January, 2010 archive
Left Holding the Sachs Bag
0
AKA both ends against the middle. From McClatchy:
Goldman’s sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation’s premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
(snip)
“The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who’s proposed a massive overhaul of the nation’s banks. “This is fraud and should be prosecuted.”
But, but, . . it can’t be wrong if really really rich persons did it. Can it?
Plus Ca Change 3
Like it’s something new:
Workers have begun stringing metal cable barriers down the median of Del. 1 that will not only stop vehicles from crossing over into oncoming traffic, but also ease the impact when a car hits them.
The modern take on roadside barriers offers a safer alternative to concrete or metal versions that are more expensive and can do more damage to vehicles, DelDOT spokesman Jim Westhoff said. The new addition to Del. 1 beginning south of the Roth Bridge will be the first use of cable barriers in Delaware.
Bringing Delaware’s highways into the 1920s.
Fee Hand of the Market, Full Employment for Lawyers Dept. 1
You can’t make this stuff up:
Yet, as traumatic as such cases are for private companies, defending against them have become enormous profit centers for lawyers and accountants.
The legal fees for the Siemens defense alone, handled by Debevoise & Plimpton L.L.P., based in New York, were in the hundreds of millions.
You Can Bank on It 0
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Move Your Money – Eugene Jarecki | ||||
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Strategic Misrepresentation 1
Rewrite, Republican style (emphasis added):
Republicans have apparently decided that they can improve their standings with Americans if they can convince them, despite all evidence to the contrary, that terrorist attacks only happen when Democrats are in power. Republicans seem perfectly and increasingly happy to slough off all responsibility for the things that happened and that they caused during their watch, as long as it brings them back to power. The question for Americans ought to be what they’ll do with that power when they get it back. Last year, they weren’t so keen on keeping Republicans in power. This year, many of them seemingly know nothing about that.
What’s In a Name 0
There has been some light-hearted discussion about what to call the first decade of the 2000’s, since someone apparently decreed that each decade must be called something cutesy-poo.
Their have been a number of votes for the “aughts.”
The Guardian went for “the naughties,” as did, I’m sure, others.
But I think TerranceDC has nailed it with “the Uh-Ohs.”
Transparency, Reprise 0
MarketWatch:
Cuomo said he is seeking the data from Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp.,
Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co.These institutions received federal dollars as part of the U.S. government’s $700 billion bank-bailout program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. They have since repaid the bailout funds.
If you follow the link, be sure to sample the comments.
QOTD 0
William James, even though he never heard of Fox News, via the Quotemaster:
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
Transparency 0
God forbid that investors should know who screwed up how bad:
“The question is at what point does the government get so involved in the life of the institution that the public has a right to know?” said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Davis isn’t involved in the lawsuit.
The ruling by the three-judge appeals panel may not come for months and is unlikely to be the final word. The loser may seek a rehearing or appeal to the full appeals court and eventually petition the U.S. Supreme Court, said Anne Weismann, chief lawyer for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington advocacy group that supports Bloomberg’s lawsuit.
Shiftless 0
They failed to gear up for the heist:
The plan – if there was a plan – did not include an accomplice who could drive a manual transmission, police said.
Joke of the Day 1
Via Susie:
Q. What’s the difference between a cow and 9/11?
A. Rudy Giuliani never learned to milk a cow.
Shark Bluetooth 0
Californicated 1
Governor Schwartzenburger’s swan song (emphasis added):
“California is not Washington. We don’t have the luxury of printing money or running trillion-dollar deficits,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference Friday morning.
Note the misdirection play at the end of the quotation.
Californians have rendered themselves ungovernable and their legislature incapable of levying reasonable taxes to help pay for the services those same Californians want. They wanted government for free.
It’s not working any more.
So not they want to suck at the federal teat because they are unwilling to pay for what they want.
I certainly have no problem with Federal assistance to states–some needs are too big to be addressed on the state or local level–but I do think the state or locality to show some desire to help itself.
California is a fiscal drunk that wants someone else to pay its bar tab.
Dustbiter 0
The Christmas holidays are over and the FDIC is at it again.
One less bank on the horizon:
QOTD 0
Joan Baez, from the Quotemaster:
I’ve never had a humble opinion in my life. If you’re going to have one, why bother to be humble about it?
Security Theatre 0
Steve Bell:
It has nothing to do with security, but it makes persons feel good as they leave the airport.
Afterthought:
For those who miss the point, the dirty little secret of security is that, for all the metal detectors in the world, there is no such thing as “perfectly safe.”
Those who demand it are deluded; those who promise it, charlatans; those who believe the promises, fools.
