Democracy Now--Eliot Spitzer: Geithner, Bernanke “Complicit” in Financial Crisis and Should Go
By Heather Saturday Dec 05, 2009 7:00pmDemocracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales had a really terrific interview today with Eliot Spitzer on why Bernie Sanders is right and Ben Bernanke should not be confirmed for another term as Federal Reserve Chairman and that Tim Geithner should be replaced as Treasury Secretary. One question Amy Goodman asked I found particularly interesting was this one along with Spitzer's answer:
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think you were partly taken down by the very entities you were going after?
ELIOT SPITZER: I have been very careful in saying that I resigned because of what I did. And I have no doubt that there were many people whom I had—was on the—were opposed to me, very powerful forces, who were happy to see me go. Whether they participated, I’ll let others figure that out. I resigned because of what I did. And whatever they’re involved in doesn’t excuse what I did.
I'm sure a lot of others like myself were left wondering after the prostitution scandal broke if Spitzer was set up. He didn't say no.
Full transcript available here.
The interview is way too long to put on our servers, but way too good not to share all of it, so I'm using their embed player.
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Emanuel and Rubin with them.
about it ... it REALLY makes you wonder about all of the wonderful
Bu$h era technology ...
dont think he mentioned it ... but he was taken down on the eve before he was to go after the Wall Street Banksters ... co-inky-dink ...?
Always good to see DemocracyNow featured on C&L
... After the usual daily Glenn ...ack... Beck items ...!
Amy Goodman is an American Treasure ... ! and always TOTALLY ignored by corporate Media ... interesting ...
Amy Goodman, the scariest 85 pound woman on the planet.
More like this, please.
I recommend you listen to Amy and Bill Clinton going at it in 2000. OMG!
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/22/bill_cl...
Thanks.
I watched. It's too bad he was angry afterward, but he did answer questions for half an hour. Good on Amy.
Do you think Bush would have been able to answer any of those questions? Or Palin? Gosh... um.. lemme um... get back-to-ya Amy.
I think Spitzer is fantastic. Amy and Juan always ask the relevant questions and allow their guests to speak.
Thanks for posting this.
Impressive and interesting.
It was like... news.
How refreshing!
We are so used to "Glenn Beck Theater" and high school style "photshop" pictures , a taste of real working journalism is fantastic!
Oh, you must mean "photoshopped" pictures.
bluegal and driftglass are two of the best photoshop artists in the blogosphere and I enjoy their work immensely.
Spitzer was targeted because he was ready to go after Wall Street.
Champagne corks were popping when he got busted. Idiot.
If his wife forgave him, so should we forgive him. I want him back, because he's also a pit bull.
From Sen Sanders' Web Site:
Release: Sanders Puts Hold on Bernanke
Thu, 03/19/2009 - 11:00 — Truth_Critic
"Barney Frank on the AIG Bonuses: Bring a Shareholders Lawsuit" Would we not be "suing" ourselves?
In the 1930's they come up with that Glass-Steagall Act, just about the time Morgan<>Stanley teamed up. FDIC - When? Banks cannot go belly up.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allows what? AIG gets a boatload of cash out of our pockets, based on a 1930's statute via our friends at the Fed/Treasury.(First things first, ya know?) Things start to crumble before we even hear of the word Tarp (By the way, backwards, means "Ass") Though AIG has had a snack to hold'em over thanks to the friendly lunch lady.(At the FED) :-)
Rep. Alan Grayson questions AIG Chair Edward Liddy at the HFSC hearing
I've noticed a correlation between the Citicorp and Travelers ins. partnership and have wondered if AIG has similar financial allies and or, for the same purpose that Citi/Travelers envisioned the need for such partnership?
Amended: AIG(FP)
I'm starting to see a likeness between the FDIC and that division at AIG. The banks insured by AIG and the little guy insured by the FDIC. AIG makes sure the Banks get their money but the banks don't want to pay into the FDIC fund to make sure the little guy gets their money. :-/ Now the banks are to weak to fund the FDIC... Oh, what shame!
....seeing Eliot Spitzer sitting on the sidelines while the Robber Barons are looting our wealth with full immunity.
He should be on Obamas financial team, but as long as Bernanke, Gaithner, and Summers has the Presidents ear they will keep him out of the loop.
