the Mind of an Unapologetic Wall Street Investment Banker. Let’s revisit some of his comments:
Investment bankers “have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the whys and wherefores of the financial crisis, the proper size and role of banks and investment banks in the domestic economy, or the moral imperatives inherent in stewarding the financial plumbing under-girding the daily lives and livelihoods of six billion people . . . [i]nvestment bankers have almost no interest in why things are the way they are. Rather, they spend all their considerable intellectual and psychological resources on understanding how they can take advantage of the way things are.”
Moreover, “their obvious lack of intellectual curiosity about the sources of the crisis . . . [explains] their resistance to any major change in the way the industry or the markets are regulated . . . changing regulations will [not]necessarily make the industry less profitable . . . [since they] have well-justified confidence in their ability to turn new regulations to their advantage.”
He goes on to conclude, “Don’t look to investment bankers for answers on how we got here. We don’t know and we don’t care [emphasis added]. We take the world as we find it and try to make money.”
After reading that, you should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing will change after financial reform. Absolutely nothing. Except Wall Street investment bankers will become even richer, while they unapologetically watch the rest of us slowly go to Hell in a hand-basket.
If that is ”doing God’s work”, Hell is fine with me.
Is Today Thursday?
Posted by Lance Haley in BP oil spill, Congress, Energy, Environment, Government, House of Representatives, Oil, Pollution on June 17th, 2010
Seriously.
That was one of the questions posed to BP CEO Tony Hayward Thursday by a Congressman during the BP hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This was following several hours of questioning by others, after it became obvious that Hayward was well-versed in giving emotionless, but polite, non-descript, evasive answers to every question. He simply answered every question without ever giving a clear answer.
Finally, in a show of exasperation, an unidentified Congressman apparently had had enough. He asked Hayward, “Is today Thursday?”
Hayward almost showed a flicker of emotion, and seemingly answered in a veiled defensive tone:
“Yes, it is Thursday.”
That is likely the only good answer Americans will ever get from BP.
Massive Document Spill in Washington by Goldman Sachs
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, House of Representatives, How and Why We Get Screwed, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, financial industry on June 17th, 2010
WHERE’S WALDO?
Lost in the news cycle that has been inundated with stories regarding the Gulf oil spill, there was another giant “spill” that is overwhelming Congressional and SEC watchdogs.
Goldman Sachs is playing a classic legal game of “Where’s Waldo” with the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission by first refusing requests for documents related to the commission’s inquiry, and then suddenly dumping (delivering) hundreds of millions of documents all at one time - a legal maneuver intended to obfuscate and hide the proverbial “smoking gun” documents that may be lurking beneath that mountain of paper.
You can be certain most of those documents that were delivered have nothing to do with the Congressional inquiry. Moreover, it will take years to scour through them to find the one’s that really matter - assuming they haven’t already been quietly deleted and/or shredded. By the time this thing is over – years from now - Goldman Sachs will have likely have made enough money to pay a “small fine”, and then buy the remaining portion of Congress that they and the rest of Corporate America don’t already own.
The message from Goldman Sachs: we worked diligently at providing the documentation that you have requested, and we can ensure you that we left nothing out (except maybe the sh!t that really matters). Oh, and good luck finding what you are looking for,
If this was the Pecora Commission, you could bet that Lloyd Blankfein and Company – you know, those guys on Wall Street that are doing “God’s work”- would be a lot more cooperative. Yet, Lloyd’s betting this dog ain’t got no teeth. I hate to admit it, but Blankfein is probably right.
So the question should not be ”Where’s Waldo”?
Americans should all be asking “Where’s Percora“?
Republicans Suddenly “Get Religion” On Financial Reform?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Congress, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Republicans, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, White House, financial industry on April 26th, 2010
Several weeks ago Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John Cornyn, leader of the National Republican Senatorial Committee – a principle Republican campaign fund-raising organization – flew to New York City to meet with Wall Street. Looming on the “dark horizon” was another long and bitter battle with President Obama and the Democrats over the proposed financial reform bill. It was safe to assume that Republicans would drag this one out like they did health care reform so as to impact the coming Fall mid-term elections.
True to form, McConnell and Cornyn made their pitch to the money-changers sitting in the temple – which was 25 Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers. The two powerful Senators made it very clear that in order for the Republicans to have any chance to take back control of the Senate and the House, they would need Wall Street’s assistance. As one anonymous Wall Street executive in attendance so eloquently put it, “There was no arm twisting, but they did say that we should feel uncomfortable living in any country where one party has unfettered ability to pass anything [legislation] . . . President Obama dreams up.”
