. (0.00 / 0)

Who the fuck would trust a broke ass economist.

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by: NeonBlack @ Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 23:12:19 PM UTC

that actually makes sense (0.00 / 0)

who better to handle/spend my tax dollars then someone who knows how to make it.

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by: rmoltaban @ Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 23:47:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

well great (4.00 / 4)

I hope you voted for Mitt Romney then.  

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 23:51:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

And Ross Perot! (4.00 / 1)

Steve Forbes!

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by: Valatan @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 06:25:38 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

DE Shaw (4.00 / 2)

Is the hedge fund Larry went to work for after he got the unceremonious boot from Harvard. Hedge funds, of course, are ethically pristine in our current economic meltdown.

My question is, is it possible DE Shaw is the hedge fund that sold Harvard the derivatives (apparently at Summers behest) that the endowment lost $7 Billion on?

Juss askin.

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

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by: Emocrat @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 01:11:07 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Reading that article, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that ... (4.00 / 2)

... AIG is being used as a conduit to funnel treasury money into Goldamn Sachs ($135K speaking fee) and that talf is a conduit to funnel money into hedge funds.  Not to mention that he's worked against reining in wall street compensation despite what his PR man says.  He also had some girl fired as some sort of Harvard investment advisor for advising Harvard to be cautious about derivatives.  This, along with his deregulation zeal in the clinton administration that led to this mess, should have caused some consternation for the establishment's head pr man, obama, but obviously not.  

And furthermore ... much to wall street's delight ... apparently summers is getting strong consideration from obama to be the head man to get his hands on our money creation machine called the federal reserve which is also supposed to have a larger role "overseeing" wall street.  obama apparently can't think of a more qualified man for that job than this wall street whore.  and wall street agrees and that seems to carry the day for the hope pimp.

Z  

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by: Z @ Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 23:44:52 PM UTC

Change, change, change (0.00 / 0)

the more things change, the more they stay the same

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by: dkmich @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 15:20:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Side Letters, not love letters (4.00 / 2)

Larry 'Deregulator' Summers needs some IRS1040 advise, should he call Geithner?  As if the pitch-fork mob isn't already angry enough, more shovel-ready job of tossing that brown stuff off the sidewalks of Wall Street:

http://us1.institutionalriskan...  

"It is important to understand that a side letter is a secret agreement, a document that is often hidden from internal and external auditors, regulators and even senior management of insurers and reinsurers. We doubt, for example, that Warren Buffet or Hank Greenberg knew the details of side letters, but they should have. Just as a rogue CDS trader at a large bank like Societe General (NYSE:SGE) might seek to hide losing trades, the underwriters of insurers would use sham transactions and side letters to enhance the revenue of the insurer, but without disclosing the true nature of the transaction.

The key point is that neither the public, the Fed nor the Treasury seem to understand is that the CDS contracts written by AIG with these various non-insurers around the world were shams - with no correlation between "fees" paid and the risk assumed. These were not valid contracts as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Economic policy guru Larry Summers claim, but rather acts of criminal fraud meant to manipulate the capital positions and earnings of financial companies around the world.

Indeed, our sources as well as press reports suggest that the CDS contracts written by AIG may have included side letters, often in the form of emails rather than formal letters, that essentially violated the ISDA agreements and show that the true, economic reality of these contracts was fraud plain and simple. Unfortunately, by not moving to seize AIG immediately last year when the scandal broke, the Fed and Treasury may have given the AIG managers time to destroy much of the evidence of criminal wrongdoing."

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by: mariann @ Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 23:46:14 PM UTC

Tom Gober (4.00 / 1)

Tom Gober is a forensic accountant who has worked cases with the FBI and Justice Department including a case involving GenRe, a reinsurer, and has written and spoken out about side letters.

That GenRe case was dropped by DoJ though Gober had GenRe dead to rights; to complicate matters, all records and all his work was seized and destroyed by the FBI, contrary to the practice of keeping investigation research.

Gober wrote about AIG for ePluribus Media last September.

The shock that we are all feeling today, especially over the devastating AIG bailout debacle, I began feeling more than 20 years ago.  Despite my many attempts to convince governmental regulators that our insurance regulatory effort was woefully inadequate, I got nowhere.

I met Gober and heard his story in August 2007 at YearlyKos in Chicago with a few others. He came to Chicago on his own dime hoping someone would hear him out and pick up his story, which had been dropped by McClatchy and the New York Times. As I recall, Gober said they could not verify his claims as no one close to that investigation (where the investigatory materials were improperly destroyed and the case unexpectedly dropped) would talk to them.

His whole point back then was that the side letter problem, if it came undone, would make the Enron collapse look like nothing. And it was targeting Gen Re, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the biggest reinsurers in the world.

Gober was right.

He knew well ahead of time what we are becoming aware of now, and no one would listen to him. People like Gober should be in charge of these investigations, not cronies and clients of Wall Street companies.

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by: wanderindiana @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 00:11:48 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

this kind of story makes me sick (4.00 / 7)

especially when I remember how many times Obama supporters threw it in my face that John Edwards worked briefly for a hedge fund, built a big house and got an expensive haircut.

Join the Iowa progressive community at Bleeding Heartland.

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by: desmoinesdem @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 00:45:07 AM UTC

I guess we owe you an apology (4.00 / 4)

This is mine.  

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.

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by: Hopeful in NJ @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 00:57:05 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

An apology? (0.00 / 1)

Why apologize to anyone who supported a serial adulterer narcissist who continued running for the Dem nomination while trying to cover up a disastrous bombshell that was just waiting to pop?  

John Edwards nearly destroyed the Democratic party in one self-serving, douchebagish fell swoop, and you're going to apologize to someone who actually supported that dirt bag?  Please.

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by: davisbanimal @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 04:33:57 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

. (0.00 / 1)

He worked at a hedge fund? That's hilarious. I mean, I always found support for Edwards to be slightly more irrational than support for Hillary (Hillary could at least win). But that tops the fuckin cake.

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by: NeonBlack @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 05:02:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]