Month: November 2010

I can haz prosecutions?

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George W. Bush just admitted that he specifically authorized waterboarding, which is unequivocally torture under US law:

Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice that many international legal experts say was illicit torture.

In a memoir due out Tuesday, Bush makes clear that he personally approved the use of that coercive technique against alleged Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an admission the human rights experts say could one day have legal consequences for him.

In his book, titled “Decision Points,” Bush recounts being asked by the CIA whether it could proceed with waterboarding Mohammed, who Bush said was suspected of knowing about still-pending terrorist plots against the United States. Bush writes that his reply was “Damn right” and states that he would make the same decision again to save lives, according to a someone close to Bush who has read the book.

Bush previously had acknowledged endorsing what he described as the CIA’s “enhanced” interrogation techniques – a term meant to encompass irregular, coercive methods – after Justice Department officials and other top aides assured him they were legal. “I was a big supporter of waterboarding,” Vice President Richard B. Cheney acknowledged in a television interview in February.

George W. Bush has just confessed publicly to a criminal conspiracy, and Barack Obama and Eric “Place” Holder need to (God I hate this term) “Man Up” and begin a criminal investigation.

What we also need to understand that in both Bush’s and Cheney’s talk about torture, the never suggest that they got actionable intelligence, nor that they even expected to get actionable intelligence from torture.

There are vague claims of “saving lives”, but if those were true, they would have been declassified or leaked years ago.

They didn’t authorize torture because there was a ticking bomb, there wasn’t.

They didn’t get actionable intelligence, because they would have trumpeted it.

They had no belief that it would generate actionable intelligence.

They did this because they it mad them feel tough. They deliberately authorized the infliction of pain in order to derive pleasure and self worth.

This is the very definition of Sadism.

Now, the Blue Dogs Have Lost Joke Line

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At Time, Joe Klein is saying that the devastating Blue Dog losses are their own damn fault:

This year, however, I do feel that there is an argument that, to an extent, the Dogs brought this on themselves by being penny-wise, dogpound-foolish. The argument goes like this: a larger stimulus package might have helped the economy recover at a faster clip, but the Dogs opposed it on fiscal responsibility grounds. A second argument: the public really has had it with Wall Street, but the Dogs helped water down the financial regulatory bill, gutting the too-big-to-fail provisions. There is real merit to both points. If the stimulus had been bigger and the financial reform package clearer and stronger, the public would have had a different–and, I believe, more positive–sense of the President’s agenda.

Yes, when Democrats are bitch slapping the Democratic agenda, the whole party looks week, and voters hate to vote for weakness.

H/t Kevin Drum.

It’s Jobless Thursday

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And initial unemployment claims are back up to 457,000, with the 4-week moving average rising slightly to 566,000, continuing claims fell by 42K to 4.34 million, and emergency claims, which, by the way expire on November 30, rose by 357.7K to 5.01 million.

Total up those numbers and things are getting worse, and come November 30 they expire.

Extended unemployment insurance will likely not be renewed, because the threat of electoral punishment is gone from the Republicans, and over 5 million people lose UI benefits, which will crush consumer demand in the middle of the all-important holiday season.

So we have a cohort of 99ers who would be losing their unemployment benefits anyway, along with millions of people who will be abruptly cut off.

This is going to get very ugly very fast.

So If Timidity and Capitulation Created a Disaster, then We Need More of That!

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So Barack Obama held his post election news conference, and he decided to double down on capitulation and weakness, and call it civility:

More conciliatory than contrite, Mr. Obama used that phrase, “take responsibility,” six times but rejected the suggestion that his policies were moving the country in the wrong direction. He conceded that legislation to limit greenhouse gases was dead and said he was “absolutely” willing to negotiate over the extension of tax cuts, including for the wealthy. But he drew the line at any major retreat from signature priorities, saying he would agree to “tweak” his health care program, not “relitigate arguments” over its central elements.

……

“I do believe there is hope for civility,” he said. “I do believe there’s hope for progress.”

Honestly, I understand that Barack Obama has spent his entire life trying to avoid being the stereotypical “angry black man,” because the perception is politically toxic in our not yet post-racial America.

But he’s leading with the chin again.

Barack Obama will ask what they want to preserve the sup $250K tax cuts, and they will say make the whole package permanent, and because Obama is afraid not being liked, and because he made a promise, which he wants to keep (Unlike his promises on prosecuting war crimes, closing Guantanamo, ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, etc.) he’ll cave, either on the $250K+ rates, or on eliminating the inheritance tax, or everything, because that’s how he rolls.

