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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Mitt Romney's Skeleton Closet





Picture of Mitt Romney



Mitt Romney burst onto the political scene as a conservative pretty boy that no one had heard of before. It turns out that no one heard of him because he wasn't conservative until this race. OTHER POLITICIANS look at this guy and say, "Wow, that guy is a phony, two-faced, flip-flopping weasel." And that's really saying something. If you have any tips, as always please email us.

Quotes

"Buenos dias!" -- Mitt Romney's regular greeting to the illegal Guatemalan immigrants who work on his lawn


"Aw, geez." -- Romney to a reporter who asked him about the lawn workers. He then walked away.
“
The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsoever. He is the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics.” - Barney Frank

"I'm a normal person. I have emotions." -- Mitt Romney, protesting too much.

"The more Mitt Romney speaks, the less believable he becomes. He has spent a year trying to convince Granite Staters that he is trustworthy. It looks like they aren't buying it. And for good reason." - the Manchester Union-Leader newspaper, New Hampshire's most conservative newspaper

"If a candidate is a phony, we (in New Hampshire) assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it. Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no." -- The Concord Monitor, New Hampshire's most liberal paper

"I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times." -- Mitt Romney, failing.

"It wasn't as though I was suicidal, but I was at the point where I thought, 'Couldn't I please just have cancer and die?'" -- Ann Romney, his wife, about her multiple sclerosis. (She is currently symptom-free.)

Phony "Varmint" Hunter

Back when he was liberal, Romney supported the Brady Bill, assault weapons bans and Massachusetts' very strict gun control law. Now that he's running as a conservative Republican, Romney has claimed that the NRA endorsed him in previous campaigns. (Oops -- that was easily proven to be a lie. His Democratic opponent actually had a better NRA rating.)

He also claimed he was a "lifelong hunter", though he didn't own a gun, has never had a hunting license and had only joined the NRA in August 2006 -- as a "Lifetime Member" -- just about exactly the moment he started campaigning for President.

When pressed on that, his "lifelong hunting" turned out to be a total of two hunts -- one as a teenager, hunting rabbits with his cousin in Idaho, and one just about the time he started running for president, chasing fenced-in quail at a Republican fundraising event.

His explanation was even funnier -- "I'm not a BIG-GAME hunter. I've made that very clear," he said. "I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."


Illegally Impersonating Police Officers

The most bizarre scandal of Romney's campaign involves Jay Garrity, Mitt's director of operations (basically, his right-hand man.) Garrity resigned from the campaign after several allegations that he claimed to be a policeman, and used that authority to intimidate people.

In one case, Garrity pulled over a New York Times reporter, ran his plates and ordered him to stop following the campaign caravan. In another, he allegedly called a plumbing company to complain about one of their employees, whose driving upset him, and identified himself as "Trooper Garrity of the Massachusetts State Police." Garrity denied that allegation, but he was cited by Boston police in 2004 for having police equipment -- including flashing lights -- in his Crown Victoria sedan without authorization. The phone call was recorded because an answering service actually fielded the call, which the person who called himself "Trooper Garrity" apparently didn't notice.

Despite his resignation, Garrity remains under investigation in two states for impersonation of police.

Well, it gets worse. According to three different anonymous sources, one who works for the Romney campaign, Garrity made up fake police badges -- bright silver plates with the seal of Massachusetts on them -- and gave them to several other staffers, who used them to order reporters and other people out of events, get past security guards, and avoid paying highway tolls. In fact, Garrity has been handing out badges since Romney was governor of Massachusetts.

So this was not just one staffer's personal fetish. Sources named at least two other Romney staffers who used the badges -- Mark Glanville and William Ritter. "They knew the badges were fake and probably illegal," the campaign source said. In fact, Garrity was Romney's right-hand man and rarely left his side. It's hard to believe that Mitt Romney himself did not notice the fact that Garrity was constantly flashing a police badge as they blew through security into various events. The Romney campaign has not commented on whether Mitt Romney knew about the badges.
Using fake badges is, of course, illegal.

Hired Illegal Immigrants

Romney makes a big issue of being tough on illegal immigrants. He has pushed for a wall on the Mexican border so hard that Bill O'Reilly offered to call it the "Mitt Romney Memorial Wall."

The only problem is, Romney has hired illegal immigrants to tend his gardens for over 10 years. Three illegal immigrants interviewed by the Boston Globe said they have worked on Romney's lawn for years, that he greets them with a "Buenos dias", and that his wife was friendly and often asks how they are. Two were interviewed back in Guatemala, where they have returned. They made $8 to $9 per hour working 11 hour days. "They wanted that house to look really nice," said one worker, now back in Copado, Guatemala. "It took a long time." The other, Rene Alvarez Rosales (now in Suchitepequez, Guatemala) said it cost him about $5,000 to have a smuggler take him across the border.

They all work for "Community Lawn Care with a Heart," a small company run by legal Colombian immigrant Ricardo Saenz. Asked about his workers' statements that they were illegal immigrants, Saenz said "What you've heard is not my problem. ... I don't need to tell them to show me documents. I know who they are, and they are legal." When Romney was asked about the workers, he said "Aw geez" and walked away. On one occasion, a (real) state trooper with the Romney security detail asked about the workers' immigration status. Saenz said they were legal but forgot their papers that day, and the matter was dropped.



Flat-Out Liar

In this campaign, Romney has simply lied a number of times while trying to reinvent himself. For example:

-- "I have a gun of my own."
(Not true. He was talking about a gun one of his grown sons own.)

-- "I've been a hunter pretty much my entire life."
(He hunted once at 15, and a second time in his late 50s.)

-- "I told you what my position was, and what I, what I did as governor; the fact that I received the endorsement of the NRA."
(No - and his Democratic opponent actually had a higher NRA rating)

-- "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."
(No, they never marched together. They were both in Michigan at the same time once, but Mitt was in France on his mission.)

-- "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."
(even more false...)
This last lie was the funnest because of all the waffling that Romney did trying to explain it. After a Boston newspaper showed that they couldn't have marched together, Mitt's spokesman said that "George W. Romney and Martin Luther King Jr. marched together in June, 1963 -- although possibly not on the same day or in the same city." And Mitt then explained "I've tried to be as accurate as I can be. If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of — in the sense I've described. I'm an English literature major as well. When we say I saw the Patriots win the World Series, it doesn't necessarily mean you were there -- excuse me, the Super Bowl. I saw my dad become president of American Motors. Did that mean you were there for the ceremony? No, it’s a figure of speech."

