We need to pay attention to Wall Street theft! This is one issue that actually unites the populist progressives with populist tea-baggers, as well as "regular" folks who are not politically engaged but who sense there is something terribly wrong with the economy. This is bigger than any other issue (even healthcare). The broader economy and jobs are THE issue for most Americans, and the financial system sucking life out of the rest of the economy (with a implicit/explit government subsidies) directly impacts the broader economy more than anything.
Video from MSNBC this morning after the flip
Although the more partisan progressive blogosphere like the DailyKos community has not payed as much attention to Ratigan and the Wall Street theft, the broader progressive community, especially over at the Huffington Post, has paid alot of attention. Ratigan has been getting significant attention and fairly high profile blog posts over at the HuffingtonPost including one today that just came out.
Here is the Goldman, Sachs & Co. revenue break down for the past 3 months:
Financial Advisory-M/A: 325 million.
Equity Underwriting: 363 million.
Debt Underwriting: 211 million.
Trading-Principal Investments: 10 billion.
Notice that 10 billion is much bigger than two or three hundred million made from the traditional Wall Street businesses.
The "trading" is basically their internal "hedge-fund like" activity that they use to gamble, with of course near 0% interest rates from the government, and also an implicit guarentee that the Gov will bail them out if anything goes wrong. Ratigan continues
That $10 billion is evidence of their magic trick. For we the taxpayer gave Goldman Sachs the following:
10 Billion in TARP
11 Billion from the Fed
30 Billion from the FDIC
13 Billion from AIG
For a grand total of $70 Billion (Goldman along with every other bank and AIG would have been defunct without this money).
Goldman at the apex of the crisis is delivered this money -- which they then use to borrow against at $20 or $30 for every $1. Which at 30x equals $2.1 trillion in available capital.
As one of the only banks in the world with money at the time, Goldman Sachs was able to buy billions in distressed assets around the world at record low prices -- only to watch $23.7 trillion in US taxpayer money be deployed during the past year to re-inflate the asset's values that Goldman had purchased with our tax money.
The question is not why did we bail out the banks.
The question is why did we give the banks billions of our money so they could then buy assets by the trillions with our money and they keep the profits?
That's right. All this free money from not only Paulson/Bush, but also Geithner, and let's be honest, Obama has continued these policies in his admin. What gets me so irked is that the banking lobby gets one of the most generous forbearance/welfare packages in history (basically theft), and they repay the Obama Administration by having their shills like Larry Kudlow and others claim they are "socialist", or "government interfering with private enterprise". GIVE ME A BREAK! This has been no strings attached money, and what did the Obama Admin get in return from Wall Street? NOTHING! NADA! Nothing! Wall Street is fighting financial re-regulation tooth and nail, using every dirty trick in the book.
Unbelievable.
Accompanying the video DYLAN RATIGAN was on FIRE this morning and is shown in this video! that you all should watch. VERY VERY FUNNY
UPDATE
WOW! I'm so flatered to be on the reccomended list so early in my blogging career. I'm in the early stages of an informal Finance/Econ blog i'm putting together:
http://spillovereffects.blogspot.com/
Few points i want to make
- Ratigan may not be an orthodox progressive, ( I would call him more of a "Teddy Rossevelt Reform moderate") but there in much in him that progressives should find common cause with. He is one of the few people that can make the case on why the current financial system is so toxic to the broader economy. He makes this case better than even Rachel, Keith, Big Eddie, Ariana Huffington, and other great progressive voices. And because he wanted to make this case against wall street, it's probably why he left CNBC.
Some must watch video from him recently:
Legendary Interview with Spitzer talking about the Fed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Fantastic interview with Michael Moore on the Today show this week
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Great stuff on his term "Corporate Communism"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
- Progressives need to call out the Obama/Summers/Geithner/Bernake team on their continued coddling of Wall Street. My statement on "Kos Ignores" is more about some of the partisan progressive community going easy on the Obama Admin. There is tremendous anger out there on the looting by Wall Street (including the Tea Bagger anger) that leaders of all stripes ignore at their own peril. My greatest fear is that while activists on the Left and right battle each other (OFA/progressive activists vs Republicans/Tea Baggers) over smaller issues, the Wall Street establisment theives loot the country and laugh all the way to their Yachts. WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN
- URGENT ACTION ITEM
A great place where this Left/Right Alliance vs the Centrist Establismnet is taking hold is on the "Audit the Fed" movement taking place. Ron Paul, Kucinich and Grayson pushing it in the House, but in the Senate the road is tougher, but is being lead by Bernie Sanders and Jim Demint (!). Now if THAT is not an unorthodox coalition, i don't know what is!
Call your Senator and tell them to support the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009