http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10164
and Sorkin basically never once offered any refutation to Nobel-prize winning economist (and fellow NY Times writer) Mr. Krugman's assertion, that the BAILOUTS are a monstrosity - a WASTED OPPORTUNITY that has delivered BILLIONS upon HUNDREDS-of-billions of TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO the very Banksters who RUINED America's economy and finanical markets - and that instead of GETTING CREDIT FLOWING, and making sure the TAXPAYER (bailout) funds actual stimulate consumption and production, the Big Bailout Banks have used the money to "Bolster their balance sheets" - something that, had the US Congress known, they would NEVER have approved of either Mr. Paulson or Mr. Obama's BAILOUT requests (demands).
But today Mr. Sorkin pops up at the New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/business/24sorkin.html
in the FAR MORE TRADITIONAL NY Times role: PROPPING UP the NEO-CON TAKEOVER of the world, in this case, making the case that uber-Neo-Con "finanical institution" GOLDMAN-SACHS are the "GOOD GUYS", who are "TRYING TO PAY BACK TAXPAYER DOLLARS in advance of schedule."
Needless to say, Sorkin AND the Times miss YET ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY to delve into GOLDMAN-SACHS ROLE in the WIPING OUT of TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS of INVESTOR VALUE in this economic meltdown.
To repeat from our previous posts - HERE is the NEW YORK TIMES, JOINING Goldman-Sachs, in GLOATING about Goldman's BILLION DOLLAR BONUS CHRISTMAS - of 2006!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/business/12cnd-earn.html
Back then the GHOULISH New York Times REFUSED to CONNECT-the-DOTS on Goldman-Sachs execs GLOATING about THEIR BONUSES - WHILE tens of thousands of American families were ALREADY STARTING TO FACE FORECLOSURE and EVICTION that December of 2006!
Needless to say, NOT ONLY WAS THAT GHOULISH, but it was STUPID - for "MORTGAGES" were the core or base of a HUGE portion of Goldman-Sachs (and other financial firms) OVER-VALUED 'investments' and ASSETS - and when a family home was FORECLOSED on, it was a DOUBLE-WHAMMY against those "financial assets": first, a FAILED MORTGAGE sitting on a bank's books, and, second, ALL THE HOME VALUES in the neighborhood ARE DEPRESSED by the drop in value of the foreclosed home, duh!
THE NEW YORK TIMES was TOO GREEDY, COMPLICIT, and CORRUPT to make the above VERY SIMPLE CONNECTIONS between THE LOOMING FORECLOSURE CRISIS and GOLDMAN-SACHS' insanely greedy, GHOULISH "Billion-dollar" BONUSES of 2006!!
(As if that wasn't bad enough, EVEN by 2006 MUCH of GoldmanSachs' "profits" WERE FAKE - dependent on "BACK-DOOR BAILOUTS" of the Fed __CREATING MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR__ and GIVING IT to their favorite banks, aka "LIQUIDITY INJECTIONS" that had, by March of 2008, deposited ONE TRILLION un-earned dollars in the vaults of those fortunate few banks.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/7483/Fed-Heads-Back-to-the-Well-Will-It-Run-Dry?
This process has NEVER been discussed or explained in detail!
(Even though of course "LIQUIDITY INJECTIONS hit the news every so often - including BEN BERNANKE dishing out ANOTHER $630 BILLION to the large banks
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9MTZEgukPLY
the VERY WEEK that Hank Paulson DEMANDED of Speaker Pelosi and her 110th "Democratic" Congress the $700 BILLION dollars in "front-door" bailouts we are all more familiar with... That is, a total of OVER ONE TRILLION in Taxpayer BAILOUTS of the big banks, from the ONE WEEK of market meltdown in September 2008, alone!)
The above just the prelude or back-history to today's SNARKY NYT/Sorkin story,
"If Goldman Returns Aid, Will Others?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/business/24sorkin.html
Sorkin DOES mention some of the (mega!) concerns about Goldman-Sachs in the first place:
"Goldman’s sudden urgency to return the money stems, in part, from the uproar over A.I.G.’s bonuses last week, and the criticism of Goldman over revelations that the firm had been the largest recipient of government money as a counterparty of bets placed with A.I.G."- but in the VERY NEXT SENTENCE, Sorkin careens at 100 mph AWAY from that teaser his has just waved in front of our noses!
