9:07 Why does Mack look huge?
9:09 Blankfein: Goldman Sachs was started in 1869 by a guy named Marcus Goldman. Today, we may or may not employ a guy related by blood to Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino.
9:11 Blankfein: “size matters.” (Sheryl Weinstein nods gravely while watching from home.)
9:16 FYI, Goldman was profitable in 2008, which is more than I can say for some people. Also, we’ve been reducing risk since 2007, don’t know if you knew that.
9:20 First of nine hundred instances in which the panelists are told to press the button and speak into the mic (they’re apparently “distance sensitive”).
9:21 Jamie Dimon’s here for “brutal honesty.” And he doesn’t blame the regulators.
9:29 John Mack: these last two years have been wild. Let me walk you through it, starting with the night I told Geithner to go fuck himself.
9:35: Mack wants a systemic risk regulator to pry the crackpipe out of his colleagues’ hands.
9:38 Brian Moynihan is excited to be sitting at the big kid’s table. Ken Lewis is excited to be sleeping in, again.
9:40 Bonuses at BAC will be higher than last year, but nothing too crazy, like I hear they’ll be over at this guy’s shop [motions to LB]
9:43 The vast majority of Bank of America employees were not responsible for our fuck ups. In fact, only one comes to mind, who’s no longer with us.
Questions
9:45 Mr. Blankfein, tell us about two times that you screwed up, real bad, and why you’re sorry. And if you could actually say “I’m sorry” again, I think watching would love that. I want to hear you say it. And I want you to dance puppet, dance.
9:52 LLOYD IS GONNA CUT A BITCH!!
10:02 LB doesn’t know if Goldman didn’t need government intervention. What he does know is that you interrupt him one more time, Hoss, and he’s going to come down there and give you a crew cut you freaky piece of shit.
10:06 Bill Thomas, hacking up a lung, would like people to know that he doesn’t have enough time to ask the questions he wants, so he’ll ask none. He thinks everyone watching should email these guys with their questions. (Amber Tamblyn behind him agrees.) Everyone likes to get email right? It’s so fun, you open up your in-box and it’s like a little treat. You know who loves emails? Bill Thomas. Go ahead. Send him one. ‘Bill Thomas’ all one word, at ‘fcic’ dot gov. If you have any questions for these guys, you can email them directly, or, if you’d prefer, you can email me, Bill Thomas, and what I’ll do is then forward the email to one of these guys.
An approximation of the face LB was making during BT’s time, except that his mouth was open more, and he had a thought bubble above his head asking, “Are you going to make a point, Fattie? Or just gonna ramble? Point, or ramble?
10:17 Heather Murren: Mr. Blankein, were you asked to take less than 100 cents on the dollar in AIG payments?
Lloyd: No. And yes, the golden scrots are not just a myth. If you’d like I’ll give you a peek at them after this thing gets out. Is it me, Heather, or does it feel like we’re the only two people in this room?
10:25 Bill Thomas: Am I to understand, Mr. Blankfein, that you award compensation in part in stock? Is that what am to understand? Mr. Blankein?
10:41: Did Jamie Dimon really need to get out of bed for this?
10:46 Mack: We’ve instituted a clawback feature on our bonuses. I, of course, haven’t been paid in the last two years, so no worries there.
10:50 What do you think Vikram is doing right now?
10:56 This is getting boring. Let’s watch a replay of LB bringing it earlier:
11:29 Bill Thomas’s “bespoke always costs more than the general” gets a wink from John Mack.
11:34 Jamie Dimon’s response to the umteenth request to get closer to the mic is “I can’t get any closer. I’m going to have to come sit up there [implication that it'll be on one of their laps]” and that’s why he’s the man.
11:45 Jamie’s brother has a PhD in physics, and thinks trading boring. JD: “Different strokes for different folks.”
11:58: Besides the testiness, one of the best things about today are the ample opportunities for Lloyd to give everyone his amazing stink-eye. Definitely going to have to do a gallery of those bad boys. Here’s a beauty, courtesy of Daily Intel:
LB's voice is so disarming.
lloyd shined up the head for the occasion.
Jamie Dimon thoughts…."I hate these useless a$$holes…..what a waste of my time"
@3 Bloomberg???
i have this from a reliable source–GS made most of its money in 2008 selling kitten fir in the black market. Go choke to death, PETA:-)
@7 fur
fur-real?
Maybe when they get around to asking about bonuses, someone on the committee will ask what they have done to actually deserve such munificent sums considering that the main reason the banks are so profitable these days is the existence of an artificially steep yield curve (which at the same time penalizes Joe Public who is getting bupkus on his savings). A monkey could earn big profits with basically zero cost of funds.
@10 yes, please ask me about the bonus I haven't received for the past two years.
These tools are amatuers. Take a cue from me as to what to do when the heat gets too hot. Bounce.
-P. Carroll
Seattle, Wa
@8 clearly you're not familiar with the kitten fir black market. "Fir" refers to the small patch of fur on the skull between the ears and is by far the most valuable kind of kitten fur. Typically, kittens are harvested for this kind of fur alone and the rest is discarded
@8, sorry, typed before morning coffee was had. Fur, yes.
#7
@10 who the hell is Joe Public and why should we care about one guy?
facetious
@13 no not discarded. It ends up as Chicken Lo Mein at our restaruant. ROR!
- Mr. and Mrs. Chiang
@ 10 – go play in traffic
@16. racist. offer your votives.
http://www.humorhound.com/wp-content/uploads/2008…
@10- if there is an artificially steep yield curve why would you not take advantage of it as a bank. Also tell me which of these banks are still holding onto TARP money.
Look over here at banker's bonuses so that you don't see the horrible investment we made in GM/AIG etc.
by 9:49am it is starting to get ugly….right on cue.
LB struggling for air a bit…
….annd den…?
Blackfine should just fucking bitchslap these idiots. They are MARKET MAKERS DUMMIES!!!!!!
Blankfine should just fucking bitchslap these idiots. They are MARKET MAKERS DUMMIES!!!!!!
@10
Yes, agreed with @11, please, tell me
Holy hell, this is not a wise course of action for LB…
blankfein will not be strong armed or interrupted…you go! fk these high and mighty politicos!
@17 I guess you are one of those bankers feeling sorry for him/herself. Face it, you have no special talent and don't deserve to make as much as you think you do. Anyone honest with himself who works on Wall Street knows this deep down in their heart. Smart people with good educations and connections are a dime a dozen these days — YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. Go find a job that actually contributes something to the world — and don't give me that crap about "enabling the gears of capitalism to function efficiently" — we all know how that turned out…..
@19. Don't give me this TARP crap. TARP covers only a small portion of the obligations assumed by the Gov.
Come back when the several trillion on the Fed books gets resolved, you twit.
Blankfine is destroying these guys. Big props to LB
@28
Shut up and take your fleecing like the rest of the sheep. And unfortunately in this America "smart people with good educations" are rare. For God's sake have you met these mouthbreathers?
@31 pls learn to spell his name. it's "blankfein" not "blankfine," retard.
@28/29 he is smart enough not to double post.
@24 yes like what? Be a teacher? Get a fat fucking pension and benefits to continue to push kids that are underachieving to the next grade? I am OUTRAGED that these teachers aren't drug up to testify about how far we have fallen behind the rest of the world in education and how cushy their benefits continue to be.
Oh they're union and get tenured?
Back to those BANKERS!!
@19 Of course they should take advantage of it — that is the whole point a steep yield curve has been created by the Fed — to allow banks to recapitalize themselves. Instead, they will pay a good chunk out in bonuses to people who do not deserve it. I repeat, a monkey could earn big profits because of the how the yield curve has been manipulated. That a good deal of the benefit is going to be paid to bankers who have done nothing to deserve it is criminal.