I hope I don’t have to spell out what the Republicans quid pro quo was? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ . . . and lots of it.
So upon the Senator’s return to Washington, McConnell immediately announces that the Republicans are united in their oppostion to the Democrats’ financial reform bill, and they will utilize every procedural move to block the proposed regulatory-laden legislation because it will risk future tax-payer bailouts. That was just two weeks ago.
Fast forward one week, with one big freakin’ revelation about Goldman Sachs’ “gaming the system” to the $1 Billion detriment of several of their institutional clients, as well as proposals for much stronger derivatives regulation coming out of another Senate committee – and the Republicans are caught in a trap that they set for themselves.
Yet, in spite of the fact that the Republicans suddenly reversed course and were quickly backing away from supporting their Wall Street financiers, appearing more conciliatory towards President Obama and the Democrats than they have in more than 14 months, Mitch McConnell would have you believe that he has the Democrats on the ropes.
McConnell seems to think he should get credit for forcing the Democrats to negotiate. Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and author of the pending legislation, responded to McConnell’s baseless bragging, saying this:
“That is like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise.”
YEP!
UPDATE: Now after two days of filbustering and holding up floor debate on financial reform, McConnell got those Democrats to negotiate again – or was it get the voters to forget about the GOP’s siding with Wall Street by November?
Sarah Palin Nuked Her Own Brain
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Government, National Security, Sarah Palin, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, White House, al Qaida, foreign policy on April 12th, 2010
It’s obvious Sarah Palin must have put her head in the microwave oven somewhere along the way.
In her most recent comments regarding President Obama’s nuclear weapons policy, Palin tried to belittle Obama by claiming that his only knowledge of the topic was gained through “his vast nuclear experience that he acquired as a community organizer and as a full-time candidate.”
Excuse me? Palin sees a full-time candidate every morning when she looks in the mirror.
But more to the point. What Palin obviously does not even know is that as a first-term junior U.S. Senator with a coveted seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Obama introduced his first major piece of legislation in 2005 with Republican co-sponsor Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the committee. Known as the Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative, it was designed to limit proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as well as expand the State Department’s ability to find and interdict weapons and materials designed for this purpose – particularly nuclear weapons.
Betcha didn’t know that one, Sarah?!?
Moreover, when she stated that the Obama Adminstration “treated the Afghan President poorly”- referring to President Obama’s direct and unambiguous criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s unwillingness to root out corruption and fraud within his own government – she explicitly ignores the fact that his government is financed by and exists only with the support of the United States taxpayer; that Afghanistan has virtually no Gross Domestic Product – as in an economy, Sarah; that Afghanistan’s largest export – opium - directly provides the world with an unending supply of heroin, while simultaneously financing the Taliban and Al Qaeda; and last, but not least, there is strong evidence that President Karzai’s brother is heavily involved in this game of drug trafficking and revenue-sharing with the terrorists organizations.
Yet she maintains that we should continue to finesse Afghanistan, but not Iran. She thinks we should finesse Pakistan, but not North Korea. She believes we should “quit coddling our enemies”, and that we should “respect” our allies – in spite of their unwillingness to respect our own national security interests. Sarah, here is what happens when you coddle an ally too much:
1) As you keep throwing more and more money at them – $21 Billion to be exact, in U.S. foreign aid given to Pakistan from 2001 through 2008 - you perpetuate their willful impotence and institutional corruption. The Bush Administration kept former Pakistani leader General Musharaff propped-up with U.S. taxpayer’s money for seven years with a promise from Pakistan that it would root out and pursue terrorists operating in its own territories. They did little or nothing. It was only after the Democrats had taken back control of Congress in 2006 and then threatened to pull the plug on Pakistan’s foreign aid, that Bush reluctantly decided it was time to “get tough” with Musharaff.
2) You cannot allow your ally’s sovereignty to be paramount to your own national security. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain – do you even recall who his V.P. running-mate was, Sarah (?) – stated that he (McCain) would not violate Pakistan’s sovereignty by going after terrorists in it’s territory if elected President. In deep contrast to that “coddle your friends” policy, President Obama made it clear on numerous occasions while on the campaign trail that if Pakistan would not do the job, he would! Shortly after President Obama took the oath of office, he made good on his word. And guess what, Sarah? Our terrorist enemies in Pakistan do not sleep well at night anymore – as this blog noted some 90 days ago.
