Posted on 04/20/2010 4:38:11 PM PDT by pissant
President Obama likes to say we need to clean up Wall Street. But let’s be clear: He is pushing a job-killing bailout bill for Wall Street that benefits his top financial contributor from the 2008 campaign – a firm that just happens to be under investigation by the SEC for defrauding investors.
Despite the President’s rhetoric, his support for the Democrats’ bailout bills gives big Wall Street banks a permanent, taxpayer-funded safety net by designating them “too big to fail.” Just whose side is President Obama on? Here are the facts:
WALL STREET GIVES GENEROUSLY TO THEN-CANDIDATE OBAMA:
• Goldman Sachs, recently charged with defrauding investors, was President Obama’s top Wall Street contributor during the 2008 election cycle, donating nearly $1 million to his campaign.
• Securities & investment firms in general were the fifth largest contributor to President Obama’s 2008 campaign, donating nearly $15 million. • Big banks also donated more than $3 million to Obama during the 2008 election cycle.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S RHETORIC SAYS “GET TOUGH ON WALL STREET”:
“We will hold Wall Street accountable. We will protect and empower consumers in our financial system. That’s what reform is all about. That’s what we’re fighting for.” (Weekly Address, 4/17/10)
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ACTIONS PUSH PERMANENT BAILOUTS FOR HIS WALL STREET FRIENDS:
• The Dodd Gives Wall Street a Pre-Existing $50 Billion Bailout Slush Fund. Sen. Dodd’s financial bailout bill would create a $50 billion ‘orderly resolution fund’ ($150 billion in Rep. Barney Frank’s bill) that could be repeatedly replenished from industry assessment.
• The Dodd Bill Gives Wall Street a Treasury-Backed Credit Line. The FDIC would be authorized to borrow from Treasury up to the amount of cash left in the ‘resolution fund’ plus 90 percent of the value of the assets of any and all too-big-to-fail firms in
(Excerpt) Read more at gopleader.gov ...
How independent is the SEC? Is there any chance this is a real investigation, or is it just a pre-emptive foot-in-the-door to prevent anyone else from starting one?
Not sure it's working that way though...sometimes blatant, hypocritical arrogance just fouls the air too much for anyone to be fooled.
BUMPED to front page!
Thank you!
Welcome.
Is that money stored in the basement of Goldman or City? Just ask yourself who has received the benefit, and you'll quickly discover that it was tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of Americans. It is truly shameful when GOP perpetuates anti-capitalist myths.
I was and continue to be against the bailouts. But it is utterly false to claim that only the Wall Street benefited somehow. Wall Street is owned by millions of Americans, and it is those widows, orphans and retirees that received the benefit.
Too bad he couldn’t find a proofreader. Glad to see him hammering the dims. We need this 24/7 until November 2012. G down in the gutter with the dims and hit back with facts. Only way to beat them.
Then it sounds like that meeting with Rahm on Sunday was to get everybody on the same page and everybody's story straight before the dog and pony show starts.
I don’t trust any of Obama’s bills - neither should anyone else.
HOW DID GANGSTER GOVERNMENT MOVE $14 TRILLION BAILOUT MONEY? One example. While acting the succesful investor, philanthropist, and Wall Street advisor, Ponzi thief Madoff created a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and financial entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth...... with assets and businesses in 11 places overseas that hid his rhievery. The wealthiest Madoffians were businessmen who were funneling income to Madoff to avoid US taxes and banking laws, and acting publicly like do gooder "philanthropists". But they were all tax cheats and money launderers.
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Behind The Real Size of the Wall Street Bailout (Mother Jones reports its $14 trillion)
Mother Jones | Dec. 21, 2009 / FR Posted January 04, 2010 by E. Pluribus Unum
A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street.
The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets. To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see our chart here. Below, a guide to the pieces of the puzzle:
Treasury Department bailout programs (controlled by Rahm Emanuel)
Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF].
Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF].
TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury has made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid. Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury has bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets." GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion [PDF].
--SNIP--- long read
Federal Reserve bailout programs
Commercial Paper Funding Facility: With the support from the Treasury, the Fed established the CPFF in October 2008 to increase the availability of short-term debt (commercial paper) funding. Up to $1.8 trillion [PDF] was earmarked for the program.
Mortgage-backed securities purchase: In 2009, the Fed earmarked up to $1.25 trillion to buy investments based on home loans.
Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility: TALF provides financing to investors who are buying asset-backed securities. In February 2009, the Fed and Treasury announced an expansion of the program to generate up to $1 trillion in new lending.
Foreign Central Bank Currency Liquidity Swaps: The Fed has provided $755 billion [PDF] for currency liquidity swaps with foreign central banks.
--SNIP--- long read
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G/S' elite mortgage unit is now at the center of allegations that they and Mr. Tourre, 31, defrauded investors with complex mortgage deals.....and then bet AGAINST investors that the scheme would fail.
Goldman is more than surviving the current financial storm. Recently it gave out billions in bonuses. G/S cultivates clout in Washington. And now they have Rahm---their very own WH toadie---pushing their agenda.
The late economist John Kenneth Galbraith blamed Goldman Sachs policies for causing the Great Depression of '29. In his book, The Great Crash, 1929, Galbraith, a key figure in JFK's admin, an entire chapter titled “In Goldman, Sachs, We Trust,” details the “large-scale corporate thimblerigging” that Goldman and other Wall Streeters practiced in the 1920s.
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GOOD FOR GOLDMAN, BAD FOR AMERICA (G/S the major toll collector on govt's red-ink railroad)
BY TERRY KEENAN, anchor of Cashin' In, Fox News Sat 11:30 AM.
EXCERPT G/S morphed into a commercial bank to take advantage of gov't handouts, yet Goldman is really a hedge fund on steroids, with trading accounting for 69% of gross revenue in the first quarter........ a big chunk of its trading involves US govt debt -- federal, state and local...... G/S has a huge vested interest in the US digging a deeper and deeper hole.........trading govt IOUs is big business.....one of the few growth markets on Wall Street. IPO's, M&A's, etc, have yet to recover but the US will borrow a record $3.25 trillion in the current fiscal year -- four times as much as in 2008.
With its biggest competitors out of business, G/S is a major toll collector on Washington's red-ink railroad.......a "debt tsunami" that will lift Goldman's fortunes. G/S plays on the bankrupting of America -- the more we borrow, the more they make........ ........but the American public should know this side of the G/S profit miracle. .......Through savvy trading and management, G/S set aside $11.4B this year to compensate its employees on a playing field cleared of its top competitors and soon after Uncle Sam bailedout G/S with $10B TARP -- and millions more through AIG, all paid for by taxpayers. G/S benefits nicely from the govt borrowing binge that was triggered in part by the banking crisis that started in Wall Street's own backyard.
SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/seven/07192009/business/good_for_goldman__bad_for_america_180130.htm
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