Wow. He was one of the front man for the repeal of Glass-Stegall, and was probably the pioneer of this type of investment activity (or was it Jamie Dimon who was his CFO/right-hand man for years).
Boy, this runs right up there with Hank G suing his old AIG cronies, probably based on his intimate knowledge of what they were up to, considering he probably led them down that path in the 1st place.
Whether you like the man or not, this was a bold statement and right on the money (no pun intended). By insuring the commercial banking only, we (taxpayers) don’t have to help them when their investment banking heads south. Now, let the nit-picking begin!
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I agree completely. Just pointing out the irony of the people who pioneered the activities that led to the bust (making billions from them along the way) taking these positions now that they are out of the picture.
I say, let them put their money where their mouth is and hand back some of those millions.
The reason I say this is simple: If the government is going to take tax payer dollars to bail out an institution; the people have the right to not allow the institution to exist. When the time comes that the attitude is phuuck-em, let em fail; then I’ll say let them dig their own hole, but if my tax dollars will be needed to bail them out, and I don’t get to share in the profits on the way up, then they shouldn’t have the right to engage in said business activities.
It really is pretty simple TM. These big boys knew the sentiment would be they were too big to fail and the government would come to their rescue if everything went south. They also all had intimate connections with the Federal Government, gave large campaign contributions to make sure they were protected. The Housing bubble was created by government through Freddie/Fannie and perpetuated by all these sheister bankers/investment houses in the name of greed. As usual, the taxpayers got soaked and these guys not only didn’t go to prison, many are now working in the White House. Pretty slick don’t you think?
This is ironic. I agree that the banking system should have better rules and controls over size, acquisition, mergers etc. However, here is a guy who made a billion dollars off of doing what he now thinks is bad. I guess since they can’t take his money away he can tell the truth.
We also bailed out a number of foreign banks when they had exposure to toxic paper being sold by AIG and others. SEC was asleep at the switch and wasn’t monitoring and shutting these schemes down so we have another failure of government to do their job protecting us so we end up get soaked. AIG still owes the taxpayers $80 Billion and I expect at some point Treasury will say they will forgive the remainder. It all stinks to high heaven and no prosecutions to my knowledge for massive fraud. We should include jail time for Barney Frank & Chris Dodd for their involvement in this ponzi scheme.
AIG paid back all its loans, the government still owns about $30B of it’s stock. Expect AIG to buy a third or so of this back, and then the government will sell off the rest, maybe before the end of the year. I don’t think the government will forgive anything, or need to at this point.
Agent, good comment. I agree Barney Frank was the guy who pressured Fanny and Freddie to make loans to people with had no money and could not afford a home they were trying to buy while Dodd was Chair of the banking committee when the economy had a meltdown in 2008. Unfortunately, the uninformed and mentally challenged want to blame it on George Bush. While they are arresting people they may as well pick up Charlie Rangel (tax fraud), Tim Geithner Treasury Secretary (tax cheat) and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi for talking Obama into directing $737 million dollars of federal DOE money to Tonopah Solar Company. The company is located in Reid’s Nevada and Pelosi’s husband is a director and investor. Probably another Solyndra? The shame of it all. Fire them in November!
Sargent, Actually the seeds of the housing bubble were sown clear back to the Clinton years when they were pushing for home ownership for all Americans. Bush signed onto it as well along with RINO’s and Progressive Democrats. They were reaching across the aisle pretty good in those days. Bush then realized there might be a problem and warned Congress 17 times to reign in the activities of Freddie & Fannie and it fell on deaf ears with Barney & Chris Dodd who continued to insist there wasn’t a problem. Along the way, Dodd managed to get a sweetheart deal on his own home from Countrywide who went bust. Frank & Dodd take corruption to a new level and both should be residing next to Madoff, but nothing ever seems to happen to politicians because they know where the bodies are buried and no one will prosecute them. How long has it been since Maxine Waters was accused of corruption for her husband’s bank connections & getting TARP money? They are afraid of being called racists so they sit on their hands.
I should have said that Nancy Pelosi’s Brother in law Ron Pelosi is the PCG(Pacific Corporate Group)executive director and PCG is a huge investor in Tonopah. Shoot- trying to type fast.
