Live and in living color, (where available) it’s the most intense nightly read anywhere on the net today… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble.
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- GOLDMAN-SACHS CHOSEN TO BE THE SCAPE-GOAT: I note by way of the WSJ [2]a story you’ve all noted over the weekend:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.—one of the few Wall Street titans to thrive during the financial crisis—was charged with deceiving clients by selling them mortgage securities secretly designed by a hedge-fund firm run by John Paulson, who made a killing betting on the housing market’s collapse.Goldman vigorously denied the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil charges, setting up the biggest clash between Wall Street and regulators since junk-bond king Drexel Burnham Lambert succumbed to a criminal insider-trading investigation in the 1980s, helping to define the era. “The SEC’s charges are completely unfounded in law and fact,” Goldman said in a statement, promising to “contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.”
The civil charges against Goldman and one of its star traders, 31-year-old Fabrice Tourre, represent the government’s strongest attack yet on the Wall Street dealmaking that preceded, and some say precipitated, the financial crisis that gripped the nation and the world. Goldman’s shares fell 13%, one of the steepest slides since the firm went public in 1999, erasing some $12 billion of market capitalization.
The SEC lawsuit likely strengthens the position of President Barack Obama as he tries to push financial-overhaul legislation through Congress. He vowed Friday to veto any version of the bill that doesn’t bring the derivatives market “under control.”
Yeah, I just bet. Doctor Bainbridge is equally cynical, here. [3]
“It was inevitable that the government would go after one of the big investment banks for their conduct during the run up to the credit crisis. Someone must be thrown to the lions so that the polis are distracted from the role their government played in the fiasco.” But he rounds up reactions from three others who think the SEC has a pretty solid case here. Which seems reasonable enough, in that the SEC gets to choose its cases and isn’t likely to go after an adversary with enormously deep pockets unless it thinks it can win.
That’s right, I think. Frankly, it isn’t necessary for the SEC to win this one , for the point to be made. This is strictly for show. A win is not needed for the political goal to be served. Those goals being both the upping the weak polls and as the WSJ points out, granting the government more power.
The left in this country for years has been making the case that deregulating the banks is what caused the financial collapse. That the banks were wholly responsible for that collapse. The fact of the matter was, and remains, that none of the current credit crisis or the bank’s responses to it would’ve been possible or even likely without the government’s actions in trying to provide loans to people who couldn’t afford them. You know the group were talking about; people likely to vote Democrat. The object now is to pin the blame on somebody other than governmental actors. You can blame greed if you like, but why not include Democrats trying to buy votes on someone else’s money? Doesn’t that qualify as greed? I’d say it does. Why is it the left figures government types aren’t greedy? Are they really that foolish?
- AND BY THE WAY…. Should we mention that the fund manager there is a major Democrat party contributor? [4]Now of course, the manager of the fund that supposedly defrauded everyone there, isn’t being charged at all in any of this. Yep… nothing to see here, America. Go on about your puny lives and the Democrats will take care of all of this mess.
- GOP STILL NOT GETTING THE MESSAGE: [5]I think Andrew Klavan is right here. [5] I really wish he wasn’t.
- NO CHANCE OF OPPOSING VOICES: The Obama administration is taking great care these days to silence as much as possible anyone who could possibly oppose him. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone to find out that the speech he made at NASA the other day, was made to an audience filled with absolutely zero NASA workers. [6] Go ahead. Tell me he’s not still in campaign mode. I, for one, don’t question the importance of space exploration. I do have to say though, that this handling of NASA employees strikes me as highly smelly, highly political, and alarmingly average for this administration.
- ARREST RECORDS: I’m willing to bet that there haven’t been a total of 25 arrests of Tea Party members, in all the Tea Party gatherings to date. Yet, Andy Stearns SEIU… you know, the union that so closely connected to the occupant of the White House tries to put a protest together over in Columbus, and look what happens. [7] The unions in this country have come down to the level of organized thuggery, which has not been seen since the mob wars in Obama’s claimed hometown of Chicago. Do the math, people.
- SPEAKING OF THE TEA PARTY: Rick Moran has a great column up [8] that should be on your reading list for today.