Phil needs to be slapped, what a douc#e….
@24/28/29 you must be new around here. How's that 12 month deferral from your law firm working out? GTFO and go backback in Argentina or something. It's summer there
my comment was meant for 25/28/29, and I DID NOT double post
No an den!!!!!
Lloyd is getting pissed. They're getting more comfortable being on capitol hill. They're going to SHOW THEIR ASSES TODAY!
God bless Lloyd!!!!
*shining the replica Golden Scrot*
-mrp
Smart people with good educations and connections are a dime a dozen these days — YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL.
Sure thing. That's why people speak of the 90/10.
You are one of the 90, shut up and row. You would be drowning otherwise.
And as for connections, those are dividends of prior generations hard work. Ask for your handouts elsewhere.
nice job committee, the government rammed shitty lending/liquidity mandates down everyone's throat and banks found a way to de-risk. rating angencies gave out ratings in hopes they would be hired at better paying banks. what did you think would happen?
42> CNBC=NSFW?
Bill Thomas, master of turning what should be a 10 second sentence into a 10 minute rambling introduction.
This jackass has wasted 10 minutes encouraging people to "ask questions" and giving his email address. He knows he can't take on LB.
the look on lb's face while listening to bill thomas is priceless
@35
That means nothing. Even Anal_yst is smart enough to do that.
LB's Stink Eye is awesome!
Is this fat fuck ever going to actually make a point?
Bill Thomas… Dave's retarded younger brother?
I'll take a small Frosty and a Spicy Chicken you ignorant fuck.
holy shit. he didn't even have a fucking question to ask after all that.
LB and gang now have to answer questions from the public in writing?
First things first,
I wanna know where da gold at
I'd bang Murren
Heather: My first question is for you Mr. Blankfein.
Lloyd: You heard the stories huh? Let me tell you sugar tits, they're all true.
@53
Assuming this is your second go-around (5th, technically), wtf is your major malfunction, soldier?
You mention "good education" and "connections" in the same sentence, thus coming-off as an entitled blue blood (or something like it).
Murren can get it. And by it, I mean the business. And by business I mean my cock.
How fitting. She's already wearing a pearl necklace :)
…annnn….dennnnn?
Do these retards asking the questions realize that it's not a Blankfein only panel?
And where are the damn pink ladies?
@ 34 – here, meant that to be @25. Sorry, Anal_yst.
@ 25 – go bite your ear. and get a job.
…now Obama is stealing the channnel, bring LB back to the tv screen…
Can Lloyd finish a complete sentence before his train of thought derails? F'ing guy is like the SNL character Nicolas Fehn:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/11386/saturday-night-li…
regal.
Does Bill Thomas have a brain injury?
WTF is on Graham's face?
Moynihan looks like the dad from Malcolm in the Middle. He looks nervous. JD has perfected casual indifference. LB hates all these idiots.
LB is not very articulate but he's getting tossed unbelievable softballs by Murren – an ex wall streeter. What a joke.
54 = Rawls
@72 an ex-and-future Wall Streeter?
Lloyd is nervous.
WHERE IS VIKRAM????
Heather Murren's Political Campaign Contributions, just sayin.'
Cycle Amount
2000 $1,000
2002 $7,500
2004 $20,000
2006 $29,700
2008 $92,900
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Dimon's voice really reminds me of Funkhouser.
would love to hear him tell the liver joke to the commission, maybe Thomas will request?
Moynihan looks like the love child of Robin Williams and Conan O'Brien.
Does JD always not wear his wedding ring, or are there troubles at casa Dimon?
Wait why Mack but not Lewis? Moynihan but not Gorman?
@28/29 OK, such as what? What, for example, do you do for a living?
What, in fact, does your average "Main Street" American do for a living? I'll tell you one thing, the average middle-income head-of-family is not running the Bailey Building and Loan or the soda fountain in Bedford Falls. The majority of Americans live in suburbs and work in some kind of manufacturing or service job. Would it somehow be more "American" or better for humanity or whatever if I were to go be a middle manager for Colgate-Palmolive or Comcast or Dow Chemical than it is for me to work in finance?
Like a lot of people in finance, I probably could go work somewhere else. Thing is, I like the business I'm in. Its interesting.
Also like a lot of people in finance, I'm not making obscene amounts of money– I make a decent living for New York, on which I support myself and my family, but that's it. I ride the subway to work, eat sandwiches at my desk for lunch, and watch the market 11hrs a day for the institutions and clients that hire my firm. Do I deserve to have Uncle Sam punish ME, specifically, b/c I'm in the "wrong industry"? I don't think so.
Economic cycles happen. They have always happened. We've had recessions/depressions in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1876, 1893, 1907, 1929, 1958, 1969, 1981… you get the picture. Playing pin-the-crash-on-the-banker is populist BS that surfaces every generation in DC (go look up the Pecora hearings, for example). The more you fall for it, the less likely you– and the country– will be to face up to the REAL problems (like spending > earning on a national level).
Bottom line, go rant somewhere else.
-Still employed finance guy who's firm went under.
JPM didn't consider the possibility of declining housing prices?
@84 – the problem is – this time it really was the banks' fault. Wasn't oil's fault, or car company's fault, but it was completely on the heads of finance, insurance, real estate (FIRE) and the government which stupidly eliminated Glass-Steagall. The fact is, firms should be recapitalizing instead of going straight back to the 50% revenue/comp model and GS and MS should lose their bank holding status. How does that NOT make sense?
@79……Here is a link to Funkhauser's "Liver Joke" for those not aquainted with it. This joke is similar in shock content to the "Kinky Sex in a Fantasy Sort of Way" joke and extreme discretion is advised if telling this joke in "mixed" company or if copius amounts of liquor have not been prior consumed. I would receommend telling this joke among males only whom one has known for quite a while.
http://recoveringhipster.tumblr.com/post/25061377…
~The Joke Briefer
@86:
How about those who made 40K a year and took 1 mm mortgage ?
@84: "Also like a lot of people in finance, I'm not making obscene amounts of money– I make a decent living for New York, on which I support myself and my family, but that's it. I ride the subway to work, eat sandwiches at my desk for lunch, and watch the market 11hrs a day for the institutions and clients that hire my firm. Do I deserve to have Uncle Sam punish ME, specifically, b/c I'm in the "wrong industry"? I don't think so."
This describes me (@29) as well. Problem is, it doesn't address the fact that the bonus you want is essentially being paid for by the general public who is getting zero interest on savings because the Fed is manipulating the yield curve so that the financial sector can recapitalize itself. Once things have "normalized", and financial institutions are sufficiently recapitalized, then they should go right ahead and pay whatever they can in bonuses. Until then, they and their employees are beneficiaries of state welfare (paid for by all taxpayers, not just the big swinging dicks on Wall Street), and should behave that way.
Thanks to all of you for not dragging my good name into this witch-hunt.
~P. Gramm
Fochdupped, TX
@86-
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Barney Frank.
The Gov created this mess by saying that every breathing human being, regardless of income SHOULD own a home. So, the unwashed masses took the bait hook line and sinker and leveraged themselves up to the hilt thinking that the value of their home would rise ad-infinitum.
WS did not create this mess, it was the stupid Americans who slept during Finance 101 (or even a high school level economics course).. ASSET PRICES NEVER RISE IN A STRAIGHT LINE FOREVER!
Joe Sixpack seems to forget the simple law of gravity**: "what goes up, must come down".
**Unless you're living in outer space
Now stoop down and suck on Blankfein's golden scrot.
