Financial Crisis Commission Quotes

(lloyd blankfein, left - jamie dimon, right
"whew, glad that's over. wanna go for a ride in my
gold-plated jet?")

Two days ago, the new Financial Crisis Commission held its first hearings. The Commission questioned the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

Have these men learned any lessons from the financial meltdown?

Looking back, do they have any regrets about recklessly gambling with billions of dollars, selling investors packages of garbage disguised as gold while simultaneously betting AGAINST the very same gold-plated garbage, decimating the financial status of millions of Americans, happily accepting taxpayer bailouts and siphoning off huge profits every step of the way?

Let's listen in ... (my comments are in red) ...

Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan): "Let me be clear: no institution, including our own, should be too big to fail ... the solution is not to cap the size of financial firms."
So, let me be clear. Financial firms should not be too big. But don't make them smaller either. Gotcha.

John Mack (Morgan Stanley): "We did eat our own cooking, and we choked on it."
No Mr. Mack, WE choked on your cooking. You are still eating caviar.

LLoyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs): Goldman "got caught up in and participated in and therefore contributed to elements of froth in the market."
Froth? Excuse me? Froth in the market? Don't you mean fraud??

Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs): "How would you look at the risk of a hurricane? The season after we had four hurricanes on the east coast, which was actually extraordinary versus the year before, rates got very low ... that year after 4 hurricanes ... rates went up spectacularly ... is the risk of hurricanes any different of those times?"
Hey Lloyd, is this what you meant a few months ago when you said you were "doing God's work" at Goldman Sachs? You were creating hurricanes? I guess maybe you were right after all.

... and my personal favorite ...

Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan): "It's not a surprise that we know we have crises every 5 - 10 years. My daughter called me from school one day and said 'Dad what's a financial crisis' and without trying to be funny, I said 'It's the kind of thing that happens every 5 - 7 years.' And she said, 'Then why is everybody so surprised?'"

... sigh ...

~~~

Way to go!

(yay! capitalism is alive and well!)

Wall Street is so happy these days! Happy, happy, happy! Goldman Sachs has announced huge profits for the second quarter. In fact, they beat the estimates quite handily. I can just imagine all the stuffy old white men in $3,000 suits high-fiving each other. Brings a little tear to my eye.

Here is what Bloomberg.com had to say, a few days before the actual figures were announced:

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- "Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is poised to report the largest profit since it set earnings records in 2007, marking the return of a business model that was the envy of Wall Street before the financial crisis devastated competitors and spurred a government bailout."

And here is my rant (you knew I would have one, right?) -

What the heck??? Their business model was the ENVY of Wall Street??

- Their business model consisted, in part, of packaging worthless mortgages, disguising them as something else, and selling them for way more than they were worth, which was basically nothing.

- Their business model is based on manipulating financial conditions for their own best interests. I believe this is also known in some circles as The American Way.

- Their business model helped create the black hole that destroyed the lifelong savings of millions of Americans.

They are now earning huge profits by returning to the same business model, and we are supposed to be HAPPY about that??

Here is a link to a fascinating story called The Great American Bubble Machine. One section reads:

"The bank's unprecedented reach and power have enabled it to turn all of America into a giant pump and dump scam, manipulating whole economic sectors for years at a time, moving the dice game as this or that market collapses, and all the time gorging itself on the unseen costs that are breaking families everywhere — high gas prices, rising consumer credit rates, half eaten pension funds, mass layoffs, future taxes to pay off bailouts."

Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed excitement about Goldman Sachs' return to profitability.

Me, I'm not so sure.

~~~