Though, it was Political Will that allowed the Fed to become instituted in 1913. It's Political Will, that directly effects all past and future relations. Glass-Steagall Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act so on and so forth. AIG got that first handout from the FED prior to the TARP issue. They said they were allowed by that 1930's law to give out money as they believed was necessary.
The Dam Fed is the ones in the know and they don't have to let you know... That's the law! Yes, I would say it's gonna take [Political Will].
As far as the AIG investors, at least the ones who rode them down, are getting a double whammy. I feel sorry for them in away.
Like, UBS will not reveal accounts of alleged tax evaders... Though America could disallow their continued operations in the US!
AIG benefits from the transparency issue due too their location, so what can we do...
For what it's worth, I believe the Banks are our number one problem and the rest stem from them. If we spent as much time focusing on the cure instead of the problem/challenge, we would move ahead sooner. I guess I'm just tired of the negativity, believing it is unhealthy?
Citi gives big chunk of TARP money to:
"For instance, Citigroup Inc, which received $50 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, made an $8 billion December loan, not to an American entity, but to a Dubai public sector company, according to a newly released Monday memo by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), chairman of the House Domestic Policy Subcommittee."
Amended: "As a result, Citigroup and Federal regulators negotiated a plan to stabilize the company. Its single largest shareholder is Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who has a 4.9% stake."
Updated: Murdoch’s News Corp. cements ties with Saudi prince
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 16:47 — Truth_Critic
Now-needy FDIC collected little in premiums
By Michael Kranish
Globe Staff / March 11, 2009
Snip - "WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006."
"The bigger/taller they are... the harder they fall" if not now, when?
A creature claiming privilege from oversight due to their sovereignty. An old country behemoth with tentacles reaching far and wide. What do we do? I have a strong feeling they are at the head table with the crookedest, conniving people of our time. I'm sure they are the glue that holds all the walking dead banks together. AIG staff losing their jobs is a mere ruse to the real issue.
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AIG ships billions in bailout abroad
Snip - "Billions of American taxpayer dollars used to bailout insurance giant AIG are flowing to some of the largest foreign banks in the world, according to new documents released by beleaguered company Sunday."
we are witness to the self destruction of capitalism and if anyone knew anything about systems and universal principles and laws they would be able to see that communism and capitalism must self destruct.
but few if any do, so we just blame and point fingers.
and of course nothing changes even with a new savior in the white house. he is taking care of wall street, banks, corps, and the industrial military complex. he is a have more in sheeps clothing taking care of his own pretending to be for main street.
he has to pretend to get the have not votes. judge him by his deeds not his words. pick up a peace prize then send 30 thousand more troops to an unwinable war in the most corrupt country in the world.
he will continue the war in afghan until his reelection year to win in 2012.
lives and money spent on that war mean nothing to him. he is a true capitialist. wealth generation first and foremost even if it cost american lives.
and the have nots whorship at his words and fail to see his deeds.
wake up americans the have mores are going to make sure you become have nots.
who got the money when this self destruction started.
the very people that caused the self destruction
the have mores will make sure you keep them in the have more status even when they crash and burn. even give themselves huge bonuses with your tax money.
the system is rigged by them always; as they control gov the ones that make the laws.
but give credit where credit is due they are smarter than the have nots. much smarter.
they can even get the have nots to fight in their wars for profits and all they have to do is call them heros for doing so.
as bush jr stated to a soldier that lost both of his legs in iraq hey I will buy you a beer and a new set of legs. this is what they think of the have nots.
bush jr danced on the white house steps while the have nots were dying in iraq and hundreds of thousands of iraqis were dying even women and children.
that is the mind and morals of a have more capitalist. wealth generation at all costs.
nationalism and patroitism is the best strategy to keep the have nots filling their bank accounts in war profits and stealing resources from third world countries.
how many wars did bush jr and cheney fight in. they know capitalism the very best and how it works.
support your troops is nothing but a strategy to make more war profits with continuing the illegal wars. mega profits for the few in these illegal wars and occupations.
even the capitalist media is in on it as they are part of the have mores agenda. notice how the media said not a word before the invasion of iraq. they are part of it. wake up wake up you are being played as fools.
give the have nots peanuts and entertainment and they keep right on being the puppets of the have mores who love capitalism.
capitialism by its very nature is immoral.
one last thing the have mores want the have nots to think they only have two choices socialism or capitalism. and it works in a dumbed down society like clockwork.
destroy the educational system and the have nots get even dumber in world affairs and economic intelligence.
few will understand my words very few
Good post but it's hardly a revelation , many of us figured this out a long time ago . At this point it looks to me like we can only accept it and enjoy the ride down the shitter , we the people are pretty much powerless and do not call the shots . We foolishly thought this time might be "it" , that we could clean it up and turn it around but it's the same old shit in a different package going in the same direction .
