Archive for April, 2010

I don’t expect Lloyd Blankfein to say anything this Tuesday before the Senate’s Permanent Investigations Subcommittee that we haven’t already heard from Tobacco, Enron, and Blackwater executives. They always claim to be as pure as the driven snow, and to be just as “frustrated” by the situation as the public, and if we just weed… »

The massive trading and swapping of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and other abstractions cooked up by the fertile minds of sociopathic Wall Street “traders” not only did nothing to lubricate the real economy through financial intermediation, but they helped bring down the entire system and cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
The role of the… »

In 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, Simon Johnson and James Kwak point out that in September 2008 the high-flying masters of the universe were at their weakest point and had no choice but to do whatever the government demanded of them. Never mind the supreme irony of Wall Street… »

Thanks to the resourceful dumpster diving of two CSU, Stanislaus students, Alicia Lewis and Ashli Briggs, the public was finally able to get a glimpse behind the curtain of Sarah Palin Land. Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Jerry Brown has promised a thorough investigation. These two young people should be commended for their civic… »

Like George W. Bush’s claim that “everyone” got it wrong about the intelligence showing that Iraq had stockpiles of WMD, Alan Greenspan is still trying to convince us that “everyone” got the housing bubble wrong too.
Brooksley Born asked Greenspan today about his enthusiastic support for “over the counter derivatives” and reminded him that he fought… »