Wall Street's Naked Swindle. Taibbi nails it again.

[northernlights]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64824?RS_show_page=0

On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who —made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — "like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets," according to one financial analyst.

But what's even crazier is that the bet paid....

...That this was a brazen case of insider manipulation was so obvious that even Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the pillow-soft-touch Senate Banking Committee, couldn't help but remark on it a few weeks later, when questioning Christopher Cox, the then-chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission. "I would hope that you're looking at this," Dodd said. "This kind of spike must have triggered some sort of bells and whistles at the SEC. This goes beyond rumors."

Cox nodded sternly and promised, yes, he would look into it. What actually happened is another matter....

...Then, on March 11th — around the same time that mystery Nostradamus was betting $1.7 million that Bear was about to collapse — a curious thing happened that attracted virtually no notice on Wall Street. On that day, a meeting was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that was brokered by Fed chief Ben Bernanke and then-New York Fed president Timothy Geithner. The luncheon included virtually everyone who was anyone on Wall Street — except for Bear Stearns....

Bear, in fact, was the only major investment bank not represented at the meeting...

.... we simply don't know what happened at the meeting. But what we do know is that from the moment it ended, the run on Bear was on, and every major player on Wall Street with ties to Bear started pulling IV tubes out of the patient's arm. Banks, brokers and hedge funds that held cash in Bear's accounts yanked it out in mass quantities....

...But beginning on March 12th — the day after the Fed meeting that failed to include Bear, and the mysterious purchase of the options betting on the firm’s imminent collapse — the number of counterfeit shares in Bear skyrocketed....

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all roads lead to the same crew. and their bff. :(

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[clarence swinney]

2. Ya Tabbi

Reply to Conservative Bob Livingston on Big Government
 
C LARENCE SWINNEY says:
October 15, 2010 at 11:15 am
Sorry Bob Your creation ?”Big Government” by Reagan + Bush
is not our imminent threat to Democracy.
It Is Your creation of WSA–Wall Street Of America–
Your pals created the Great Redistribution of Income and Wealth to 1% or 1.2 million ultra rich. Yes Bob! You. You. You.
Let 1% go from 20% ownership of Total Financial Wealth in 1980 to 43% in 2009.
From Ten percent of Total Income to 24% in 2009
Yes Bob, You created a Third World called Wall Street Of America formerly United States Of America.
You Bob increased spending by 80% and Debt by 170% from 1980 to 1989.
Yes! You Bob increased spending and debt each by 100% from 2000-2009
Yes! You Bob created our current Big Government. You.
Yes! You created 99,000 net new jobs in 20 years just enough to cover new entries into the work force.
Yes! It was not Clinton or Carter who in 12 years created 222,000 per month.
Yes! It was you who freed banks where large investment Gamblers could own all our bank assets for their Gambling Empire.
Yes! It was you who modernized financial empire to allow unrestricted Gambling in your new CASINO DERIVATIVE OF AMERICA
Yes! It was you Bob who in eight years in the Bush created 31,000 new jobs per month lowest since Hoover.
Yes! It was you Bob who allowed the ultra rich to rush into the Casino Derivative and leave investments  in stocks which built businesses, assets, and jobs. You Bob.
Yes! You knew Bob that Casino Derivative had no assets. You knew.
Yes! You knew Bob that Casino Derivative adds no value to our economy. You knew.
Why Bob why did you push down Middle Class 120,000,000 workers who from 1980 gained nothing.
That Bob is knows as creating a Third World Population. Yes Bob you you you did it.
prove me wrong with numbers and facts not rhetoric .
clarence swinney--olduglymeanhonest mad mad mad--political historian-lifeaholics of america-burlington nc

 

[ellenfl]

3. yes he did . . . in october 2009 when this article first appeared. eom

[Demeter]

4. Off With Their Heads!

This is beyond enough. These people are guilty of prima-facie collusion and should be prosecuted, barred from holding public office or serving on any boar;, all their professional licenses should be lifted, and they should get new wardrobes in jumpsuit orange.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. K & R

[fasttense]

6. This was written back in 2009.

October 15, 2009 to be exact. It's a good article and gives some warnings about these fraud documents the foreclosure servicers are using. But the article is almost a year old and our gubermint still did NOTHING about the Fraud.

[northernlights]

7. that's the point. One year later...what has changed? nt

[Tutankhamun]

8. The problem is, of course, that those with immediate power to prosecute and stop these shennanigans

either benefitted or will be given a pioiece of the pie. It's going to take either a massive uprising of citizens or a heroic effort by some "ordinary" citizen (or both).

Meanwhile, a nation sleeps. The middle class fights against its own best interests. Fox "News" tells us what the "real" problem is: Darn that socialism! Welfare queens are robbing us blind and unions are destroying the work place.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...