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March 12, 2009

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kim

Hey, nationalize it. There's a solution.
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kim

Surely it's good for the economy to make his investors whole with taxpayer money. Stimulate those investers. Yeah, that's the tikket.
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kim

And free Bernie to let him work his magic. We need these special bubblers, now more than ever.

Oh, wait, all those Tontos working for the Lone Ranger are still out there. I feel better now.
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verner

I don't care, his wife, his kids , his cousins, and even the family dog all need to serve very hard time in some dark filthy prison where the sun doesn't shine.

That's what would happen to them if the knocked of a 711.

They have ruined thousands of lives. they need to suffer. Public humiliation isn't enough.

verner

make that "they knocked off"

Jane

I'm having a hard time distinguishing between what Madoff did to a bunch of people and what government is attempting to do to all the people - at least the unelected ones.

Rick Ballard

Prosecutors have absolutely no need to present the Madoff family with the prisoner's dilemma. Non-family members who were long time employees of the felonious clan's enterprise would appear to be in a position to confront the dilemma and make very rational choices. No family help needed.

That is, if clan employees are allowed to do so by Chuckie Schumer's buddies in the SDNY office responsible for pursuing the matter. I'm not sure that Schumer's SDNY has the ethical foundation to shrug off Chuckie's pressure. With Mary Schapiro carefully shoveling kitty litter over the problem at the SEC, this may wind up in the 'unsolved mystery' file next to the IRS case on Charlie Rangel.

matt

this stinks of coverup. A simple guilty plea will never allow the entire scam to be studied and analyzed through the discovery process. Who else was involved? Where did $50 Billion disappear to? Whose pockets were lined?

interested party

Does anyone know if,or how much Madoff gave to the Obama Campaign---just asking.

Aubrey

I can't believe there's not going to be a blizzard of civil action to recover whatever there is to recover.

MayBee

Hold on to your hats, because Robert Gibbs just said Obama is going to be talking about the stock market this afternoon.

verner

interested party, I would imagine that payoffs were handled through a yet unknown third party. I'm sure the Holder Justice department will be right on it!!

hit and run

Maybee:
Hold on to your hats, because Robert Gibbs just said Obama is going to be talking about the stock market this afternoon.

Oh great. And it was looking like a pretty damn good day, too.

You know, this is the headline intended to explain why the market is up today: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/news/topnews;_ylt=ArlvkeefyaKOYCmKycSD.r.7YWsA/*http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090312/wall_street.html>"Market Extends Rally After GE Rating Cut Not as Deep as Expected; Dow Up 200- AP"

But surely this helps in its own way: http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu7OhXrlJtuIAG8JXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBza212ZjZiBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA0gxODdfOTU-/SIG=12mv87cm8/EXP=1236971553/**http%3a//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090312/pl_nm/us_usa_stimulus_pelosi_1>"Pelosi dampens idea of second stimulus"

But can either or both be enough to overcome O?

Enlightened

Maybe Bambi needs to talk about the Treasury Department before he goes all spider-teleprompting about the NYSE...

Politco reports -
"Withdrawal from consideration
ABC REPORTS: Dem sources say that H. Rodgin Cohen, candidate for Deputy Treasury Secretary, has withdrawn.

hit and run

Not to worry, Enlightened, Andrea Mitchell says that http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/11/andrea-mitchell-pleads-gu_n_174047.html>she's to blame for Obama's nominee woes.

When Barney Frank said this...

"It is the overfocus on the part of people in the media to relatively minority infractions that causes it ... we are in a culture now where a lack of perfection exacts too strong a tone, but that's the politicians reacting to the media."

Mitchell said this:

"I take your point, Mr. Frank, Mr. Chairman. You're right, and we plead guilty because this culture right now of gotcha has gotten completely out of control."

Where's JMH?!?!?!?!

Not Hot!: Accountability Journalism

Old Lurker

Matt, we will eventually find that the top figure ($50B now said to be $65B) is the value of the accounts including the "accrued earnings" (which were fake, since we are told there were no trades in at least the last ten years). Some of the lawyers involved estimate that the actual cash contributed was closer to $20B and some say as low as $10B, and the difference between that number and the top number is what the investors thought they had earned and left in the accounts. About $1B is left. Since many of the account holders withdrew cash over the years, much (most???) of the cash contributed will have gone to repay those withdrawls. Some will have gone for office rent and expenses. The gap left is what fed the lavish lifestyles of Maddoff and also probably some of the middlemen (to the extent they front end loaded some of the placement costs and then took oversight fees...even if those were legit at the time, they were huge). If you create a simple spreadsheet of fifteen columns and make up numbers for the deductions above, it is real easy for alleged 15% returns compounded to soak up most of the numbers involved.

All really really evil, of course. But it explains why there will never be found a secret safe with $50B in it.

PS, another lesson of that little exercise, relevant to the political debate, is how much real money is in a billion or two here and there. Now try that with a TRILLION!

PeterUK

"I don't care, his wife, his kids , his cousins, and even the family dog all need to serve very hard time in some dark filthy prison where the sun doesn't shine."