With the INSANELY irrational Obama "financial" camp REFUSING to provide Americans with A SINGLE major AUDIT of a SINGLE bailed-out bank, it is EASY to see why: THE NEW YORK TIMES and GOLDMAN SACHS __DO NOT WANT__ any GOOD financial reporting - MUCH LESS AUDITS!!
WHEN Mr. Rahm Emanuel (President Obama's Head-Skull-Crusher and Gate-keeper, i.e. Chief of Staff) worked with "Chicago boutique INVESTMENT BANK" Wasserstein-Perrella
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/rahm-emanuel-former-investment-banker/
to help arrange a billion-dollar LBO ("LEVEREGED Buy Out" or "MERGER" or "ACQUISTION") of a target company, you may rest assured that Mr. Emanuel and his partners EXAMINED and DISSECTED and INSPECTED and _AUDITED_ -_EVERY DIME_ of that target's company's value and accounting. (duh!) BUT! Acting as agent for AMERICAN TAXPAYERS (in his role in the US GOVERNMENT as Chief of Staff to the President) - Mr. Emanuel DOES NOT BELIEVE that we, the taxpayers, ARE ENTITLED to those same top-to-bottom Accounting or disclosures!!
The OBAMA Administration is __ROBBING American taxpayers__ of TIMELY and ACCURATE AUDITS of this "TRILLIONS OF taxpayer & investor DOLLARS LOST into the ether" Economic wreckage - and THAT is how THE NEW YORK TIMES and GOLDMAN-SACHS WANT IT!
And of course Mr. Sorkin does FLIRT with part of the above "we love secrecy" problem:
< "Goldman would also like to put an end to the whisper campaigns about ties between it and Mr. Paulson (and Timothy F. Geithner, too, for that matter)." >
"WHISPER CAMPAIGN"?? Mr. Paulson was GOLDMAN-SACHS CHAIRMAN for FIVE YEARS, up to the moment just 2 years ago that he became President Bush's TREASURY SECRETARY!! We KNOW that Mr. Paulson's portfolio at Goldman-Sachs (comprised mostly of GS stock) was at one time valued OVER $430 million! (some estimates over half-a-BILLION dollars) amassed in his 15 years there as a trader before becoming Chairman, but we DO NOT know how thoroughly Mr. Pualson DIVESTED his portfolio from GoldmanSachs when he became Bush's Treasury Secretary, and we DO know (thought he insanely corrupt NY Times refuses to discuss it), that VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY _NEVER_ completely DIVESTED his HALLIBURTON stock, even through his entire term as VP Mr. Cheney continued to hold HALLIBURTON DEFERRED STOCK OPTIONS, and Mr. Cheney CONTINUED to HAND HALLIBURTON BILLION-DOLLAR NO BID, NO OVERSIGHT, NO STRINGS ATTACHED contracts to his "former" company!! (Including of course BILLIONS of dollars of post-Katrina "rebuilding" contracts on the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans - even though Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush REFUSED to commission an ENVIRONMENTAL MASTER PLAN for the region that would minimize future disaster impacts, and maximize rediness, planning & infrastructure and infrastructure improvements - and even though the INSANELY CORRUPT NEW YORK TIMES _REFUSES_ to delve into THAT NEW round of government CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE, even after the New Orleans flooding exposed the Bush administration disaster response as incompetent, corrupt, bumbling, if not goulish!)
