Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson all pressured Congress to fork over our money and then ran, unfortunately leaving old Ben here to cover it up. Notice they haven't shown their faces since?
So the obvious implication, if we can get beyond all the packaged speeches that shouldn't have been made once Bernanke made his testimony, is that Paulson at Treasury was the one who went out of bounds by making threats to Lewis and should be considered responsible for any damage done. Since Paulson's term is done, and since no criminal acts are involved, all that's left to do is chalk up one more to the Bush era and move on with the needs of the present...
I'm retired and support myself through my investments. I recall vividly how this went down. Ken Lewis of BoA went to bed one night thinking he had just pulled opff the greatest acquisition of all time by buying Merrill. He awoke to find he had actually bought some $15 Billion of worthless paper. The subsequent meetings with Lewis, Bernanke and Paulsen were closed door, but it was widely reported by DJ, Bloomberg, CNBC and others that if Lewis backed out it would be catastrophic for America. Lewis knew this going into that meeting, unless he lives in a vacuum. I have no doubt that Bernanke & Paulsen also conveyed this to Lewis. Was it a warning or did Lewis take it as a threat - that's up to Lewis.
But this much is true - Bernanke is tarnished, Obama will replace him in February. His replacement will be Sommers - That will put control of the Fed directly under Obama (Sommers presently works for Obama) and the Fed just acquired virtual control of the Banking, Investment, Mortgage, Manufacturing and Securities Industries. A [VERY] Bad Omen.
I think it is obvious that Bernanke put pressure on BofA to buy Merrill Lynch and is now attempting to cover up that fact. Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geitner---they are all part of a Wall Street Mafia whose goal seems to be to use taxpayers to prop up the insanely reckless, almost criminal decisions of outfits like Goldman Sachs.
But it is disingenuous for Darrell Issa to be pushing this issue as a way to attack Obama in particular. I am not a fan of some of Obama's bailout policies, primarily because most of these policies are in fact continuations of ones put in place by Bush. And the BofA takeover of Merrill was finalized in December while Bush was still President.
Even if he is right on the merits, Issa is seems to be hypocritically using the issue only to score political points against Obama.
Republicans turning on each other, beautiful. Of course the Treasury and the FED "leaned" on BofA, TARP was no different from the war, no planning, no foresight, just another panicked response from the Bush Administration.
Prediction: Okay - so its obvious... I'm gonna post it anyway...
Obama will replace Bernanke in February with Larry Sommers. Sommers now works for Obama. This will give Obama a huge influence over the Fed, which, until then was/is considered an independent government entity. Okay, that's debatable too, but.... This further centralization of power will give Obama an even greater influence over an organization that has recently been granted imperial control over significant, if not complete, segments of the Banking, Mortgage, Finance, Investment and Manufacturing economies. THIS is a truly ominous development.
I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THE HOUSE COMMITTEE COULD POSSIBLY EXPECT CHAIRMAN BERNANKE TO SAY ANY THING BUT SAY HE DID NOT INFLUENCE BANK OF AMERICA IN THEIR DECISION. WHAT KIND OF FOOL DO THE THINK HE IS.
Tell me who is dumber: Wall Street runs their firms in the ground, rapes the American people and pockets hundreds of billions of dollars - personal profit. They then tell Bernanke and Paulson that if the government doesn't give them hundreds of billions more... the world will explode. Bernanke, Paulson, Reid, Pelosi, Geithner, Bush and Obama fall all over themselves to write the check. In return America gets options on the grifters stock. The same grifters then pocket billions more in bonuses, salaries and retainers while negotiating the re-purchase of their options at 25 cents on the dollar. The government agrees - it will accept $68 billion as full repayment for $250+ billion. Today, these same suits granted their cronies a 50% salary increase, returned to business as usual and threatened to sink Bernanke. Who looks stupid now?
If only these guys were on our side - Then Ahmadinejad, Kim of North Korea, The Terrorists, whomever.... wouldn't stand a chance. BUT, we've got Obama, Giethner and Bernanke. We're doomed.
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But this much is true - Bernanke is tarnished, Obama will replace him in February. His replacement will be Sommers - That will put control of the Fed directly under Obama (Sommers presently works for Obama) and the Fed just acquired virtual control of the Banking, Investment, Mortgage, Manufacturing and Securities Industries. A [VERY] Bad Omen.
But it is disingenuous for Darrell Issa to be pushing this issue as a way to attack Obama in particular. I am not a fan of some of Obama's bailout policies, primarily because most of these policies are in fact continuations of ones put in place by Bush. And the BofA takeover of Merrill was finalized in December while Bush was still President.
Even if he is right on the merits, Issa is seems to be hypocritically using the issue only to score political points against Obama.
Bernanke replied: "Well we all have our spheres of responsibility", implying that the Federal Reserve System is part of the government.
YOU BETTER CALL CONGRESS AND DEMAND THE SHUT DOWN OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE!
Obama will replace Bernanke in February with Larry Sommers. Sommers now works for Obama. This will give Obama a huge influence over the Fed, which, until then was/is considered an independent government entity. Okay, that's debatable too, but.... This further centralization of power will give Obama an even greater influence over an organization that has recently been granted imperial control over significant, if not complete, segments of the Banking, Mortgage, Finance, Investment and Manufacturing economies. THIS is a truly ominous development.
If only these guys were on our side - Then Ahmadinejad, Kim of North Korea, The Terrorists, whomever.... wouldn't stand a chance. BUT, we've got Obama, Giethner and Bernanke. We're doomed.