Distraught DUmmies Out Geithner

[zeitgeist]

Well some of them anyhow.

 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1964927
The Geithner mystery solved

Posted by Octafish on Mon Sep-19-11 10:35 AM

Glenn Greenwald sheds light on an interesting fellow...

The Geithner mystery solved

By Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com Monday, Sep 19, 2011 06:20 ET

Reviewing "Confidence Men" -- Ron Suskind's new book critically examining President Obama's management of the financial crisis -- The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani ponders this mystery raised by Suskind:


Mr. Suskind suggests that the administration's problems in dealing with the fiscal crisis began with the president's choice of his economic team. He wonders why Mr. Obama turned away from the advisers who had seen him through the campaign (including more progressive thinkers like Mr. Stiglitz, Robert Reich and Austan Goolsbee), and relied instead on two men associated with the deregulatory policies of the past, Mr. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, and Mr. Summers, the chief economic adviser. Both men had served in the Clinton administration (with Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who would later join Citigroup as a senior adviser and board member); their actions, Mr. Suskind contends, "had contributed to the very financial disaster they were hired to solve."


Of course, one might ask the same of Obama's penchant for filling the most important positions in his administration -- including his Vice President, Secretary of State, and Defense Secretary -- with supporters of the Iraq War. But about Geithner, Suskind unwittingly solved the mystery he raised: Kakutani notes that "one top banker quoted in these pages refers to as 'our man in Washington' for helping avert more systemic changes affecting Wall Street."

CONTINUED...

http://www.salon.com/news/timothy_geithner/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/19/geithner

Don't hate Greenwald. He's only reporting things as DUers who follow systemic bank fraud see them.

 
1964942, Unfortunately, Pres. Obama's admin. choices showed very early on that...
Posted by polichick on Mon Sep-19-11 10:39 AM

..."change we can believe in" was a cynical campaign slogan.

REAL CHANGE would have involved a whole other cast of characters.  

1964971, Stephen Chou (Energy Sec.) is one of very few appointments I was happy with.
Posted by DCKit on Mon Sep-19-11 10:45 AM

Most all the rest are all corporate stooges.  

1968526, And why do I suspect that the Soladyne scandal is aimed to
Posted by JDPriestly on Mon Sep-19-11 09:12 PM

end Chou's service on the Obama Cabinet?

Earlier this afternoon Pro Sense posted something about Obama's speech, and I said immediately that it sounded like something I could support. Then I heard Ian Masters' interview with David Cay Johnson. Seems the tax increase on the very rich is just about the same as the interest rate that American seniors are now receiving on their savings from the banks -- a tiny maybe 1.2%.

Literally a tiny drop in the bucket when you compare it to the Bush tax cuts -- really pretty meaningless.

David Cay Johnson seemed to think that the speech was just a clever election ploy. I will have to see for myself, but I am preparing for yet another huge disappointment.

I so want to think that Obama is playing straight, but the evidence does not support what I would like to think.

I don't know whether the September 19, 2011 show is on Ian Masters' site yet, but here is the link to that site.

http://ianmasters.com  

1969453, oh nooooo... I never even thought of that
Posted by renate on Tue Sep-20-11 01:07 AM

Oh, that would be so sad... I like him so much!

And yet I I think you might be on to something... oil and gas have reason to be anti-Chu, and what oil and gas want, oil and gas get:

America, Chu says, is the only place in the world where there’s an actual “debate” over climate science. He blamed the confused political situation largely on the fossil fuel industry, which, he says, has been effective in sowing doubt and “who have an interest in seeing that action isn’t taken. This reminds me exactly of what we saw in the tobacco industry.”
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/30/308127/energy-secretary-steven-chu-climate-science /

1969614, He's playing us. I feel violated.
Posted by tblue on Tue Sep-20-11 02:29 AM

I was starting to get energized by parts of the speech. But I have learned with this potus you have to wait and see.

Now I am just waiting for the excuses and the fine print to wash it away.

I feel violated, once again.

Starting to think ProSense is a plant.

 
1970102, Yeahhh....
Posted by CoffeeCat on Tue Sep-20-11 09:01 AM

I spent months listening to and believing in campaign speeches.

Then...Obama spent the last few years kow towing to the corporations,
Wall Street and the health-insurance lobby. Many broken promises such
as the closing of Guantanamo, the return of Habeas Corpus and I'm sorry--
but when he touted being against the Iraq war, he knew exactly what we
would infer. That, in general, he was opposed to these crazy, neocon
wargames. He widened the neocon war. The PNAC playbook spelled out
what they wanted: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria. It's all almost too sick
to believe.

So now, when he gives a speech, I don't tune in. Been there, done that.

I watch what he does. Nothing more.

Because speeches obviously DO NOT matter.
  

1970247, You are right about the plant.
Posted by Myrina on Tue Sep-20-11 09:41 AM

Among others who consistently march out the same links/stats/talking points.


:hide:

1965008, Geithner and Bernanke's Possibly Criminal Roles -- Lehman Brothers Scandal Rocks the Fed
Posted by Octafish on Mon Sep-19-11 10:52 AM

This goes beyond politics. This goes to what kind of life We the People will live.

Compared to the people who are getting away with our Treasury, it's not looking very prosperous. Ever.

Geithner and Bernanke's Possibly Criminal Roles

Lehman Brothers Scandal Rocks the Fed

By MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch
March 15, 2010

After a year-long investigation, court-appointed bank examiner Anton Valukas has produced a deadly 2,200 page report which details the activities that led to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The report is a keg of dynamite. The question now is whether anyone in government has the nerve to light the fuse. Valukas provides powerful evidence that Lehman executives were involved in “balance sheet manipulation” by implementing an arcane accounting procedure called “Repo 105” which masked the bank's true financial condition from investors and regulators.

