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Usually on Thursdays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I was hosted off, for a good cause. I'll be back in May to deprogram you.

The Religious "Fear, Anger, and Hatred" Industry

Without theological rigidity "you don't need the church" and the big business of religion goes bust. Read Time, Is Hell Dead?

Can You Say Sucker

UPDATE XV: The latest:

"A voluminous report on the financial crisis by the United States Senate — citing internal documents and private communications of bank executives, regulators, credit ratings agencies and investors — describes business practices that were rife with conflicts during the mortgage mania and reckless activities that were ignored inside the banks and among their federal regulators.

The 650-page report, 'Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,' was released Wednesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whose co-chairmen are Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma. The result of two years’ work, the report focuses on an array of institutions with central roles in the mortgage crisis: Washington Mutual, an aggressive mortgage lender that collapsed in 2008; the Office of Thrift Supervision, a regulator; the credit ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service; and the investment banks Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

'The report pulls back the curtain on shoddy, risky, deceptive practices on the part of a lot of major financial institutions,' Mr. Levin said in an interview. 'The overwhelming evidence is that those institutions deceived their clients and deceived the public, and they were aided and abetted by deferential regulators and credit ratings agencies who had conflicts of interest.'"

Read The New York Times, Naming Culprits in the Financial Crisis.


UPDATE XIV: As I've said for almost two years now, Goldman Sachs "played a central role in the creation and sale of risky mortgage securities. The report says that Goldman provided billions of dollars in loans to lenders. "Most went to subprime lenders," the report says, adding that Goldman bought $53 billion of subprime loans from these lenders and sold them to investors around the world.

At the same time, Goldman was involved in financial engineering that magnified the bust-allowing investors not only to invest in real mortgages but to speculate on whether other people's mortgages would go up or down. And the bank often bet against investments it created and sold to others. . .

Even as the financial system's problems intensified, the report says, Goldman beat down on one of the most at-risk firms, American International Group, because Goldman was on the line for $14 billion if AIG were to fail. And Goldman pushed AIG to pay it more money than the other banks that did business with AIG were asking for."

Read the Washington Post, Government blames both regulators and financial institutions for economic collapse.


UPDATE XIII: Not only did the taxpayers bailout Government Sacks and the other Banksters, they also got get out of jail free cards. Read The New York Times, In U.S. Bailout of A.I.G., Forgiveness for Big Banks.


UPDATE XII: Goldman Sachs is a criminal racket and should be prosecuted under RICO statutes. Read The New York Times, Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide, which describes how "[b]ets by some of the same banks that helped Greece shroud its mounting debts may actually now be pushing the nation closer to the brink of financial ruin."

BTW, RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, which I think pretty much describes Goldman Sachs.


UPDATE XI: For more on the Goldman skulduggery, read The New York Times, Testy Conflict With Goldman Helped Push A.I.G. to Edge.

You might also read The New York Times, Moving the Deck Chairs, which reviews a book with harsh words for the government's approach to the economic crisis -- “because of the choices that have already been made, not only will the downturn be far longer and deeper than necessary, but also we will emerge from the crisis with a much larger legacy of debt, with a financial system that is less competitive, less efficient and more vulnerable to another crisis. [Instead,] the government should have played by the rules of capitalism and forced a financial reorganization” — conservatorships or the like that would have put the burden of mismanagement and malfeasance on shareholders, managements and bondholders, not the taxpayers.”


UPDATE X: Time for prosecutions, and they should start with the three inseparable friends -- Geithner, Paulson, and Friedman -- who live by the motto "all for Government Sacks, and screw the taxpayers." Read The New York Times, Two at Fed Had Doubts Over Payout by A.I.G.


UPDATE IX: The Banksters had inside help. Read Bloomberg, Geithner’s Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure.

Honestly, does this surprise anyone?

There needs to be a thorough investigation.


UPDATE VIII: For another article chronicling how the Banksters made foobs of us all, read The New York Times, Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won.


UPDATE VII: In the AIG bailout, why did the government pay full face value for nearly worthless contracts? To save Government Sacks from huge losses.

Read The New York Times, Audit Faults New York Fed in A.I.G. Bailout and Reuters, Goldman Was Exposed to AIG Losses: Government Report.

Don't forget that Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was the former CEO of Government Sacks (GS).

And during the bailouts, Stephen Friedman, who was chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, sat on the Board of Directors of GS, owned a lot of GS stock, and as a federal reserve official, helped GS receive speedy approval to become a bank holding company in September to qualify for a $10 billion capital injection soon after. Then, in December and January, he purchased more GS stock.


UPDATE VI: Thank god we saved Government Sacks and the other Banksters:



UPDATE V: Read The New York Times, Paulson’s Calls to Goldman Tested Ethics.

Paulson should be prosecuted for criminal conflict of interest and put in jail, and Goldman Sachs should be declared an instrumentality of and/or proceeds of a crime, and confiscated and sold off.


UPDATE IV: Sad but true:




UPDATE III: Can you say stupid sucker? Read The New York Times, Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts.

The article includes a nice graphic, Big Bank Bonuses, Despite Taxpayer Help, with a list of nine large banks that lost billions last year and received more than $165 billion from the government. These banks then paid over $32 billion in bonuses, with at least 4,793 employees receiving a bonus of at least $1 million.


UPDATE II: How do the Banksters make their money? They have an insider advantage to pick our pockets. Read The New York Times, Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds, the article includes a nice graphic showing how it is done one penny at a time.


UPDATE: "Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America." (From The New York Times, The Joys of Sachs.)

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Unemployment will likely continue to rise. Read the Washington Post, Obama: Unemployment likely to keep ticking up.

But thank God we saved Government Sachs, where the average salary is $600,000. Read The New York Times, For Goldman, a Swift Return to Lofty Profits.

Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. the former CEO of Goldman Sachs thanks you.

And Stephen Friedman, former chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who also sat on the Board of Directors of GS, owned a lot of GS stock, and as a federal reserve official, helped GS receive speedy approval to become a bank holding company in September and a $10 billion capital injection soon after, then in December and January purchased more GS stock, also wants to thank you.

In fact, all the Banksters want to thank you suckers, and ask that you please not read, The New York Times, Chutzpah on Steroids.

Once a foob, always a foob.