-mrp
@86 "The banks." You talk about "the banks" as if they're some monolithic entity not comprised of employees.
I've never either sold or bought a CDO, CLO, CMBS, or RMBS; nor have I ever been involved in making loans to package into such securities; nor have I ever done a derivatives transaction. In fact, I've actively told clients NOT to play with that stuff.
So I should suffer because someone else– over whom I had absolutely no control, and with whom I in fact had no interaction whatsoever, engaged in these practices? Bullshit. What you want to do is hold an entire company– an entire industry– responsible for the actions of a few. Would you hold every employee of Union Carbide, or of the chemical industry as a whole, responsible for Bhopal?
The bad apples are going to get cooked (see-Galleon et al.). They deserve it. But get off your flippin high horse about the whole industry.
Bankers aren't whining so much about loss of bonus as they are whining about how dumb the public thinks they are. And boy do they look dumb.
@91 just explain to me in economics 101 the lesson where the FED is responsible for paying the lost profits on the failed investments of Goldman Sachs? If what you say is correct and i tend to agree with the gravity statement, why did ALL the WS firms lose their shirts in mortgage backed securities? It looks to me like WS thought the numbers would continue to rise in a straight line…
Now tell me again, who fell asleep in that class?
Dont get me wrong i am in real estate and i know, people bought homes they cant afford. i dont blame WS fir that. I blame the Obama for allowing GS to collect these TAX DOLLAR profits from AIG. If i make a bet and the bookie cant pay…TOUGH SHIT. To give that much tax money to such a small group of people who dont even need it. its like anti stimulus money. didnt save or create ONE FUCKING JOB!!
None-a-dese fuckin' hearings would be necessary if dose Congressmen woulda just read my book! I explain everything in dare. I wrote da fuckin' definitive tome on da causes of da financial crisis.
At da very least, dey shoulda had da courtesy to have ME testify.
-cg
(a) the $40K a year guy who was sold a mortgage knew a lot less about asset prices and risk than the "talent" that sold it to him, threw that mortgage into a tranche with some prime mortgages and bought CDS against it. If the talent hadn't been able to do that, mortgage would never have been sold.
(b) Show me the class action lawsuit that forced Chase/Citi/Countrywide/BofA/WaMu/Indymac to make these loans?
(c) Fannie and Freddie are a small part of the mortgage market that collapsed.
(d) The answer is these loans would never have been made if they hadn't been securitized into AAA securities and the Fed hadn't kept the easy money flowing.
I DON't work for one of these banks and I do not get anything near a percentage of the bonuses in question. BUT… it makes me sick to hear Joe Sixpack or Main St. or whomever cry about the situation when we all basically spent more money than we could afford. Seriously, can anyone tell me of one specific law that GS broke?! to my knowledge they have not committed a single crime, and they sure as shit are not supposed to be running a charity as far as I know. they have a responsibility to the owners of the company only… their shareholders. If their owners are pissed enough, they can sell the stock or vote against the board. wtf.. a little bit of reality please
@ 89 – Do you even understand the different functions of a bank? Sure, there are those functions which profit off of yield curves and such, but then there are those (investment banking) that are paid on advisory work. Advisory work (equity u/w, m&a, etc) is pretty much pure profit for a bank – it's intellectual capital with no economic capital at risk (yes, there are situations in M&A/LBO that come with stapled financing but the advisory fees make up the bulk of the profit). According to you, those that are in those areas should be punished because of a favorable interest rate environment and because of the misdeeds of others in different functional areas (who are largely no longer working for their respective companies)?
@97 i am not in the mind set that GS broke laws. i the Obama admin is responsible for giving them this money. If someone gives you free money, you fucking take it. i do not feel they are entitled to it. i am confused by your comment. Do you feel GS deserves this "insurance money" on the failed investments they made? I give them credit for having the fore thought to take out the insurance and blame the shit outta AIG for writing that policy.
The fact is, AIG went belly up thus GS should never have been given that money. Do not argue the "capitalist market" argument when its the tax payer/Fed govt making the payment on behalf of AIG. That type of payment screams of another type of govt!
@96:
OK, and none of the bad securitizations would have happened absent the poor public policy decisions of the 1990s, when banks were esentially forced to lend to bad creditors, in the name of social justice and expanding homeownership. Washington set the groundwork, yet now blames Wall Street.
Wall Street deserves its share of blame, as do politicians, as do homeowners who wanted in on the action (the $1mm mortgage for the $40K income example you cite.)
Fannie/Freddie was NOT a small part of the mortgage market that collapsed. Not even close. They set the standard for conforming mortgages that they purchase from private sector originators, and the mortgage standards were loosened considerably, due to political pressures.
But today, we have a President and Congress who engage in Axelrod/Rahm Emmanuel demonization tactics to cover up for Washington ineptitude, and in order to create continuous crisis atmosphere to push through their ambitious political agenda.
My comment is, FUBO.
@89 Lockheed Martin makes the bulk of their revenue off the US Government. They are in fact directly compensated by the American taxpayer– in the form of outright payments, not loans. Average reported executive compensation at Lockheed was $9.34MM per head at the last reporting date, topped by the CEO who earned $26.5MM, per public filings. Can I get compensated like that?
Oh, by the way, I no longer work for a bank that took money from the govt. I'm at a start-up.
@99 i think we agree…. I am amazed by the stupidity of AIG. those morons had no business doing what they were doing. I wonder though, what would the difference be if GS agreed to take partial payout on securities they bought from a company that was not bankrupt? shareholder suit would be my first guess…. the only way they could have been forced to take less than 100% payout is if AIG had declared bankruptcy, otherwise, they are working for their owners and collecting what they were offered. govt fault
@98: Let's talk about those m&a, IPO etc. fees. Absolutely ridiculous what is paid in fees. More back scratching between the corporate sector and Wall Street, which benefits nobody but the privileged few. Look, just face it, every rock you turn over on Wall Street uncovers another greedy, overpaid, over-entitled creep.
And the Washington hypocrisy continues.
While the bank regulators are screaming at the banks to raise additional capital, and they largely do so by borrowing at zero and investing in risk free assets, they are blasted by populist fools, including Obama, for not engaging in enough lending.
The hypocrisy is so thick you need a fucking excavator to clear it.
And now, part of Obama's plan to regulate Wall Street is to assess the riskiness of loans and bank assets! LMAO. Barney Frank, the head of the House Financial Services Committee, as recently as summer 2007 insisted that there are no financial problems at Fannie/Freddie.
I guess Obama will appoint a Risk Czar to determine appropriate levels of capital. That should work….
@94
Get your facts straight about the GS/AIG thing, you clearly have nary a clue, so in the interim, please STFU.
@104: What is your fucking point? Is Limbaugh in a commercial break right now? Are you on hold for Snerdley?
@103- I feel the same about my realtor. Let's tax her pay, too.
Twin Sith Lords revealed.
http://www.observer.com/2010/media/shooting-naked…
Money quote, "But the juiciest part of the lore is that there’s a “Sith Lord,” like in Star Wars, at the center of the evil. The Sith Lord turns out to be Sith Lords. 'It’s Steven Cohen and Mike Milken, though I’ve never said that to a reporter,' says Patrick Byrne, Overstock’s CEO."
Apparently, he has now.
Anyway, the MM part is old news — its an old Byrne family quarrel after all, and MM was one of the first names people speculated about. Cohen's name seems to have been thrown in to make this seem a tad less anti-climactic than it might otherwise be.
greedy… of course, overpaid…. probably .. criminal… no. get over it they are not in the public relations game.
@107:
If you can't get my point, go back to watching re-runs of Michael Moore movies, moron.