Yves Smith (nom de guerre actually Susan Webber] of Naked Capitalism calls a piece by Robert Brenner the "most important must read" she has come across. A pretty strong statement.
The work by Brenner is far ranging, holistic even.
Naked Capitalism here
A critique is done by R. Taggart Murphy here.
The original work by Brenner (pdf) is here
It is a heavy read.
Having gotten through most of it I should say, the title is somewhat misleading. I will be thinking about what more to say about that.
Putting the cart before the horse.
Tue, 02/24/2009 - 10:22 — Truth_Critic
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The worlds banking system is bankrupt! All relative components have become contaminated in direct proportion to their affiliation with it. Politics was, is and will be, the cause and cure of the world’s sickness. The remedial cure goes much deeper then who has a job in America. The future is only as good as it’s forecast... thinking about it.
The quasi-government entity known as the Federal Reserve prints the money. They loan It too us > (government), other central banks and private banks, at interest of course. So they are at the pinnacle of the scheme as it’s laid out. So just like a credit card we borrow for whatever reason we feel is justified, that goes for every entity…
The market players/listings need our money/investments to compete/grow, so we’re sort of like creditors too them only we can pull our loans/investments at any time, unless they freeze the market, halting trades. At least I think it’s kind of like that, I may be off, though I do believe the President’s working group a.k.a. the plunge protection team can halt the market if it tanks to quick?
A similar action happens at our banks. The banks need our deposits so they can use them to make money and grow. If we have a run on the bank(s) what happens? The FDIC steps in and shut the doors too corral the assets, with the reassuring promise we’ll get our money, (currently up to 250,000 vs. the old 100,00 until dec. 09’). They look for someone to take over the failed bank until the next failed bank comes along.
The "FDIC" is wholly or primarily funded by the banks, just like we pay our insurance premiums.
I would think that the less bank participants contributing to an insurance narrows the exposure thus increases the premiums to the banks.
I think the "FDIC" has around 45 Billion stashed aside for failures? We lost our 14th bank for this year, just last Friday I believe? Granted those banks were not a big hit on the "FDIC", but just play it out?
CNN's Blitzer Ignores William Cohen's Prior Service on AIG's Board of Directors...
(Susan Collins) She worked for Senator William Cohen from 1975 until 1987, when she became chair of the Maine commission on financial regulation. She served in this position until 1992
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I believe the other ME. Senator worked for Mr. Cohen as well.
Fed Lends Two Trillion Without Oversight "Lookie Here" ;)
Snip - "Bernanke has invoked emergency authority and more than doubled the size of the Fed’s balance sheet to $1.8 trillion to combat the worst credit crisis in seven decades."
Bernanke Begins ‘Thorough Review’ of Fed Disclosure
It's hard to keep track of the critters...
The will of the people and an elastic currency, with a fractional reserve scheme attached. If the banks are left alone, our "Lender of last resort", will one day be, the last lender... IMHO
PS. The FDIC is only as stable as it's contributors. Go ahead, let them fail...
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"Now the best the bank can sell the home for is one hundred thousand, they have lost one hundred thousand dollars from their original loan to me that they can't get back. Now if this happened to the same bank dozens or hundreds of times, they could be in deep trouble. Have I got this kind of right?"
If they only get $100,000.00 and the situation is replicated enough times... It'll take them down... then it will move on too their creditor(s) so on and so forth. Lots of middlemen and who ultimately holds the "hard asset/collateral/house" and who ultimately pays the poor choices tends to be US.
"But the bottom line is somebody is going to have to take the loss – whether it's taxpayers or individuals and institutions that own bank shares and debt, says the author of Fixing Global Finance. "We are poorer than we thought we were."