The standard line in Washington, and I’m sure that it’s one that Obama has swallowed, hook, line, and sinker, is that between the economy and “liberal overreach,” the Dems lost.

The Dems lost because they looked weak, and the Dems looked weak, because they were weak, and they were led by a weak leader, who sees his weakness as an independent good.

Economics Update

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The lede here is that the Federal Reserved has announced another round of quantitative easing (printing money), $600 billion over the next 9 months, more than the the widely forecast $½ trillion, which pushed the US dollar down in currency markets.

Accompanying the statement was a mild, to my mind too mild, statement about how the recovery is not progressing as rapidly as planned.

With the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index falling, and US GDP growing at a truly anemic 2% rate, I think that they are being too timid, though there is good news with the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index and non-manufacturing index, and ADP’s private employment survey: all show an increase.

Even more significantly, it appears that retail sales are beating expectations, which may bode well for the all-important holiday shopping season.

Still, real estate looks dead, with mortgage applications remaining flat despite historically low rates.

BTW, here is a blast from the past, monoliner bond insurer Ambac is warning that it might go bankrupt this year.

I’m wondering if this will put a whole raft of municipal bonds in technical default, since if Ambac goes BK, then it no longer has an obligation to fulfill its insurance contracts.

I really don’t know. Does anyone else know?

Full Fed Statement after break:

Press Release

Release Date: November 3, 2010

For immediate release

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September confirms that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow. Household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Business spending on equipment and software is rising, though less rapidly than earlier in the year, while investment in nonresidential structures continues to be weak. Employers remain reluctant to add to payrolls. Housing starts continue to be depressed. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, but measures of underlying inflation have trended lower in recent quarters.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. Currently, the unemployment rate is elevated, and measures of underlying inflation are somewhat low, relative to levels that the Committee judges to be consistent, over the longer run, with its dual mandate. Although the Committee anticipates a gradual return to higher levels of resource utilization in a context of price stability, progress toward its objectives has been disappointingly slow.

To promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to expand its holdings of securities. The Committee will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings. In addition, the Committee intends to purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion per month. The Committee will regularly review the pace of its securities purchases and the overall size of the asset-purchase program in light of incoming information and will adjust the program as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability.

The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period.

The Committee will continue to monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and will employ its policy tools as necessary to support the economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; James Bullard; Elizabeth A. Duke; Sandra Pianalto; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Eric S. Rosengren; Daniel K. Tarullo; Kevin M. Warsh; and Janet L. Yellen.

Voting against the policy was Thomas M. Hoenig. Mr. Hoenig believed the risks of additional securities purchases outweighed the benefits. Mr. Hoenig also was concerned that this continued high level of monetary accommodation increased the risks of future financial imbalances and, over time, would cause an increase in long-term inflation expectations that could destabilize the economy.

Statement from Federal Reserve Bank of New York Leaving the Board

What a Whiny Bitch!!

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So, after nearly 3,000 Americans are killed by terrorists, he leads into a war against Iraq on false pretenses, a number of the White House staff out a clandestine CIA Operative, he allows a city to drown, and, “Here, watch this swing,” George W. Bush thinks that the worst day of his Presidency was when George Bush, still thin-skinned as ever, is still stewing of Kanye West:

MATT LAUER: You remember what he said?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes, I do. He called me a racist.

MATT LAUER: Well, what he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: That’s — “he’s a racist.” And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, “I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.” It’s another thing to say, “This man’s a racist.” I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my Presidency

MATT LAUER: This from the book. “Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust.” You go on. “I faced a lot of criticism as President. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all time low.”

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah. I still feel that way as you read those words. I felt ’em when I heard ’em, felt ’em when I wrote ’em and I felt ’em when I’m listening to ’em.

MATT LAUER: You say you told Laura at the time it was the worst moment of your Presidency?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes. My record was strong I felt when it came to race relations and giving people a chance. And– it was a disgusting moment.

I will actually agree with Bush that the criticism was wrong. What George W. Bush doesn’t care about is poor people, white or black.

Of course, the idea that he was more offended by the accusation of racism than he was about treason (outing CIA agent Valerie Plame), or incompetence (Katrina), or lying about weapons of mass destruction (Iraq) and killing thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, or dropping the ball before 911, is a meaningful tell.

You see, he felt that the accusation by Kanye West was unfair, but that the other criticisms had some merit, because even saw that there was an element of truth to them.

