More People Blame Geithner for AIG Bonuses Than Bush

wanna guess you who I blame FAR more then bush OR geitner?

begins with an O and I’ve been told a buck is supposed to stop right there

Can an expression of the Administration’s unequivocal support be far behind?

You’re cookin’ this week, blondie. Obama’s already proving to be a prolematic president, at best. From FISA to the Panetta cop-out, you have to wonder why a constitutional scholar is seeing the same constitution as shit-for-brains. I’m no longer looking at this administration as the new milinium’s new frontier. He needs to be looked at from a strictly objective point of view and treated like Bush when he strays. And all the blogging needs to follow the Grenwald lead and show no mercy for those who make Madison turn over in his grave. Again.

Marc

me too.

out of control executive compensation was baked into TARP 1 by the democrats in congress. and we know who was twisting arms to get it passed.

if the obama adminstration wants to change course, then the person to cut loose is summers. geithner is small potatoes.

Geitner and Summers retirement might forestall the feelings of despair that are threatening to extinguish the warm light of hope that Obama’s election started in my universe.

IMHO we’re fast approaching some sort of event horizon, past which we cannot go without slipping into chaos.

It seems we have still to choose whether to govern ourselves or be governed by those who through greed and avrice have brought us to the edge of this wasteland.

I had thought we made that decision in November, serves me right for thinking.

If he could find it in his heart to fire Summers and Geitner, I might find it in mine to give him the benefit of the doubt again.

@ perris: could the second and thrid syllables of that word be “ba” and “ma”?

@marcshank: indubitably. And on a related note, one of the major differences between liberals and conservatives is that we don’t give our presidents a pass for lawbreaking. call bullshit, call it often, and call the nation’s lead public servant on the carpet when necessary.

the people lead, the leaders follow.

Hey Fire Pups:

So…how do we translate the doubt about Geithner into action?

1. Geithner, Summers, Romer, etal need to find other employment. Can the job search begin today, please?

2. Congress needs to hold FULL BLOWN HEARINGS on this whole bailout miasma, not the pathetic joke hearings that Frank held a few weeks back.

Agree.

Jane, I don’t understand your point. Presumably Axelrod wouldn’t permit something like this without Obama’s blessing. Are you saying Obama’s greasing the skids for Geithner? Does that mean Obama’s changed his mind or is in the process of changing it?

As for your main point that Geithner’s screwing up, it’s obvious, but the country is so deranged they can’t see it. If you liken our economy to a game of Monopoly, and it’s a pretty apt analogy, you have only to ask what happens when one player has all the money. He either gives the others some or the game ends. Taxing the rich hard is generally opposed even by people who benefit. It should give all of us pause that the huge majority of this country should be progressives, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

thanks for the reminder. frank and dodd and playing us for fools – pretending to be on our side while helping to protect the banksters with “oversight” hearings designed to be ineffective.

right now all i can think of is to keep pointing out their charade.

will phone again today and try to think of something to put on a sign for tomorrow. any suggestions for short, clear and memorable?

“IMHO we’re fast approaching some sort of event horizon, past which we cannot go without slipping into chaos.”

Nicely articulated.

Congress needs to be wheedled, cajoled, yammered at and otherwise implored to hold real hearings. As I see it, the options are closing. “Resist or become serfs.”

http://www.truthdig.com/report…..ome_serfs/

from naked capitalism: Socialism Gaining Ground in America

trapped, all of us, in a predictable but highly watchable movie

Goldman’s/JP Morgan as partners in Vegas – with Summers their embedded behind the scenes bagman, Geitner, their Brooks Brothers beard and our president reduced to Casino Greeter -

tragic

I apologize for being redundant, but it’s all I can think of to do. If congress would actually hold hearings, the facts would become very difficult to ignore, even by the MSM.

“…frank and dodd and playing us for fools – pretending to be on our side while helping to protect the banksters with “oversight” hearings tap dancing and sideshows designed to be ineffective.”

Fixed it for you.

“Resist or become serfs.”

Exactly.

Trouble is by tommorrow, you’ll see that slogan on a Tea Bagger’s sign.

When it comes to all things financial, this administration seems to be stuck on the spin cycle. Maybe someone should tell Washington that in an age of electronic access to information and truth, they need a new model. You may only be 2.5 months into your administration Obama, but maybe it’s time to seriously consider rearranging the deck chairs.

any suggestions for short, clear and memorable?

my first thought :D

funny, was just thinking about that – mine will probably read

Fire Larry Summers NOW !

yeah, I’m goin’ for “shrill”®

Just stumbled onto this one. More smoke and mirrors.