3) When the U.S. taxpayer funds $21 Billion in foreign aid under the pretense that it is going to make our country safer, they want a President who is going to make sure that the recipients give us our money’s worth. President Obama immediately recognized that Pakistan’s government was full of graft and corruption, and that it was doing nothing about ousting the terrorists, so he pressed them very hard on the issue - unlike Bush and Cheney – and Pakistan has demonstrated a whole new attitude about going after the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Moreover, they have kept their damn mouths shut about the U.S. “violating their sovereignty” with our incessant and terrifying drone attacks – thus giving the terrorists a taste of their own medicine after seven years of U.S. impotence.
President Obama is now sending the same message to Afghan President Karzai – PUT UP, OR SHUT UP!
HMMMMMMMMMMM . . .
Amazing how that all works, eh Sarah???
If Palin thinks – and I use the term “think” very loosely in her case - that she has any standing to criticize President Obama’s foreign policy experience, let’s look at the facts. In the previous Presidential election campaign, Palin couldn’t even identify the Bush Doctrine when asked by Charlie Gibson of ABC news - damn those “gotcha journalists”, Sarah. Moreover, that she is not even aware of President Obama’s own prior nuclear proliferation legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate back in 2005 speaks for itself.
Here is the reality for Sarah Palin’s political supporters: well-timed platitudes and folksy quotes are not going to make this country more secure. To the contrary. And our enemies would be more than happy to exploit such blatant foreign policy inexperience and unprecedented ignorance of publically available information. The information contained in this post is not rocket science, and easily accessible to even a 5th grader, Sarah.
Most glaring though, is The Anchorage Daily News’ – as in Alaska’s largest newspaper – recent acknowledgement that “she has little or no foreign policy experience.”. If she cannot even get an endorsement from her own home state newspaper on this very important issue . . . well, that speaks volumes.
Which all leaves no doubt that the terrorists are just drooling at the prospect of her being elected President in 2012.
Teabagger Teabonics: Ur the Reel Amerikens
Posted by Lance Haley in Anti-government sentiment, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Fox News, Government, Media & Communication, Politics, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, United States on April 3rd, 2010
TO MEMBERS OF THE TEA PARTY: If a picture is worth a thousand words, let me try and help you now understand why this country is in so much trouble . . .
. . . oooohhhhhHHHH, Never Mind!?!
Obama and Democrats Played Republicans on Healthcare?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Bill O'Reilly, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Economics, Glenn Beck, Government, Health Insurance Industry, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, Politics, Populists, Sarah Palin, Senate, Tea Party, White House, economy on March 24th, 2010
Now the blame game begins about how Health Care Reform got passed.
You are just going to love this one . . .
William Saletan reports today in Slate.com that the Bipartisan Health Care Summit organized by the Whitehouse and attended by the President and party leaders on February 25, 2010 , was in fact a total ruse orchestrated by President Obama to set-up the Republicans; Saletan cites accounts from four different media outlets who quote anonymous Democratic aides that “paint a picture of deception” as follows:
“Obama never believed he could persuade Republicans. He had already decided the shape of the bill. He called the meeting to create an illusion of outreach, put Republicans on the spot, discredit their ideas, and embolden Democrats.”
Oh, Horror of Horrors! How sinister of President Obama. You know they say he is one Hell of a poker player. Republicans should have known just how shrewd and conniving this beast was when they sat down at the table with him. Obama went “all in”, and the Repubs folded. How could he do this to them?
The Republicans spent over a year trying to play Obama and the Democrats like a fiddle, and in the end, it was the Republicans who got played? Hee Hee Hee.
KARMA BABY. KARMA.
Hey Repubs: I think God does have a sense of humor.
Going to War With Iraq Was “A Done Deal”
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, National Security, Politics, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 17th, 2010
Former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agent John Kiriakou has just released his new book, “The Reluctant Spy“.
According to reviews, the book reveals the inner-workings of the U.S. intelligence agency, and regales it’s readers with stories from the front lines in the War on Terror. Kiriakou’s participation in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, one of Al Qaeda’s senior commanders, as well as his prior support of the use of water-boarding as a legitimate means for acquiring intelligence, are just two of the many highlights in the book.
