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 ...

~~~

Go Directly To Jail

(anyone? anyone?)

It's been more than a year since the financial meltdown starting really melting, oozing down the sides of the Dow Jones Index and taking my hard-earned little IRA with it.

So how come nobody is going to jail?

I've been waiting for footage of well-fed fat cats in $5000 suits, hiding their faces in shame as they are led off in handcuffs.

After all, didn't they bundle crapola subprime loans and pass them off as gold?

Didn't the ratings agencies lie about the AAAA++++ status of these bundled crapola subprime loans, raking in millions of dollars in fees along the way?

Didn't companies like Goldman Sachs make bets AGAINST the same crapola bundles they were selling to unwary customers - "the very essence of securities fraud" according to a hedgefund manager quoted in Matt Taibbi's "Great American Bubble Machine"?

Surely there must be prosecutable crimes behind the shenanigans that made trillions of dollars vanish into thin air? (or into houses in the Hamptons for the aforementioned fat cats)

Who's going to jail?

C'mon, who??

There's gotta be someone.

SEC Hires 29-Year-Old Ex-Goldman Sachs Exec For Key Role

sigh.

~~~