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news…..refer=home

I like it.

but they will misspell it: resist or become smurfs

allow me to again brag a little – daughter cbl works for some Masters of the Universe – it is her office desktop screensaver

Nice.

the tea baggers are trying to make citizen protest and mass demands look ridiculous. don’t let them succeed.

“any suggestions for short, clear and memorable?”

Special Counsel
Full Subpoena Power
Open Timeline

Probably too wordy, but maybe it’s a start. BTW, I just called Dipshit Frank’s office and called for hearings. I told the operator to make certain that all three elements were present in my comment. Also said that by “real hearings” I meant the exact opposite of the joke hearings that were held a few weeks back. The response was, “Hunh?” and “Drool.” (Approximately.)

any suggestions for short, clear and memorable?

also like this one . . . wonder if we have any black velvet in the garage :D

If this video goes viral, it might be a start. NSFW. Don’t blame me, I’m merely a conduit through which the information is being transferred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F26vC_1_8xw

used to like frank. then he got seniority and power that goes with it. Dodd? Remember when he was the anit-FISA hero? seems like long time ago.

jane, the last couple of days you were posting on bloggy-related type stuff. I guess you had to. It was good stuff but I like this better. what is it? more substantive? issue oriented? i dunno what to call it. but i i like it better.

It’s time we start noticing that everything works exactly the opposite of what we expect.

Contrary to what we’ve been taught, Congress’s job is to ignore the wishes of the voters and to do the bidding of those who would rob us.

The DOJ job is to screw up so badly as to preclude the administration of justice, and back-stop the punishment of obvious criminals.

The media is not in the business of providing clarity by informing us of the truth, but in making sure that we haven’t a chance of ever knowing exactly what’s going on by spreading an ever more complex web of lies designed to leave us powerless.

To us is left the job of paying for our own subgigation.

Would love to see someone change the sign at Treasury to Goldman South

i thought that’s what she was saying. didn’t he just say on 60 minutes if geithner resigns he’ll tell him “still your job buddy” or something? guess that doesn’t really mean much. the implications of the poll are far more interesting than the poll itself./

Has a nice ring to it.

downright inspirational – excellent

Citizen selise:

You are right on about who Obama needs to cut loose if he really wants to get out from under and scapegoat this mess…however, I’m not sure he isn’t gunna hold off until the healthcare reform is passed hopin’ against hope that he doesn’t lose the stock market lottery before he gets the cap off Social Security. There are a lotta wheels within wheels goin on here includin’ the games Obama is playin with the federal courts on domestic surveillance…I think he’s kicked up the entire Bushfascist argument and booted it at the Federalist Society courts sayin’ “throw it out or give me the power…your worst nightmare and your choice.”

Whether or not Axelrod happens to be on board with Geithner anymore is mostly irrelevant at this time.

Geithner isn’t going to be canned unless there’s some very compelling proximate cause. His plan got the Wall Street rally when released. That’s what counts as good governance from the standpoint of this myopic crew. Until some major scandal of greed gets uncovered as the plan unfolds, or some lapse in accountability so obscenely wrong that no amount of spin can make it seem right, the plan is just going to go forward as God intended, and fail miserably while lining the pockets of Wall Street. In the end, of course, Geithner will go. But, then, he’ll take Obama’s Presidency down with him.

While infuriating, the AIG bonuses and Geithner’s part in them obscure Geithner’s role in using AIG as a conduit to funnel money to the banks by paying off CDSs not in default at full value. He was also a key player in the initial takeover of AIG which protected some $20 billion in bondholdings of Goldman Sachs.

At the same time as this, he was heavily involved in the decision to allow Lehman to go into an uncontrolled bankruptcy which broke the buck on some of the money markets and precipitated the credit freeze. Before that he helped put together JPMorgan’s sweetheart buyout of Bear Stearns.

As head of the New York Fed he watched over the development of the housing bubble, its expansion, and collapse, and never saw it. He thought exotic financial instruments like derivatives and the proliferation of hedge funds and private equity companies contributed to market stability.

Earlier in his career, as the IMF’s man, he completely blew the 1996-1997 Asian banking crisis. This is especially important because that crisis has so many tie-ins with the current descent into depression.

In other words, Geithner has a career long record of being wrong about everything he has been associated with. Why should the AIG bonuses come as a surprise to anyone?

Obama is responsible for Geithner and Summers, therefore, Obama is responsible for what they have done and is responsible for correcting it.

