AIG the culprit? NO.. Here's the real beneficiary of the bailout money.

[dixiegrrrrl]

If AIG fell, Goldman Sachs was going to be hurt, badly, because of the counter party issue.

The original bailout last fall to AIG was pushed by Paulson, Bushie Sec. of Treasury.
Who used to be CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Who was also a mentor to Geithner.

Lehman was a rival of Goldman Sachs. Lehman was allowed to sink.

The bailout program, designed by Paulson to give about 12 billion indirectly to Goldman
Sachs via AIG,
is being "managed" by...Neel Kashkari, a former Goldman Sachs VP.

Geithner was a protege of Robert Rubin.
Rubin was Clinton's Sec. Treasury who pushed for the deregulation which led to this mess.
Rubin came to Treasury job from.................Goldman Sachs.

Geithner's Chief of Staff, Mark Patterson, was a lobbyist for...Goldman Sachs.

The new AIG CEO, Liddy, who was appointed by Paulson, came from Goldman Sachs.

Sure is an ugly picture.

[robinlynne]

1. EXACTLY. I keep saying this. noone is hearing it...yet.

[robinlynne]

2. Don't forget the 25 million dollar "gift" Goldman gave to Paulson, after he was in

office as Sec of Treasury.....

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I missed that...tell me more.

When and what form was the "gift" in ?

[robinlynne]

4. It was a bonus or retirement gift or whatever, but they gave it to him several months after

he left GOldman Sachs, which means he was, at the time of the gift, a federal employee, and exactly the federal employee who created TARP....

[truedelphi]

50. I never read the NYT, but yesterday got a free copy

The entire Saturday March 21st issue was one long attact on "populist" America - with its roving bands of unwashed rabble rousers, attempting to derail the President's economic recovery.

And article after article defending AIG, and then an article in which one of the Big Shots at Goldman Sachs said that the firm was fine and never even needed any Bailout Monies!?!

You'd never know by reading the Goldman Sachs Article that the GS firm was a recipient of both actual, direct Bailout Money, and additionally money that was funnelled through it by AIG!

[robinlynne]

7. here's a wikipedia entry, mentioning that he got 16 million in 2006.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Henry_M._Paulson%27s_salary_and_bonus_from_Goldman_Sachs

[UpInArms]

15. Paulson Gets $18.7 Million Gift from Goldman Sachs

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/7/3/100656.shtml

Incoming U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was awarded an $18.7 million cash bonus for six months of work as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s chief executive, the investment bank said Monday.

In its quarterly report, Goldman said the compensation committee of its board of directors on June 29 approved the payment in recognition of Paulson's "leadership" in the six months ended May 31.

The committee also approved the acceleration of the distribution of Paulson's restricted stock units, which vested upon his resignation to take the Treasury post. In addition, it approved Goldman's purchase of investments made by Paulson and his wife in private investment funds managed by the company.

In its fiscal first half, Goldman said net income roughly doubled from a year earlier to $4.79 billion, or $9.86 per share, helped by soaring trading revenue and increased fees from underwriting and merger advising.

The U.S. Senate last Wednesday confirmed Paulson for the Treasury post, replacing John Snow. No date has been set for Paulson's swearing in. Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt is serving as acting Treasury secretary.

Paulson, 60, has said he would sell his Goldman stock upon being confirmed as Treasury secretary.

Goldman last Thursday filed with regulators for a sale of 3.23 million common shares held by Paulson, worth $486 million based on Friday's closing price.

...more...

[truedelphi]

5. Are you kidding us? Isn't that a conflict of interest, and/or

Wouldn't that gift make Paulson nothing more than a highly positioned lobbyist for Goldman Sachs?

Pls tell us more!

[robinlynne]

6. I'm pretty sure I read about it here on DU, or Huffington post, the two sites I read every day...

It was 25 or 26 million dollars. That's all I remember. wills ee if I can find something on google.

[customerserviceguy]

41. Nope, he was plenty more than just another lobbyist

All a lobbyist can do is give campaign cash to bribe a politician for face time, or better, but Hank became the most powerful man in the world when the $700 billion bailout fund was created in the dying days of the Bush administration.

And Democratic legislators bought the whole thing, hook, line and sinker. Even President Obama has Goldman Sachs asshats in his Administration.