I read that this company had a 214,000 sq ft plant outside Las Vegas and employed 300 workers. They had some quality control problems and kept getting their solar panels back because of defects. They obviously didn’t know what they were doing and were uncompetitive so after they burned their way through the loan money, they were toast. I am sick and tired of funding the green agenda and seeing these outfits kick back campaign donations to Obama before collapsing. As recently as last week, Obama went to yet another fundraiser in California and was hob knobbing with the ex Solyndra people who apparently are still bundling for him. Investing in green technology is legalized corruption of the highest scale.
Solyndra, Tonopah, PCG, Ron Pelosi surely there is no patronage here? Don’t you think that maybe, if Obama had directed that money to the Keystone pipeline we might be better off and we would not only have got a return on our tax dollars but it would have been a big job creator and probably had a positive impact on unemployment. Fire them in November.
Sargent, I have seen estimates that doing the Keystone pipeline and granting drilling permits on public land would ultimates create 500,000 well paying permanent jobs while decreasing our dependency on foreign energy which incidentally decreases our balance of payment debt to foreign countries. We have plenty of domestic energy without developing switch grass, biomass, wood chips, algae and using up our corn crop for ethanol which is a joke. Everything made from corn has gone up in price and will continue to do so. Ethanol is inefficiently produced, causes higher prices for fuel and most mechanics will tell you it is very hard on fuel injectors in engines. The President, before he was elected said that under his plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket – Direct Quote. He has fulfilled that promise, hasn’t he? Fire him and the others that are of his ilk in November.
Agent, This just in from the bureau of labor- UNEMPLOYMENT 8.2% NOT counting the 821,000 people who have given up looking for a job. Total unemployed 12.7 Million people or 1 in 7.
For unemployed and underemployed (those looking but have only found part time work) is I believe 14 million, and 23.4 million in total-
I guess that $1 trillion stimulus package in 2009 really worked hey Barry?
Sargent, I have seen figures like this. I never trust the Administration’s Labor Dept numbers on unemployment because they will parse the numbers to make themselves look as good as possible. It is getting harder for them to spin their way out of an economy growing at 1.5%. If the economy was anywhere close to normal, it would be 6-7% growth and 200,000+ new jobs created each month. I saw on the net that Spain’s true unemployment was 23.4%. Oops! France instituted a 75% tax on their rich. I’m sure that will spur economic activity. When Europe implodes as it is sure to do, our economy will suffer as well. All of these European countries in the throws of deep recession adopted the same Progressive nonsense that Obama wants to do here. Massive spending cannot achieve prosperity and entitlements will eat a countries lunch over time.
One of the more chilling reports was last month when only 85,000 jobs were created nationwide in a country of 320 million or so. An almost identical number applied for Social Security Disability. That appears to be the next scam by the freeloaders who don’t want to work and have run out of their 99 weeks. They figure they can ride the Social Security gravy train the rest of their useless lives.
Agent,
I agree that honesty in this administration is somewhat suspect. I guess that transparency promise was just a campaign gimmick he made but did not mean it. Even if the reported numbers are fudged the reported data is bad, real bad considering his promise that if we spend a billion dollars on the 2009 stimulus package, the unemployment rate would go down under 8% in 2010. As I said this administration hires based on a high nincomepoop factor.
The new normal for this government is 40 straight months of above 8% unemployment which is really close to 20% if you count all those who have given up looking and the ones doing part time work because there are no full time jobs for them. The spin doctors out there keep saying the economy is doing better. The President actually said the private sector is doing “fine”. He is obviously from a different planet. Remember when they said we were out of the recession? I would argue this country has never gotten out of the recession despite the trillion dollar stimulus that created only a few temporary government jobs and no shovel ready type jobs.
I was with Travelers Insurance, Travelers Group, and then Citi Group for 16+ yrs and remember well the arguments Mr. Weill made to the regulators as to why the Travelers/Citi merger should be permitted. In short, he argued that if the US did not adopt the “Universal Bank” model that the Eurozone had embraced, US banks and financial institutions would not be able to compete in the global financial marketplace.
Having experienced the global financial crisis, it appears that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act was obviously a huge mistake. I am pleased to hear that Mr. Weill has had a change of heart and is willing to speak publically about separating investment banks from commercial/retail banks.
It’s hard for some people to admit mistakes. It must have been extremely difficult for Mr. Weill to admit publically that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was a mistake, especially after witnessing the enormous devastation that has occured as a result.
Former, as a Travelers agent, we were glad when Travelers separated from Citi. That was not a marriage made in heaven. Travelers would have been ruined since Citi has had numerous problems and they would have been robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Wow. He was one of the front man for the repeal of Glass-Stegall, and was probably the pioneer of this type of investment activity (or was it Jamie Dimon who was his CFO/right-hand man for years).
