Hank Paulson (Treasury Secty) owns $350 million in Goldman Sachs interests

[Jacobin]

Lehman goes bankrupt, Merrill bought at a cheap price, AIG shareholders diluted to near zero, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs taking huge dumps by noon yesterday, and Paulson comes out with this plan to help out the entire financial industry?

No tinfoil hats needed folks. When it hits home for a republican, all of a sudden 'there's a problem for the government to fix'

http://www.slate.com/id/2143018/

All over the news? Um, crickets......only crickets

The man should be hung for treason.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Now that is interesting. Morgan Stanley and Goldman get saved but Lehman goes through the trap door.

I really have to wonder what made them NOT do for Lehman what they had already done for Long Term Capital, Bear Sterns, GM, and now everybody BUT Lehman.

But, I guess the prospect of losing 350 million of your very own dollars will get your ass in gear.

[Jacobin]

2. All of a sudden, the financial crisis is a 'problem'

When his personal fortune is on the line.

No one. No one at all is talking about this in the "news"

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. So he never sold his stocks or...

only sold a percentage of them??? I would love a link to that. Everything I am reading said he was going to sell them to avoid a conflict of interest.

On edit: according to Bloomberg, he sold them:

"Paulson sold his 3.23 million shares in Goldman, worth about $500 million at the time, when he took the Treasury job, according to regulatory filings. He was exempted from paying capital gains tax on the sale of those stakes under a rule meant to avoid penalizing wealthy people who take government jobs and are forced to sell assets.

Paulson also sold about $25 million of holdings in a Goldman fund whose sole asset was a stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest publicly traded financial institution. The bank raised $22 billion in its initial public offering in October 2006, the world's biggest IPO."


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&refer=home&sid=a8w9MI4Btco4

[hvn_nbr_2]

4. Paulson's conflict of interest is all over the damn librul media

Fat chance.

[chill_wind]

5. The Paulson Payoff at the Bush Treasury Dept (David Sirota, 2006)

Reuters reports today that "The incoming Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., was awarded an $18.7 million cash bonus for half a year of work as the chief executive of the Goldman Sachs Group." The massive bonus was, not surprisingly, approved by Goldman Sachs at the very same time Paulson was both CEO and Treasury Secretary designate. This raises a very simple question: What is Goldman Sachs buying with this brazen payoff to someone they knew was headed to one of the most powerful government posts in America?

Quite a read. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/the-paulson-payoff-at-the_b_24379.html

I remember posting Sirota's article at the time. No one seemed much bothered by it, but me.....

I repost it again here, because it really sticks in my memory.


BTW, Paulson was totally rubberstamped into the office by unanimous voice vote and a couple hours of perfunctory confirmation hearing-- by Pubs and Dem's alike.

[crickets]

6. Huge conflict of interest.

How was he allowed to get away with this? Is there any way to get rid of him because of it? Surely someone else not so financially entangled could do better, and couldn't do worse.

All over the news? Um, crickets......only crickets

We crickets really get a bad rap sometimes. ;)

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Is this legal?