Goldman Sachs-Welfare Queen: According to Newsweek

[terisan]

Compare these numbers with the paltry $ Obama announced to help small business---

We have a Corporatist Government and it is rapidly turning us into permanent serfs.

Americans are either working for Goldman Sachs or Shouldering their Debt.

Re Tarp:

. In November, Goldman was the first company to tap the program, issuing $5 billion in three-year notes at a 3.367 percent rate. On March 12, it sold another $5 billion. In all, the company says it has sold $21 billion in such bonds. Thanks to the government guarantee, and accounting for fees, Goldman is saving several hundred million dollars per year in interest.

And there's still more! A good chunk of the money taxpayers gave to AIG as part of the bailout found its way to financial institutions—including Goldman Sachs. Here's the full list of AIG counterparties, which documents payments made by different entities. AIG's securities lending unit paid Goldman $4.8 billion, Maiden Lane III (the entity created to unwind credit default swaps) paid Goldman $5.6 billion, and AIG has posted another $2.5 billion in collateral to Goldman. Goldman, and many other firms, made the mistake of a) buying insurance from a company that, it turned out, couldn't make good on its insurance contracts, and b) borrowing securities from, and lending securities to, a company that essentially went bankrupt. In normal bankruptcies, firms in these in situations have to get in line with other creditors and ultimately settle for a fraction of the amounts they're owed. As Eliot Spitzer pointed out, because the government didn't let AIG formally file for bankruptcy, Goldman, and so many others, have instead been made whole.



more at <http://www.newsweek.com/id/190111>

Incidentally Obama and the majority of Dems pushed the bailout legislation through last Fall. Dems also got huge amounts of $$$ from Wall Street last election cycle.

So where is the accountability ? I am tired of the whining excuse about "we had no choice" If they were and are that powerless it is time for the Second Great American Revolution.

[acmavm]

1. That's the part no one wants to talk about. I distinctly remember

the day when the bail out was first broached and Obama jumped on it saying it HAD to be done and immediately or else blah blah blah...

Then McCain said no, don't. It won't work (and so far he's been right, that rat bastard).

Then the repubics started pitching a fit against it.

Then bush** jumped in and said it was gonna happen regardless.

SO, this disaster was endorsed by Obama and put into action by bush**. No one wants to talk about that now, do they? This whole thing gained its momentum with Obama's endorsement. And he endorsed something that has been a disaster. And he let industry insiders run it.

[terisan]

2. McCain did cave in but Obama was a major enabler from the start. nt

[BeFree]

3. What choice did he have?

He was boxed in and made the only choice he could make. It was a masterful boxing in, brought to us by the same people who engineered Iraq.

Obama had to settle for the fact that once elected he could then have power to change things, but if unelected would be as powerless as any of us.

So, he sold himself to the PTB. Few of us would have done differently.

[terisan]

5. Heis choice was to demonstrate leadership and not enable. Obama received more campaign money from

Goldman Sachs than any candidate by far and once elected turned over the Treasury to Goldman Sachs and Citibank. Rubin, Summers, Geithner-these are the people running our government's policy on money and they are determining the policies that are boxing us right now.

Here are his top contributors via Open Secrets.com
University of California $1,385,675
Goldman Sachs $980,945
Microsoft Corp $806,299
Harvard University $793,460
Google Inc $790,564
Citigroup Inc $657,268
JPMorgan Chase & Co $650,758
Stanford University $580,904
Sidley Austin LLP $574,938
Time Warner $547,951
National Amusements Inc $541,251
WilmerHale $524,292
UBS AG $522,019
IBM Corp $518,557
Skadden, Arps et al $510,274
Columbia University $503,566
Morgan Stanley $490,873
US Government $479,956
General Electric $479,454
Latham & Watkins $467,311

He raised far more from Wall Street than did Clinton and far more than McCain. During the election cycle he claimed that his Wall Street contributers were people power down in the finance agencies-laborer types. I find that hard to believe.

He is demonstrating no leadership now in finance-seems to me to be inappropriately jumping on the popular bandwagon anger against the AIG bonuses rather than examining his own continuing following of the Bush/Congress bailout scheme in Fall 2008.


Why do you think standing up to the demand for the immediate bailout would have prevented his election?

He could have pointed out that Bush used the same tactic of "we have to act now" in rushing to war with Iraq. As we found out shortly after the vote-the banks refused to lend anyway and the treasury secretary refused to buy up the toxic assets.

Frankly from his explanations about the financial crisis I do not get the impression that he is at all knowledgeable about finance.

Many of us would have done differently. we would have at the very least not abdicated our responsibility to the people and the Constitution by having required no accountability from the unelected treasury secretary, Paulson.


The "ready on day one" and being "right on day one" seem ironical today.

[BeFree]

10. I get where you're coming from

An alternative campaign tactic would have been to say no to the bailout, and that tactic might have cost him dearly. Then too, Obama is not a know it all, so he listened to Kerry, et al, and Wall Street, to describe how things were going and the possible solutions. He had to pick something, smack-dab in the middle of his campaign, he picked bailout. As if he didn't have enough on his plate!

Now he has to stick to his words. Bailout as a solution. So, Obama picks insiders to get it in gear. After all, he knows the best way to attack a problem is to get inside. He's in. Just 2 months now.

Obama is in their heads, bigtime, and they will twist on his words. He can bring it all down.... if he chooses. At this time he's choosing to keep it afloat. For now. Afloat. That means Bailout!

When all is said and done, the system as it stands is not sustainable. Obama, imo, knows that. If you think that he is out to destroy us by allowing the system as it is to continue on and on and on, well, there is that.

We shall see, eh?

[closeupready]

8. This is a major embarrassment to Obama, and he needs to make changes like YESTERDAY.

Starting with getting rid of Geithner and Summers both.

[LeftHandPath]

4. Goldman runs this country...

the sooner you all get this into your heads, the sooner you'll come to the conclusion that our economy is one big giant pyramid scheme. And guess who is at the top of the pyramid.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. K&R

[Supersedeas]

7. We fight their wars for oil, pay the taxes w/out Corp loopholes, and pay their debt too

But they will foreclose on us at the drop of a dime

[closeupready]

9. DING DING DING!

WE HAVE A WINNER FOLKS!