By detouring into the NEW YORK TIMES (journalistic, if not) criminal COMPLICITY in the LACK OF ENVIRONMENTAL MASTER-PLANNING for post-Katrina New Orleans and Gulf Coast under the Bush administration, we have not even gotten to that OTHER Goldman-Sachs CHAIRMAN, ROBERT RUBINS, PUSHING President Clinton to sign BOTH the GRAMM-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999, AND the "Commodity Futures Modernization Act" of 2000
- both of which were the DEREGULATION MONSTROSITIES which, among other things, led DIRECTLY to the AIG and ENRON BANKKRUPTCIES, if not the Goldman-Sachs, Bear-Stearns, Fannie-Mae, Merrill-Lynch, and other MEGA-BANKRUPTCIES as well!
< "The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, however, put the parent holding company of each of the big American brokerages BEYOND S.E.C. OVERSIGHT. In order for the agreement to go ahead, the investment banks lobbied for a decision that would allow "voluntary" inspection of their parent and subsidiary holdings by the SEC." >
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson
When you have "Democrat" Treasury Secretaris (Lawrence Summers followed Rubins as Clinton's Treasury Secretary, and ALSO supported GLBA, CFMA2000, and other "deregulation" & secrecy agenda items pushed by the big banks) SUPPORTING THE MOST RIGHT-WING of Republican Politicans, in drafting and passing THE MOST RIGHT-WING of "LOOT the village and PLUNDER the villagers" "DEREGULATION" legislation favored by the likes of uber-Right-Wing Republicans PHIL GRAMM, DICK ARMEY, TRENT LOTT, JESSE HELMS, JIM LEACH, Thomas BLILEY, and TOM DeLAY (etc, ad naseum), then those "Democrat" Treasury Secretaries ARE NOT SO "DEMOCRATIC" at all!
NO, Mr. Sorkin, the PROBLEM IS NOT, as you maintain, "that other banks would be FORCED to try to match Goldman-Sachs return of bonus billions" - the PROBLEM is that we STILL have NO IDEA of the FULL ROLE Goldman-Sachs had in creating America's ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, and, worse, THE NEW YORK TIMES has absolutely ZERO MOTIVATION to INFORM American citizens and taxpayers about HOW WE WERE SHOVED into this Crisis!
And "WHY?" would the New York Times be SO INTENTIONALLY DERELICT at explaining to their customers (readers) and America's citizens & leaders the FULL ROLE of GOLDMAN-SACHS and other "financial institutions" in LANDING AMERICA IN THIS CRISIS????
answer: The answer is neatly and tidly provided in the last sentence of Mr. Sorkin's article as it is posted on the New York Times website today:
< The latest news on mergers and acquisitions can be found at nytimes.com/dealbook. >
THE ONLY thing the New York Times cares about, is "MERGERS & ACQUISTIONS" - the ability of GOLDMAN SACHS to LEVERAGE _EVERY LITTLE ADVANTAGE_ they can possibly find - much less the advantage of having a DIRECT LINE to BILLIONS upon BILLIONS upon BILLION upon BILLIONS of government money, whether "FRONT DOOR BAILOUTS," "BACK-DOOR BAILOUTS," FAVORABLE government rulings & contracts, or just plain secret "insider" tips - To BUY UP and OWN _EVERYTHING_ of value in sight, that they can possibly get their hands on!
Even if DRIVING MILLIONS of Ameicans INTO FORECLOSURE, EVICTION,and BANKRUPTCY, and then using GOVERNMENT (taxpayer) BILLIONS to - NOT rescue the economy, but ONCE AGAIN INFLATE Goldman's balance sheet, and then BUY UP DISTRESSED PROPERTIES for PENNIS ON THE DOLLAR - is part of that ghoulish process!