However, the most poignant experience of his career may well be the day he was called into a top-secret meeting while working at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in the summer of 2002. During that briefing, he was told that the Bush Administration had already made the decision to go to war with Iraq the following Spring (2003). His job was to support the decision.
In other words, it was “A Done Deal”.
Kiriakou was stunned that the question of going to war with Iraq was already pre-determined by the Bush Administration in spite of the fact that Congress and the public were still undecided over the basis for invading another country that posed no serious imminent threat to our national security:
“Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing.”
Approximately seven years later, George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” is anything but. Those elusive WMD’s are yet to be found. And brave young American men and women are still fighting and dying over there.
As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story”.
Harry Markopolos’ $50 Billion Dollar Failure
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Crime & Punishment, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Legal & Justice, Politics, Sarah Palin, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on March 2nd, 2010
![dumb and dumber [2]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dumb-and-dumber-23.jpg "dumb and dumber [2]")
S.E.C. LAWYERS’ GRADUATION CLASSES: 1999-2008
If you hired a security guard to watch your house, and it kept getting burglarized – even after someone told him countless times who the thief was – would you let him keep his job?
Stupid question, you say? Really?
So why do we keep the same morons on our government payroll to watch the financial markets? Now that is a good question. And there really is a simple answer. The foxes make sure to instruct their under-lords to have those dumb sharecropper farmers whom they pay beggars wages to for working their land, to keep that same old deaf and blind dog guarding the chicken coop. This metaphor should not be lost on anyone.
Bernie Madoff may be a household word – and one of Time magazines 2009 Top 100 people who affected the world. But Harry Markopolus is just another quiet hero in a global financial market run by pimps and whores. Markopolus has a new book coming out today called, “No One Would Listen“. The book chronicles the story of how Markopolus doggedly pursued a fraud case against Bernie Madoff from 1999 through 2008 by trying to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyers to investigate Madoff’s House of Cards. All to no avail.
WTF you might ask? At least that’s what I have been saying since this story first broke in early 2009 when Markopolus testified before Congress (you can read his testimony right here), and then was interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes.
This is beyond a comedy of errors. This is Dumb and Dumber, The Three Stooges, and Beevis and Butthead all working in concert to unwittingly thwart one another while the criminals continued to steal from us with unbridled impunity. Now is that not a terrifying image? Meet your S.E.C., America. Wall Street owns these guys.
Starting in 1999, Markopolus made several attempts to give the most fundamental proof of Madoff’s fraud to numerous investigators at the S.E.C. - all of which was either willfully or woefully ignored (Markopolus calls them “idiots” – that is too kind, don’t you think, Sarah Palin? I would have called them retards). By 2007, he was fed up with their wanton stupidity, and decided to document it by submitting a nineteen (19) page memorandum to the S.E.C. outlining the basis for his claim. That too, was ignored.
View the complete 60 Minutes interview with Markopolos - or just watch the real BOMBSHELL from minute 7:25 to 8:18 of the interview. That brief one minute segment is incomprehensible. And you wonder why so many investors were “Madoffed” by Bernie?
So after all this, has anything changed?
Hell no!
Harry Markopolus is still trying to settle his first big whistle-blower case, he has spent years living in fear, and yet he remains undeterred in his dogged pursuit of financial racketeers and corporate fraudsters. Of course, his new book should help keep his wife and young boys fed until payday comes. Ironically, Markopolus refers to himself as a “$50 Billion dollar failure”- because he could not get the S.E.C. to listen. One might conclude that he is being flippant, since he all but beat them over the head with his evidence. However, he is serious about characterizing this as his “failure” - he honestly takes it very personally that all these people were hurt by Madoff’s fraud in the face of the S.E.C.’s utter incompetence.
You just have to love this man. After all this, the crooks and the “police” shirk responsibility, and the hero feels guilty? And you wonder why it seems the world has started spinning in the other direction?
Meanwhile, back at the S.E.C., they are still re-disorganizing the deck chairs on the U.S.S. Financial Titanic, and there should be smooth sailing on the calm seas of Neo-Capitalism all the way back to port. No need to worry. They have their securities regulation minions fast asleep on night watch while the next massive financial iceberg awaits in the darkness. And brace yourself, because this next one’s really going to be a doozy folks.
In the meantime, bring them some Dom Perignon, the exquisite pate’, and that rare Russian escargot they just had imported, all paid for with your financial bailouts. And don’t forget to put that on a silver platter.