Boy, this runs right up there with Hank G suing his old AIG cronies, probably based on his intimate knowledge of what they were up to, considering he probably led them down that path in the 1st place.
Whether you like the man or not, this was a bold statement and right on the money (no pun intended). By insuring the commercial banking only, we (taxpayers) don’t have to help them when their investment banking heads south. Now, let the nit-picking begin!
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I agree completely. Just pointing out the irony of the people who pioneered the activities that led to the bust (making billions from them along the way) taking these positions now that they are out of the picture.
I say, let them put their money where their mouth is and hand back some of those millions.
Too big to fail = Too big to exist
The reason I say this is simple: If the government is going to take tax payer dollars to bail out an institution; the people have the right to not allow the institution to exist. When the time comes that the attitude is phuuck-em, let em fail; then I’ll say let them dig their own hole, but if my tax dollars will be needed to bail them out, and I don’t get to share in the profits on the way up, then they shouldn’t have the right to engage in said business activities.
It really is pretty simple TM. These big boys knew the sentiment would be they were too big to fail and the government would come to their rescue if everything went south. They also all had intimate connections with the Federal Government, gave large campaign contributions to make sure they were protected. The Housing bubble was created by government through Freddie/Fannie and perpetuated by all these sheister bankers/investment houses in the name of greed. As usual, the taxpayers got soaked and these guys not only didn’t go to prison, many are now working in the White House. Pretty slick don’t you think?
This is ironic. I agree that the banking system should have better rules and controls over size, acquisition, mergers etc. However, here is a guy who made a billion dollars off of doing what he now thinks is bad. I guess since they can’t take his money away he can tell the truth.
We also bailed out a number of foreign banks when they had exposure to toxic paper being sold by AIG and others. SEC was asleep at the switch and wasn’t monitoring and shutting these schemes down so we have another failure of government to do their job protecting us so we end up get soaked. AIG still owes the taxpayers $80 Billion and I expect at some point Treasury will say they will forgive the remainder. It all stinks to high heaven and no prosecutions to my knowledge for massive fraud. We should include jail time for Barney Frank & Chris Dodd for their involvement in this ponzi scheme.
AIG paid back all its loans, the government still owns about $30B of it’s stock. Expect AIG to buy a third or so of this back, and then the government will sell off the rest, maybe before the end of the year. I don’t think the government will forgive anything, or need to at this point.
Agent, good comment. I agree Barney Frank was the guy who pressured Fanny and Freddie to make loans to people with had no money and could not afford a home they were trying to buy while Dodd was Chair of the banking committee when the economy had a meltdown in 2008. Unfortunately, the uninformed and mentally challenged want to blame it on George Bush. While they are arresting people they may as well pick up Charlie Rangel (tax fraud), Tim Geithner Treasury Secretary (tax cheat) and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi for talking Obama into directing $737 million dollars of federal DOE money to Tonopah Solar Company. The company is located in Reid’s Nevada and Pelosi’s husband is a director and investor. Probably another Solyndra? The shame of it all. Fire them in November!
Sargent, Actually the seeds of the housing bubble were sown clear back to the Clinton years when they were pushing for home ownership for all Americans. Bush signed onto it as well along with RINO’s and Progressive Democrats. They were reaching across the aisle pretty good in those days. Bush then realized there might be a problem and warned Congress 17 times to reign in the activities of Freddie & Fannie and it fell on deaf ears with Barney & Chris Dodd who continued to insist there wasn’t a problem. Along the way, Dodd managed to get a sweetheart deal on his own home from Countrywide who went bust. Frank & Dodd take corruption to a new level and both should be residing next to Madoff, but nothing ever seems to happen to politicians because they know where the bodies are buried and no one will prosecute them. How long has it been since Maxine Waters was accused of corruption for her husband’s bank connections & getting TARP money? They are afraid of being called racists so they sit on their hands.
I should have said that Nancy Pelosi’s Brother in law Ron Pelosi is the PCG(Pacific Corporate Group)executive director and PCG is a huge investor in Tonopah. Shoot- trying to type fast.