If anything dooms the recovery, it will be that.

[truedelphi]

47. One of Obama's first announcements was

"Good job there, Hank" on "Sixty Minutes." LateNov 2008.

Yeah, it's a heck of a good job there, Hank-boy - if you are on the inside of Goldman Sachs.

[indepat]

14. What an incredible return on that $25 million investment

:P

[chill_wind]

8. #5

[robinlynne]

9. oh no. I found this: Goldman Sachs 2nd largest donor to Obama campaign....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs

That might explain some of what is going on.
I would like to think it is NOT so.

[chill_wind]

23. Open Secrets.

Obama's top contributers.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

His top bundlers.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/bundlers.php?id=N00009638

[robinlynne]

10. here it is: link to NYT article below (re Goldman payout to Paulson after he left.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/business/04goldman.html

[truedelphi]

13. Thanks for the enlightenment, Robinlynne n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. He got paid 18 mil. for 6 months work?!!!!???

[chill_wind]

22. And he got embraced & approved by unanimous voice vote with extra hugs

and kisses from Schumer.


Sirota was scathing at the time. A solitary voice in the progressive wilderness.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/the-paulson-payoff-at-the_b_24379.html

[robinlynne]

24. No, that was after he left!!!! Not his regular pay. in addition to...

[robinlynne]

25. and 500 million in stock....

[wroberts189]

11. Let me help enlighten with a KNR n/t

[Celebration]

12. Okay, I recommended, too

Goldman Sachs has tentacles deep into both parties.

Honestly, they have so much power that it would be virtually impossible for a President to ignore them, or tell them to take a hike.

[burythehatchet]

16. AIG's only function right now is money laundering.

[truedelphi]

48. You.ve nailed it, Hatchet. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Btw...after leaving Clinton WH, Rubin went on to be Chairman of....wait for it....

Citigroup.
and..
from Wiki:
"Citigroup shareholders have suffered losses of more than 70 percent since Rubin joined the firm and that he encouraged changes that led the firm to the brink of collapse.<14> In December 2008, investors filed a lawsuit contending that Citigroup executives, including Rubin, sold shares at inflated prices while concealing the firm’s risks."

In January 2009, Rubin was named by Marketwatch as one of the "10 most unethical people in business"

and he is one of Obama's economic advisors.

I feel very very very ...screwn.

[DemReadingDU]

19. So how does Obama benefit?

Or is it that Obama was told that these people needed to be the economic advisors?

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. I believe he was told.

Zbigniew Brzezinski's name keeps coming up as someone who is pulling long term strings.

I really really don't want to believe this, but I really don't want to go back to the numb denial I was in for the last 12 years either.

And seeing the pattern of Wall Street honchos who have been revolving in and out of the WH
for the last 20 years is hard to ignore.
Remember, Cheney and Rumsfield and Wolfolitz had that same pattern.

[DemReadingDU]

21. I would think so too

Something doesn't seem right with this economic team, for the people. It seems like the economic team been installed to continue the transfer of wealth from the taxpayer to the super-wealthy. I don't understand why Obama is going along with it. Surely Obama sees the death spiral that our country is facing. It won't be complete until the wealthy have depleted our 401Ks, IRAs, pensions, savings accounts, social security. It's all wealth for them, none for us.

[marketcrazy1]

26. people are finally waking up.........

""It won't be complete until the wealthy have depleted our 401Ks, IRAs, pensions, savings accounts, social security. It's all wealth for them, none for us."" DemReadingDU the new public / private "investment" plan being announced monday will take care of this...................

[DemReadingDU]

27. What plan is that?

Is the government going to confiscate our 401Ks, IRAs, pensions?

[marketcrazy1]

28. not yet

but the new PUBLIC / PRIVATE investment plan will allow pension funds, hedge funds and other public investment pools to "invest" in toxic assets... the question is can the government afford to back these "investments" WHEN not IF they blow up!!!!

[DemReadingDU]

29. There is no way the gov can back up these investments

The amount of toxic investments is too huge. Not only is the U.S. broke, so is the world. It's going to be a nightmare global depression.


