Posted on 10/21/2009 7:19:50 PM PDT by markomalley
Government regulators threatened to remove top Bank of America executives if they backed out of a buyout of failing brokerage giant Merrill Lynch, and offered to provide taxpayer funds to compensate for Merrill's poor performance, according to company records obtained by The Washington Times.
The documents - e-mails between bank executives and their outside attorneys as well as board meeting "talking points" prepared for then-Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis - offer new insight into the hardball tactics that produced one of the biggest deals negotiated during the late 2008 global financial crisis, one that is still reverberating on Wall Street and in Washington.
They also underscore the fear shared by then-Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke that allowing the deal to fall through would mean a sequel to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose failure months earlier sent the world economy into a tailspin.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The government of this country is completely out of control.
Among the many things they are able to do as federal law enforcement officers is to replace management.
2009: The Year the Free Market system died.
Yes. How can it all be stopped?
“How can it all be stopped?”
*****************************
How have we stopped fascism in the past?
This is cinema material.
Minor problem: this happened in 2008.
Socialism Fascism sux no matter which administration does it.
Did it, in typical Frontline fashion, attempt to lay the blame for everything at the feet of George Bush - much like they did with either the Republican Congress or Ronald Reagan before him?
The government of this country believes that it is finally restoring control.
-PJ
The banking system debacle was a grave wound, but it was the Chrysler/GM takeover that was the coup de grâce.
2008 maimed it. 2009 killed it.
Pure and simple
The Fedgov is becoming Mafioso.
The events described in the article took place in 2008.
I think we need to sue every Demoncrat Member of Congress for our financial losses as individuals. But do it in the World Court to give them a dose of their own medicine!
I'm beginning to think GWB was held hostage to something in his last two years. I'm not ready to don the tinfoil but something happened.
Fascist government.
Hey little sister who’s your Superman?
Hey little sister shot gun!
It’s a nice day to start again
It’s a nice day for a White Wedding
I wonder how many of these execs voted for Obama. Probably most did.
That's an easy one. He was held hostage by his own legacy, or at least what he hoped it would be. He knows that the final chapters on Iraq won't be written for years, perhaps decades. But, he didn't want to be the Herbert Hoover of 2008 - with a looming and unrecoverable market crash, a complete an unmitigated financial collapse along with the closing of America's oldest and largest industrial corporation.
Now, I don't believe all that all those things would have happened, but he clearly did. And, he did because people like Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and dozens of others were all telling him that these things would unquestionably happen. So, he took the legacy insurance and bailed out criminals, miscreants, union bosses and anyone else who had their hand out.
He crippled the free market as it existed for almost 240 years. Obama finished it off. Bush did it out of vanity and perhaps some stupidity. Obama did it because he's a socialist or a Marxist or maybe even a communist. I suspect he's actually a blending of all the above, that will someday become to be known as an Obamaist. Just a guess.
We might have some kind of revolt if this keeps up./s
We’re going to see, for a start, Passive Resistance.
As in Fascism!
I have had the Hat on for quite awhile, and I totally agree with you.
This sucks. :(
The only good thing I can say about this is that it will hopefully (once again) show that businesses of all sizes she deny any federal assistance to avoid the tentacles of the Feds. This latest “offer” of assistance for small business loans is just another rouse to pull in more businesses under the frightening auspices of O and the Radicals.
Exactly. The very definition of Fascism is when the government takes over the corporations/banks. This will get very violent. One of my fears is that when the chaos ensues, the actual physical copy of the Constitution will be burned by our enemies right before our eyes while we advance onto them.
Welcome to Fascism.....
This is how it works.
“Bush did it out of vanity and perhaps some stupidity.”
This. I have always felt that Bush didnt really know what he was doing insofar as the bailouts go, but that eco-nut Paulsen was scaring the hell out of him every damn day with his lies.
We have had a silent fascism since the early 1900’s with the backing of the US industrialist backing Nazism in the 1930-45 and the NWO.
Didn’t the gov’t make BA buy Merrill?
OK.........ALL YOU CORP DONORS TO THE DUMS.
WHAT THE H ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS. USE SOME OF THOSE BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO HIRE A CONSTITUTIONAL LAW FIRM (will take an army of lawyers) TO STOP THIS FASCIST ASSAULT ON OUR CONSTITUTION.
“Industrialists were visited by state auditors who had strict orders to examine the balance sheets and all bookkeeping entries of the company or individual businessmen for the preceding two, three, or more years until some error or false entry was found,” explains Reimann. “The slightest formal mistake was punished with tremendous penalties. A fine of millions of marks was imposed for a single bookkeeping error.”
Reimann quotes from a businessman’s letter: “You have no idea how far state control goes and how much power the Nazi representatives have over our work. The worst of it is that they are so ignorant. These Nazi radicals think of nothing except ‘distributing the wealth.’ Some businessmen have even started studying Marxist theories, so that they will have a better understanding of the present economic system.
“While state representatives are busily engaged in investigating and interfering, our agents and salesmen are handicapped because they never know whether or not a sale at a higher price will mean denunciation as a ‘profiteer’ or ‘saboteur,’ followed by a prison sentence. You cannot imagine how taxation has increased. Yet everyone is afraid to complain. Everywhere there is a growing undercurrent of bitterness. Everyone has his doubts about the system, unless he is very young, very stupid, or is bound to it by the privileges he enjoys.
“There are terrible times coming.
If only I had succeeded in smuggling out $10,000 or even $5,000, I would leave Germany with my family. Business friends of mine are convinced that it will be the turn of the ‘white Jews’ (which means us, Aryan businessmen) after the Jews have been expropriated. The difference between this and the Russian system is much less than you think, despite the fact that we are still independent businessmen.”
The Vampire Economy-Doing Business Under Fascism-Gunther Reimann, 1939
I heard that Obama spent around $48 million in taxpayer money to take over GM....and that $48 mil in stock is now worth about $25 mil.
amen
Get out the extra heavy-duty foil. Two or three layers is best.
He knew. His dad told him. New World Order. Put your hats on.
Companies need to realize government handouts aren't "free" - they'll pay with the death of their industries.
Short term gains can be long term disasters.
I did as well...so much so that I made my husband read it, too. Very disturbing.
car companies
insurance companies
media
internet
banks
and yet the majority of the GOP still remain silent for fear of being called a name by those left wing kooks
Will THIS? meet staNDIng requirments for BO Eligibility suits ??
...Let's make it a viral kind of question.....
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