Still, what a remarkably small and petty man.

Just Desserts

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Bummer of a birth mark, ConservaDems

In looking at the elections, there is a trend here:

While a part of this is that liberal Democrats tend to have safer seats, though one of the Blue Dog losers, Gene Taylor, had polled at more than 75% in prior elections, what this is about is the fact that the Blue Dogs and the New Dems created the groundwork for this.

When people thought that they had to vote against Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker, it was because the Blue Dogs gave credibility to this Republican talking point by campaigning against her too.

When people complained that the Congressional Democrats were in the banks pockets, it was because the New Democrat Coalition was in the pockets of the banks, and trading loopholes for campaign contributions.

When people complained that nothing was getting done, it was because the Blue Dogs and the New Democrats were slowing things down, because the Blue Dogs and the New Dems wanted time to get insurance company and banking lobbyists geared up and donating.

When they claimed that the stimulus did not work, they validated the Republican storyline.

To a very large degree, they validated the Republican attacks, and weakened legislation and policy, and contributed to the losses that we saw.

In fact, if these folks had held on, which was their argument for their positions, that it made them more electable, Nancy Pelosi would still be speaker in January.

Payback is a bitch, ain’t it?

It is best to remember what Harry S Truman said:

Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.

I’d much rather have a Democratic majority in the House, but I think that they are marginalized.

Let’s keep it that way.

What Emptywheel Said…

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Click for full size

This is how well Tim Kaine, former governor of Virginia, served the Democratic Party in Virginia

Fire Tim Kaine as head of the DNC.

Since Kaine has become head of the DNC, just in Virginia, we have had a Neanderpublican Governor and Attorney General, and lost 3 house seats, one of which had been held for decades.

Kaine is, of course, head of the the Democratic National Committee, hand picked by Barack Obama, because he is the sort of Democrat that Barack Obama loves, the type of Democrat that runs against the Democratic Party base.

How’s that whole cock punching hippies thing working, Barry?

While We are On the Subject of HP Lovecraft Quotes…

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Yesterday, I posted H.P. Lovecraft’s quote on Republicans, and I also forwarded it to my Lovecraft-reading family.

My brother, Stephen, aka “No I’m Not Wearing a Wookie Costume, I’m Just Hairy,” asked the question, “Given Lovecraft’s fondness for slimy spineless creatures, it is strange that he didn’t have anything to say about democrats…”

Well, according to the Donovan K. Loucks, the Webmaster at The H. P. Lovecraft Archive, who posted in the comments, the author did make his feelings known on both parties:

“Democrats invariably ape the grotesque crudities of the lower orders and make conspicuous clowns of themselves; jeering at civilised speech, manners, and standards of accuracy and beauty instead of respecting these things and urging their beloved masses to work up toward them. As long as they persist in this position, they will win nothing but the distrust and hostility of men well-disposed toward civilisation and the fullest realisation of the human personality.”

(H. P. Lovecraft to Woodburn Harris, 9 November 1929)

Given Lovecraft’s rather well documented nativist attitudes, though biographer L. Sprague de Camp implies that his attitudes moderated as he grew older, and that some of his statements were a way he taunted people that he did not like, this is an unsurprising statement from him.

Interestingly enough, he was a fan of FDR and an Ardent New Dealer according to the Wiki.

Truth be told, I am kind of torn as to whether, if I had a time machine, I would want to meet him or not.

I’m Not Sure if It Was the Elections……

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But after my morning election summary was posted, I got sick.

I ended up worshiping the porcelain alter, and that IPA that I bought by way of a condolence drink did not taste as good coming up as it did coming down.

Still went to work after everything settled down. I’ve had this reaction to stress since I was 7 years old.

It hits when I’m stressed, and then I relax.

And yes, it kind of sucks.

Crap.

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So the lost the house, ironically largely because of the actions of the Senate and a former Senator (Obama). Lots of good things made it through the House only to die in the Senate with an assist from the complete apathy of the White House.

If the Dems retake the House in 2012, and Obama is reelected, the lesson here is that taking the initiative without movement from the White House and the Senate, you will get gigged again, and again.

It looks like Murkowski won in Alaska, as “Write Ins” got a plurality, only they haven’t started counting the write-ins yet. That only happens after a full tally, and if the total number of write ins are enough to win under Alaska law.

