Soon to be more household-nameish U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald pointed out that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich "has taken us to a new low." Well, that's partly true. Indicting a sitting Illinois Governor is a bit remarkable, but indicting them isn't even remotely novel, and Fitzgerald used almost exactly this line with his last Illinois Governor indictment, saying that "a low-water mark for public service," had been reached when George Ryan was indicted for misuse of campaign funds. It's not surprising that Fitzgerald sounds repetitive. Five of the last nine Illinois Governors have been indicted for something making it the undisputed champion of state corruption. To wit:
William G. Stratton 1953-1961 (Republican) Indicted for tax evasion related to his use of campaign funds. (Acquitted).
Otto Kerner, Jr. 1961- 1968 (Democratic) Convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and related charges when Marge Lindheimer Everett deducts the bribe from her federal income tax return as a "ordinary business expense." Sentenced to three years.
Samuel H. Shapiro 1968-1969 (Democratic)
Richard Buell Ogilvie 1969-1973 (Republican)
Daniel Walker 1973-1977 (Democratic) Convicted in 1987 for obtaining fraudulent loans used to support his business and his yacht "The Governor's Lady." Sentenced to seven years, served 18 months.
James R. Thompson 1977-1991 (Republican)
James Edgar 1991-1999 (Republican)
George H. Ryan 1999-2003 (Republican) Convicted on several counts of misuse of campaign funds (funneled to his many daughters, housekeeper, etc.) and selling business licenses for cash and political favors while he was Secretary of State. Sentenced to six and a half years. (Appealing... still).
Rod R. Blagojevich 2003-Present (Democratic) Indicted for bribery, etc. related to shaking down businesses (Tribune, etc.) for state assistance.
Shaking down Bank of America was just the more public of his muscle flexing, it would seem.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:01PM
Next four years are gonna be interesting to say the least.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:02PM
How reassuring that Obama is a product of this state's political class.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:06PM
how far does the barry, i mean apple, fall from the tree?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:06PM
Why the fuck does every Bloomberg headline end in "as the credit-crunch deepens?"
Bloomberg gets off on bad news.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:09PM
This guy gives politicians a bad name. Shake down artists.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:11PM
This is not a reason to defend B of A.
B of A just shook us all down for 25 billion.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:15PM
I'm just going to assume #6 was just kidding and not simply retarded.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:19PM
@7 you are retarded.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:20PM
anyone take the time to figure out how much mike bloombergs net worth has dropped since may or so?
Average financial stock down 80%
Average media stock down 90%.
No wonder he's so cranky lately.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 1:21PM
@7:
Not really a joke, the banks make the Somali Pirates look like pikers. They've got all of our money and they're ransoming it back to us. One penny at a time.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:25PM
@10 amen.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:27PM
@5
The fact that a majority are self-serving grossly incompetent douchebags gives politicians a well-deserved bad name.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:29PM
Short list for replacement.
1. Somali Pirate Warlord - These guys know how to hold things for ransom.
2. Wideclops - She can see through the corruption.
3. Bess Levin - Nuff said.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:31PM
@13 - no 2. BWAHAHAHAHAH!
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:33PM
How dare a bank pull credit from a failing institution? If anything, we need more home building supplies now than ever! People do realize that shitty loans are what got us where we are now, right? History never repeats itself, but it frequently rhymes.
There's no shortage of complaints I have about our banking system, but come-the-fuck on, they were just doing their job here.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:36PM
@15 the banks are the failing institution and we just handed them trillions of dollars.
We want our money back.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:39PM
When did DB turn into yahoo message boards?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:40PM
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/10illinois_complaint.pdf
ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to “suck it up” for two years and do nothing and give this “motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he will put “[Senate Candidate 4]” in the Senate “before I just give fucking [Senate Candidate 1] a fucking Senate seat and I don’t get anything.” (Senate Candidate 4 is a Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois).
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:41PM
@17 the day you started commenting on DB.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:48PM
@18 quote - i am starting to like this rod blago guy.
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 09, 2008 1:54PM
@ 6/10
The banks got into sh!t dealing in mortgages they ordinarily never would have touched, based off federal policy encouraging them to do so. Of course they are retarded for not closing the spigot before sh!t hit the fan, but such are the demands of the public markets to meet earnings. In hindsight, any bank ceo that had the cajones/foresight to shut down risky mortgage (structured finance, etc, etc) ops - sacraficing short-term profitability for longer term solvency - would likely, with the benefit of hindsight, be seen as a genius (Dimon-esque plus plus).
Oh well
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 2:12PM
@20 he definitely has balls. He must have known he was being wire tapped when he said that.
Posted by EricM , Dec 09, 2008 2:34PM
Anal,
US Bank's Jerry Grundhofer?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 2:43PM
I think that Eliot's demise was more amusing. Perhaps Blago is just trying to be able to afford Eloit's hookers, who are now unemployed.
Posted by financialmarketjim , Dec 09, 2008 2:49PM
Hire these guys!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m54bAfxgYPw
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 2:51PM
@analyst come off it.
You know good and well the banks structured the terms of those mortgages and had the right of refusal. Just because congress encouraged them to lend to poorer borrowers doesn't mean they couldn't have given them a 30 year fixed rate mortgage for $100,000. No one told the banks to assume real estate prices would never come down. No one told them to create CDO^2's. No one told them to lever 30x.
Trying to blame this shit show on the borrowers is about as despicable as blaming the holocaust on the jews.
...If it weren't for these "unsavory elements" in society, the financial system was sound.
BULL SHIT and you know it. Next you be blaming Mexican workers for bubble for providing to much cheap day labor leading to over supply of houses. Banker, heal thyself.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 2:55PM
26 I second. I know so many bankers that made a ton of money from origination, packaging, selling all that s!!t. Plus real estate people getting rich turning properties. And carpenters doing renovations. On and on. So many people were having fun, there was no way that joy ride was going to be halted without a big fight.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 3:01PM
@17: I know what you mean for this thread.
Also, why is no one talking about Bridgewater??
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 3:08PM
First years starting this summer: What are you all spending your 10k signing on?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 3:31PM
29 Wow times have changed. Sign on used to be just enough to buy three suits and pay your share of a month's rent in advance and a month's security. I think now if you do that and make sure you shop carefully for the suits, you'll have around $4500 left. Nice, for people that are one step up from useless.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 3:52PM
"Trying to blame this shit show on the borrowers is about as despicable as blaming the holocaust on the jews."
And in one sentence VOL IS KING washed away any credibility he ever had on this forum.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 4:00PM
interesting how the governor legal issues seem to cluster around times when a Daley is in office in Chicago. they must see that money slopping around and want a piece.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 4:07PM
@ VOL KING - damn man, I actually thought you knew something!
That is BY FAR the stupidest thing I've read on DB.
From anybody.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 4:15PM
@31:
Well as I'm sure you know the Germans, had a massive depression followed by hyper inflation after World War I. And indeed the state of the economy was blamed on this small minority as though they had signed the treaty of Versailles or something..
I see a lot of, hubris, classism, or racism in this meme, that says that the global financial system has been brought to its knees by people who have never heard of a CDO. In attempting to blame the mess on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, there's a subtle insinuation, that the problems lie with "those people", who never should have even considered buying a home.
Well I'm having none of it. I'm sure for the most part its simply denial. But the idea that some janitor who never graduated college is more responsible for this mess than the MIT grads who built the models, it utterly ludicrous.
Some how I thought people in finance, would get more humble after seeing how terribly wrong so many of the basic premises of their world had been. But everyone is still the same. Which means the lesson has not been learned and we will be right back here on the fail trail again, assuming we ever escape this mess.
I don't know why I bother, Soros has been trying since what '87, no one listens to him, they're sure as hell not going to listen to me.
I guess you can't stop the fail, you can only hope to contain it.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 4:24PM
I think I understand VOL's logic... all these defaulted borrowers signed 46 pages of disclosures and promissory documents - just like all those Jews did when signing up to be Jewish.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 4:33PM
uh no my point point is the insinuations about these undesirable elements sound like the shit you'd have heard from the national socialists. Slightly veiled, attempts to blame the entire nations problem on a small group deemed to be "other" or less than in some way.
