Breaking:Citi-Group About To Release Enron Like Problem

FOX,CNBC | 7-22-02 | my favorite headache

[My Favorite Headache]

Radio and I just see FOX reporting this. Big lender to worldcom and other giants...in trouble.Markets now back to falling...here we go.

[kcvl]

DLC | New Dem Daily | July 22, 2002

Shift Policies, Not Blame

When the President suddenly called a press conference week before last and began it with a tongue-lashing of the U.S. Senate for failure to move more quickly on "his" policy agenda, we, like most observers, figured the White House was trying (unsuccessfully) to change the subject to distract attention from the investor confidence crisis and the underlying threat to the U.S. economy.

It now looks like we missed the point. If a major address by Party Chairman Marc Racicot to the summer meeting of the Republican National Committee on July 19 is any indication, the GOP strategy is now to claim that Democratic foot-dragging in the Senate is in fact the cause of our economic troubles, reflecting the evil intent of Democrats to keep things as bad as possible until the mid-term elections in November.

"It seems to me," said Racicot, "that Democrats are so eager to win that they aren't really interested in helping the economy grow by making the tax cut permanent, controlling spending, expanding trade with TPA, passing the energy bill, providing terrorism insurance or quickly coming to agreement on a sensible corporate governance bill because they feel the only way they can win is if the economy is disrupted. Shame on them."

We have a hard time believing there is anybody in America who really believes "making the tax cut permanent" -- a reference to the President's proposal to ensure that a "temporary" repeal in the federal estate tax ten years from now will be permanent -- has anything to do with economic growth, other than to make it more difficult in the long run by pouring more red ink on the federal budget. Nor would passage of an energy bill, particularly the GOP's favored House version, do anything to help the economy, beyond the crude stimulus supplied by new subsidies for oil drilling. A TPA bill would help restore some badly shaken confidence in the Administration's protection-heavy trade agenda, but the White House and House Republican leaders deserve at least half of the blame for the hold-up on that legislation. And the idea that the White House or Congressional Republicans have taken the lead on corporate governance reforms is laugh-out-loud ludicrous.

The simple truth is that the Administration and the Republican Party have been thrown badly off-stride by the corporate scandals and the threat of an economic crisis, and are horribly mispositioned to do much about either issue, beyond unintentionally humorous efforts to get out in front of the posse chasing corporate malfeasance, and renewed, if increasingly incredible, claims that they have a strategy for economic growth.

But instead of making a mid-course correction in their policies to deal honestly with a rapidly worsening economy, fed by a rapidly worsening budget situation and a rapidly escalating investor confidence crisis, Republicans are trying to use the President's personal credibility to blame the opposition.

According to Marc Racicot, the Administration is oblivious to politics, and only wants to lead: "The President has done something even more important than vindicating the imperatives and principles of the Republican Party. He has set a higher standard for leadership -- one that is grounded in results, not rhetoric; in conviction, not convenience; in humility, not hubris. During his campaign for the Presidency, George W. Bush pledged to do all that he could to change the tone of public discourse in Washington and to work in good faith with others to find solutions to the problems that confront us all. The President has kept faith with that promise and the result has been substantial progress on important legislation."

It's sad to watch these fine sentiments from the Bush 2000 campaign being used on behalf of an Administration that is following, not leading, on a wide variety of issues; that uses strong rhetoric on corporate misconduct and the budget (to name just two areas) to cover the absence of strong policies; that has been more than willing to abandon such convictions as its commitment to open trade when it was politically convenient; and that has yet to humbly confess the failure of the big tax cut as the centerpiece of its fiscal and economic policies.

If the Administration truly wants to redeem the President's pledge to "change the tone" in Washington, it needs to shift policies, not shift blame.

[Mo1]

Have ya seen the lastest

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/720638/posts

[gaffin]

"I have Citibank visa.....oh no!" Burn the card, change your name, and leave the country as fast as you can.Citibank card holders are next!

[My Favorite Headache]

Looks like Drudge has been reading this thread all day long...he is just breaking news with this. Gimmie a break. FR was way ahead of him and the rest of the sites and networks. We rule...they decide.