As to the bad news:

  • Alan Grayson lost his bid for reelection. It’s a pity, we need Democrats with guts.
  • Rand Paul will be battling Tom Coburn for craziest muthaf%$#er in the Senate.
  • Heath Shuler won. Normally, I wouldn’t root for the other guy, even if they are the rankest of Blue Dogs, which Shuler is, but as a Washington Redskins fan, I have a bit of residual hostility about his expensive washout in the NFL.
  • It appears that Republicans are will not be relegated a minor party status in Colorado for the next 4 years, because Dan Maes barely cleared the 10% hurdle.

The good news:

  • The Blue Dogs and New Dems appeared to take the brunt of the losses.
    • This is more than simple churlishness on my part. While the economy is clearly the proximate cause of this debacle, the perception that both parties are in the thrall of the banks, a perception which is entirely true for the Blue Dogs/New Dems who worked tirelessly to castrate financial reform and foreclosure relief. It is appropriate that those Democrats who sold the party, and the country, down the road for fat-cat campaign donations bear the brunt of voter wrath.
  • Harry Reid defeats Sharron Angle. Now that he’s won, could we please elect someone else as Democratic leader? He is hapless and hopeless, and he is the luckiest person tonite for having to run against nut-job Angle, or perhaps 2nd luckiest after Chris Coons, who ran against Christine O’Donnell.
  • The Senate margin is large enough that Joe Lieberman won’t be able viably threaten the Democrats with crossing the aisle.

A random thought on the loss of Alexi Giannoulias: Choosing someone as the nominee, even though they spent years running a bank that was then on the edge of failure, (It has since failed) just because they are basketball buddies with Barack Obama, is a really stupid thing.

As a final note, that whole idea of using Google searches to estimate final votes? It does not appear to be validated by the results.

For a quick view of the races, I would suggest going to the Talking Points Memo Election Center.

I still have not gotten results on the Tapeworm Initiative.

So After Months of Evidence That Their Lawyers Were Corrupt Bastards…

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The GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have finally fired the foreclosure mill and forged document factory that is the law offices of David J. Stern:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac terminated their relationships with a top Florida foreclosure attorney on Tuesday, one day after the companies began taking back loan files from the firm that has processed thousands of evictions on behalf of the mortgage-finance giants.

Fannie and Freddie dispatched employees on Monday afternoon to begin removing loan files from the law offices of David J. Stern in Plantation, Fla. Those files are needed to process foreclosures, which must be done through courts in Florida.

………

The Stern law firm has been at the center of allegations by the Florida attorney general’s office of improper foreclosure practices and is one of four firms under state investigation. The office has released depositions of former law-firm employees who have alleged that the firm forged notarized documents and that employees signed files without reviewing them in an effort to speed through foreclosure filings.

In those depositions, former employees testified that the firms would go to great lengths to conceal improper practices during regular audits by Fannie and Freddie. A lawyer for Mr. Stern has dismissed the allegations as falsehoods made by disgruntled employees.

Well, it’s a start, though even the most tepid investigation of foreclosure fraud, which is all what Barack Obama would do, is sure to be sabotaged by the new Republican majority in the house, because:

  1. They will favor the banks even when they break the law because laws are for little people.
  2. They favor the Andrew Mellon school of dealing with the economy, foreclosure, and the financial crisis. As Hoover’s Treasury secretary, he suggested, “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.”

So all that Daniel J. Stern, Esq. will see is a few bucks less profit, as opposed to disciplinary action from the bar or a criminal investigation.

Nothing to see, move along.

Understanding Christine O’Donnell

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When one looks at the craziness out there, why is it that Christine O’Donnell appears to get the lion’s share of the attention?

Well Matthew Yglesias has a good explanation:

That’s true, but I think there’s more in play, namely logistics. The Alaska Senate race should be excellent copy. Joe Miller is nuts, Scott McAdams is fascinatingly amateurish, the Palin-Murkowski feud is interesting, everyone likes to talk about Sarah Palin, etc. But Alaska is also cold and remote. Sending a reporter there would be expensive and annoying. The time zones are inconvenient. By contrast, Wilmington is a 2 hour drive or 90 minute train ride from both Washington, DC and New York City. So if you want to get some “real reporting” done it’s convenient. And logistics count in life.

I would note that even some place less remote, like Angle in Nevada, or Paladino in New York, or McMahon in Connecticut, they were also much less willing to expose themselves to the press.

Basically, if you wanted to cover “the crazy,” it was easier, and cheaper, to cover Ms. O’Donnell.

Anecdotal Reports of High Turnout

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Hopefully, this is good news for Dems, but I am not making any predictions, as I stated this morning.