Draft Dodger and Chickenhawk


Mitt Romney, incredibly, was able to avoid serving in Vietnam because he was on his Mormon mission, driving around the French countryside. (The Mormon church defined missions -- which all good young Mormon men go on -- as a form of priesthood.) In fact, not one of Romney's five sons has served in the military either, despite Mitt arguing for U.S. military involvement in Iraq and elsewhere.
Even more outrageously, when he was asked to justify this hypocrisy, Romney claimed that his sons were serving the country by driving Winnebagos around Iowa and campaigning for him.

Sources

"Fake Cop Sources"
"Romney aide, targeted in probe, takes leave of absence", by Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe, June 22, 2007
"Romney aide’s bogus badges: Sources detail ‘illegal’ security tactic"",By Casey Ross, Boston Herald, July 20, 2007
"Romney Aide Resigns",By Sarah Wheaton, New York Times -- The Caucus Blog, July 21, 2007
"Liar Sources"
"Romney Aims Again to Explain Hunting -- Republican Presidential Hopeful Romney Takes Second Shot at Explaining His Hunting Experience", by Emily Udell, Associated Press on ABC-News web site, April 6, 2007
"Guns, trust, and Romney, By Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, April 8, 2007
"The Trail: Romney Claims NRA Endorsement He Didn't Receive," by Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, December 16, 2007
"Did Romney Actually See His Dad March With MLK?", by Scott Conroy, CBS-News website, December 20, 2007, 2:03 PM
"Romney never saw father on King march - Defends figurative words; evidence contradicts story", by Michael Levenson, Boston Globe, December 21, 2007
"Illegal Immigrant Sources"
"Romney aide is the focus of probe - Allegedly acted as State Police trooper", By Stephanie Ebbert and Scott Helman, Boston Globe, June 22, 2007
"Illegal immigrants toiled for governor: Guatemalans say firm hired them", by Jonathan Saltzman, Maria Cramer and Connie Page, Boston Globe, December 1, 2006
"Romney's lawn firm draws new scrutiny: Massport, Chelsea eye workers' legal status", By Jonathan Saltzman and Maria Cramer, the Boston Globe, December 2, 2006
"Quote Sources"
"Ann Romney Criticized for Cancer Comment "ABC-News Political Radar, July 31, 2007
"Congressman Frank blasts the ‘real Romney’", Boston Herald, Monday, June 11th, 2007
"Candidate Has Another Teary Moment", By Michael Levenson, Boston Globe, December 19, 2007

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Newt Gingrich's Skeleton Closet


Picture of Gingrich







Mr. Family Values is amazingly similar to Bill Clinton - both are pot smoking, draft-dodging adulterers from poor Southern families. Click on the allegation of your choice:

Adultery:

Callista Bisek. Anne Manning. The unnamed "young volunteer". Are we missing anyone?

Draft dodger


Dead-Beat Dad


Family Values? Pressing Wife for Divorce in the Hospital


House Banking Scandal: Newt Bounced 22 Checks


Book Deals: Murdoch's $4.5 Million wasn't the first


GOPAC sleaze: Taxpayer subsidies for his partisan campaign course.


Corporate reward: $2,500/month to Newt's wife


Who Owns Him?


Sources:


Quotes:



Quotes:

"We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, 'I never slept with her.'" - Anne Manning (who was also married at the time.)

"We would have won in 1974 if we could have kept him out of the office, screwing her [a young volunteer] on the desk." - Dot Crews, his campaign scheduler at the time

[In the book] "Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them", [I] "found frightening pieces that related to my own life." - Newt.

"I think you can write a psychological profile of me that says I found a way to immerse my insecurities in a cause large enough to justify whatever I wanted it to" - Newt, speaking to Gail Sheehy.

"She isn't young enough or pretty enough to be the President's wife." - Newt, on his first wife.

"I don't want him to be president and I don't think he should be." - Newt's wife Marianne.

"If the country today were to move to the left, Newt would sense it before it started happening and lead the way." - Dot Crews, his campaign scheduler throughout the 1970s.

Adultery:

Sex on the Desk - Oral Sex is More Easily Denied
Several newspapers are now reporting that Newt Gingrich is dating and basically living with Callista Bisek, a "willowy blond Congressional aide 23 years his junior." Biske, 33, has been spending nights at Gingrich's apartment near the Capitol and has her own key. In an amazing act of hypocrisy, Gingrich was apparently dating Bisek all during Clinton-Lewinsky adultery scandal, even as he proclaimed family values and bitterly criticized the President for his adultery.

Reporters and other Washington insiders have known about this relationship since 1994, even before Gingrich became Speaker of the House, but did not have any solid proof to report. In 1995, Vanity Fair magazine described Bisek as Gingrich's "frequent breakfast companion." Gingrich was married to Marianne Gingrich during all of that time, and just filed for divorce in August 1999.

Newt is apparently trying to create a new hybrid form, Christian adultery. According to MSNBC, Bisek sings in the National Shrine Choir, and Newt would often wait for her at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, listening to her sing while he read the Bible.

This is hardly the first time Newt has cheated, either. "It was common knowledge that Newt was involved with other women during his [first] marriage to Jackie. Maybe not on the level of John Kennedy. But he had girlfriends -- some serious, some trivial." -- Dot Crews, his campaign scheduler throughout the 70s. One woman, Anne Manning, has come forward and confirmed a relationship with him during the 1976 campaign. "We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, 'I never slept with her.'"

Kip Carter, his former campaign treasurer, was walking Newt's daughters back from a football game one day and cut across a driveway where he saw a car. "As I got to the car, I saw Newt in the passenger seat and one of the guys' wives with her head in his lap going up and down. Newt kind of turned and gave me this little-boy smile. Fortunately, Jackie Sue and Kathy were a lot younger and shorter then."

Family Values? Pressing Wife for Divorce in the Hospital:

"He walked out in the spring of 1980.... By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said, "Daddy is downstairs. Could he come up?" When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from my surgery." - Jackie, his first wife.

Dead-Beat Dad:

The hospital visit wasn't the end of it, either. Jackie had to take Newt to court to get him to contribute for bills, as utilities were about to be cut off.

Draft Dodger:

Though he relentlessly pushes military spending and talks like a bigtime hawk, Gingrich avoided the Vietnam War through a combination of student and family deferments. (He married one of his teachers at age 19.)

Problems With Women?

Newt pressed his first wife to sign divorce papers while she was still in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. He also graciously said "She isn't young enough or pretty enough to be the President's wife." But his second marriage hasn't been that smooth either. Newt and Marianne have been separated - "frankly", she told the Washington Post in June 1989, "it's been on and off for some time."
Does Newt have some kind of problem with women? He has said that he read a book called "Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them", and "found frightening pieces that related to my own life."

Incidentally, Marianne told Gail Sheehy she doesn't want Newt to run for President. " I told him if I'm not in agreement, fine, it's easy. I just go on the air the next day, and I undermine everything. ... I don't want him to be president and I don't think he should be." Newt's response? Marianne "was just making the point hypothetically" that he would not run unless she agreed he should.

House Banking Scandal: Newt Bounced 22 Checks

Remember the House Banking scandal, where so many congressmen wrote rubber checks on government money? Newt hopes you don't, because he bounced 22 himself, which almost cost him reelection in 1992. His vote for the secret House pay raise, and the chauffeur who drove him around Washington in a Lincoln Town Car, didn't help.

Lucrative and Questionable Book Deals: Murdoch's $4.5 Million wasn't the first



The 1995 Murdoch Deal --- The 1984 Book Deal



The 1995 Murdoch Deal

You probably heard something about Newt's book scandal. He was offered first $2.5 million, then $4.5 million by Harper Collins, a publishing company owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the Fox TV network and newspapers and TV stations around the world. Murdoch has been having problems with a complaint by NBC that Fox is a foreign owned TV network, which is against US law.
In the past, Harper Collins has offered million dollar book contracts to several conservative politicians in countries where Murdoch was having regulatory trouble, including England (Margaret Thatcher, Jeffrey Archer) and China (Deng Xiaoping's daughter). A week after the initial offer, Newt met with Rupert Murdoch - and Murdoch's legislative lobbyist - to discuss politics, including the NBC complaint. As facts about the deal were made public, and even Republicans criticized him, Gingrich decided to give up the $4.5 million advance for a still-lucrative deal based on royalties.

Gingrich's story kept changing through the controversy. First, Newt's spokesman said that Murdoch knew nothing about Gingrich and the book deal. On Friday January 13, Newt's spokesman admitted that Murdoch actually met Newt on a park bench the week before the deal was made, but didn't talk about it. He also said he knew nothing about Murdoch's lobbyist being at their meeting. The next day, he admitted the lobbyist was there, but claimed he didn't say so because no one asked.

Newt also said repeatedly that the book wasn't his idea; that a literary agent named Lynn Chu had sought him out and proposed it. After Ms. Chu said that Gingrich's associate Jeff Eisenach called her first on Newt's behalf, Eisenach and Newt's spokesman admitted that was true.


The 1984 Book Deal Murdoch's book deal wasn't the first lucrative and controversial book deal Newt engineered. In 1983 he established a limited partnership in Atlanta called COS Limited, which pulled together about two dozen of his biggest campaign contributors to finance his book.

The former administrator of his congressional offices in Georgia, Dolores Adamson, resigned over the deal. "The manuscript was put together in the district office using office equipment," she said. "He would just come in and say 'This is what I want to do.' I would say, 'This is not ethical," but after a while he didn't listen." That office equipment, of course, was paid for by US taxpayers including you.

GOPAC sleaze: Taxpayer subsidies for his partisan campaign course.

Newt in his poltical career was the king of using tax-payer subsidized donations for his personal and political purposes. He stooped so low as to hijack not one but two charities for poor inner city kids and use their donations for his personal goals.
GOPAC, Newt's longtime political action committee, was the centerpiece of a complex network of non-profit, and mostly tax exempt organizations that Newt has used to support himself and other conservative candidates. In an act of incredible hypocrisy, this crusader against taxes obtained taxpayer subsidies for his personal and political goals, by misusuing these tax-exempt groups.

For example, one GOPAC document said that its goal for the 1990s was "to both create and disseminate the doctrine of a majority Republican party." In another GOPAC document, titled "Key Factors in a House GOP Majority," Gingrich wrote "It is more powerful and more effective to develop a reform movement parallel to the official Republican party", instead of using the party structure, because it would get more attention and be more credible. Shortly thereafter, GOPAC paid for a television program promoting a "grassroots" movement to reform government; publicly they claimed it was nonpartisan, but private internal documents made its partisan goals clear.

After it got expensive, Gingrich transferred the program to the "Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation," a tax-exempt group controlled by a GOPAC official named Bo Callaway. It had been set up years earlier to help inner city kids, which is why it was tax exempt. The group spent $260,000 on the television program in 1990. That same year, Newt started another tax-exempt group that paid poor students for reading books. He bragged of this in many a political speech. But after the first two years, most of this foundation's money went to Mel Steely, a former Gingrich aide who is now Newt's official biographer.

The best known effort was a college course (titled "Renewing American Civilization") at a third-rate college that Gingrich nakedly used to recruit and organize conservative candidates, and to feed them his carefully constructed ideology and political slogans.

Of course, using tax-exempt educational or charitable donations for partisan purposes is illegal, and several ethics complaints were filed against Gingrich. He agreed to pay a $300,000 fine for misleading the committee during the investigation, and in the process dodged conviction on the actual charges through a combination of finessing some legal definitions, sheer self-confidence and raw political power (as Speaker of the House at the time of the complaints, he appointed the ethics committee. Furthermore, GOPAC had one ethics committee member on its roster last session, and gave money to another.)

The Ethics Committee dropped its final charges against Gingrich not long before he resigned as speaker, despite finding that Gingrich had in fact violated one rule by repeatedly using a political consultant paid by GOPAC to develop the Republican political agenda, because there was no evidence he was continuing to do so.

The IRS also started an investigation of one group, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, for violating its tax-exempt status by donating to Gingrich's college course. In the investigation, the special counsel found that these activities were "substantially motivated by partisan political goals." The IRS eventually overruled him, and found that the course "was educational and never favored or opposed a candidate for public office.'' It said the foundation ``did not intervene on behalf of candidates of the Republican Party merely by promoting'' themes in the course. This extremely narrow reading of the law basically said "so what if he used the course to recruit, organize and groom candidates; as long as they didn't say 'Vote for Jones', it wasn't partisan." Despite what Gingrich fans argue, this hardly proves his innocence. The IRS has chickened out before in political cases, notably letting the Church of Scientology completely off the hook in its investigation of that group.

Corporate reward: $2,500/month to Newt's wife

According to the Wall Street Journal, a company hired Marianne Gingrich (Newt's wife) for $2,500 a month plus commissions in September 1994 after he announced support for a free trade zone in Israel that they are trying to build. Her "job" for Israel Export Development Co. is to find tenants for the trade zone. Gingrich's spokesman said that since her job did not involve working with the US government, there was no conflict of interest.

Who Owns Him?

- Rupert Murdoch (see book deal above)
- Georgia's Richards family, owners of Southwire Corporate ($1.3 billion/year)
The Richards lent and donated money and office space to Gingrich from his earliest days in politics. They have given over $100,000, and Gingrich was the first recipient of donations from Southwire's PAC. By coincidence, Gingrich has changed from an environmentalist critic of Southwire to a staunch anti-environmentalist during that time. People with ties to Southwire were instrumental in two earlier lucrative book deals of Gingrich's in 1977 and 1984; the latter was investigated for ethical violations.

Sources:


"Newt Plays House With New Squeeze," by Timothy Burger and Owen Moritz, NY Daily News, August 12, 1999

"Newt's Fooling Around With His Girl On the Hill," by Andy Soltis, New York Post, August 12, 1999

"The Big One That Got Away," by David Corn, Salon Website, August 12, 1998
adulterous choir practice: "Personals", by Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 1999 pE12

"Gingrich Won't Answer Woman's Adultery Story," Missoula (Montana) Missoulian, August 16, 1995page 1

"Tales About Gingrich make field level", Idaho Spokesman Review, August 16, 1995 pB6

"Gingrich Aided Export Firm That Employed His Wife", NY Times News Service, San Francisco Chronicle, February 7, 1995 pA7

"Gingrich, Critic of 'Business as Usual,' Helps Out Special Interests Like 'Any Member of Congress'", Phil Kuntz, Wall Street Journal, April 3, 1995 pA16

"Gingrich's political education", Jeff Gerth and Stephen Labaton (NY Times News Service), San Francisco Examiner, February 12, 1995 pA6
"IRS clears Gingrich donation that led to his House censure", Capitol Hill Blue Website, February 4, 1999

Ethics Committee Drops Last of 84 Charges Against Gingrich ,By Curt Anderson (Associated Press), Washington Post, October 11, 1998, Page A13

"Use of Tax-Exempt Groups Integral to Political Strategy", by Charles R. Babcock, Washington Post, January 7, 1997, Page A01

"Jump-Start: How Speaker Gingrich Grabbed Power and Attention So Quickly", Wall Street Journal, January 19, 1995 pA1

"The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich", Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair, September 1995 p147 "Gingrich, Murdoch reveal lobbyist's role at meeting", Katharine Seelye (NY Times News Service), San Francisco Examiner, pA1 "Murdoch, Gingrich Admit They Talked", San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 1995

"The Mysterious Mrs. Newt", Martin Fletcher (London Times News Service), SF Examiner, January 15, 1995 pA4 "Newt's Near Misses", Ron Curran, The Bay Guardian, January 11, 1995 p10

"Newt, Inc.", Dennis Bernstein, Bay Guardian, February 1, 1995 p19


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2012 May See the 'Death of Europe,' Says Shugg

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- James Shugg, a senior economist at Westpac Banking Corp., talks about the outlook for the euro zone in 2012 and the role of the European Central Bank in backing indebted nations. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg) Michael Holland on Central Bank Action Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Holland, chairman of Holland & Co., talks about the outlook for the U.S. economy following the decision by the Federal Reserve and five other central banks to cut the cost of emergency dollar funding for European banks. Holland speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg) Jim Rogers Interview Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks about his investment strategy. Rogers also discusses Europe's sovereign debt crisis, Federal Reserve monetary policy and the U.S. economy. He speaks from Singapore with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
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How Paulson Gave Hedge Funds Advance Word of Fannie Mae Rescue

By Richard Teitelbaum - Nov 29, 2011 12:46 PM ET
Q
Bloomberg Markets Magazine


Enlarge imageHenry Paulson
Former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 6, 2010. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/The New York Times
Paulson 2008 Meeting Not Surprising, Cohan Says
 
Play Video
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- William Cohan, author of "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World" and a Bloomberg View Columnist, talks about a meeting former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held in July 2008 with hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives. According to a fund manager who attended, Paulson hinted of a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rescue, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. Cohan speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Cohan is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)
Rosner on Paulson Meeting With Hedge Fund Managers
 
Play Video
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Joshua Rosner, an analyst at Graham Fisher & Co., talks about a meeting former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held in July 2008 with hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives. According to a fund manager who attended, Paulson hinted of a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rescue, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. Rosner speaks on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." (Source: Bloomberg)
Paulson Speaks at Dartmouth College Aug. 11
 
Play Video
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks about the actions taken to address the financial crisis in 2008 and the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. Paulson participated in a discussion at Dartmouth College on Aug. 11 with former Republican U.S. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. (This report is an excerpt from Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." Source: Bloomberg)
Attachment:TIMELINE OF FANNIE, FREDDIE TAKEOVER
Enlarge imageFormer U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
Former U.S. treasury secretary Henry Paulson. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stepped off the elevator into the Third Avenue offices of hedge fund Eton Park Capital Management LP in Manhattan. It was July 21, 2008, and market fears were mounting. Four months earlier, Bear Stearns Cos. had sold itself for just $10 a share to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
Now, amid tumbling home prices and near-record foreclosures, attention was focused on a new source of contagion: Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac, which together had more than $5 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and other debt outstanding, Bloomberg Markets reports in its January issue.
Paulson had been pushing a plan in Congress to open lines of credit to the two struggling firms and to grant authority for the Treasury Department to buy equity in them. Yet he had told reporters on July 13 that the firms must remain shareholder owned and had testified at a Senate hearing two days later that giving the government new power to intervene made actual intervention improbable.
“If you have a bazooka, and people know you have it, you’re not likely to take it out,” he said.
On the morning of July 21, before the Eton Park meeting, Paulson had spoken to New York Times reporters and editors, according to his Treasury Department schedule. A Times article the next day said the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were inspecting Fannie and Freddie’s books and cited Paulson as saying he expected their examination would give a signal of confidence to the markets.

A Different Message

At the Eton Park meeting, he sent a different message, according to a fund manager who attended. Over sandwiches and pasta salad, he delivered that information to a group of men capable of profiting from any disclosure.
Around the conference room table were a dozen or so hedge- fund managers and other Wall Street executives -- at least five of them alumni of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), of which Paulson was chief executive officer and chairman from 1999 to 2006. In addition to Eton Park founder Eric Mindich, they included such boldface names as Lone Pine Capital LLC founder Stephen Mandel, Dinakar Singh of TPG-Axon Capital Management LP and Daniel Och of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC.
After a perfunctory discussion of the market turmoil, the fund manager says, the discussion turned to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Paulson said he had erred by not punishing Bear Stearns shareholders more severely. The secretary, then 62, went on to describe a possible scenario for placing Fannie and Freddie into “conservatorship” -- a government seizure designed to allow the firms to continue operations despite heavy losses in the mortgage markets.

Stock Wipeout

Paulson explained that under this scenario, the common stock of the two government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, would be effectively wiped out. So too would the various classes of preferred stock, he said.
The fund manager says he was shocked that Paulson would furnish such specific information -- to his mind, leaving little doubt that the Treasury Department would carry out the plan. The managers attending the meeting were thus given a choice opportunity to trade on that information.
There’s no evidence that they did so after the meeting; tracking firm-specific short stock sales isn’t possible using public documents.
And law professors say that Paulson himself broke no law by disclosing what amounted to inside information.

Rampant Rumors

At the time, rumors about Fannie and Freddie were tearing through the markets. The government-chartered firms’ mandate, which continues today, is to buy mortgages from banks and repackage them into securities either for their own portfolios or to sell to others. The banks can then use the proceeds from those transactions to write new mortgages.
By mid-2008, delinquencies and foreclosures were soaring, and the GSEs set aside billions of dollars against future losses. In the first six months of 2008, they racked up net losses of $5.46 billion as they slashed dividends and marked down the values of their huge inventories of mortgage-backed securities.
On Wall Street, confusion reigned. UBS AG analyst Eric Wasserstrom on July 10 cut his share price target on Freddie to $10 from $28. The next day, Citigroup Inc. (C) analyst Bradley Ball reiterated a “buy” recommendation on the two GSEs. On July 12, the Times of London, without citing a source, reported that Paulson was contemplating a $15 billion capital injection into the firms.

Shares Rally

At the time Paulson privately addressed the fund managers at Eton Park, he had given the market some positive signals -- and the GSEs’ shares were rallying, with Fannie Mae’s nearly doubling in four days.
William Black, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, can’t understand why Paulson felt impelled to share the Treasury Department’s plan with the fund managers.
“You just never ever do that as a government regulator -- transmit nonpublic market information to market participants,” says Black, who’s a former general counsel at the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. “There were no legitimate reasons for those disclosures.”
Janet Tavakoli, founder of Chicago-based financial consulting firm Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc., says the meeting fits a pattern.
“What is this but crony capitalism?” she asks. “Most people have had their fill of it.”

A Lawyer’s Advice

The fund manager who described the meeting left after coffee and called his lawyer. The attorney’s quick conclusion: Paulson’s talk was material nonpublic information, and his client should immediately stop trading the shares of Washington- based Fannie and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie.
Seven weeks later, the boards of the two firms voted to go into conservatorship under the newly created Federal Housing Finance Agency. The takeover was effective Sept. 6, a Saturday, and the companies’ stock prices dropped below $1 the following Monday, from $14.13 for Fannie Mae and $8.75 for Freddie Mac (FMCC) on the day of the meeting. Various classes of preferred shares lost upwards of 85 percent of their value.
A complete list of those at the Eton Park meeting isn’t publicly available. A Treasury Department roster of those expected to attend, obtained by Bloomberg News under the Freedom of Information Act, includes Ripplewood Holdings LLC CEO Timothy Collins, who says, through a spokesman, that he didn’t participate.

Storied Investors

At least one fund manager who wasn’t listed in the FOIA document, Daniel Stern of Reservoir Capital Group, did attend, says the manager who described the meeting.
The gathering comprised some of Wall Street’s most storied investors. Mindich, a former chief strategy officer of New York- based Goldman Sachs, started Eton Park in 2004 with $3.5 billion, at the time one of the biggest hedge-fund launches ever. Singh, a former head of Goldman’s proprietary-trading desk, also began his fund in 2004, in partnership with private- equity firm Texas Pacific Group Ltd.
Lone Pine’s Mandel worked as a retail analyst at Goldman before joining Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management LLC, one of the most successful hedge funds of the 1980s and 1990s. He started his own firm in 1997. Och was co-head of U.S. equity trading at Goldman before founding Och-Ziff in 1994. The publicly listed firm managed $28.9 billion in November.

Goldman Alums

One other Goldman Sachs alumnus was at the meeting: Frank Brosens, founder and principal of Taconic Capital Advisors LP, who worked at Goldman as an arbitrageur and who was a protege of Robert Rubin, who went on to become Treasury secretary.
Non-Goldman Sachs alumni who attended included short seller James Chanos of Kynikos Associates Ltd., who helped uncover the Enron Corp. accounting fraud; GSO Capital Partners LP co-founder Bennett Goodman, who sold his firm to Blackstone Group LP (BX) in early 2008; Roger Altman, chairman and founder of New York investment bank Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR); and Steven Rattner, a co-founder of private-equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC, who went on to serve as head of the U.S. government’s Automotive Task Force.
Another person in attendance: Michele Davis, then-assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department, who now represents Paulson as a managing partner at public relations firm Brunswick Group Inc. In an e-mail response to Bloomberg Markets, she referred all questions to Paulson’s book on the financial crisis, “On the Brink” (Business Plus, 2010), which makes no mention of the Eton Park meeting.

Paulson Thinktank

Paulson is now a distinguished senior fellow at the University of Chicago, where he’s starting the Paulson Institute, a think tank focused on U.S.-Chinese relations.
Eton Park’s Mindich, Lone Pine’s Mandel, TPG-Axon’s Singh and Och-Ziff (OZM)’s Och all declined to comment through spokesmen. Reservoir’s Stern didn’t return phone calls. Altman, through a spokesman, confirmed his attendance and declined to comment further.
Brosens confirmed in an e-mail that he had attended and said he couldn’t recall details. A spokesman for Rattner acknowledged he attended and said he didn’t trade in Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-related instruments after the meeting. Chanos declined to comment.
A Blackstone spokesman confirmed in an e-mail that GSO’s Goodman attended the meeting. Blackstone doesn’t believe market- sensitive information was discussed, and in any event Blackstone didn’t take any positions in Fannie or Freddie between the luncheon and Sept. 6, he wrote.

Strong Short Interest

Records show that many investors were betting against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the time. According to Data Explorers Ltd., a London-based research firm, short interest in Fannie Mae shares rose sharply in July, to 163 million shares on July 14 from 86.3 million shares on July 9.
Short Interest continued to rise, to 240 million shares, on the day of the Eton Park meeting; it hit 262 million on July 24, its high for the year. Freddie Mac’s short interest showed a similar trajectory.
Revelations about the meeting come at a sensitive time.
“The optics are awful; there’s no doubt about it,” says professor Larry Ribstein of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign. “Everyone knows that insider trading is a huge issue.”
Rajat Gupta, the former head of McKinsey & Co. who was a member of Goldman’s board, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 26 for disclosing nonpublic information on Goldman and other companies to Raj Rajaratnam, a hedge-fund manager who earlier in October was sentenced to 11 years in prison for profiting from inside information provided by a web of industry insiders, including Gupta.
Gupta has pleaded not guilty.

LightSquared Probe

Several U.S. agencies face increased scrutiny in Congress for possible improper disclosures or ties to hedge funds. Senators are looking into whether the U.S. Department of Education divulged nonpublic details about new rules being considered to regulate for-profit educational institutions to outsiders, including Steven Eisman, former managing director of FrontPoint Partners LLC, who held short positions in the sector.
Education Department spokesman Justin Hamilton denies any impropriety. Eisman hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.
In October, Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa asked hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone for copies of all communications between his Harbinger Capital Partners and the Department of Commerce, the Federal Communications Commission and the White House. Grassley is looking into whether Falcone improperly sought to influence regulators and the White House while seeking approvals for LightSquared Inc., the company constructing a broadband wireless network his fund is bankrolling.

‘Government Information’

Robin Roger, general counsel for the fund’s management firm, says any assertion that the fund or LightSquared tried to improperly influence regulators is unfounded.
For government officials, the leaking of market-sensitive information, even if inadvertent, represents an ethical minefield.
“There’s a lot of government information out there, and the hedge funds are trying to get it,” saysRichard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who advised the Bush administration on Paulson’s sale of his Goldman stock when he became Treasury secretary. “It’s a huge problem that has to be addressed.”
The rules for what can or cannot be disclosed by government officials are often either unclear or nonexistent.

Tipping Hands

“The bottom line is that senior-level people in Washington, in the name of keeping in touch with their stakeholders, are tipping their hands,” says Adam Zagorin, a senior fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. “You can’t prosecute them for insider trading if they didn’t trade the shares. You may not be able to even reprimand them. What the hell are the rules?”
An official such as Paulson has no legal obligation to keep material nonpublic information to himself, says Phillip Kaplan, partner for litigation at Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP, where he specializes in securities and class-action cases.
“I don’t think a government person is liable,” he says. “He didn’t profit from the information or trade on it.”
In the rapidly evolving world of insider-trading prosecutions, that could change, says the University of Illinois’s Ribstein, adding that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a broader view of what constitutes insider trading. SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami, who can bring only civil cases, and the Justice Department, which can mount criminal prosecutions, have cast their net wide, Ribstein says.

Small Players Sued

In addition to going after big names like Rajaratnam and Gupta, the authorities are suing and indicting smaller players who might not have been prosecuted in the past, like accountants and analysts at so-called expert networks, who sell their expertise to hedge funds.
The University of Missouri’s Black says there’s no question that the plan to take over Fannie and Freddie -- however uncertain -- was material nonpublic information that could not be lawfully traded on. “What Paulson said put those managers in an untenable position,” he says. “They were exposed to all kinds of liabilities.”
The situation also generates some sympathy for Paulson.
“It seems to me, you’ve got to cut the guy some slack, even if he tipped his hand,” says William Poole, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “How do you prepare the market for the fact that policy has changed without triggering the very crisis that you’re trying to avoid? What is he supposed to say without misleading these people?”

Market Insights

Poole says government officials need to communicate with industry participants in order to gain insights into market conditions and gauge likely reaction to interventions.
Black says the Eton Park meeting was the wrong way to communicate to the markets.
“Wink, wink, nod, nod is no way to approach sensitive information,” he says.
Paulson often contacted Wall Street participants throughout his tenure, according to his calendar. On that July trip to New York alone, he talked to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. CEO Richard Fuld, Washington Mutual Inc. CEO Kerry Killinger and Citigroup senior adviser Rubin.
Morgan Stanley and BlackRock Inc. both helped the Federal Reserve and OCC prepare the reports on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that Paulson told the New York Times would instill confidence the morning of the Eton Park meeting.

‘Unsafe and Unsound’

Paulson learned by mid-August that the Federal Reserve had found the GSEs “unsafe and unsound,” he told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was appointed by President Barack Obama and Congress to probe the causes of the financial collapse.
“We’d been prepared for bad news, but the extent of the problems was startling,” he wrote in “On the Brink.”
On Sept. 6, when the GSEs’ boards agreed to have their companies placed in conservatorship, full-year 2008 losses were projected to reach as much as $50 billion for Fannie Mae and $32 billion for Freddie Mac. In October 2011, the FHFA estimated the cost to taxpayers of rescuing the firms at $124 billion through 2014.
The manager who described the Eton Park meeting says he also discussed it with an investigator from the FCIC. The discussion was confirmed by a former FCIC employee.
That manager says he ended up profiting from his Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac positions because he was already short the stocks. On his lawyer’s advice, he stopped covering his short positions and rode Fannie and Freddie shares all the way to the bottom.
To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Teitelbaum in New York atrteitelbaum1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Serrill at mserrill@bloomberg.net.




  • whoodoo 11 hours agoCollapse
    Insider trading and providing insider information to traders is theft, pure and simple (long and short manipulation on such information cheats honest traders out of gains and significantly raises the latter's risk-to-reward ratio). The only problem here is forcing such common sense into law in order to throttle the inherently corrupt and dishonest lawyers, politicians and traders. The only reason it's legal today is that people who were trusted to represent the people and their interests sold out those interests to special interests who can only thrive in a lawless environment.
  • adirondack_1 15 hours ago
    If whatever is said or done impacts the taxpayer negatively then it should be viewed as harmful to the nation. If that isn't illegal I can't imagine what any elected or appointed official would think his job really is if not to protect the citizens.
  • Connieandgeo 19 hours ago
    Why was I not allowed to Facebook this? They keep saying that people bought homes which they could not afford. I'm sorry but the people who let these people buy these homes knew what they were doing. What hurts so much is that so many people are trying to break up our beloved USA. in so many different ways. I know that what I just wrote here is not what the article is about. I'm just venting. What has happened to honor, integrity etc.
  • M K 19 hours ago
    You know... there is a legal method of curtailing these obvious fraudulent actions by these gov't officials and their crony-capitalism buddies.  It is called citizens arrest.  As a citizen, you have not only the capacity to make citizens arrests but you also are required to perform this duty.  The law clearly states that if a person has witnessed or is personally aware of a fraudulent act either undertaken or that is being conspired to occur, that that person must either report the fraud to authorities or they too are guilty by association.  This law is what allows anyone the ability to make a citizens arrest.   Paulson should be in jail.  This is an obvious point.
  • JR in reply to M K 16 hours ago
    A citizen's arrest only applies to an illegal act.  The article clearly says that Paulson broke no law. His acts falls under the heading of immorality, rather than illegality.   The hedge fund managers in all probability did profit illegally from this information, but there is no evidence to confirm this, and in America we believe it's better to let a guilty man go free than to risk punishing an innocent one. We citizens must understand the law in order to use it to our advantage.
  • Amb. L E Wanta 20 hours ago
    AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc. - Richmond proffered to purchase both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with CASH Monetary Funds, after repatriation taxes paid [May, 2006] of USDollars 1.575 Trillion. Please review - IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, ALEXANDRIA DIVISION - CIVIL ACTION No. 02 - 1363 - A, FILED APRIL 15 2003.  SEE MEMORANDUM OPINION TO THE LIQUIDATION OF THE CORPORATIONS AND REPORT THESE TRANSACTIONS TO THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE AND THEN CHALLENGE THE ASSESSMENT OF ANY TAXES IN A REFUND PROCEEDING.   DATED : APRIL 15, 2003    /S/ GERALD BRUCE LEE -  U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE.
  • FrankieB 21 hours ago
    The lack of knowledge here is startling.  First, Paulson broke no laws -- he's the 'tippee.'  Second, in order to engage in illegal insider trading you have to (1) trade on material nonpublic information and (2) breach a fiduciary duty.  Even if (1) was violated, (2) was not.  If you think that's not important, then look up DIRKS VS. SEC (1983) the seminal case in which the SEC and govt wanted to throw Ray Dirks in jail for disclosing an investment fraud by charging him with insider trading.  Instead, the US Supreme Court (6-3 decision) said it WAS NOT illegal and today he is considered a hero.
  • Semperpax1947 in reply to FrankieB 19 hours ago
    If this is true, then Rajat Gupta has nothing to worry about.
  • Joseph_canepa 23 hours ago
    This is Obama's chance to do what he
    was elected to do.




    Since the SEC keeps records of all
    trades and the information presumably is all entered in computers,
    Obama should order the NSA to analyze all the post meeting trades
    made by the attendees, individual and their institutions, in Freddie
    and Fanny stock. This could be done in days. Let's find who made the
    money on the insider trading and seek justice.




    People who lost money to the cronies
    need to be repaid.
  • Calhar2933 1 day ago
    How supposedly smart men could be so stupid is unconscionable??This circus is reminescent of the story I heard many many years ago.Two businessmen met on the street,one asked the other how business was,to which he replied,Great im loosing money every day,if it wasn't for the volume I couldn't stay in business!! Real smart???????
  • Ed in reply to Calhar2933 23 hours ago
    Do you really think it was stupidity that made this happen? The epople who did the trading made millions off of this information. It's more about greed and a lack of morals.
  • Mike in reply to Ed 5 hours ago
    Websters defines greed as: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. So who decides what “MORE THAN NEEDED” means?  Al Gore called people who made more than $250K per year millionaires.  A Green Party manifesto once stated a family of four need only $30K per year to live. May be we should let Minimalist like Noam Chromsky and Ted Kacynski decide how much is too much?
  • Jeff 1 day ago
    Shame on them.. And we still have no jobs in this country while oboma Friends Get Rich, Go after oboma, Help save this Country, Bloomberg, We need your help. They Cut you out of Most cable systems too, Why is That?
  • Hermes Mercury in reply to Jeff 1 day ago
    Jeff - that's ludicrous -- that's like saying that after Hoover drove the economy and the nation into the ditch, everyone should have blamed FDR.  The meetings you are talking about here occurred while Mr. Bush was still president.  In fact, before Obama was even elected.  Cleaning up after a hurricane is not easy, I know, I've helped do it -- cleaning up after a tsunami is even harder, and doing so while someone is holding the tools out of reach is nearly impossible - and the person who is acting in a criminal manner is the tool holder --  in this case, the GOP.
  • Charles from Las Vegas in reply to Hermes Mercury 14 hours ago
    Does anybody know that George W. Bush was faced with a Democrat Senate the last three years of his presidency?  Every dime he spent was given to him by them, and every regulation he tried to work with was blocked by this hostile Senate.  Why does the media or Obama never mention this?
  • Joe 1 day ago
    Has anyone checked if Paulson, his family/trusts are invested in Hedge Funds in particular those at the meeting ? has he since been deriving any financial benefits from any of them ?
  • Srgthumper 1 day ago
    Convenient that they don't mention any of the Dem leadership in this.  Barney Frank, Reid, and Pelosi.  It's not insider trading if your a Dem senator
  • Hermes Mercury in reply to Srgthumper 1 day ago
    A lovely demonstration of a logical fallacy.  Mr. Srgthumper - it wasn't Barney Frank, Senator Reid or Leader Pelosi who was inside the room full of hedge fund managers giving insider information.  It was Mr. Paulson, a Republican, and the appointed treasury secretary.  If your eyes are on the target in the next field you will never hit the one in front of you ---  oh -- right, you don't WANT to hit the actual target, you want to distract people from it -- I forgot.
  • Guest in reply to Hermes Mercury 21 hours ago
    have you forgotten that it was the vote of almost all the dems  with just a very few repubs  who approved the bailout?  are you so blindsided by your party affiliation that you can't see the truth of how corrupt the entire political system is??? aren't you aware that Obama has gotten way more funding for his campaign from Goldman Sachs  and the remaining big six investment TBTF banks this year than  the money he got for the 2008 campaign?  cannot you look yourself in the public records  and in any website  like opensecrets  or propublica  where all these reports are there to see??? didn't you read Ms Pelosi's own admission that she indeed  incurred in insider trading  but because the congresspeople for some strange reason got an exception for themselves  it is not a crime, it is perfectly legal so all is good????  are you serious,  you want us to believe the political system is right  just one party is wrong???  thanks but no thanks please stop serving kool aid  we don't want to take it anymore, but you can drown in it if you want  thanks
  • Cap1345 in reply to Guest 13 hours ago
    And you have forgotten that Bush and Paulson proposed the 'no questions asked, no accountability needed, and no need to worry about prosecution for misuse of the bailout money' bailout.
  • Sierra7 in reply to Srgthumper 1 day ago
    Don't worry, many of us out here are very well aware of both party's principles being involved in this kind of chicanery.
    The reporter and writer did a good job.
  • Fizzycist in reply to Sierra7 1 day ago
    I keep hoping to see more and more comments like yours....which tell us that the Electorate is finally getting wize to the DC con artists....of both flavors and varieties...
  • Jroboston 1 day ago
    The article takes too narrow a perspective by focusing on the fact that the hedge fund managers didn't trade in Freddie/Fanny stock after the meeting.  They received information that would impact the economy at large - not just these two companies.  There's no way to know how much they profited from this far reaching information by making trades in other companies that would be affected by the pending action at the mortgage companies.
  • Jmcharg 1 day ago
    Fraud , Fraud, FRAUD !!!
  • Freedomaphile 1 day ago
    "It was July
    21, 2008"

    Those suggesting this whole economic mess is President Obama's fault should have their noses rubbed in this date.

