What the super-rich do not survive all that well is prison. A number of them have toddled off in that direction recently and it’s not been a pretty sight—all those trophy wives twisting their handkerchiefs and salivating to start a do-over at the Hampton place, spruce up Central Park West a bit. The rich and famous pull their time at Fed country clubs in warm climates, but a cell is still a cell.
Olender again-- The catastrophic consequences of bond investors forcing originators to buy back loans at face value are beyond the current media discussion. The loans at issue dwarf the capital available at the largest U.S. banks combined, and investor lawsuits would raise stunning liability sufficient to cause even the largest U.S. banks to fail, resulting in massive taxpayer-funded bailouts of Fannie and Freddie, and even FDIC.
. . . It is truly amazing that right now everyone in the country is deferring to Paulson and the heads of Countrywide, JPMorgan, Bank of America and others as the best group to work out a solution to this problem. No one is talking about the fact that these people created the problem and profited to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars from it.
. . . The next time that Paulson is before the Senate Finance Committee, instead of asking, "How much money do you think we should give your banking buddies?" I'd like to see New York Sen. Chuck Schumer ask him what he knew about this staggering fraud at the time he was chief of Goldman Sachs.
This has been a Congress that has failed and failed and failed to hold anyone’s feet to the fire of responsibility in (or out) of government. Good luck with Chuck Schumer—one of the two deciding votes that allowed Mike Mukasey to be the man responsible for bringing charges.
There’s that word again, responsible.
Americans, swallowing the malarkey of the Fed and Treasury trying to work in the interests of homeowners, are going to find themselves picking up the tab. There are lots of tabs since George Bush came to be seated in the Oval Office—tabs for
trillions given away to the likes of Paulson and his buddies,
tabs for war profiteering,
for two unfunded wars and
for the privatization of government services along with
record deficit budgets.
The amazing truths that will finally be uncovered as this current generation is poked, prodded and forensically autopsied, will all be tales of trusting oblivion. Willingly, we trudged off into the blinding lights of consumerism, never asking why or where or how we were being led and by whom. If we end up broke and having to grow chickens and tend a garden to survive, there is not a single man or woman among us who will know how.
We will have lost it all and have only a confused look on our faces to show for it. _________________________________________________________ Media comment;
Jim Freeman's op-ed pieces and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, International Herald-Tribune, CNN, The New York Review, The Jon Stewart Daily Show and a number of magazines.
Ask the farmer's whose lands have been hijacked using collusion, racketeering and criminal conspiracy masquarading as loan servicing about RICO. I can think of 2 class action lawsuits right now which the courts have here to fore not certified, which allege RICO, and other charges.
'Tis still, the courts, the courts, the courts--except the ones in Ohio who are setting precedents that are gonna send some asses to jail.
by
M. Davis (48 articles, 2 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 154 comments)
on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 8:59:08 PM
Interesting thread of information and seemingly faultless credentials of the author, but my question is what does one do and how does one hide $4.5 trillion?
That's an amount of money exceeding the liquidity of all US banks combined. And this is purported to be (or was to be) in the hands of one man?
I have always been reluctant to join in 'conspiracy theory,' but must admit this one piques my interest.
by
Jim Freeman (108 articles, 53 quicklinks, 224 diaries, 386 comments)
on Friday, December 14, 2007 at 5:33:58 AM
Jim this is where he hides it. According to the Article...
IF HE DOES IT AGAIN INVESTIGATORS CONFRONT CITIBANK WITH EVIDENCE OF HUGE SECRET ACCOUNTS CITIBANK BOARD SWITCHED, TO OBTAIN AN EXTENSION FROM FEDERAL JUDGE FED-ORGANISED CENTRAL BANK ACTION = A SMOKESCREEN TO CONTINUE THE THEFT PANDIT WARNS THAT U.S. FACES MASSIVE INFLATION (DUE TO THESE FRAUDSTERS)
UPDATE, 12.15 AM LONDON TIME, 13TH DECEMBER:
(1) THE PRACTICAL MOTIVE UNDERLYING ALL THIS IS THAT THE U.S. PERPETRATORS, INCLUDING CITIBANK AND MORGAN STANLEY, 'CAN'T QUIT' BECAUSE THEY ARE COVERING UP THE EXISTENCE OF THE ILLEGAL CITIBANK SLUSH FUND ACCOUNTS THAT THEY HOLD IN THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE WORLD-CLASS FINANCIAL GIGA-CRIMINALS WHO HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED IN THESE REPORTS.
by
Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 930 comments)
on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 6:01:25 PM
Good article but I simply don't understand how the parties that bought these loans were not complicit. They had to know that the loans were packaged and some parts were more solvent than others... seems to me like a giant game of 'musical chairs' and the music has stopped. Hell, I can barely count on my hands but it was obvious to me that the ever-increasing price of housing wasn't sustainable. I presume bankers are at little more intelligent... well, maybe not. Greed does that to people. I hope they're all enjoying their idiotic granite countertops....
by
Dawn Owens (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments)
on Friday, December 14, 2007 at 11:57:47 AM
It's called WANTING TO BELIEVE and its what most of us put behind us when we learn that Santa Claus is really dad in a beard.
Complicit? Of course. Every cab driver in 1928 was complicit as well. Everyone along this troubled course of lies and deceit didn't want to know what went before, just wanted to ride the elevator UP. When financial elevators fall, everyone screaming on the way down looks for someone to blame.
Like all financial crimes, there is plenty of blame to go around with this one. For years there have been cautionary articles about the danger of unregulated hedge funds and the NEXT big crash that would be attributable to their obfuscation of purpose--NO ONE UNDERSTOOD THE DAMNED THINGS.
Derivatives? (A financial instrument whose value is based on another security) Who even knows what they are? A is valued on the future of B and B has taken a hike around the corner.
Neither A or B are regulated.
That's the main reason such questionable securities were able to be palmed off on investors who were more attracted to the growth and interest than the underlying value.
Which set the table for massive fraud. Henry Paulson saw it and got Goldman Sachs out before the fall.
by
Jim Freeman (108 articles, 53 quicklinks, 224 diaries, 386 comments)
on Friday, December 14, 2007 at 1:23:36 PM
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