I am so glad that I voted early on October 22 though.

The reports are of a lot of people waiting in line to vote.

I’m not going to be following this stuff on the cable networks.

Basically, I’ll look at web based tickers, because I don’t want to listen to the damn pundits.

I Haven’t Followed Out of State Initiatives Much

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But this one in Washington State is prize:

Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would require the Seal of the State of Washington to be changed to depict a vignette of a tapeworm dressed in a three piece suit attached to the lower intestine of a taxpayer shown as the central figure. The seal would be required to be encircled with the following words: “Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every tax payer.” The illustration would be selected from submissions submitted by taxpayers.

Just when you thought that the silly season could not get any sillier………

H/t DC at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.

No Predictions from Me

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My record sucks, and I will take Abraham Lincoln’s advice, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

But I will leave you with a political quote on the horror that is Republicans the man who best understood horror in the 20th century,* Howard Phillips Lovecraft:

As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.

H/t Fafblog for the quote, which is being circulated by movie director, and Lovecraft fan, Joe Dante.

*Or at least pre Holocaust, since I believe that it fundamentally redefined horror in the Western world by putting the lie to the myth of man’s moral progress..

Oh For F%$#’s Sake, Pick a F%$#ing Fight!

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In the face of what are likely to be very large legislative losses tomorrow, the Obama administration is busy trying to find more ways to capitulate to Republicans in the vain hope that they will be nice:

With Republicans poised to gain ground in Tuesday’s elections, the White House is losing hope that Congress will approve its plan to raise taxes on the nation’s wealthiest families and is increasingly focusing on a new strategy that would preserve tax breaks for both the wealthy and the middle class.

According to people familiar with talks at the White House and among senior Democrats on Capitol Hill, breaking apart the Bush administration tax cuts is now being discussed as a more realistic goal. That strategy calls for permanent extension of cuts that benefit families earning less than $250,000 a year, and temporary extension of cuts on income above that amount.

The move would “decouple” the two sets of provisions, Democrats said, and focus the debate when tax cuts for the rich expired next year or the year after. Republicans would be forced to defend carve-outs for a tiny minority populated by millionaires, an unpopular position that would be difficult to advance without the cover of a broad-based tax cut for everyone, aides in both parties said.

“The concept of ‘decoupling’ is a hot topic right now,” said one senior Democratic aide.

And the Republicans will demand permanent tax cuts for the rich pigs, including the near total elimination of the inheritance tax, unless I miss my guess.

How many f%$#ing times do you have to lead with a compromise, and get a “no” before you realize that you cannot negotiate with the barbarians at the gate?

You want to pick a fight because you can, and because raising taxes on people making more than $¼ million a year is both good politics and good policy.

It allows you to set the agenda, choose the time and place of conflict, and it mobilizes your base.

This, “Can’t we all just get along/Kumbayah” crap has ill served the Obama administration, the Democratic Party, and the whole country.

Prosecution Doing Back-Flips For Goldman Sachs in High Frequency Trading Trial

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If there was any doubt that the federal prosecutors in New York prosecuting Sergey Aleynikov for theft of trade secrets weren’t in Goldman Sach’s Pocket, those doubts have been allayed:

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has always closely guarded the secrets of its lucrative high-speed trading system. Now the securities firm is getting a help from an unusual source: federal prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan this week asked a federal district judge to seal the courtroom at the forthcoming trial of a former Goldman computer programmer accused of stealing the firm’s computer code. The move was a formal request to empty the courtroom of the general public when details of Goldman’s trade secrets are being discussed. The trial is set to start to late November.

Prosecutors also asked that any documents related to Goldman’s trading strategies remain under seal.

Such requests are common when proprietary corporate information could be exposed in a trial, lawyers say. This case is unusual in that it involves secrets about a potentially lucrative trading system, rather than, say, ingredients in a soda formula.

What is also unusual is that this code is almost certainly obsolete, and almost certainly has no value to a competitor.

The software almost certainly has to be updated regularly, probably monthly, possibly weekly, which means that the algorithms and code are almost certainly obsolete, but still they want the court sealed.

This is not about protecting trade secrets, this is about concerns by the vampire squid* that if the details on how they conducted business came out, they would have people calling for their scalps for front-running the markets.

Basically, Goldman, and the prosecutors, are trying to conceal activity by Goldman that is either illegal, or would lead to changes in regulations that would make it so if the details came out.

My earlier posts on this are here.

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for the bon mot describing Goldman Sachs as a, “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” This was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.