3/21/09 U.S. Sets Plan for Toxic Assets
The federal government will announce as soon as Monday a three-pronged plan to rid the financial system of toxic assets, betting that investors will be attracted to the combination of discount prices and government assistance.

But the framework, designed to expand existing programs and create new ones, relies heavily on participation from private-sector investors. They've been the target of a virulent anti-Wall Street backlash from Washington in the wake of the American International Group Inc. bonus furor. As a result, many investors have expressed concern about doing business with the government in this climate -- potentially casting a cloud over the program's prospects.

The administration plans to contribute between $75 billion and $100 billion in new capital to the effort, although that amount could expand down the road.

more...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123758981404500225.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Paulson and Bernanke floated that plan in 2007 !!!!!

or early 2008...I distinclty remember reading the trial balloon and having a scruntling fit about it.

So they just "happen" to have this plan on hand for a crisis such as this, eh?

Much like the Patriot Act "just happened" to be ready and written days after 9-11.

and the TARP bill "just happened" to be written practically overnight.

[marketcrazy1]

31. yep, nobody saw this coming???

BULLSHIT!!

[Hannah Bell]

34. i believe they've confiscated 1/3-1/2 of ira value already, & the same for pensions.

the crisis narrative will enable "reform" to reduce/alter SS.

[TankLV]

40. When people have NOTHING TO LOSE (when they have lost everything) - then it's time for REVOLUTION...

and I'm not speaking metaphorically...I'm talking the ugly violent kind...and I won't be against this, either...

but the real question is - WHY DID OBAMA KEEP ALL THE bush* APPOINTEES?!!!

I thought we all voted for CHANGE - in EVERYTHING - not "business as usual"...

[inna]

42. all of this makes my head spin and makes me really mad.

what is Obama doing and why??

i just saw this on HuffPost, btw: "Goldman Sachs, Obama, Money"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-ostertag/goldman-sachs-obama-money_b_177611.html

[valerief]

32. Thanks for that incestuous mapping! nt

[MindMatter]

33. This is the simple truth that every American needs to understand

[butterfly77]

35. Correct, I thought we would begin to hear..

some reporting on Paulson at the beginning of the year but the media is involved in some ways so they want to keep the story on the President once they get done untangling this web of mass destruction we don't know who else will fall out but the media has to be forced. Some of these talking heads that show up on morning joe and other shows need to bring up point after point about Paulson and Bushco every chance they get..

[AntiFascist]

38. EXACTLY!

All they can do is harp on the AIG bonuses, which is just a big distraction compared to the points made in the OP.

[VermeerLives]

36. Geithner

Here's a devastating expose on Tim Geithner, the economic "genius" from The Sydney Morning Herald a couple weeks ago:

In a speech to a closed gathering at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday, Paul Keating gave a starkly different account of Geithner's record in handling the Asian crisis: "Tim Geithner was the Treasury line officer who wrote the IMF program for Indonesia in 1997-98, which was to apply current account solutions to a capital account crisis."

In other words, Geithner fundamentally misdiagnosed the problem. And his misdiagnosis led to a dreadfully wrong prescription.

Geithner thought Asia's problem was the same as the ones that had shattered Latin America in the 1980s and Mexico in 1994, a classic current account crisis. In this kind of crisis, the central cause is that the government has run impossibly big debts.

The solution? The IMF, the Washington-based emergency lender of last resort, will make loans to keep the country solvent, but on condition the government hacks back its spending. The cure addresses the ailment.

But the Asian crisis was completely different. The Asian governments that went to the IMF for emergency loans - Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia - all had sound public finances.

The problem was not government debt. It was great tsunamis of hot money in the private capital markets. When the wave rushed out, it left a credit drought behind.

But Geithner, through his influence on the IMF, imposed the same cure the IMF had imposed on Latin America and Mexico. It was the wrong cure. Indeed, it only aggravated the problem.

Keating continued: "Soeharto's government delivered 21 years of 7 per cent compound growth. It takes a gigantic fool to mess that up. But the IMF messed it up. The end result was the biggest fall in GDP in the 20th century. That dubious distinction went to Indonesia. And, of course, Soeharto lost power.

Worse, Keating argued, Geithner's misjudgment had done terminal damage to the credibility of the IMF, with seismic geoeconomic consequences: "The IMF is the gun that can't shoot straight. They've been making a mess of things for the last 20-odd years, and the greatest mess they made was in east Asia in 1997-98, so much so that no east Asian state will put its head in the IMF noose."

