The Perp Walk at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Hearings

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



The Perp Walk at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Hearings
By Les Leopold

January 13, 2010 - 5:30am ET


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The first panel to testify on Wednesday before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission features a who’s who of high financial crimes and misdemeanors. Here’s the lineup.

Lloyd “doing God’s work” Blankfein leads off as CEO of Goldman Sachs. He doesn’t come cheap, having “earned” $136.6 million over the past five years. Mr. B is in the hot seat because his company is making record profits during the worst economic year since the Great Depression. Maybe he should explain to us if all that profit and soon-to-come bonuses have something to do with the taxpayer largess: $10 billion in TARP funds (now paid back), another $12.9 billion of taxpayer money through AIG (never to be paid back), and all the free money it can grab from the Fed (which we'll never notice). Blankfein has a charming case of foot-in-mouth disease, which just might liven up these hearings. Let’s see if the committee can get him to utter one unscripted sentence. They should start by asking him how much taxpayer money is going to those who are coaching him for these hearings.

Jamie “Obama loves me” Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase was paid $97.4 million during the last four years of the bubble. He’s been given a kind of immunity from Obama who thinks he is a saintly financier (and campaign contributor). Dimon will take advantage of that cover to claim that he and his bank did nothing wrong and everything right. His not very subtle message will be that had the other banks behaved as honorably as his, there would have been no crisis. He also will come close to committing perjury if he claims that his bank could have survived without any direct or indirect bailout funds – that he only took the money because the government asked him to. With roughly 12 percent of all bank deposits in the U.S., Dimon knows his bank is far too big to fail. There will be no serious reform until Dimon is forced to break up his bank into smaller units. Hopefully the committee will demonstrate to the American public that he and his banking empire are a clear and present danger to our livelihoods.

John “we cannot control ourselves” Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanly ($57.2million over the last four years) has had his candid moments, like when he admitted that the financial industry couldn’t police itself and needed strong government regulations. My guess is that his handlers won’t let him go there again unless he’s pressed. It would be nice to know how much money his firm has received directly or indirectly from all the various government programs. Then we might want to ask how much his bank is spending on lobbying to put loopholes in the very regulations that he admits are needed. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010010212/perp-walk-financial-crisis-inquiry-hearings

[Waiting For Everyman]

1. K&R Glad to see Brooksley Born on this commission.

For those who don't recognize the name, she's the former CFTC Chairman who tried to stop this before it happened (and was aggressively squelched by Greenspan, Rubin, and Summers). Good to see someone included who was right, for a change. I'm watching it on CNBC.

I'm surprised this isn't getting more notice here. (Then again, no, I guess it's probably because of the earthquake, which makes sense.) I'm glad there IS such a thing as a Crisis Inquiry Commission... sheesh, it's about time!

Thanks for posting, marmar. :thumbsup:

[midnight]

4. I do remember reading about her when the bailout started... She worked

for daddy bush and showed the banks how to stop losing money with their banking system.. Oddly enough she was able to do it without getting to see the details of how they were losing the money in the first place..... So she set up a system and told them to comply. Well we know they didn't and we are living with the moral of that story... She is one smart women. I hope they plan to listen to her this time...

[elleng]

7. You may be confusing her with someone else;

don't think she worked for bushes, father or sons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born

[elleng]

6. More Thursday.

Saw a bit on C-Span rerun.

[tabatha]

2. Obama, get thee away from Jamie Dimon.

I sent an email to the Obama site expressing my disgust with the way Chase has been doing business, basically saying that Chase may have paid their money back sooner than any other bank, but PLEASE look at the way they did it. It was unethical. I hope someone read it.

[SharonAnn]

3. Remember to say and write they get "paid" XX amount. They don't "earn" it.

[Vidar]

5. K&R,