@103 – I won't disagree that the fees paid aren't high but I do disagree that this only benefits a few. In 2009, when companies had to tap the markets for survival capital who do you think benefited from that? Maybe it was the employees of those companies who got to keep their jobs. Maybe it was shareholders who didn't get their holdings wiped out. Maybe it was also employees of banks who got to keep their jobs because revenue was coming in.
You can look at every industry and find examples of greed and excessive prices..just go down to your local movie theater and buy a ticket, popcorn, and a drink. Who do you think benefits there? It doesn't take a large sum of money to find greedy people but it's convenient to blame the financial sector for problems where the blame should be shouldered by everyone, not just a few.
@108 no fucking shit. that was such a completely worthless article, about a guy who everyone is well-aware is a nutbag.
94-
"It looks to me like WS thought the numbers would continue to rise in a straight line…"
Some did, some didn't. The ones who didn't (or realized too late) are no longer around. The ones who did (namely Goldman(1)) are now being questioned about why they kept providing the "sophisticated investors"(2) with beer when they were too drunk. Well, in those particular markets, if you're sophisticated enough to play in them, then you at least have to have some expectation that (as Lloyd eloquently stated in his testimony) the counterparty may have an opposing view on the market. That is what happened at GS.
As for the AIG fiasco, all I have to go by is reports that GS was hedged, so the net-net was -0-. Someone more in the know correct me if i'm wrong. I think you should be directing your ire at the very people who are now trying to preach from their high pedestals at the front of the room, the elected senators. Why did they let the administration abrogate contracts and bypass due process in the GM situation? AIG is relatively small potatoes when it comes to crushing the confidence that people have come to expect in the US BK process. And, as we have all seen in the past 3 years, a loss of confidence in a process/system/institution has grave consequences.
"Now tell me again, who fell asleep in that class?"
-Refer to my response above, and footnote 1.
"Dont get me wrong i am in real estate and i know, people bought homes they cant afford. i dont blame WS fir that."
-Agreed
"I blame the Obama for allowing GS to collect these TAX DOLLAR profits from AIG. If i make a bet and the bookie cant pay…TOUGH SHIT. To give that much tax money to such a small group of people who dont even need it. its like anti stimulus money. didnt save or create ONE FUCKING JOB!!"
A) To give even more money to a bloated company that could not innovate and produce cars that its customer base wanted at the quality levels and price points just so the unions could turn around and continue to drive it further into the ground while talking about veba's and stuff is purely criminal.
B) I like how the Obama administration first says that 600k jobs were saved/created, now that number was revised to ~1.6m, now we arrive at this magic 2M jobs saved/created number. They built the numbers castle on faulty data. Remember the first time they touted "we saved this! we added this!"? After digging further, the numbers were faulty and suspect (refer to the missing/non-existent congressional districts). Nothing is to be trusted from BLS/Obama when it comes to jobs, especially in an election year.
So yes, blame the bankers and the industry as a whole, but your pals in DC are much engaged in far more egregious acts.
**1: Those who didn't get it: BSC, LEH and Cioffi (love ya Ralph, but you did screw up at BSAM).
**2: Sophisticated investors such as Citadel, and the BSAM crew, internal bank hedge funds, etc.. Some of the smarter ones like Bass/Paulson got it right, but those were few and far between
-mrp
It's all about the "O"……
@101. Picking a military industrial company is a really poor analogy, nevermind that the executive pool is much smaller and that compensation is minimal after that drop-off. You're not going to find someone outside of senior management (as in the top 300 people in the company) in LMT who makes $150k a year and gets a $75k bonus. You will, however, find tens of thousands who make $90k a year and get a $3k bonus.
I could go on about the differences between a loan from the Fed and a direct manufacturing contact payment from the DoD, with all the associated payment and penalty regulations, but I'm not quite that bored.
I agree with 100. I further feel BHO is using this crises as an argument to redistribute wealth. i dont think Obama gives a shit about WS unless they are buying 10,000 a plate dinners. the Post makes the argument he hates NYC which would explain the shitty deal we get in his healthcare initiative.
He has the unions on the brain and everything he does is aimed at giving them more and more power. If he can turn the nation against WS he wins most of the battle. The unfortunate part of this are the firms like GS making his job easier. Seen as a super rich corporation with secret relationships with influential politicians (TG). A group of self entitled assholes who made terrible decisions on behalf of their clients making a windfall at tax payer expense. If WS wants to change the winds of hate. They need to stop defending GS. The public has every right to be pissed and so do you since you are all viewed as ONE in the eyes of the uninformed.
BHO is a liar, he sold you shitheads a bill of goods and all you got were 3 terror attacks and now higher taxes. Blame Chuck the Schmuck Shumer and elect him out this year and BHO OUT in the next prez election.
I do have one question- WHERE WERE ALL YOU BHO HATERS IN DURING THE ELECTION?
Dipshit @110: The last time you used "moron" and "Michael Moore" in a sentence weren't you trying to get a job at Lehman?
@110 WTF are you talking about? I said the realtor thing in jest. If you think that anybody in an advisory role in a bank is overpaid then you must think that realtors are overpaid as well. The ongoing populist BS is that we should tax everyone so go eat a dick.
-107
The entire model for the country was broken. Banks, Fannie and Freddie, Insurance Companies, Social Security and Medicare, Municipal Pensions, homeowners, EVERYONE had too little capital. Its everyones fault and its no ones fault.
But if you want to assign blame go ahead and tax banker bonuses at 90% or whatever you want, BUT then you also must cut municipal pension benefits by 25% or more, cut Social Security benefits by 25%, ect. Everyone needs to eat a shit sandwich not just the Wall Street bankers that are cakin' it.
Nice job Bess. Saved me a lot of time.
@105 i am not sure what you missed. You still sleeping shithead?
nary? really? hahahah fag.
-94
A government guy in a dark suit with two armed security guys just came by our office and said that he was going to see our boss about taking some of our pay and giving it to people who don't do productive work. Said it was redistribution of wealth. Said it was going to private banking firms in the US.
Question to Blankfien: Sir what role did Ameriprise Financial play in all this mess?
Blankfein: None. Although I'm sure they wish they had something to do with it. You know, if nothing else just to seem relevant. Maybe get their name mentioned once or twice on the news kinda thing.
@116:
100 here, and some of us were screaming to the high heavens that Obama's "plans" to "create" millions of new, permanent, high paying green jobs was nonsense. Populist trash.
As you note, Obama always requires a demon to stoke populist rage. Today its Wall Street, yesterday it was the evil private health insurance companies, and before that it was any "conservative" commentator.
You are 100% correct that Obama's key constituency, and one of the primary beneficiaries of recent federal largesse, are the public labor unions who carry his water.
Where is the outrage over $80K per year pensions being paid out at age 50, for LIFE, and in some cases fully paid health care, for the retiree and and dependents.
Any first year finance student can tell you that a $80k annuity for 30 years or so (average length of retirement for public employees), is well in excess of $2 million.
Yet Obama demonizes Wall Street and the "rich" (by which he means high wage earners, most of whom get no such pensions and have to save for their own retirements.)
As you say, its a wealth transfer strategy, designed by Axelrod, in order to maximize votes. They always need a bad guy.
Although there is plenty of blame to go around, real economic growth is just that, real. And every actor in a functioning economy has a gun to his head.
@124 – you're an absolute idiot. The two industries Obama has done the most to help are health insurance and banking. Get a clue.
Those of you blame BHO for more than 5 or 10% of this problem are complete nitwits. Go read your financial history books, starting in 1995, and then report back.
Fucking idiots.
