Timothy Geithner

Goldman Sachs IS the United States Treasury

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The Activists Editorial Collective | Reader Supported News | January 25 2012

Federal Reserve SystemOPINION | Goldman Sachs has heeded the advice of a political statement attributed to Law professor William Black, “the highest return on assets is always a political contribution.” It is widely known that Goldman Sachs dictates legislation, oversight and enforcement upon the United States economy; simultaneously preforming the roles of the SEC, Congress as well as the Federal Reserve. In 2009 Goldman Sachs had the most profitable year in its history, and this post-crisis record was available because of the charter set up by Henry Paulson (the Treasure Secretary that was previously CEO of the bank the legislation is bailing out) and Timothy Geithner. Both names ring synonymous with Goldman Sachs even though the latter has never been directly employed in the banking industry. The recognition of Goldman Sachs influence on the Executive Branch is found in Michelle Malkin’s April 2010 article, “All the President’s Goldman Sachs Men.” The article illuminates Goldman’s cozy relationship with the Obama Administration noting his financial strategists consist of Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Gary Gensler and Mark Patterson.

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Obama’s Faux Populism Sounds Like Bill Clinton

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Robert Scheer | Truthdig | January 26 2012

I’ll admit it: Listening to Barack Obama, I am ready to enlist in his campaign against the feed-the-rich Republicans … until I recall that I once responded in the same way to Bill Clinton’s faux populism. And then I get angry because betrayal by the “good guys” for whom I have ended up voting has become the norm.

Yes, betrayal, because if Obama meant what he said in Tuesday’s State of the Union address about holding the financial industry responsible for its scams, why did he appoint the old Clinton crowd that had legalized those scams to the top economic posts in his administration? Why did he hire Timothy Geithner, who has turned the Treasury Department into a concierge service for Wall Street tycoons?

Why hasn’t he pushed for a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, which Clinton’s deregulation reversed? Does the president really believe that the Dodd-Frank slap-on-the-wrist sellout represents “new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like this never happens again”? Can he name one single too-big-to-fail banking monstrosity that has been reduced in size on his watch instead of encouraged to grow ever larger by Treasury and Fed bailouts and interest-free money?

When Obama declared Tuesday evening “no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas,” wasn’t he aware that Jeffrey Immelt, the man he appointed to head his jobs council, is the most egregious offender? Immelt, the CEO of GE, heads a company with most of its workers employed in foreign countries, a corporation that makes 82 percent of its profit abroad and has paid no U.S. taxes in the past three years.

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Mortgage Servicers ~ Getting Away With the Perfect Crime?

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Matt Stoller (New Deal 2.0) | RS_News
29 November 11

OPINION | Without prosecutions, there’s nothing keeping fraud from becoming a standard business practice.

In 2004, the FBI warned Congress of an “epidemic of mortgage fraud,” of unscrupulous operators taking advantage of a booming real estate market. Less than two years later, an accounting scandal at Fannie Mae tipped us off that something was very wrong at the highest levels of corporate America.

Of course, we all know what happened next. Crime invaded the center of our banking system. Wall Street CEOs were signing on to SEC documents knowing they contained material misstatements. The New York Fed, riddled with conflicts of interest, shoveled money to large banks and tried to hide it under the veil of central bank independence. Even Tim Geithner noted that Lehman had “air in the marks” in its valuations of asset-backed securities, as the bankruptcy examiner’s report showed that accounting manipulation to disguise the condition of the balance sheet was a routine management tool at the bank. There’s a reason Charles Ferguson got an Academy Award for his work on the documentary Inside Job.

And yet, no handcuffs. The big news on prosecutions in the traditionally high-powered Southern District of New York are convictions for relatively petty insider trading that are unrelated to the collapse of the economy. The criminal charges could have been filed in the 1980s. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has brought minor civil suits against banks, but nothing significant, and no criminal indictments for the Ponzi scheme of the last four years.

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