[VermeerLives]

37. Geithner has also been implicated

in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and also Bear Stearns. William Cohen writes about the collapse of Bear Stearns and Geithner's role in it in his book, "House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street". To sum up:

"Bear Stearns faced a liquidity crisis because of its funding needs. Wall Street firms and banks were not only too panicky to loan to Bear but also had a grudge against Bear for its hardball tactics and its failure years before to join them in rescuing Long Term Capital Management, a giant hedge fund that was in the process of self-destructing. Also, these firms had a desire to pick up the business that would be available if Bear collapsed.

What did Geithner do-or did not do, in this case?

He refused to open up the Federal Reserve Discount Window to help meet the short-term liquidity needs of Bear Stearns. This is a lending facility that had previously been unavailable to investment banks. One might think that the prohibition prevented the window from being open to Bear. However, one would be wrong.

Geithner did open the window only a few days after Bear basically went out of business in a federally-facilitated fire sale to J.P. Morgan.

Now, the moral of the story is not just that Geithner could have acted to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns. There were problems with the firm and its structure; a loan may have just postponed the inevitable. However, a loan may have just been able to help stabilize the markets-especially the mortgage and stock markets. The fact that he did so only a few days after Bear Stearns was thrown into the arms of J. P. Morgan may also indicate a certain dithering habit on the part of Geithner that seems to have carried over into the Treasury Department.

Geithner also defended the Fed's decision not to open the discount window until Sunday night, after Bear could have benefited from it. "The way the Federal Reserve Act is designed, and the way we think about the discount window for banks, is we only allow sound institutions to borrow against collateral in that context," he said. "I can only speak personally for this, but I would have been very uncomfortable lending to Bear, given what we knew at that time." He said that both the opening of the Fed window and the earlier creation of the facility "were exceptionally consequential acts, taken with extreme reluctance and care, because of the substantial consequences it would have for moral hazard in the financial system going forward. And I do not believe it would have been appropriate for us to take that act Sunday night if we had not been faced with the dynamics that were precipitated by, accelerated by, the looming prospect of a Bear default."

In a separate interview a few months later, Geithner again defended his decision not to open the discount window to Bear Stearns. He said he would not have taken that extraordinary step three months earlier, as Schwartz, Dodd, and others had been hoping. "People had been pushing us to do it for a long time," he said. "We consciously chose not to do it, and I think rightly so, because it is a consequential act. You don't want to do it unless you think there's no other option available to mitigate the risks of the system."

[truedelphi]

49. J P Morgan is amazing - a firm that somehow always lands on its feet

Through one economic crisis after another.

This alone helps me dis-believe the notion that the Federal Reserve is a non-partisian board of banking directors.

If there was no hidden influence on the inside of the Fed, influence that is rooting for and assisting Morgan, just one of the economic calamities that we have suffered should have penalized J P Morgan,over the past one hundred years..

Oh and when you get into the history of the creation of the Fed, it seems that J P Morgan had some inluence there too.

[benld74]

39. Liddy was ALSO with The insurance companies who were,,,

disallowing claims during the Katrina fiasco, working for the medical company where Rumsfield was on board of directors and so on and so on

[truedelphi]

51. Good information, thanks.

[Wetzelbill]

43. Kashkari.... I swear the players in this whole mess have such ironic names

Kash and Karry. Ugh.

Then you have the aptly named Bernie Madoff.

I wonder if somebody with the name Total Asshole is going to pop up next....

[McCamy Taylor]

44. K & R

[snappyturtle]

45. Kick!

:kick:

[dixiegrrrrl]

46. Wow..you guys are great. Thanks for all the added information.

I have these little folders, see...and add bits and pieces, and suddenly a whole picture and trail emerges...glistening in the light like slug tracks.. of what these guys are really up to and why.

And it all comes down to disaster capitalism, take the money and run,
hit on multiple fronts and do it fast before anyone can put the pieces together.
These guys ARE practicing financial terrorism, for real.


"Only the small secrets need be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity"--Marshal McLuhan

[Po_d Mainiac]

52. kick n/t