Thanks for not mentioning my redistribution of your wealth to the top income tax brackets during my 8 years.
~W
God's Country, TX
@117:
Nope, and I don't even work on Wall Street, you clown. You sound like an SEIU union hack. Are you wearing a purple shirt?
128 Please elaborate.
BHO
The Peoples Country, DC
Who has time to right or read these essays? Don't you guys have jobs? Get back to work.
Anyone have thoughts about something important? i.e. the whole Conan/Leno thing.
@130…..I bet @128 doesn't compete with the internet or the public library on your request for that matter. It's called being informed. Take a break from burying your guns in your backyard, take off that sweaty Confederate battle flag "do-rag" and read about it sometime.
Wall street greedy assholes! You don't deserve bonuses! Every day goldman sacks and other banks get millions from the government and they give it directly as bonuses. This money is taken from TAX PAYERS! Why isn't this illegal? THERE IS A RECESION and america isn't going to stand for this any more. You should all be ashamed of yourselfs for defending the robbery of hard working americans. Stop being greedy and your salaries would be enough, millions aren't even getting that and the banks still want their bonuses.
OUTRAGE!
@131 Uh, hello 18% unemployment and you make a wise crack like that you sick fuck?
@134: Try "R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N".
~Fox News Editor
I quickly skimmed through the comments and there is not a single FTW. WTF happened?
-Guy who only reads comments found funny by others.
@126/127 calling us idiots and telling us to read something doesnt an argument make. 100 and I are correct. We are using facts. do you disagree Obama is in bed with the unions? Have you not seen him addressing SEIU during the election? Have you not read he just met with them at the WH to privately discuss shifting the costs of the so called "Cadillac policy" away from the unions to the 1% "rich"?
Do you disagree that the unions played a major role in the destruction of our auto industry? Do you realize that $2,000 of every GM car sold goes directly to covering the pensions of retired auto workers? While only $500 goes to R&D?
Are you foggy on the fact that the costs for American business to hire works with these unions is why you get a member of the Taliban every time your Dell breaks down?
Do you disagree that Obama has TAKEN CONTROL of the banking and auto industry and has simultaneously decided to push through a HEALTHCARE plan that just happens to tax the rich while offer coverage for all? That the de,s in the senate called healthcare and inalienable right? Where the fuck in the US constitution does it say healthcare is a right for all and where the fuck does it say the 1% of Americans who already pay nearly 40% of the taxes need to pay more?
You two losers should quit PETA and get a fucking job!
-116
@121/94
Pull your head out of your ass, dipsh*t. Goldman had already collected collateral and was hedged with other parties so even if the Fed hadn't stepped-in, they would have been fine on their AIG contracts.
Now stfu and go shine my shoes, peasant.
Anal_yst,
Thank you for your erudite comments. Without you to make sense of it for us, we would be lost!
@134-
Pick up a copy of Strunk and White's "The Element Of Style" in addition to retaking ENGL101. See you in a semester.
-mrp
@139 (Anal_yst) You know well enough to know that they would not have been "fine."
I agree with @137. Everyone has had their little rant. OK, OK….bankers are greedy assholes and the government wants to redistribute your wealth to lazy poor people just for votes. Conservatives are God's chosen people and do no wrong. Yada, yada, yada…..
So what??
So where are the "brists" and FTWS??
Seriously lets talk about something important. i.e. What does everyone think about the recent scandal on The Bachelor?
Why is Anal_yst so intelligent?
#138 – sorry I didn't have time to elaborate because I have an effing job. First, show me what he's DONE not the BS populist lip service he gives. He's bailed out the banks, renominated easy money Bernanke and has the biggest friend of the banks since Hank Paulson in Treasury. He wants to force Americans to buy private health insurance and is willing to subsidize part of that purchase with tax money. The top 1% pays 40% of the taxes because they make 40% of the money or more. I'm in the top 5% dbag but I can call it like it is – not mindlessly recite Fox news talking points.
Fox News talking points have to be approved by me.
~Rush Limbaugh
Chest Pain, HI
@142
Exactly. Anal_yst is exactly that – a kid 2 years out of school, working at some shady shop, where the concept of a systemic crisis is alien knowledge.
Anal_yst, assuming you buy GS's claims that they were hedged against AIG's default, who do you think they bought protection from? What would have happened to those counterparties had AIG gone under? If you think they'd still be able to pay GS, I have some insurance on CDOs I'd like to sell you. Dumbass
133 my guess is that 128 has no clue other than what he read in Earth In The Balance. It's called bullshit. Take your Viva Che shirt off and ease up on the Baba Kush. Oh, and get a fuckin' job and pay your own taxes.
@150……It's true…Bush gave giant tax breaks (redistribution of wealth) to big income folk. If you've been to a few hours of business courses at DeVry you'd have known that tax breaks are "re-distribution of wealth".
But Brown Shirts like to burn books, not read them.
Anal- I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about. I made no claim GS wouldn't have been fine. I simply stated the taxpayer should not be required to come in and pay them profits if the company that actually owes it happens to be falling off the face of the earth. Why should the taxpayer have to pay GS insurance money on failed investments?
I mean you made my argument for me. YES GS would have been fine so the money was for nothing but profit.
I ask why only GS? How many other investments should be covered? Should the taxpayer cover your hand in blackjack? I am confused where someone who defends capitalism so self righteously would defend the taxpayer paying GS.
As for shinning your shoes? Sorry sweetie, i dont think your Berkinstocks need it.
Seriously lets tackle the issues here. i.e. Thoughts on Kate Gosselin's new hair style on the cover of People and the alleged rumor the extensions cost over $7,000.
Agree with NS. And when will the alleged Jersey Shore sex tape hit the internet?
CNBC has the "septo-box" working LB's comments after Angelides comments.
@154 let me make your Jersey Shore question a two parter. How much money would you have to be paid to have lights on, no baggie sex with Snookie?
Focus on the issues people.
@NakedShort
I don't care about Kate Gosselin, but who is watching her kids?
- Roman Polanski
Bonemjung, Switzerland
I'm going to a tittie bar for lunch. The DB threads are just too tense and CNBC is over-informing me. I'm a wreck. There's always a few crude oil or physical natgas guys there so I'll be aable to do some market research.
~Houston Oil Trader
I have to think that at least SOME of the populist outrage camp commenting in this post are trolls.
Probably bored energy traders looking to raise some innocent TMT banker's ire with intentionally misspelled words and calls for Ken Lewis' resignation.
Also, omg, Mark McGwire did steroids
@NS — Did Snookie's face get repaired after Ferro delivered that punch?
-mrp
@156/NS $1, Bob.
Anal_yst, you are an idiot.
-149
@161 I think shes still struggling; her face got clawed shortly after by some fat piece of trash in an awesome cat fight.
Its times like this that make me wish I was unemployed so I could drink Crown Royal and watch trashy TV all day on Tivo.
@147 You call it a bailout of banks, I call it a take over of their operations and a power grab. Obama has done ZERO. We have had 3 error attacks, he wants to close Gitmo and bring the 9/11 "suspects" to NYC at HUGE expense to us not to mention the target on our heads.
He promises no tax on the middle-class, transparency and a healthcare bill. What doe she deliver a HARRY REID bill written behind closed doors that even the fucking unions say are a direct tax on the middle class.
He said if we pass the bailout/TARP expense unemployment will NOT go above 8% its been above 10% for months and he thinks only 85,000 jobs lost in a month is a good thing. Of course when you examine his numbers on job creation the seem to get really fuzzy an din many cases are just a full out lie.
He said he would environmental legislation. WHGERE THE FUCK IS IT?
He said he would bring change to DC and instead the most frequent visitor the WH is ANDY FUCKING STERN?
