William K. Black spanks Geithner for covering up financial scandal

[Larkspur]

and for not doing his job as regulator when he headed the NY Fed. And he indirectly slams Obama for hiring Geithner to manage the financial crisis.

See today's airing of the Bill Moyer's Journal interview of William K. Black.

Obama fanatics think Krugman's criticism of Geithner/Obama was bad, they will surely not like what William Black has to say. Black reinforces Krugman's criticisms of Geithner and the Obama Admin's plans to fix the financial crisis.

Combine Black's interivew with Krugman's criticism of the Obama Financial crisis plan, with Geithner's shaky past as head of the NY Fed and letting the credit swap derivatives that are sinking our economy now get unregulated when he was in charge of the NY Fed and with the latest news about Larry Summers past speaking fees from TARP recipients we have our first Obama Admin scandal that is quickly going to get out of control. I would not be surprised to see Summers get his walking papers within the next few weeks. Geithner's days are numbered too, but not sure how long Obama will try to keep him afloat.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. The whole show was brilliant. rare to see essential television these days.

[babylonsister]

2. Yea, Geithner, Summers, and Obama suck. Except not necessarily.

Edit to add: I will try to watch this, because different pov's are important.

Just don't forget, the person you are listening to isn't necessarily right.

[frylock]

11. don't put yourself out or anything..

it sounds like your mind is pretty much set.

[truedelphi]

17. Elementary economics, that exists regardless of whatever powers are in place

Tells us from history that a mere twenty billion dollars Bailout that was conceived by Summers and Rubin and implemented by Clinton, resulted in massive devaluing of the Mexican worker's wages. Within a year, if not sooner, the average Mexican worker went from 87 cents to 47 cents.

Why was this done? While the media offered the "sound byte" of compassion for people of a different race, the reality is that Clinton's buddies on Wall Street had made a lot of fast and furious loans to Mexican bankers and if there was no Bailout, the Wall Street crowd would be a small bit poorer. (If there was real "compassion for people of a different race" maybe then Citibank would not have snuffed off the media coverage of the Chiapas revolution, airing daily on American TV in January of 1994, and suddenly POOF put that Chiapas coverage in a dungeon when Nancy Kerrigan, the skater, had her knee bonked by Tonya Harding's evil posse. We went from getting Edward Murrow style TV journalism to "All Tonya, All the time" TV journalism in 120 short minutes.)

Citibank did not want an entire generation of Americans to understand how important it was for the Average Mexican to keep the small farmer economy intact. ANd so today most Americans do not know how hard the little person inside Mexico struggled to survive. Nor did most of us learn what the Bailout to Mexico really meant. That Bailout finished off the smaller family farmer down in Mexico.

So, back to present day America - how will the 2.9 Trillion to 8.1 Trillion giveaways wind up working out north of the border? Same as they worked out south of the border. The Wall Street kingpins will still being luxuriating at the day spa in Maui Sheraton, while the workers will be wondering how to afford living, with their wages worth less than half. Won't happen next week, or next month, but by next year...

[L. Coyote]

3. "Live" now out West

[bvar22]

4. WOW.

Using words like "FRAUD" and "Coverup".....

[leftstreet]

5. Gee, this sounds almost...uh criminal or something. "Coverup" "Fraud"

oops

[slipslidingaway]

6. The New York Fed: Who We Are and What We Do

http://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/fedpoint/fed13.html

"...The New York Fed and the 11 other Federal Reserve Banks supervise depository institutions by issuing regulations and examining member banks to check their financial soundness..."



Last Updated: April 22, 2004

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid=acZ53mLfqWHs

"...Other Fed watchers were disappointed that someone with an established reputation as a regulator didn't get the job.

``Geithner's appointment raises questions about the willingness of the New York Fed to aggressively supervise financial holding companies in its territory because there is very little in Geithner's resume that shows experience in regulatory issues,'' says Tom Schlesinger, 55, executive director of the Financial Markets Center, a Philomont, Virginia-based nonprofit group that monitors the Fed.

`Tough Cop'

``The New York Fed could have sent a message by appointing a well-known tough cop with regulatory experience and a professed willingness to crack down on financial crimes,'' says Schlesinger. ``Geithner may prove to be that kind of individual, but it is improbable at this time.''


...Get Things Done

Geithner got the job thanks to recommendations from Rubin and Summers, who were impressed by his ability to get things done at the Treasury, Peterson says.

``I had long conversations with Rubin and Summers, and they gave Geithner rave reviews,'' he says. ``They said he was the best public servant they had ever worked with."

[slipslidingaway]

7. Recalling Summer's Days as a Regulation Foe...

As Obama Taps Larry Summers, Recalling Summer's Days as a Regulation Foe

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2008/11/obama-taps-larry-summers-recalling-summers-days-regulation-foe


"...Even "small regulatory changes," Summers cautioned, could throw the whole system out of whack. Determined to slap down the CFTC, his Treasury Department, the Fed, and the Securities and Exchange Commission crafted a proposal that would prohibit the CFTC from issuing new rules regulating any swap or "hybrid instrument."

Summers told the Senate he and his fellow economic bigfoots were not slamming Born and the CFTC cavalierly:

We understood the seriousness of making this proposal. To question an independent agency's concept of its jurisdiction and then to propose legislation that would temporarily curtail that agency's ability to act is not something we do lightly. We concluded, however, that such legislation was necessary to avoid disruption and dislocation in the market while the underlying issues were being considered by Congress.

Congress in late 2000 did end up implementing the Summers approach, when Senator Phil Gramm, then the head of the Senate banking committee, used a back-room maneuver to slip into a must-pass spending bill a measure that prevented the CFTC or the SEC from regulating derivatives..."


http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

"...WILLIAM K. BLACK: There were two really big things, under the Clinton administration. One, they got rid of the law that came out of the real-world disasters of the Great Depression. We learned a lot of things in the Great Depression. And one is we had to separate what's called commercial banking from investment banking. That's the Glass-Steagall law. But we thought we were much smarter, supposedly. So we got rid of that law, and that was bipartisan. And the other thing is we passed a law, because there was a very good regulator, Brooksley Born, that everybody should know about and probably doesn't. She tried to do the right thing to regulate one of these exotic derivatives that you're talking about. We call them C.D.F.S. And Summers, Rubin, and Phil Gramm came together to say not only will we block this particular regulation. We will pass a law that says you can't regulate. And it's this type of derivative that is most involved in the AIG scandal. AIG all by itself, cost the same as the entire Savings and Loan debacle."

[wroberts189]

8. Brilliant knr

[EFerrari]

9. "Why are we bailing out someone who is defrauding us?"

[EFerrari]

10. Geithner says they need two trillion, they say they're fully capitalized and solvent.

Both statements can't be true.

:shrug:

[frylock]

12. worth watching to be sure

knr

[flyarm]

13. Incredible interview , and scathing!!!!!!!! Who can sleep tonight seeing that?

Geithner and Summers need to be fired immediately!

This is a disgrace to this nation.

Too bad there are too many Americans willing to be lied to and defrauded! And that will sit back and let our kids be robbed of their futures because of these bastards!

[Duppers]

14. K & R

nt

[merkins]

15. K&R! Don't Miss This Interview

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

One of Bill's best and most informative on our financial crisis from a sober source.

[frylock]

16. kick