The dog is innocent!

MayBee

Politico releases some excerpts from this afternoon's planned speech:

“Instead, we must build this recovery on a foundation that lasts – on a 21st century infrastructure and a green economy with lower health care costs that creates millions of new jobs and new industries; on schools that prepare our children to compete and thrive; on businesses that are free to invest in the next big idea or breakthrough discovery.

“We cannot wait to build this foundation. Putting off these investments for another four years or eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point.

I believe it is the Obamas' failure to find a puppy that has led us to this point.

bad

Not Hot: Andrea Mitchell

PaulV

I suspect Bernie may have acted alone.He reported constant year to year returns. If he had help he could have some variation in returns. Returns would still be unreal, but not as transparently bogus.

hit and run

Captain Bullshit:

“We cannot wait to build this foundation. Putting off these investments for another four years or eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point.

Though to be fair, using the language from the campaign, Obama's language, he really wasn't far off from what he should say now:

"America cannot afford four more years of the same failed policies of the past eight years weeks!"

bad

Madoff is described as very cool and unflappable in court.

That description is so familiar.....

narciso

Seriously find that puppy, the other one has already made quite a mess; 'green economy, with wind and solar,' lower health care, means less technology and less attention to the vulnerable, so there's that. Why would business dare invest, if they're going to get penalized one hundred
ways from Sunday for their trouble

Enlightened

Was it here that someone pointed out that Bambi's teleprompters are positioned one to the left, and the other to the right? So that his head is always moving to one side or the other, and he never makes direct eye contact with anyone?

I tell ya, ever since I read that - whenever I have the misfortune of stumbling onto one of his sermons - that is all I see now - Head to the right, head to the Left. It's hysterical - I swear one of these days Rahmbini is going to screw up and forget to have the puppet strings coated so they stay almost invisible.

I bet Trey Parker and Matt Stone could have field day with that.

bad

Obama:

"While middle-class families have been playing by the rules, living up to their responsibilities as neighbors and citizens, those at the commanding heights of our economy have not."

Just how badly was he treated by the rich kids at that chi-chi school in Hawaii?

Responsibility is the new buzz word. It must have focus tested really well.


kim

He's still badly missing the point; it is his crazed policies, particularly in energy and healthcare, and his continued demonization of the investor class, that has spooked capital.

This is just more demagogic campaigning, and won't bring any money back into the market that has already left it.

I don't know about today, but I'll bet the market drops tomorrow. No, I won't bet, I'll just blather.
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MayBee

I'm listening to his speech.

It is his goal to paint the stock market as it was as a bubble, and to establish the current market as a new foundation upon which "real" wealth is going to be built.

bad

WSJ:

When Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to "stay out of it," he says.

The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank.

Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited's executives and criticized its government regulators during congressional hearings. Last fall, she helped secure the bank a meeting with Treasury officials.

Ethics, transparency, accountability, responsibility... ain't it the life....

LUN

bgates

While middle-class families have been playing by the rules, living up to their responsibilities as neighbors and citizens, those at the commanding heights of our economy have not.

Maybe that's why Wright's parishioners were told to disavow the pursuit of middleclassness, so they didn't get taken for suckers.

MayBee

It is also important to him that companies are free to invest in good (green) jobs.
He definitely wants to point businesses in one direction.

He sounds really scoldy. I bet these business leaders can't believe this guy who has never run (or worked in) a business is their new school principal.

Enlightened

Oh Gawd I am really starting to love Jake Tapper...it might be me, but I think he likes to push Gibb's buttons....

He totally did an end-around on him today -

JT pointed out Bambi saying the other day that the Reps are a party of "no ideas"...and then JT said "well didn't Bambi say in Janaury that the Reps presented lots of ideas for the stimulus and he(Bambi) said they aren't all crazy ideas" and then after Gibbs tried to explain through the art of stuttering and stammering that indeed, some GOP ideas were included, JT finishes off with: "But I thought Bambi said they were the party of no ideas?"

Go read it....this is good stuff. LUN

MayBee

The WH was really smart to schedule this speech after the markets closed.

bad

More WSJ:

The financial-services committee on which Ms. Waters sits oversees banking issues, and the lawmaker is a potential future chairman.

Excuse me while I go rope and chain myself at the prospect.

MayBee

"I am a firm believer in the ability of the free market to create prosperity...equally...across the board"

matt

thanks Lurker. Interesting analysis.

I still want to know how he got away with it for so long. Eventually Ponzi schemes fall apart, but for 40 years? Who were their auditors and outside accountants? I'll bet they're now working for the administration.

MayBee

"We were engaging in an unsustainable model for a very long time. The bill is now due."

See...the old wealth was a bubble.
Once we "invest" in education and healthcare and green jobs, then the real wealth building will begin.

PeterUK

"Bambi's teleprompters are positioned one to the left, and the other to the right? So that his head is always moving to one side or the other, and he never makes direct eye contact with anyone?"