These are not FOX facts they are facts. Why are you so hell bent on dismissing them? Stop quoting Robert Gibb. Get your head out of your ass and realize if you are on this site. OBAMA DOESNT CARE ABOUT YOU!
He in fact hates you.
I pause jerk the merk and I come back to this? Did yahoo finance shutdown?
@166 welcome to the party pal
- John McClain
@165 – why did you (a) take Snooki's shots; and (b) punch a 4'9" girl in the face? You're a thief – and a coward.
@168 then I had a beer and fucked your mother. HUGE NIGHT. REALLY HUGE.
-165
NS@164
You have to check out the extras and behind the scenes interviews on mtv.com – the d-baguettes (particularly Jolie) are the real lowlifes on that show. At least the Situation is honest.
Jolie = Moody's
Sammi = S&P
Snooky = Fitch
JWOWW = Big4
Situation = GS
Pauly D = JPM
Ronnie = BofA
Vinny = Citi
Discuss
Let's stick to the important debates could we? Heather Murren – handbridge required?
@169/165 – as big as the night you paid someone to crap on your face?
Where the hell is CG when we need him?
He needs to kick some major ass on these MM/SEIU populist clowns who have managed to infect Dealbreaker, and absurdly claim that Obama has been a great friend to private health insurance companies and to Wall Street.
All despots need a demon to stoke popular anger in order to ram through a political agenda. Its Wall Street's turn to take the entire blame.
i would like to win a chance to punch Snooki. I have never seen a bigger group of losers. Granted I cant see the posters on this site…i am sure it would be a toss up.
173= Snooki
169
@165,
You're absolutely correct. I've done the research and your last three posts do count as error attacks.
What a jackass.
shut up all of you and get back to work. we will decide when you are making too much money, and if we think you do… we will take most of it. get back to work – you are human batteries.
your govt.
@177 error attacks?
You are a douche.
@179,
Perhaps, but at least I'm not an illiterate simpleton.
Your manager just announced over the intercom that there is a clean-up required on aisle five.
Thanks for playing.
@177
yes, small handbridge
@144:
about who pays how much tax, here is the fact from wikipedia:
The top 1% earned 14.8% of all income and paid 34.4% of federal income taxes. Top 10% earned 52.4% of all income and paid 82.5% of federal income taxes.
Now what do you have to say?
@179:
So you puked on the floor of the K-Mart – again – when you saw that the price of Depends went up?
@182…. not sure anyone can record a "fact" from wikipedia. i dont know the number, but i would guess 40% is closer, but either way doesnt change his argument really.
In terms of the tax incidence, its also true that approximately 46% of all federal filers pay absolutely NO federal income taxes.
When this exceeds 50% (the aim of Rambo and Axelrod), we will have reached the tipping point, and the populist lynch mob we are now witnessing will become even more frightened and filled with self righteous anger against the evil capitalists.
Where is John Galt?
Thank you 182.
And as for the self admitted douche at 180. You keep thinking the Dems are looking out for ya. Yes I bet Chuck Shumer sits in his office wondering how he can help the middle management paper pushers of Citibank (like you).
Yes I bet your life will get so much better once Obama passes his reforms and taxes spike so high in this city you will have to pay the govt just to fart. either you are a union worker or a disillusioned child of some hippy family who currently thinks Al Gore and the Toyota Prius holds the secret to saving our planet from certain and imminent destruction.
Get a grip, a real job and as i said before… quit PETA.
@184/182:
Here ya go. These guys are reputable, and the data comes directly from the IRS:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/250.htm…
Bess,
Anything else coming today or is this it? I know you have Shazbot locked up in the basement. Any chance he's sitting on some really juicy scoop about interest rates in Spaiin?
@186,
Lighten up Francis.
Continue to stockpile your MREs, convert your M1A to full auto and play tug-o-war with cyclops while staring at your signed copy of Going Rogue.
~Sgt. Hulka
Haiti inherited this earthquake from the Bush administration.
- Obama
169 and 173 need to merge in order to survive.
"Anything else coming today?"
yes. I had to step out for a few.
@189 lighten up about what? I am just responding to the total load of uneducated shit getting tossed around by some Anderson Cooper dick fluffer.
bloomberg reporting BofA only getting 15% of bonuses in cash. ouch!
Also, Anal_yst looks like Lloyd from Entourage (not that there's anything wrong with that)
Russ. Hi Sir. Racist.
OK, just checking. Cuz without you I'm adrift in a sea of tedium.
- 188
@142/149/152/163
1. If we're talking only about the GS/AIG trade, if you go read through all of the data, you'll realize that GS wouldn't have lost money. If you want to look at the bigger picture, yes, if the Fed hadn't stepped-in and saved AIG everyone would have been similarly buttf*cked, this is obvious, so why you think I don't realize this is beyond me, especially since I've written about this in the past.
2. You don't know jack sh*t about me, and even if you do, ad hominem attacks, really? That's the best you can do?
Two hundredth!?!
Anal_hominem attacks?
can i watch or listen to this somewhere online?
Ummm.. what are all of the liberal wall street haters doing on this website. I can't really imagine what interest they'd have on here and so… GTFO!
Anal_yst,
What happened with the GMAT, getting your MBA soon?
CFA/MBA anyone?
Regards,
vs
Is Maxine sitting in on the hearing?
Mack looks huge because he’s full of BS. They should ask him if Morgan paid Schumer to manipulate the SEC on the firm’s behalf. That would be funny to watch him perjure himself…..
Anal- dont get your hemp panties in a twist. It seems you are having trouble reading.
I simply said. i dont think the tax payer should have to fork over cash and fill in for AIG's agreement of insuring the failed investments of GS. Thats all i said. I dont see how anyone can make an argument to the contrary. GS didnt need the AIG money to stay alive as we had given them a bailout too. This was just taxpayers coming in to make GS whole in a time when the entire country was losing its shirt. The FED picks GS to make whole? the one company on WS that was actually ok.
You made some stupid argument that made no sense and as I said to you before. Go fuck yourself.
Only took till post 185 for an AS reference.. This board has gone to shit.
All-a-dis hostility is very unbecoming! Youse guys should take a lesson from me, and learn to lighten up.
-cg
@205
What the f*ck is your pre-occupation with Goldman? They weren't even the biggest beneficiary of the Fed's intervention with AIG. For crying out loud, stop it with this Goldman-bashing already, its tiresome. If you want to point your (seemingly uninformed) outrage at anyone, how about the maroons at the Fed who didn't know what the f*ck was going on.
Additionally, $ given (regardless of the method) to banks aren't just given, they're loans, they get repaid, with interest…
Is the second picture of LB or Verne Troyer?
the money is "given" yes but to only a select few. Clearly not Lehman and not sure what firm got a payout from the FED, bailout yes, payout?.
I again have no idea why you call me uninformed since you have not made on factual point. GS profited from a sleazy back door agreement on an investment they clearly had doubts about. Thats why they took out the AIG policy. it didnt stop them from making those investments so long as their was no downside.