According to Valukas, Lehman was “Unable to find a United States law firm that would provide it with an opinion letter permitting the true sale accounting treatment" using Repo 105. So, Lehman executives went outside of the country in an effort to enlist the support of a London law firm that would approve the procedure.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of Valugas's findings. The report exposes the opaque but central role of the repo market which provides essential short-term loans for financial institutions. (Lehman used repos to conceal the full extent of its collapse, by dint of the amount of leverage it was using, meaning the pitiful asset anchor tethered to a vast zeppelin of debt) More importantly, it shows the cozy and, very probably criminal relationship between the country's main regulatory bodies and the Wall Street behemoths. The activities of the New York Fed (NYFRB), which at the time was headed by Timothy Geithner, is particularly suspect in this regard. The report should trigger an immediate Congressional investigation, probing the whole affair and most importantly the role of the Fed.

Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith, who has apparently sifted through all 2,200 pages of the report, has done some first-rate analysis of the details. Here's an excerpt from her Friday posting:

"Quite a few observers... have been stunned and frustrated at the refusal to investigate what was almost certain accounting fraud at Lehman. ....The unraveling isn’t merely implicating Fuld (Lehman’s CEO) and his recent succession of CFOs, or its accounting firm, Ernst & Young, as might be expected. It also emerges that the NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict in the performance of their duties, and may well be culpable in aiding and abettingLehman in accounting fraud and Sarbox violations....

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney03152010.html




Where is the FBI?

 

1965836, I remember reading that the FBI, as far back as 2005
Posted by sabrina 1 on Mon Sep-19-11 01:12 PM

were investigating fraud in the Mortgage industry. They were aware of the corruption, but rather than give them more manpower, Bush reduced the number of agents who were looking into the fraud claiming they were 'needed to fight terror'.  

 
1965091, American taxpayer could be forced to foot the bill if Fed's bailout of faltering Eurozone turns sour
Posted by Octafish on Mon Sep-19-11 11:07 AM

Things could always be worse. Oh.



American taxpayers could be forced to foot the bill if Fed's bailout of faltering Eurozone turns sour

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Poland to meet with European finance ministers

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 2:27 PM on 18th September 2011

Comments (22) Add to My Stories Share

American taxpayers could end up footing the bill if the United States' bailout of the faltering Eurozone turns sour.

At present, U.S. citizens are fairly well protected, but if the crisis continues to grow and America takes on a greater role, risk to consumers and taxpayers in the country will increase, according to economists.

The biggest exposure could come from America's status as the single largest source of money for the International Monetary Fund.

CONTINUED...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038757/Eurozone-crisis-US-taxpayers-forced-foot-Feds-bailout-turns-sour.html#ixzz1YPXFsUuy

Gosh. No wonder The Fed does all it can to keep its workings secret.  
1965940, I've been having that "oh, *this* is what they meant by globalization" moment
Posted by me b zola on Mon Sep-19-11 01:32 PM

Its not enough that our tax dollars go to support uber wealthy American bankers, they are going to squeeze us from over-seas as well.

I saw on BBC last week when they were talking about Geithner going to go to Europe to tell them that to stave off another credit crunch they would need to funnel big bucks into their banks. My head almost exploded. Then I was glad to hear that Europeans showed Geithner the door, but now I'm back to exploded head mode-- x100. Just WTF.  
1966006, Saw the same thing.... he is a tool for the banks
Posted by Ichingcarpenter on Mon Sep-19-11 01:42 PM

just look at his history.  
1969392, Banking: One big global club, and you're not in it.
Posted by DrunkenBoat on Tue Sep-20-11 12:47 AM
 
1968431, Odd
Posted by abelenkpe on Mon Sep-19-11 08:53 PM

I posted a story about the fed's bailout last week and was told that it wasn't a bailout just currency swaps and it wouldn't cost the US anything.

 
1971791, American Tax-Payer money was used to build Germany before WWII.
Posted by lib2DaBone on Tue Sep-20-11 02:21 PM

The Federal Reserve also gave large sums of American tax money to Russia many times since the 1940's.

The American Media will not even go near the truth about the TARP funds that were funneled off by the Federal Reserve and given to German and Swiss Banks.

Unless the USA can once again issue "Green Back Dollars" and dump the Fed.. there is no hope of recovery.
 

1965054, MIHOP or LIHOP?
Posted by ChandlerJr on Mon Sep-19-11 11:00 AM

How could the smartest guy in the room have been a party to this? How could he have ignored the warnings on his desk.  

FAIL!  
1970997, Manipulating a fraud to give the appearance of averting a disaster...
Posted by Larry Ogg on Tue Sep-20-11 12:10 PM

is like putting a fresh coat of paint on a sinking ship.

"History will be kind to the Obama administration."

Especially when future debt slaves and cannon fodder begin to worship Tyrants, Oligarchs, psychopaths, and paper chains, as some kind of God.

But then, amazing things can happen when you dumb down the population, stupid people can be made to believe anything.

 

1970051, Pilgrims Society
Posted by formercia on Tue Sep-20-11 08:46 AM

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_pilgrimsociety01.htm

Geithner has been president since 2003

He is very well connected......  
1970180, Well, now folks Know...
Posted by fascisthunter on Tue Sep-20-11 09:24 AM

...our democracy is rigged for the wealthy and corporate elite.  
 

Oh my goodness.  Little Timmy is a Pilgrim.  

This is only a small selection of the entire thread it is full of lip smacking dummy goodness.  

[JohnnyReb]

OK it's getting series....DUmmie government checks are getting in danger of being stopped.....