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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (82718)	4/16/2010 3:30:54 PM
From: lorne	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224725

Tim Geithner: Too Close to Goldman Sachs to Be Treasury Secretary, Critic Says Posted Jan 21, 2009 by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Banking finance.yahoo.com Tim Geithner apologized for not paying his taxes and some Republicans criticized his involvement in the TARP program at today's hearing, but Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary appears on track for confirmation. Congress is "all in a panic" and "really clueless" about this all-important member of Obama's cabinet, says Christopher Whalen, managing director and co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics. "I'm just not sure Tim Geithner is the guy we should have driving the bus." Beyond his tax gaffe, which will mainly serve to politically weaken Obama's pick, Whalen says Geithner is the wrong many for the job because of his decision-making as President of the New York Fed. "I believe Tim Geithner only represents part of Wall Street - Goldman Sachs," he says, suggesting Goldman was the "primary beneficiary of the AIG bailout" and notes Goldman alum Stephen Friedman serves on the board of the NY Fed. (Hank Paulson and Robert Rubin, with whom Geithner had frequent meetings in the past year, are also Goldman alum.) Whalen further questions the inconsistency of the Fed's decision to rescue Bear Stearns - in the end, their debt and shareholders got something - while letting Lehman Brothers "go to hell." In the end, Whalen says he'll fully support Geithner if and when he's confirmed: "We have to be successful," he says. "This is not about personality."

To: lorne who wrote (82718)	4/17/2010 1:07:30 AM
From: MJ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224725

As I understand Goldman was profiting in two ways, on the mortgages and then also on the bundling they did of mortgages. While the SEC is focusing on the investors who bought the bundled mortgages and their losses, the losers in this are also the people who were sucked into the subprime mortgages. Some blame the homeowners for 'being greedy'; however, I don't buy that argument. Homeowners were sold a bill of goods by Mortgage Middle Men who took thousands of dollars from homeowners without revealing how they would then resell their loans to such companies as WAMU, now in bankruptcy---or eventually how a hedge fund could be the holder of their mortgage through the bundling that companies such as Goldman appears to have done. Goldman is the focus now; however, this story is not finished imho. mj