If it’s true that a majority of Americans don’t assign responsibility to Obama, it’s a sign of how little hope there is for a return to the rule of law. The majority will continue to support a person based on their gut feelings in response to propaganda about the person rather than their actions.

I hear what you’re saying Norske, but I’d rather we get to celebrate in our yards, than in the tent-cities we’ll be in if the timing doesn’t go our way.

Citizen Walt4Bob:

I hear ya Brother Walt, but jest remember that the tent cities will have EVERYone in them includin’ the bankers and the bankers’ sons and daughters…and the security guards around them will be speakin Chinese.

Citizen Walt4Bob:

I guess what I’m sayin’ is that the political economy strategy Obama’s playin is one designed to end fascism without losin’ a war and havin’ democracy imposed from outside or disintegrating into civil war.

i’m making phone calls now too. but it’s unlikely anyone is going to listen if there are only two of us.

if anyone else want to lend a hand on demanding a pecora-type investigation, here’s a like to the phone numbers and names.

Special Counsel
Full Subpoena Power
Open Timeline

howdy! waving!

checking WaPo/NYT for the Ficticious Business Name statement

pssst firedogs – masaccio has a fabulous insider look upstairs

Waving back.

New Masaccio post up: “‘08 Study Showed Crisis was from Bad Lenders; Not Bad Borrowers”

senators seem to have left for their holiday. will have to call them next week.

For every step forward by the Obama administration it takes 2 steps back.

I hear you loud and clear Norske, if we have any differences, I’d say they involve our estimates as to the health of the brakes on this here handbasket.

Isn’t it correct to blame Geithner? The latest round of bonuses could have been stopped by legislation, but ”Treasury” under Geithner insisted that the legislation not be put in place. Right?

congress is supposed to write the legislation (apparently they sometimes contract that out to their lobbyist friends) and the president can sign it or veto it.

don’t remember a role for treasury in that legislative process.

heh

‘where’s the beef?’

Bread and circuses, more like.

This past week there’s been a few times I’ve found myself saying, “huckster” a when Obama’s image appears on the TV machine.

Yea, it’s time to treat him like Bush or any other resident of the WH who is trashing the constitution.

Frankly, I think Orwell is somewhere laughing his ass off. And that’s hard for me because I also believe that when you are dead, you are dead. The dead know nothing.

ORWELL: ”See, I told ya so! BWAHAHAHA!”

Sorry, that last was a response to Watt4Bob@31

Whom I agree with by the way…

In other words, Geithner has a career long record of being wrong about everything he has been associated with.

Then why, oh why, Hugh [and I ask this genuinely] did he manage to sneak through whatever “vetting” process Obama utilized for Cabinet members?

I think it’s more complicated than the tinfoil hat meme of how “corporatists control everything” yadda, yadda.

I figure if anyone has a non-tinfoil hat answer, it’s you.

senators seem to have left for their holiday. will have to call them next week.

I believe they’re off for two weeks.

However, this provides an opportunity to visit them in their “district offices” — if, in fact they’re at home and not off “fact-finding” in Aruba.

But trust me: I used to work on the Hill. Incoming correspondence directed wherever [Hill or district office] is treated the same. You’re not going to change your Senator’s mind by a phone call or face-to-face meeting.

It’s all about the numbers: a tally of what issues constituents are writing [or e-mailing or phoning] about. Literally the lowliest grum on the office totem pole reads the incoming mail and does the tally. This is particularly true in Senate offices. The Senator has no reason to “listen” to you [or your brilliant reasoning] or anyone else, for that matter [unless you’re a lobbyist].

So go find out the addresses of your Senator(s)’ many district offices, and write a postcard to each one. Make your message SHORT. Reference a piece of legislation if possible [e.g., more TARP money; budget].

And rest assured that the acknowledgment you get , on lovely Congressional letterhead, was NOT written, or even signed by your Senator, but by the lowly Congressional staffer like me.

That’s life in the Big City.

just my 2 cents. but i don’t think geithner snuck through. look at larry summers’ history – it’s even worse. there is a pattern and it stretches back to the clinton years.

yeah. i don’t expect to change minds. but i do hope to be a drop of water in a very big ocean of lots of people making their disgust known.

p.s. thanks for the info re 2 weeks.

I heard something on NPR yesterday about AIG being the insuror for 80% of the military contractors…could that be another reason for the government “assistance”, to keep the lid on the massive fraud and extortion by the likes of Halliburton, KBR, etc.?