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Who better too diffuse a bomb, then one of the guys who helped create it? (So much for my optimism)
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The players have changed names and uniforms to stay in the game...
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With balance on fund that guarantees bank deposits at its lowest level since 1995, FDIC plans to charge riskier banks higher fees to increase reserves
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Working Group on Financial Markets a.k.a. PPT...
"Snip - was created by Executive Order 12631, signed on March 18, 1988 by United States President Ronald Reagan."
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Lehman Brothers (failed)
Bear Stearns (failed)
Merrill Lynch (failed)
Goldman Sachs
and Morgan Stanley
On September 22, 2008, the last two major investment banks in the United States, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, both confirmed that they would become traditional bank holding companies, bringing an end to the era of investment banking on Wall Street.
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Soros warns against 'bad bank' option
The process would lead to difficulties in valuing toxic securities and generate covert subsidies for affected banks, generating "tremendous political resistance to any further (bailout),"
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I'm going to grab a coffee now... ;P
a rubber band in his dick, he would be running successfully for President in 2012. I think he still have a chance.
I agree, he should primary Obama. Come clean about the economic whores Obama hired, about the escalation of troops, about the lame health care bill - all of it. He could probably pull it off.
It has to be the easiest thing in the world to set guys up. Bait the trap with pussy. My friend thinks Clinton was set up by the Massad with Monica because he had ideas that they did not like. We men are out of control when it comes to sex. Invisible and brainless.
Most people know that Mr. Spitzer was setup and the waters muddied as pay back from the Socialist Financial Institutions of the Anti American Wall Street.
Now lets maK\ke Mr. Spitzer SPECIAL Prosecutor to Investigate Wall Str., this guy makes these Clowns shake in their boots anfd I see NOTHING better.
This is the guy that brought them to their knees the last time and since the IDIOTS used their trump card they don't have anything else Oh! how sweet it is .
Lets get Mr. Spitzer for Special Prosecutor, Oh Yeah!
Bernanke needs to go because he thinks he has more power than the President, Congress and every person in America combined and that all that money he throws around like candy to his friends belongs to him personally to do with what he pleases and WE have no right to QUESTION his ultimate "wisdom"!
Geithner should have been tossed on his A** when he "devised" his so-called "solvency test" for the banks and announced "All the banks WILL PASS!" Has there ever been ANY kind of "test" anywhere in the world, even including a kindergarten class, where there was a guarantee of passing even before the "test" was given?
All those freakazoids who are getting the millions of dollars in salaries, multimillion dollar bonuses and perks, paying ZERO percent interest on tax payer LOANS should have to drop ALL interest rates they CHARGE taxpayers on credit cards, home loans and everything ELSE to zero until they pay the tax payers back every DIME.
At the VERY LEAST they shouldn't have been allowed to jack up interest rates they charge consumers EVEN AS THEY USED THOSE SAME CONSUMERS DOLLARS to bail themselves out of paying their own debts.
Unfortunately CONGRESS is full of the same greedy mind set as Wall Street and what the hell is the big deal, they say, if tax payers can't come up with more money to buy their support too bad! Regulation is bad for PROFIT! Spitting on the tax payers and America itself is good for PROFIT!
I think we should ALL declare a TAX HOLIDAY in 2010 and collectively REFUSE to send in our checks to the IRS! There's NO WAY they can arrest and jail the entire tax paying population here! They sure can't give our money to their rich friends if we don't give it to them. That can be OUR bailout! Put it in a escrow account titled IRS or TAXES so you can show you have it if they audit but demand an audit of the FED and a house cleaning before giving it up.
Sort of like the advice of Representative Kaptur who told her constituents to stay in their homes if foreclosed until the "forecloser" came up with the actual mortgage proving THEY had legal title to foreclose in the first place! We need to do something similar with our taxes.
Spitzer was the ONLY one who was able to take on AIG and CEO Greenberg
and he did, he forced Greenberg out. He knew Cheney, Paulson, Geithner,
et al would be out to get him but he couldn't stop himself b/c of the pressure
coming his way from the above. He was also doing things to himself that
prevented him from stopping with the hoe's. Anyone who saw him could
see that he was on an energy express train that ws heading for a wall.
He took on the big boys and they got him. He was the only one with the
nerve to do so.
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