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 09, 2008 4:56PM
@ VOL
I'm not saying guys on the Street didn't f*ck up - they did, severely - however, no one in the mortgage machine is without blame here lets get real about that, shall we?
Few months ago, a friend of mine on a cdo desk was telling me that some of the guys never thoguht for a second there would be the kind of fraud and outright lying (on mortgage apps, etc) that we've found happened.
Amateurish naivite? Absolutely.
But not (outright) fraud.
Of course the same can't be said for everyone, but similar things happened all over. People got lazy and didn't do the leg work (like Paulson & Co, for example, did), now we're all getting burned.
Oh, and for what its worth, I wasn't, and never have originated, structured, or executed a garbage mortgage-related deal.
I'm an anti-banker, banker, if you will, but I digress.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 5:53PM
bridgewater info anyone?
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 09, 2008 5:53PM
wow I can't spell/type, should read "Amateurish naivete", my bad.
Your connection is a bit tenuous, but I see your point (I'm not one of the over zealous Heebs that gets mad at every questionable Holocaust reference, how lucky for you).
As I've mentioned dozens of times now, EVERYONE messed up. Borrowers, brokers, originators, servicers, the guys structuring the products, the ones selling 'em, the one's rating them, and the one's buying em.
In each category there is maybe a small minority that DIDN'T royally mess up, but on the whole, each guy in the chain contributed, one way or another, to the house of cards falling (er failing, as you said).
Trying to slice and dice blame like some did with mortgage securities is, unsurprisingly similarly, a fool's errand.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 5:57PM
wait anal....cant we all admit we are a bunch of low level b*tches on this board....every senior person in the game during the bubble was riding it until it was over waiting to tap the younger guys on the shoulder and say 'have a nice time'
peace im out
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 09, 2008 6:33PM
@ 40
Know for a fact that "more senior" guys read DB, some even comment believe it or not. As to the distribution of readers/commenters, thats beyond me.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 7:05PM
yeah i over reached ye ole H-Bomb. but i couldn't think or another marginalized group that was blamed bringing on financial ruin with calamity to ensue. Its like blaming the Irish for the potato famine? Its like blaming meat heads for Jersey?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 7:25PM
Been born & raised in the windy city and 'burbs. Political scandals are nothing new. Fuckheads like Blogo as he's referred to in these parts are a dime a dozen. The list of scum bag politicians is endless. Just yesterday he declared he did nothing illegal. His approval rating was at 13 %. Anyway, it will be entertaining to watch his dumb ass try to get out of this. They are already looking into impeachment if he does not resign. Stay tuned. Now where is the fucking wideclops?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 9:46PM
It has been my personal experience that Louisiana is the most corrupt off the states however it look as if you have some serious stats on your side here Bess
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 10:26PM
Fitzgerald is a household name already, at least in the houses that care about stamping out corruption. He has integrity, but the same can't be said about every other US Attorney. So Illinois looks pretty bad right now, but I can guarantee you there are worse states, just that their prosecutors are not as straight and sharp as Fitzgerald is.
In conclusion, Blagojevich is toast. But he needs a lot of company in his jail cell, and not only from crooks in Illinois.
Posted by guest , Dec 10, 2008 2:42AM
Wait a second...
You guys don't think Jews like the Rothschilds had a hand in WWI and the Treaty of Versailles? The blood sucking Jewish bankers was one of many reasons for the Germans to have issues with the Jewish people.
Let's not act like Hitler singled them out for NO reason. That is quite naive. Read up on your history, and try to steer clear of Jewish propaganda.
Posted by guest , Dec 10, 2008 11:49AM
@45 totally true .. Fitzgerald's been prosecuting high-profile cases for years, from the Scooter Libby leak to Conrad Black and of course Blogo's predecessor George Ryan ... he's the f*cking bomb
as for the pig in office right now, he will be going away for a long time -- maybe he can be Ryan's bitch when he gets to the pokey??