Mr. Sorkin may be COMPLETELY UNAWARES of the ability of Big Banksters to "PROFIT" or take advantage of "BACK-DOOR BAILOUTS" - but his fellow (but NON-FINANCIAL) writer at the Times, Ms. Maureen Dowd, is certainly aware of them:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22dowd.html
<< Goldman Sachs separately got $10 billion in bailout money last year, but recently asserted snootily that it’s doing well enough and doesn’t want our money because of the restrictions attached. Yet as Goldman sneers at the federal money at the front door, it’s taking delivery of billions in no-strings federal money through the back door. >>(Note: Technically Mr. Sorkin does MENTION Goldman-Sachs getting an $11 BILLION dollar chunk of the AIG BAILOUT - but that, of course is only the TIP of the iceberg that Sorkin and the NEW YORK WHORE TIMES happily PRETEND not to notice. And NON-FINANICAL columnist Dowd says it FAR BETTER than anyone at the Times "news" or "financial" or (lol) "reporting" desks:
<< Virtually unnoticed amid the bonus imbroglio was A.I.G.’s grudging disclosure that it had funneled $93 billion — more than half its federal money to date — to its high-flying insurees, including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and a group of European banks. >>
To Repeat, the ONLY thing the NEW YORK TIMES CARES ABOUT is "The OWNERSHIP Society" - the ELITE, TOP-1% "ownership" class. Not only have they (along with President Obama's own former GOLDMAN-SACHS "advisors") HOODWINKED President Obama into ROBBING Americans of a SINGLE FINANICAL AUDIT of so much as a SINGLE, FAILED, fraudulently run, bailed out bank - even of AIG, a company 80% OWNED by taxpayers! - but the Times and Mr. Obama's GOLDMAN-SACHS Bankster team has Mr. Obama thinking about "REFORMING" Social Security too!
IF Mr. Obama were not so misled and ALOOF - bordering on INSANELY ARROGANT, he might read those wiki stories on how the "Commodity Futures 'MODERNIZATION' Act" the "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act," and even the JOE BIDEN sponsored "Credit REFORM Act of 2005" all.. CONTRIBUTED to ECONOMIC FAILURES and, regarding Biden's "MBNA Credit Card Extortion Act of 2005" in particular, led DIRECTLY to the FORECLOSURES that are at the very HEART of this economic crisis.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/12/bankruptcy-refo.html
But of course this column is not about Mr. Obama - it is about ALAN SORKIN and the NEW YORK TIME's efforts to be PART OF THE LOOT, PLUNDER, PILLAGE and RAPE (pension plans) OLIGARCHY / KLEPTOCRACY, which 'real' agenda the NEW YORK TIMES can ONLY foist on their readers - by BEING INTENTIONALLY EVASIVE, DECEPTIVE, SECRETIVE, and CONSPIRATORIALLY LARCENOUS - that is, by being PAID PROFESSIONAL LIARS!
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PS: in yet another example of the New York Times "reporters" NOT reading Mr. Krugman or some of the other NON-Neo-Con editorials right inside the NY Times, FRANK RICH lays out the GROTESQUE FRAUD and double-standards at the heart of the GOLDMAN-SACHS PREDATION of US financial markets -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22rich.html
And here is the fellow Neo-Con PROPAGANDA RAG WASHINGTON POST, admitting "RUBIN, PAULSON, and GEITHNER have a 'shared history' leading to the $300 billion BAILOUTS of CITI bank - the bank that Mr. Rubins went to work for after leaving first leaving Goldman-Sachs to go to Treasury, and then departing Treasury to go to Citi to try to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the VERY Phil Gramm DEREGULATION legislation HE HAD PUSHED so relentlessly for -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112401118_pf.html
THAT IS, PRESIDENT OBAMA's CURRENT lead Economics advisor, was DIRECTLY at the HEART of BOTH DEREGULATION bills, AND the FINANCIAL MELTDOWN of Citi-group - which HAD been "Citi-bank" until Mr. Rubin helped turn it into an OUT OF CONTROL, NO OVERSIGHT, no audits, DERIVATIVES-TRADING financial NIGHTMARE!
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Note: President Obama ADMITS that there is at least SOME _FINANCIAL FRAUD_ in the BAILOUT BILLIONS - but he can NOT be bothered to look for it, he treats FINANICAL COLLAPSE of MILLIONS of American's savings & pensions and investments and home-values as a THROW-AWAY LAUGH on the Jay Leno show! -
(at 2 minutes, Mr. Obama admits that "MOST of what happened is legal" - "MOST" does NOT mean "ALL", and he exhibits NO, Zero interest in PROTECTING AMERICANS from POTENTIAL (what everyone else in America but he knows is MASSIVE) fraud!
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