Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big To Fail should really be called The Great Heist - How Politicians and Bankers Looted Everyday Citizens In the Greatest Scheme Of All Time.
I have not bought or read Mr. Sorkins book, although I will be buying it very soon, but do I really need to read it? The simple reason is I already know from my years working on Wall Street how the game is incredibly rigged and ultimately played. The rich, affluent, and ultra wealthy will always loot the rest of society, how else do you think they get so wealthy? Tax cuts, pork barrel projects, lobbyists, and the general lack of any enforceable regulation is all an attempt to get the the upper 1% so ludicrously wealthy beyond imagination, that they themselves will call the shots at the end of the day. The tax code in itself is written by ultra wealthy organizations and individuals. Lobbyists and to a lesser extent Think Tanks have completely high jacked America.
I have read a few parts of Too Big To Fail on the Internet, and read many other book reviews, its a very well researched book. I am surprised that he got this much access to the looters. Again, I think its unbelievable arrogant and shows unreal hubris of these politicians, government officials, and bankers to allow Mr. Sorkins to have access to their shenanigans. It shows what their ultimate end game was. Mr. Sorkin alerts us that the day after Bear Stearns was sold to JP Morgan, Treasury head Paulson was already trying to make deals for Lehman Brothers and Wachovia. He knew that Lehman brothers was in big trouble. All of the people in that room knew the entire system was on life support, this is why they had already drawn up some sort of bailout program for Wall Street. The Looting Of America to stabilize and reinvigorate the Wall Street Bonus Pool had just embryonically begun. The TARP program that came out of left field in September 2008 really was written on April 15Th of 2008. Who do you think wrote this document? Neel Kashkhari, former Investment Looter/Banker at Goldman Sachs. Mr.Sorkin has this document in his book That alone should cover the cost of buying the book.
What the public doesn't know and what the main stream media hasn't reported on was that in these closed door meetings, all of Wall Streets dirty laundry was being shown for everyone to see. Merrill Lynch was in trouble. Lehman was in trouble. Wachovia and Washington Mutual were in trouble. Morgan Stanley was in trouble. So knowing this, you don't think the exec's at JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and BOFA wouldn't take advantage of the valuable information that they had? At the end of the day who survived? Yes it was GS, JP, And BOFA. You don't think that JP was leaning on Washington Mutual stock on the short side? You don't think they owned CDS against Wamu debt? How about GS? These guys were bleeding AIG, Lehman, and Wachovia dry. They were shorting the stuffing's out of the common and buying CDS protection on the back end. The final death spiral for LTCM happened when they opened their trading books to Wall Street and specifically Goldman Sachs. Goldman left the meetings and immediately went and leaned on LTCM bad positions. This is what happens when their are no rules or ethics. It was a free trade back in 1998, and again in 2008. I also forgot, you don't think these guys in these meetings made some calls to their hedge fund buddies? At the end of the day Lehman, WAMU, and Wachovia were sacrificed so that the rest of Wall Street can eat. Morgan Stanley was saved by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Merrill as we all know was fraudulently peddled to BOFA.
As I posted yesterday this type of behavior has happened before.
tradersutra.blogspot.com/2009/10/it-has-happened-before.html
tradersutra.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-ltcm-enabled-sub-prime-meltdown.html
Now what I knew in 1998 was the same the general public knew in 2008.
-Wall Street and Financials are TBTF.
-OTC Derivatives pose a systemic risk to the economy.
-Leverage is way out of control.
-Our national debt is ludicrous
-Americans for years have lived beyond their means and are heavily in debt.
-The banks are not properly capitalized and continue to lie about their books.
-The banks do not want to be regulated and will fight to the death to prevent it.
-Congress is no different then a $2 Hooker, who will sell the Taxpayer out.
-The dependence of credit and credit creation cant be sustained.
-Complex Financial Products are really WMD's in disguise.
-The dependence of Financial Modeling is vastly overrated and downright dangerous.
Most Importantly
-The lack of regulation in our financial system with regards to OTC Derivatives and Complex Financial Products is the main reason why the system and ultimately the Tax Payer continually takes it in the ass.
Its this last point that really makes the masses angry. The bankers go around the cocktail circuit telling every one that they are survivors. Survivors! They are only survivors to the extent that everyday citizens bailed them out. The only reason these guys have jobs to go to is because school teachers, fireman, auto workers, and plumbers just to name a few were bamboozled into laying their tax dollars so that Dimon, Blankfein, and Lewis can extravagantly show off their vulgar wealth. Its the same people who say they are survivors who are fighting financial regulation this time around, and they are going about it the same way they know how. The same way they cut down Brooksly Born in 1998. Its a stealth campaign perpetuated by Wall Street and laid out by the lobbyists to make sure that Congress never ever kills the Golden Goose for Wall Street.
The next serious downturn will leave actual blood on the streets. Heads are going to roll literally and figuratively.
tradersutra.blogspot.com/2009/08/meltdown-soon-social-unrestrevolution.html
If Sorkin's book is not depressing enough, please watch PBS's Frontline program "The Warning." It details one woman's (Brooksly Born) efforts and warnings to regulate OTC Derivatives. At every turn then Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers with the help of Tim Geithner, and a cadre of financial lobbysts killed any and all talk of regulating OTC Derivatives. Congress which was drunk off of campaign contributions shrugged off the LTCM disaster as a one time once in a 100 years event. Make that once in 10 years. Where do you think Rubin ended up? He took his act to Citigroup. Where did Geithner and Summers end up? You guessed it! They slid right into Obama's inner circle. Greenspan is now universally villified for his Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman Economic Polices.
I find it funny that there is so much venom sprayed at Bush and Cheney. At least their shenanigans actually made Americans safer, although that is hard to prove empirically, I do believe in my heart of hearts that this is true. They can sleep better at night knowing their actions some how benefited average Americans.
How in the world can Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, Greenspan, Dimon, Blankfein, Lewis, Financial Lobbysts, and most importantly Congress do the same?
Can we honestly say any of these problems that everyone knew as fact have been alleviated in 2009?
|
The sound of silence is always the best answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment