Bush's role in corporate fraud

Boston Globe Online ^ | 23 July '02 | Bill Black and James Galbraith,

[rdavis84]

RESIDENT George W. Bush has reassured us that ''From the antitrust laws of the 19th century to the S&L reforms of recent times, America has tackled financial problems when they appeared.'' But the savings & loan reforms came seven years and 150 billion taxpayer dollars late. Nor did that problem merely ''appear.'' It was created by a deregulation bill in 1982 overseen at that time by Vice President George Bush.

[rdavis84]

bump.

[Skwidd]

Beat the drum, Dems. It's the only 'issue' you have.

[TLBSHOW]

do you know this story leaves out an important part. and you left out an important part. The Barf Alert!

[VRW Conspirator]

First, create the problem by taking actions that encourage fraud. Second, do nothing while the frauds become epidemic. Finally, when the scandal breaks, claim like Claude Rains in ''Casablanca'' that he is ''shocked, shocked'' that gambling is going on.

Right out of the Clinton play book. Where were these guys around the Clinton era?

Another hit piece by the Boston Globe.

[tomahawk]

And the SEC investigator, a well-respected figure (also a Democrat) completely blew it in clearing Bush? I think not. The POS's that wrote this are Demoncrat lying hacks.

[TLBSHOW]

lets go step by step so you can understand it all.


And there is a much more recent experience than 1929 to serve as a cautionary tale. A financial deregulation bill was passed in the early 1980s under the Reagan administration, lifting many restrictions on the activities of savings and loan associations, which had previously been limited primarily to the home-loan market. The result was an orgy of speculation, profiteering and outright plundering of assets, culminating in collapse and the biggest financial bailout in US history, costing the federal government more than $500 billion. The repetition of such events in the much larger banking and securities markets would be beyond the scope of any federal bailout.
end
snip:
How the Clinton Treasury Caused the Current Stock Market Fall (Intermingling of Businesses)

In 1998, Travelers CEO Sandy Weill and Citicorp head John Reed announced plans to merge their two financial powerhouses. There was one problem: U.S. law prohibited the merger of commercial banks with insurance companies and securities firms. The two companies were not deterred. A loophole in the law barring such combinations gave the two companies a two-year window before the merger ban would kick in. That would be plenty of time, they figured, to change a centerpiece of U.S. banking laws that had stood in place for more than 50 years.
There already was momentum in Congress in support of the financial deregulation that proponents supported under the misleading banner of “financial modernization.” But there were also major legislative blocks and hurdles, and no assurance of passage.

Enter Citigroup. Though Citicorp has opposed the deregulation bill, the merged Citigroup became its most important advocate, with Sandy Weill pitching a tent in the halls of Congress to lobby legislators.

Still, the bill remained mired in Congress, thanks to jurisdictional disputes among federal agencies, intra-industry conflicts and consumer group opposition.

Former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin sealed the deal. After having left his Treasury Department post, but amidst negotiating his new terms of employment as chair of the management committee at Citicorp, Rubin brokered the final compromise to ensure passage of the financial deregulation bill.

While Citi’s top priority was an after-the-fact legalization of the tainted Citicorp-Travelers merger, much more was at stake — for both the financial industry and consumers. The bill has enabled not just this particular corporate combination, but the intermingling of businesses that were formerly, properly and prudentially, kept apart.

http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02april/april02editorial.html

[Kay Soze]

Charles Keating, the felon who drove Lincoln Savings into the most expensive S&L failure in history ($3 billion) considered very important in stoppping Ed Gray the Senators : Alan Cranston (D, CA), Dennis DeConcini (D, AZ), John Glenn (D, OH), John McCain (R, AZ), and Donald Riegle (D, MI). These men were dubbed the Keating Five.the Senate Ethics Committee investigation concentrated on the actions of the five senators implicated.

I don’t see Bush’s name!

Although the special counsel to the Ethics Committee advised the Senate that Senators Glenn and McCain were not substantially involved, months of testimony revealed that all five senators had acted improperly in varying degrees. All of these senators, however, continued to proclaim that they were not involved in any wrongdoing, and were just following normal campaign funding practices.

In the end, the Senate Ethics Committee concluded that Senators Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had substantially interfered with the federal regulators' enforcement processes at the request of Charles Keating. In August 1991, the Ethics Committee recommended to the full Senate the censuring of Cranston for reprehensible conduct. The other four senators were noted for questionable conduct. Cranston had already decided not to seek re-election, citing medical problems.

101 Congress: H.R. 5400 and S. 370 (1990)

[guitfiddlist]

Democrat hypocrites are excited. They think a tanking stock market can somehow be tied to a long ago incident, investigated by the SEC and found to be unwarranted. But the other shoe will soon drop on their sanctimonious sneering mugs. Exhibit A: The Global Crossing fiasco - involving a $1 million payoff to Clinton, an $18 million profit to McCauliffe, and a $400 million contract to Demoscum chum Gary Winnick, GX CEO - who is busy building a $100 million house in Florida with my money. Gee, what 5 year old can't connect those dots. Tough for Democrats, I suppose.

Then there's exactly WHEN the other companies started cooking the books. In the latter 90's, pinhead. Get a calender, read it. Try to understand it. Then try to remember which scumbag of yours was in office at the time.

Now there's this beautifully poignant and breaking story of Enron/Citigroup, involving some familiar DemoRats. It is axiomatic that Democrats are ridiculously more guilty in spades of all the things they sling at Republicans, desperately hoping they'll stick. And you used to get away with it. But you forgot one thing this time, bozo, you don't control the entire media anymore. Even in that craven capital of corruption, the Kennedy butt-kissing state of Massachusetts. So in the immortal words of Michael Savage, you have a nice day.

[Gorest Gump]

Galbraith is an economist.

I beg to differ.

[WRhine]

What I find interesting after reading the responses to this article is that no one commented directly about the charges that Bill Black and James Galbraith leveled against GW Bush and his family. The posts seemed to fall under three categories "this is a democrat hit piece", "bush was cleared of any technical improprieties", "everyone does it". After 8 years of railing against the Clintons and their legacy of crimes I find the remarks on this thread eerily familiar.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Wait i gotta scrape something of my shoe

[Commiewatcher]

And they had to dig up an old fossilized dinosaur named Galbraith. He is best 'remembered' as being the architect of those 'Great Society' programs which confiscated about $5 trillion from the sucker taxpayer and flushed it right down the toilet with nothing to show for it.

And he talks about a fraud. GMAFB

[Texas Eagle]

Give it up. Unlike Clinton's semen, this stuff is not going to stick.

[Lee_Atwater]

Galbraith is an economist

James (Jamie) Galbraith is the son of John K. Galbraith. Like his father, Jamie is not a serious economist, but a political whore. I think I explained this matter to you previously.

[lawdude]

Interesting to note the dems forced W to sell his stock. Now they complain. And the stock sold below its peak. Wonder what dem made the bucks on the deal?

[Lee_Atwater]

No, this Galbraith is John's son, James. In between writing unsubstantiated political smear pieces he works to raise Lord Keynes from the dead.

[Republican Wildcat]

Ah, going all the way back to bash three Republican Presidents and praising Clinton, king of ethics, for working "clean up" the accounting industry.

Quite transparent.

[jumpstartme]

Working for the DNC?

[Republican Wildcat]

We've already been through this a hundred times or more and refuted the lies you apparently endorse. What do you expect out of people after seeing this baloney over and over again other than the equivalent of a collective sigh?