[My Favorite Headache]

LOL yeah like I said Matt Drudge has been doing his homework by cheating off of the FR sidebar all day. What an ass.

[Mo1]

LOL .. I get that feeling also

But Hey if it helps put these crooks in jail .. who am I to say anything

[My Favorite Headache]

Let's make a bet ok Mo? Let's make a bet on what networks talk about this tomorrow morning, and how quickly they will ignore the dems and rubin and go straight for Bush or a Republican? Also let's make a bet on tomorrow's closing bell....dow down 325? Nasdaq down 75?

[Bernard Marx]

These corporate bastards are REALLY beginning to piss me off!!!!

Did you see the wonderful Steiner cartoon in the Washington Times showing bunch of suits walking down the street with a guy wearing far-out clothes. It was titled: "MBAs and their pimp." Wish I knew how to post graphics.

[Mo1]

LOL .. yea I'll take that bet

Thing is .. this is toooooooooo big and the press and the Media can't hide from it

[My Favorite Headache]

Somehow they managed for most of today...as did Cavuto on FOX as he tried to put a positive spin on it all. Like that one commercial says...you can't put lipstick on this pig. People are goin down for this...and hard. But will the Bush boys let Clinton hang? Or will they again give them a free pass? If nothing comes of it and the Clintons are not brought up on some kind of charges for cooking the books and Bush does not address the nation on it...he is a wuss.

[Mo1]

Oh I don't think the Clinton's will go to jail over this or anything else

But I think a few FOB may .. this is to big and too many folks lost a lot of money for this to go away

As for Bush .. no he won't stoop the the same level as the DNC does .. he has more class then that

With that said .. I have no class .. LOL

I think the grassroots can dig their hands in the mud and play the same game ..

I think if WE THE PEOPLE put the preasure on these news groups .. sooner or later they won't be able to avoid it any longer

[NormsRevenge]

Like that one commercial says...you can't put lipstick on this pig.

Now who the hell would want to buy much less date a pig wearing lipstick anyway! (except maybe Bubba and his hunting buddies in the Deep South)

[Michael Barnes]

Citibank card holders are next!

Funny you should mention this. My wife has one of their cards. So I double checked that the payment went through today; sure did, on the 17th. She got a call from them tonight pertaining to her account (left on the answering machine). Still don't know what it is about..I told her to call and close the account (essentially, freeze the account pending payoff).

I think this thing is gonna grow some legs, and it may not be pretty, that is, once the American people start hearing the news and ties and connections and all the usual suspects involved..Gee, ya think the lamesream is gonna get that out on the airwaves tomorrow?

[Axenolith]

Arrggg, I'm represented by that fat, constitution hating, pork sucking hag whose 4th from the left in your posted graphic...

[kcvl]

You really like her, huh? ROFLOL!

[justa-hairyape]

Oh I don't think the Clinton's will go to jail over this or anything else

The dot com crash occurred while Clinton was still President. The general consensus the media brainwashed the sheeple with was that those darn dot coms were not real companies anyway. Who cares about virtual companies. Shortly thereafter the Nasdaq crashed. 911 occurred. And now the DOW is crashing. Looks like the failing dot coms were the canaries in the stinking Clintoon coal mines.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

The Executive Committee knew the magnitude of What impending losses? The stock went UP after Bush sold his stock TEN YEARS ago! It only looks bad in light of corporate corruption 10 years later. It was not sold undercover, nor for nefarious reasons.

[truthkeeper]

it was their bonds broker and street advisor at Salomon Barney Frank (a Citigroup company)

LOL. Where was the spew warning?

[truthkeeper]

My wife has one of their cards. So I double checked that the payment went through today; sure did, on the 17th. She got a call from them tonight pertaining to her account (left on the answering machine). Still don't know what it is about..I told her to call and close the account (essentially, freeze the account pending payoff).

That's weird, I got one too, but since I was standing on a ladder at the time I declined to take the call. I'm a little dense about these matters - trying to educate myself though - so could you elaborate? Should I close my account? If so, why? (Sorry, like I said...I'm a dummy.)

[putupon]

....we're a tiny nuisance.

Sad, but true.