    (six month before he was inaugurated and three months before he was even elected)
  • Fizzycist in reply to Freedomaphile 1 day ago
    I'm Conservative....part of my criticism of Obama is,  not that this was his fault, but contrary to his promises he really just continued the old ways.....I would luv to throw all the Bums out....this includes Bush and his cronies....he's left....but for me, he's not forgotten....I have very few good things to say about Bush....Georgie Porgie as I call him...
  • Merging21 1 day ago
    During the end of 2008, I always thought that former GoldmanSachs head Henry Paulson, was part of a cabal of banking and finance insiders who, already knowing for years about implosion of the derivatives and housing fiascos, were part of a collusion to enrich themselves through TARP and bailout government (taxpayers) money; and that with little time left in his administration, also George W. Bush used that as a political pass, so he and his cohorts could use time pressure to extort the money from Congress and American Citizens. A hapless Joe goes to jail for stealing a chicken, while CEO's and Cabinet heads extort billions, not only without penalty, but even with severence pay (golden parachute).
  • Fizzycist in reply to Merging21 1 day ago
    Agree a thousand per cent....that's why so many of us out here are so Angry....We all know that these SOB's on the inside are enriching themselves at every turn....what I heard was that Paulson shorted the economy and got rich doing it....

    If you steal a hundred bucks...at least ten years in jail....steal billions?....well, first comes the book, your memoirs.....and all the talk shows....

    Paulson was invited on Money Talk with Bob Brinker....and declined....we all know why....he might have outed for the Crook that he is...
  • NewtTheMaster_De_Bater 1 day ago
    Stop the mindless cheer leading.  Bush effed us all of the way out the door by setting aside our constitution in order to save the power brokers of our country, after they gambled THEIR money away on the stock market.  Once that was accomplished Obama scooped up that "fumble" and ran all the way for a "socialist TD".   Both men should be jailed for their crimes.  But, that is the past.  What do we do now?  We are at a crossroads.  Do we elect another Repulocrat like Bush or Obama?(see Romney,Newt,Huntsman,Clinton,etc). No,I think not. Vote for the only man that matters.  Vote for your own power.  Vote for your own FREEDOM.  Vote for Ron Paul.
  • Fizzycist in reply to NewtTheMaster_De_Bater 1 day ago
    I voted for Bush....and , at the end, I despised the man.....the Electorate,or so I believe, are afraid of the Honesty of Paul....he assuredly isnt Perfect , but, at least, I really believe he's an Honest man...and every day we see new evidence about the crooks in the Fed,etc.etc.etc....yet, no one ,aside from Paul,really wants to do anything about it..
  • Gary 1 day ago
    To those who say "You can't eat Gold'. Brilliant. I never thought of that - in fact I've been buying Gold all along to eat it.
    Obviously the only braintrust saying this are people who don't have the forsight to either own Gold or stock up on food stuffs - preferably freeze-dried food that lasts 25 years.
    Once you ride through this coming storm, if you've been able to preserve your wealth and assets in terms of their purchasing power and to maintain liquidity--which the physical gold will give you--you'll be in a position to take care of yourself and take advantage of some extraordinary investment opportunities that likely would flow out of the turmoil ahead.
  • Tom in reply to Gary 1 day ago
    This is typical doomsday thinking; gold is only another commodity and is prone to significant volatility. It is definitely not a "sure thing" that will keep its value. Just look at a graph of its value over the past 10 or 20 years.
  • Bill in reply to Tom 1 day ago
    Yeah, while you are at it, take a look at a graph of its value over the past 2000 years.

    The last 10-20 years the price of gold has been manipulated to make the US dollar seem like it has any value (and it still is today).

    Is it prone to volatility? Sure. But to say it is "definitely not a sure thing that will keep its value" is simply ignorant and asinine.
  • Bill in reply to Bill 22 hours ago
    In reply to Hermes Mercury...

    Ahh, so you are in the "you can't eat it" camp. Are you going to say it's a barbarous relic too? It doesn't pay dividends?

    Guess what, if you are hungry, you can't eat paper dollars either. You can't eat a house either! Or stocks... You exchange paper dollars for food. And believe it or not, you can exchange gold for paper dollars, which in turn buys you food, or whatever else you want. Your argument about "you can't eat it" is childish at best.

    If government fails, why can't you keep gold? Because they will confiscate it from you? If you haven't waken up already, they have stolen more rights from you in the last decade then they have since the constitution was brought into existence. Gold is an insurance policy AGAINST the government and the fiat currency that will ultimately fail. When your paper dollars aren't worth the paper it's printed on, I'll be happy I have my precious metals while.
  • Gary in reply to Bill 23 hours ago
    LOL - you mean how Gold has gone up 700% over the last ten years? outperformed the DOW and every asset class? When people start questioning what IS money - they will return to what has been money for 6,000 years. Enjoy your paper chasing...
  • Hermes Mercury in reply to Bill 1 day ago
    Incorrect.  If you are hungry you cannot eat gold.  If government fails you cannot keep gold.  So either hope for a different result than the one you are forecasting or work toward one -- because you will be no happier than anyone else if that result comes.
  • Lawjunkie 1 day ago
    I lost more than money, I lost a son when bush told that fairy tail about "weapons of mass destruction". Paulson and anybody who was involved with this financial fiasco is a criminal and financial terrorist and should be tried and put in jail if guilty. My son gave his life so these animals can keep on stealing from all of us! I am too disgusted to even think.
  • Cap1345 in reply to Lawjunkie 13 hours ago
    You have my sincere sympathy.

    Your son gave his life fighting for his country and all the citizens of the USA.  That we, the people, were snookered into believing a lie does not change the value of his sacrifice for us. 
  • Mike in reply to Cap1345 5 hours ago
    Would my argument carry more weight if I claimed the loss two sons?
  • Hermes Mercury in reply to Lawjunkie 1 day ago
    I am so terribly sorry. I lost a son to an auto accident, so I have some vague understanding, even if not precisely.  May he rest in peace and light encompass him.

    Kindest thoughts.
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