I read that this company had a 214,000 sq ft plant outside Las Vegas and employed 300 workers. They had some quality control problems and kept getting their solar panels back because of defects. They obviously didn’t know what they were doing and were uncompetitive so after they burned their way through the loan money, they were toast. I am sick and tired of funding the green agenda and seeing these outfits kick back campaign donations to Obama before collapsing. As recently as last week, Obama went to yet another fundraiser in California and was hob knobbing with the ex Solyndra people who apparently are still bundling for him. Investing in green technology is legalized corruption of the highest scale.
Solyndra, Tonopah, PCG, Ron Pelosi surely there is no patronage here? Don’t you think that maybe, if Obama had directed that money to the Keystone pipeline we might be better off and we would not only have got a return on our tax dollars but it would have been a big job creator and probably had a positive impact on unemployment. Fire them in November.
Sargent, I have seen estimates that doing the Keystone pipeline and granting drilling permits on public land would ultimates create 500,000 well paying permanent jobs while decreasing our dependency on foreign energy which incidentally decreases our balance of payment debt to foreign countries. We have plenty of domestic energy without developing switch grass, biomass, wood chips, algae and using up our corn crop for ethanol which is a joke. Everything made from corn has gone up in price and will continue to do so. Ethanol is inefficiently produced, causes higher prices for fuel and most mechanics will tell you it is very hard on fuel injectors in engines. The President, before he was elected said that under his plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket – Direct Quote. He has fulfilled that promise, hasn’t he? Fire him and the others that are of his ilk in November.
Agent, This just in from the bureau of labor- UNEMPLOYMENT 8.2% NOT counting the 821,000 people who have given up looking for a job. Total unemployed 12.7 Million people or 1 in 7.
For unemployed and underemployed (those looking but have only found part time work) is I believe 14 million, and 23.4 million in total-
I guess that $1 trillion stimulus package in 2009 really worked hey Barry?
Sargent, I have seen figures like this. I never trust the Administration’s Labor Dept numbers on unemployment because they will parse the numbers to make themselves look as good as possible. It is getting harder for them to spin their way out of an economy growing at 1.5%. If the economy was anywhere close to normal, it would be 6-7% growth and 200,000+ new jobs created each month. I saw on the net that Spain’s true unemployment was 23.4%. Oops! France instituted a 75% tax on their rich. I’m sure that will spur economic activity. When Europe implodes as it is sure to do, our economy will suffer as well. All of these European countries in the throws of deep recession adopted the same Progressive nonsense that Obama wants to do here. Massive spending cannot achieve prosperity and entitlements will eat a countries lunch over time.
One of the more chilling reports was last month when only 85,000 jobs were created nationwide in a country of 320 million or so. An almost identical number applied for Social Security Disability. That appears to be the next scam by the freeloaders who don’t want to work and have run out of their 99 weeks. They figure they can ride the Social Security gravy train the rest of their useless lives.
Agent,
I agree that honesty in this administration is somewhat suspect. I guess that transparency promise was just a campaign gimmick he made but did not mean it. Even if the reported numbers are fudged the reported data is bad, real bad considering his promise that if we spend a billion dollars on the 2009 stimulus package, the unemployment rate would go down under 8% in 2010. As I said this administration hires based on a high nincomepoop factor.
The new normal for this government is 40 straight months of above 8% unemployment which is really close to 20% if you count all those who have given up looking and the ones doing part time work because there are no full time jobs for them. The spin doctors out there keep saying the economy is doing better. The President actually said the private sector is doing “fine”. He is obviously from a different planet. Remember when they said we were out of the recession? I would argue this country has never gotten out of the recession despite the trillion dollar stimulus that created only a few temporary government jobs and no shovel ready type jobs.
I was with Travelers Insurance, Travelers Group, and then Citi Group for 16+ yrs and remember well the arguments Mr. Weill made to the regulators as to why the Travelers/Citi merger should be permitted. In short, he argued that if the US did not adopt the “Universal Bank” model that the Eurozone had embraced, US banks and financial institutions would not be able to compete in the global financial marketplace.
Having experienced the global financial crisis, it appears that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act was obviously a huge mistake. I am pleased to hear that Mr. Weill has had a change of heart and is willing to speak publically about separating investment banks from commercial/retail banks.
It’s hard for some people to admit mistakes. It must have been extremely difficult for Mr. Weill to admit publically that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was a mistake, especially after witnessing the enormous devastation that has occured as a result.
Former, as a Travelers agent, we were glad when Travelers separated from Citi. That was not a marriage made in heaven. Travelers would have been ruined since Citi has had numerous problems and they would have been robbing Peter to pay Paul.