I blame the shit out of the Obama administration. i fucking hate that guy. I know you are on here often so I know you have seen my posts. i am usually the guy bashing him or making gay jokes signing my name Barney. Not the most sophisticated thing i could do but on this site…it seems to fit in rather well.
i am just calling out what i see and clearly what most Americans see. so stop defending the situation. Yes its mostly the FEDs fault but if you want WS to step out of the shit. You have to see what many uninformed see. You havent really read what i wrote.
you make me sleepy
Anal_yst@199
1. I posted @149 – the person calling you an idiot (163) was a fan of my work.
2. I did go through all the data. I happened to have been at a firm that faced AIG as a counterparty. Since you're clearly misinformed here is the Cliff notes version for you:
a. What do you think caused AIG to almost collapse? Collateral calls from GS (among others).
b. Why was GS calling collateral? Because AIG was out of the money on their swaps facing GS.
c. Could AIG post the collateral GS was demanding? No.
d. What did Tim G and Co. do? Posted collateral for AIG.
e. What would have happened if AIG failed to post? AIG = default.
f. You say "so what, GS hedged AIG risk via a CDS with Citi, MS, BofA and JPM". What happens to all those firms when AIG collapses and they don't all have protection from some mythical non-defaultable seller of protection? What happens to the CDS they have with GS?
And yes, I do want to look at the bigger picture. When the entire financial system is melting down, that's what you'd do.
3. "since I've written about this in the past" – no one give a crap about your blog.
bess what is the record# of comments for a given post?
is it a prerequisite for goldman ceos to be completely unable to form coherent sentences when speaking in public?
love lloyd's facial expression that clearly says wtf are you talking about while he politely tries to answer.
Bill Thomas makes Maxine Waters appear educated, coherent and well spoken…
@ 184, 182, 187: You do realize the difference between paying 80% on an income of 20mil and paying 15% on an income of 30k, right?
Your argument is mathematically retarded. Examine your intelligence.
Maxine Waters is a dumb bitch.
@212/213 I think the Jeffrey Chiang blows everything out of the water. Like 700 or something.
Anyone wanna see how I count my change? Anyone?
@17 I guess you are one of those bankers feeling sorry for him/herself. Face it, you have no special talent and don’t deserve to make as much as you think you do. Anyone honest with himself who works on Wall Street knows this deep down in their heart. Smart people with good educations and connections are a dime a dozen these days — YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. Go find a job that actually contributes something to the world — and don’t give me that crap about “enabling the gears of capitalism to function efficiently” — we all know how that turned out…..
@17 I guess you are one of those bankers feeling sorry for him/herself. Face it, you have no special talent and don’t deserve to make as much as you think you do. Anyone honest with himself who works on Wall Street knows this deep down in their heart. Smart people with good educations and connections are a dime a dozen these days — YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. Go find a job that actually contributes something to the world — and don’t give me that crap about “enabling the gears of capitalism to function efficiently” — we all know how that turned out…..
@218, yeah over 700. biff basness in second at like 400.
@211
Let me respond in-kind:
1. I posted @149 – the person calling you an idiot (163) was a fan of my work.
How nice of you to have fans.
2. I did go through all the data. I happened to have been at a firm that faced AIG as a counterparty. Since you're clearly misinformed here is the Cliff notes version for you:
a. What do you think caused AIG to almost collapse? Collateral calls from GS (among others).
No, AIG collapsed because AIGFP was run by morons who didn't know what they were doing; the straw that broke the camel's back, collateral calls, is just that.
b. Why was GS calling collateral? Because AIG was out of the money on their swaps facing GS.
GS was calling collateral because the valued the underlying lower than AIG, sure, I'll agree on this one for the most part.
c. Could AIG post the collateral GS was demanding? No.
Eh, ok.
d. What did Tim G and Co. do? Posted collateral for AIG.
That's a bit of an oversimplification, don't ya think?
e. What would have happened if AIG failed to post? AIG = default.
Ok…
f. You say "so what, GS hedged AIG risk via a CDS with Citi, MS, BofA and JPM". What happens to all those firms when AIG collapses and they don't all have protection from some mythical non-defaultable seller of protection? What happens to the CDS they have with GS?
I'm completely in agreement that there was substantial systemic risk in letting AIG fail, not sure why you don't realize that.
And yes, I do want to look at the bigger picture. When the entire financial system is melting down, that's what you'd do.
3. "since I've written about this in the past" – no one give a crap about your blog.
a. 1-2 knockout had almost 150,000 views 2008-2009, and each post routinely drew a few thousand. At peak when myself/1-2 were posting with any regularity we were over 10,000/month.
b. I write for The Atlantic's business channel now, so, apparently, plenty of other people disagree.
@216:
80% marginal tax rates may be what you dream about in your Che Guevera fantasies, but it is hardly a reality.
You are an idiot. The data is what it is, and the fact is that about half of the income earners in the country pay 95% of the taxes. Slice it however you want to, but that is a fact.
Now, go back to teaching your fifth grade math class, because your one-period lunch break is over.
I am also a fan of anyone's work that involves Anal_yst and the word idiot.
-Not 149 or 163, but a fan of their work.
Anal_yst: You are far less intelligent than you think.
See
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/USI
Last.
@225 = queer
ANAL- explain to me why GS got 100 cents on the dollar from AIG?
YES i blame TG he should be in jail. Obama should be pushing a mop (like he said).
But that doesn't change the facts. GS looks like a greedy thieving group of backdoor deal makers. Licking eachothers balls over dry martinis. While benefitting from the taxes of people who lost their shirts, homes, job etc..
Keep defending GS and you make the problem worse. If WS doesnt demand accountability on this situation. It hurts all WS. Stop the madness.
GS is bringing you down.
Anal_yst @221
Nice try at diversion:
"I'm completely in agreement that there was substantial systemic risk in letting AIG fail, not sure why you don't realize that."
That's not what I had an issue with. What you said earlier (admittedly to one of the pitchfork-weilding masses) was:
"Pull your head out of your ass, dipsh*t. Goldman had already collected collateral and was hedged with other parties so even if the Fed hadn't stepped-in, they would have been fine on their AIG contracts.
Now stfu and go shine my shoes, peasant."
Get a fucking clue yourself before attempting to educate the peasants.
-149/211 etc…
Anal-yst
Dude, it's got to hurt, being out of a job and not hired by GS despite your multiple attempts to get a toe through the curtain and despite your grandiose ability to see the big picture. The sooner you accept the fact that they will never hire you, the sooner you'll be able to move on with your life. It is because of bitter people like you misrepresenting the murky financial reality to every simple brain off the street that the entire country is now mired in a gigantic mess of misunderstanding, throwing around terms they don't understand and talking about things they don't know squat about.
Let me re-word the same scenario in terms may work better for you. Let's say you've given your colleague who's running a small business selling icecream off a truck– what's a large amount of money for you? — 10K? 12k? The winter comes, he's bleeding money, and you hear rumors that he's going broke. Your significant other (girlfriend/wife/gay lover) nags you to get the money back because you don't have much to spare. You know that your colleague (whom you never really liked) is going to go under if you demand that he return what he owes you. His choices are giving the money back to you or using it to benefit homeless people (or kittens, whichever rocks your world). What are you going to do, demand your money back or be like you know what, dude, my treat, just keep it, I know you're hard up? And if you even pretend that you'd let the debt go, you are a hypocritical sob on top of being a mediocre and not particularly perceptive observer of the financial picture, small, medium, or big.
@222. You illiterate retard, I wasn't disagreeing with you on that, just pointing out that the reason 50% pay 95% is because they other 50% DON'T HAVE SHIT.
Again, there is a world of difference between paying high taxes on income when you make 20mil and paying any taxes when you have 30k. In the former you can't buy your second beach home. In the latter, you can't by food.
Hence, your argument, looking at only half of the equation, is mathematically retarded.
Now piss off.
216
@ 34 – here, meant that to be @25. Sorry, Anal_yst.
@ 25 – go bite your ear. and get a job.
@228 she was talking to me. I dont have a pitch fork. I am 100% for bonuses on WS. I do not think GS should have gotten that AIG cash. I think TG should find a good attorney and Obama better ride Osama up Madison ave if he wants to see the oval office again after the election.