Obama has a squint.

kim

Maybee, he's just whack. His schemes will retard business growth, and business understands it. With a G20 planning meeting this weekend, which won't go well, I'm predicting falling markets early next week.
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kim

His schemes are a prescription for real poverty. Some one draw him aside and tell him. Watch it be Congressmen.
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Enlightened

Again from Tapper:

"The administration is not here to win a popularity contest among economists that are interviewed by a newspaper," Gibbs responded. "The president has great confidence in his (ONE)economic team (member)"

MayBee

We have a moral obligation in a country this wealthy that we don't have single moms that can't afford to send their children to the doctor.

The path we're on is unsustainable. If we have a growth in the rate of health care costs every year, we'll be broke.
We need to figure out how to make it run more efficiently.
The cost issue is the big driver* in this whole debate.
Prevention, reimbursement structure, medical liability**, IT.


The resistance isn't based on evidence, it's based on their interest.
We want Congress to see some of the contradictions in their own positions and sort through some of those tensions.***

*true
**good
***yeah, that's what Congress is going to do

He's also trying to repaint what he's doing right now as long term planning, and can't believe some people are criticizing him for it.

kim

Gibbs is revelatory. It's not that he's not popular with economists, it's that they think he is wrong. Big difference, and one that seems to go right over the heads of Gibbs and Obama. It is his fatal flaw.
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Jane

"The president has great confidence in his (ONE)economic team (member)"

Tapper does a great rope-a-dope on Gibbs today, I agree. He, like his boss, is a joke.

Enlightened

Hmmm. Cliff Kincaid is challenging Bambi to re-open a Weather Underground case?

"Kincaid also urged President Barack Obama to urge the Justice Department and the FBI to "gather all the evidence available in this case."

"He himself said that he deplored the despicable acts of the Weather Underground," Kincaid said. "Well, this is a chance to prove it.”

Interesting.

Bambi, pondering whilst smoking in the boys room-"Should I re-open this case? Or might that link me unfavroably to Ayers? Or should I just have Bush tried for war crimes?" Hmmmmmmm......which one will get me more teleprompter time?Hmmmmm.....

kim

Substituting long term planning for short term action. What a putz. And he seems utterly unconscious of the fact that lots of people don't like his long term planning.

He's in a bubble and we are going to suffer for his ignorance and intransigence.
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kim

Re-opening scrutiny on the Weather Underground is going to find a co-incidence of interests between the WU and Obama in the early '80's over apartheit. Yes, let's turn over a few rocks. Maybe someone already has.
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bad

We have a moral obligation in a country this wealthy that we don't have single moms that can't afford to send their children to the doctor.

Translation: My own single mother was on foodstamps and couldn't afford to remove this big-ass mole on my face. The rich kids all made fun of me. Now I can't remove it 'cause it would look vain and a poor use of resources. Damn media...

bad

"I am a firm believer in the ability of the free market to create prosperity...equally...across the board"

That's just bull. I used to be capable of creating prosperity for my family and now I'm not. Neither the freemarket nor the govt. is capable of creating wealth through me at the rate equal to which Mr. bad can. Facts....

PeterUK

"My own single mother was on foodstamps and couldn't afford to remove this big-ass mole on my face. The rich kids all made fun of me."

Plus the disadvantage of a private school,a grandmother who was a Bank VP and a mother studying for a Phd.

bad

PUK, don't confuse us with facts, we're talking about feelings here.

TCO

I already bet that the kids were in on it. And Kim pussies and the like disputed it. Fucking liberal maggots. Don't know shit about Adam Smith. Bunch of Keynsian faggots.

boris

Musta caught your blow up doll with another sailor.

PeterUK

Either that or caught his lip in his zip.

bgates

The path we're on is unsustainable. If we have a growth in the rate of health care costs every year, we'll be broke.

Absolutely right, though I've never seen "government" spelled "health care" before.

kim

Once again with the unsupported statements, TCO. Show me where I disputed that the kids were in on it. You are developing a huge credibility problem.

I think you are just confused, and that is a shame. I know you can think, but you cannot forever get away with saying things that aren't so.
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matt

The unsustainable model Obama refers to was the rampant greed and amorality at the top, and which includes Pelosi, Boxer, Kerry, Madoff, Corzine, and all the other scumbuckets using insider trading and captive boards of directors to rape their investors and customers. You can throw Romney into that mix as well, by the way. His conduct at Bain was the same.

If I was to pick the day it all got out of hand, I think that Eisner's utterly hypocritical $200 Million bonus in 1991 is a good one. At that point, they all started to try and get away with more and more outrageous conduct.

PD

We have a moral obligation in a country this wealthy that we don't have single moms that can't afford to send their children to the doctor.

Translation: Let's subsidize single motherhood so we get more of it.

sbw

We have a moral obligation in a country this wealthy that we don't have single moms that can't afford to send their children to the doctor.

Odd, I thought the horrifying interpretation was that these people wanted to do away with single moms.

PeterUK

"TCO. You are developing a huge credibility problem."

TCO began with a huge credibility problem,it was downhill from there on.

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Wilson/Plame