Oh, they almost forgot to mention it. You can ignore the water rising on the Italian marble dining room floor. That’s just from the watered-down financial regulation reform we are about to get from Wall Street’s wholly-owned public subsidiary, Congress. They have the S.E.C working on that minor leak down in the hull right now.
One Final Note: please do not bother counting the number of lifeboats. Those seats have all been reserved.
Enjoy the cruise. 
P.S. They saved several seats in the lifeboats for the S.E.C. lawyers. You didn’t really think the Financial Terrorists were going to row those things themselves, did you?
Americans Better Hope Obama Does Not Fail On Repairing the Economy
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Budget Deficit, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Politics, Sarah Palin, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on January 24th, 2010
Most Americans have a hard time with economic complexity, and reading charts . . . BORING!
Please stay with me on this one . It is far too important to ignore, because the graph posted above does not paint a pretty picture for the future of this country. If you do not care to understand the fundamentals, skip to the explanation and assessment at the bottom under “gobbly-gook“.
This graph was apparently created by Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Global Equity Strategies research group for Bloomberg financial news (Bloomberg.com), and posted at one of my favorite investment and economic blogs – Seeking Alpha. For those of you who do not engage in economic analysis – I minored in Economics in undergraduate studies - this chart represents the comparative relationship since 1996 between the U.S. stock market (utilizing the S & P 500 as an indicator) and job growth/decline in the American labor market utilizing the U.S. Conference Board’s “job plentiful index”. The key factor here is the radical divergence between the stock market and jobs over the past seven years.
From 1996-2000, job growth grew lock-and-step with the stock market, and the job index was actually much higher than the relative market index – meaning that as businesses made money (profits), jobs were created – this concept of “wage labour“ correlating with profits is the single most fundamental component of Adam Smith’s original theory of Capitalism as outlined in his treatise The Wealth of Nations. Capitalism in its most simple of terms states that as companies compete for and secure profits, workers will benefit through both increased job opportunities and rising wages, all which serves the best interests of society.
If you follow the graph out from 2000-2003, both indexes dropped in remarkable comparison as a result of a relatively severe recession. However, after 2003, the stock market goes up, but job growth lags far behind, and this growing divergence is only temporarily halted by the financial meltdown in late 2008 – when the two lines meet again in early 2009. Now the divergence between the two is growing ever wider at an alarming rate.
So what does this gobbly-gook mean?
Simply put, the stock market believes publically-traded companies in the United States - which are overly-represented by very large corporations - will produce a growth in profits without creating more jobs.
What this really means is that no matter who is President – Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Mitt Rommney, John McCain, [you fill in the blank] – the future for the future of U.S. workforce looks bleak. Moreover, if you think putting the Republicans back in office will change that – with their proposed policies of cutting taxes, gutting business regulation, and further fostering the concentration of power in large corporations – you are only fooling yourself.
Obama said this past week that he is going to make the economy, specifically job creation, his number one priority. I had absolutely no illusions that Obama was going to be able to turn this mess around quickly – he was handed the second worst economic situation in U.S. history, coupled with two very expensive wars. Nonetheless, I am sorely disappointed in his failure to immediately regulate the financial system, and focus the bailouts on bolstering small and medium-size business to quickly boost employment. You can defend Big Business all you want, but it is statistically indisputable that small and medium size businesses provide over 50% of the jobs in this country, and produce 64% of the new jobs every year.
Adam Smith, the Father of Capitalism, would be astounded at the bailouts for Wall Street, and the subsequent consolidation (concentration of power) of these financial behemoths. Moreover, he would bemoan the fact that such an extraordinary amount of financial capital was squandered on such an inherently risk-weighted aspect of business (trading derivatives and securities), which only produces profits while creating virtually a statistically insignificant number of new jobs in comparison (which ironically, Wall Street was shedding jobs at a record pace while making record profits and bonuses on trading in 2009 – so as for creating new jobs, “that dog just won’t hunt”).
Better pray it’s not too late to redress these problems. Hoping Obama fails on this front, is proverbially speaking, biting you nose off in spite of your face.
P.S. The bailouts were a monumental failure - and the primary blame must be placed at the feet of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and present Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (former New York Federal Reserve Chairman) for reasons I address in a future posting. Paulson, Geithner and Blankfein could all be charged for conspiracy to commit financial fraud if Federal Prosecutors would just grow some testicles.