@224
I don't think I'm particularly brilliant, and openly admit – with regularity – to things I do not know, however, I've spent a not-insignificant amount of time/effort on this whole AIG thing, while I'm hardly THE authority – not even close – I've got a pretty darn good idea.
@228
I don't get it. What you're apparently taking issue with is that I was speaking in vacuo when I made that comment (and the last part was said in jest, as is fairly common on dealbreaker)?
@229
Based-upon what knowledge/facts/etc are you making that claim? I've never even applied for a job @ Goldman, for whatever its worth, nor am I unemployed (knock on wood).
Anal- agree with you or disagree with you. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. you say the country throws around terms it doesn't understand? We are all just stupid? Now you sound like BHO. We are all dumb and you know better.
You come off like a know it all, like you have all the answers. So where the fuck was your brilliance BEFORE this all happened. Its the shameless, self centered view of assholes like you on WS that allowed this to happen. Notice i say allowed. Not caused. You dont know anything more then what your lil screen tells you.
Now run along and go get your knee pads. LB is waiting.
@233
What the f*ck are you talking about?
I've never once professed to "have all the answers," quite the contrary, I've often explicitely admitted to NOT having them.
I'm not nearly old enough to have had 1. anything to do with the sh*t we're currently dealing with or 2. to do anything about it. Not sure wtf you want me to say, buddy, you're completely off-base here.
Moynihan looks like the love child of Robin Williams and Conan O’Brien.
@1-234 how does that saying about the special olympics and winning go?
216/230,
umm….. not quite mathematically retarded whatsoever. I know the "retarded" has been thrown around quite a bit with all of this heated rhetoric and I can understand how enticing that gravy train may be but mathematically his arguement is sound. I believe the term your looking for is maybe socially retarded, or perhaps morally retarded but his numbers look pretty good to me. Just thought I'd throw that in there that your outrage is fundamentally illogical an maybe everyone should just put down their Starbucks for the rest of the day.
~not a quant by any means
Whoa. Somebody step on a duck?
This thread is not unlike the time I kept seeing the first part of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LVhx-s8f0), before actually playing the motherfucking board game.
Awful. Take a lap. Everyone.
@Anal – Sweetness… leave the mewing masses alone. You won't convince them and you will only hurt yourself trying. Take a deep breath, find some J&O material, and break off a piece of that KitKat bar.
@230:
Well, now you've pissed me off. Your argument is stupid and rhetorical. The bottom 50% don't have shit, is your argument? LMAO. Not quite true, pal, its that their income is below the mean, thats all. It also includes wealthy retirees, douchebag.
You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.
@241 = TGFD
241 = The Ghost of Bill Blakely or a more poignant Gore Vidal.
Examine your infused prosing.
Oh, and @237, though I may appear socially retarded to you, I had the good sense years ago to get away from the douchebag know-it-all BSDs on Wall Street who, though I detest Obama and his stupid ignorant populism (as demonstrated vividly by 216/230), richly deserve the beating they are taking, especially the folks at God's firm.
Justice works in mysterious way. So thanks, and piss off.
Pfluger/@241
Will any of this nonsense effect my pension?
Joe Knowitall
9th Social Studies Teacher (ret.)
-Aurora, CO
@242:
No!!! Insult away, but NOT TGFD! Anything but that. I wouldn't even stoop to call cg a TGFD…..
243EDIT: *Buckley
My subconscious is currently freebasing drugs.
it was me that stepped on the duck
sry
@241 that was definitely done with a negro dialect
- guy who uses a negro dialect when he wants to
did you guys hear that bear stearns went down…
some people think lehman might be next!
@249:
I can speak Negro too, ya know. Negroes are friends-a-mine, and I like dem.
-cg
@250= TG
#138 – sorry I didn’t have time to elaborate because I have an effing job. First, show me what he’s DONE not the BS populist lip service he gives. He’s bailed out the banks, renominated easy money Bernanke and has the biggest friend of the banks since Hank Paulson in Treasury. He wants to force Americans to buy private health insurance and is willing to subsidize part of that purchase with tax money. The top 1% pays 40% of the taxes because they make 40% of the money or more. I’m in the top 5% dbag but I can call it like it is – not mindlessly recite Fox news talking points.
Last. Don't post anything else or else.
@253 fuck you
who else thinks that GS staged the earthquake in Haiti to detract from the congressional hearing? i bet dying kittens were involved as well.
Am I a bad person for not caring to read the stories about the Haitian earth quake?
It was god's handywork.
LB
@182 WTF? What B school did you attend? Citing a WIKI? No wonder you shit for brains finance dicks are fucked.
@211 – Pretty full of shit, you are. In my best Yoda speak!
Whomever the retard is who has decided to pick a fight with Anal-yst, I wish you'd go away. It's obvious you only come for an argument, for reasons known only to yourself.
You continue to be tiresome.
WHOMEVER decided to speak on Anal-yst's behalf should learn to speak English first, and then consider literacy lessons. Only then should he/she enter a public forum and make a complete ass out of his/her ignorant self. That means you, @258 (in case you're too dumb to figure it out)
Whoa. Somebody step on a duck?
@ 254 – fuck you, infidel
@259
Youse needs to relax with the mondo attitude, me thinks.
Hey gang, let's face it, we all hate each other.
wait. when did heather murren get hot? she looked smokin today. this is what she used to look like:
<a href="http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/X6Wq-f_M3My/Vanity+Fair+Party+Grand+Opening+Vdara+Hotel/jyxT9w2rIdU/Heather+Murren" rel="nofollow"> <a href="http://;http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/X6Wq-f_M3My/Vanity+Fair+Party+Grand+Opening+Vdara+Hotel/jyxT9w2rIdU/Heather+Murren” target=”_blank”>;http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/X6Wq-f_M3My/Vanity+Fair+Party+Grand+Opening+Vdara+Hotel/jyxT9w2rIdU/Heather+Murren
@ 84 …reminds me of the rant from this guy Marcus on WSO ("Is Banking Worth it in This Political Environement"):
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/is-banking-…
Here's the bottom line:
Lloyd Blankfein and employees of Goldman Sachs work for the shareholders of Goldman Sachs. Why do the shareholders employ them? To enhance the value of the company and hence the share price + dividends, keeping it simple.
So somehow Lloyd got the Fed, or the Fed volunteered and Lloyd was smart enough to take the deal, to cover AIG's liabilities. On the back of that Goldman was able to turn a profit and it's share price performance relative to many other companies is respectable (unlike Citi for instance which is down 94.5% from the highs).
If I am an owner of Goldman Sachs do I want to pay Lloyd and the rest of God's Workers a shitload of money right now? Fuck yeah.
The populists, if they should be angry at anyone, should be getting ready to tar and feather, in no particular order: TG, the Fed, Bernanke, Greenspan, Obama, George W, the idiots at AIG and the other banks that failed through overleveraged investments in bubble products, Barney Frank, Congress and those that lobbied for CRA, Mgt @ Fannie and Freddie, fraudsters who borrowed to buy houses they couldn't afford (they were called "liar's loans" for a reason), fraudsters who facilitated the "liar's loans", Moodys, S&P. That's a good start for now.
@265 I bet if we just tarred + feathered Timmy, the rest of them would get the message. Just sayin'.
@265
Not bad.
There is a fantastic LB stinkeye pic at Cityfile
http://cityfile.com/dailyfile/8531
see "Disgust"
#29 Turn off Oprah and go to the CT Works.
#134 Yeah! Imagine that…a bonus you earned by graduating an accredited college and becoming successful through hard work. The tax dollars from their hard work pays for your social programs you git.
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