Matt Taibbi Eviscerates Henry Paulson And The WSJ's Evan Newmark

UPDATE - 

• The WSJ's Evan Newmark, A Former Goldman Sachs Executive, Thinks Wall Street Protesters Are Buffoons

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Oh this one is good.

It's nothing new to us. We have been writing about Paulson's abuses of taxpayers and the Treasury since our first few days. But we love it when others join the party. Luckily, Matt Taibbi seems to have a well-nourished distaste for the Hammer.

First some background. Last week the WSJ's Evan Newmark wrote a dithering piece of refuse in which he hailed former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as a "National Hero." (Try not to vomit while you follow.)

Newmark's thesis is that since the VIX is lower (reflecting calm and peace) and since a few banks are lining up to repay TARP funds (but NOT rid themselves of FDIC debt), that everything is wonderful again and therefore Henry Paulson should be lauded as a hero.

We have seen this coming for a few weeks.  The Hammer is on a reputation-restoration tour, eager to gloss over the ugly in favor of the untrue.  While Newmark fails to mention that he is a former employee of Goldman Sachs and is therefore biased, the more striking omission is the non-mention of the hundreds of billions in FDIC-backed bank bonds still floating around with the full faith and credit of the U. S. Treasury.  Ask Ford this morning, how it feels competing with GMAC's FDIC-backed debt. (Ford has to pay investors an 8.5% coupon while GMAC slides by with a 2.5% coupon of FDIC sugar.)

Originally it was proposed as a condition of TARP repayment that any institution must first demonstrate the ability to raise private debt without FDIC backing, but this suggestion seems to have been forgotten in all the orgasmic talk of banking green shoots.  So today's announcement of TARP repayment from 10 banks rings rather hollow when this FDIC debt issue is considered.

Something else just slightly pertinent goes unmentioned in Newmark's public Paulson fellatio: the leading role Paulson played in creating this crisis as CEO of Goldman.  Never forget that it was the Hammer who led the charge TWICE to have the SEC grant an exemption to those pesky leverage limits. As I have written on multiple occasions, this exemption is the single most important factor in understanding how this particular financial and banking crisis became so acute.

Taibbi skewers Newmark, calling him a craven, bumlicking ass-goblin. 

Here are some of the gems:

• "...but you don’t need to disclose anything if all you’re doing is kissing your former boss’s ass."

• "Behavior like this, you usually don’t see it outside prison trusties who spend their evenings shining the guards’ boots.  I can’t even think of a political press secretary who would sink that low. Hank Paulson, a hero?  Are you fucking kidding us?"

• "But thanks to Hank Paulson, who heroically stepped in and gave AIG $80 billion the same weekend he allowed one of Goldman’s last key competitors, Lehman, to collapse, Goldman didn’t have to go without that money; $13 billion of the AIG bailout went straight to Goldman.  So I guess we have Paulson to thank for the fact that he used about $13 billion of our taxpayer money to essentially bail out his own fuckups.  I mean, that’s heroism if I’ve ever seen it.  Audie Murphy has nothing on that.  Sit your asses back down, Harriet Tubman, Thomas More, Gandhi and Jesus Christ.  Hank Paulson is in the house!"

Maybe it was that. Or maybe it was the way Paulson got a $200 million tax deferral thanks to an obscure rule that allows executives who join the government to defer taxes on their holdings. That means that not only did Paulson use billions of our money to bail out his own mistakes, he managed to use a loophole to get out of paying his fair share of that same bailout."

Read Taibbi's entire piece HERE.

Comments

[DailyBail]

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/06/03/mean-street-its-time-to-enshrine-hank-paulson-as-national-hero/

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/06/08/mean-street-it%E2%80%99s-time-to-enshrine-hank-paulson-as-national-hero-deal-journal-wsj/

[DailyBail]

http://www.businessinsider.com/ford-says-government-backed-debt-for-gmac-is-unfair-2009-6

[James H]

Somebody hand that man a pitchfork. That is some sharp stuff.

And let's not neglect to highlight this little gem -- Taibbi's letter to the WSJ:

"Dear WSJ,

Just out of curiosity — did Evan Newmark ever work for Goldman, Sachs? And if the answer to the question is yes, don’t you think that might have been a good fact to disclose before he fellated Hank Paulson in his “Mean Street” column?

Sincerely,
Matt Taibbi"

Matt, I'm kinda leaning towards "Yeah, maybe" on this one.

[DailyBail]

James.

It's that kind of shit that makes me smile.

[DailyBail]

Did you guys catch this photo? It's off-topic but interesting nonetheless.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/slideshows/monster-jellyfish.html

[Papa]

Paulson is doing a wonderful job of robbing the American taxpayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DailyBail]

Paulson is doing a wonderful job of robbing the American taxpayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
******************************

And we do our best to expose it...unfortunately that's all anyone can do...

[TR]

monster-jellyfish
Sort of favors my first wife but she wasn't that attractive.

[Miguel Grande]

Matt Taibbi is an Operation Mockingbird CIA Ass Clown. You can't go from covering up 9/11, to being a Wall St gatekeeper and have any credibility. If you were a fucking government liar last week, that makes you a liar this week. Let's dust off Walter Cronkite or Bob Woodward, to find out what the CIA wants us to believe.

[Harry Johnson]

miguel newmark, oops I mean grande, how long were you employed at goldmann shining hank "doorknob" paulson's shoes anyway? hank the doorknob belongs in prison for his obvious conflicts of interest and corrupt efforts on behalf of his wall street cronies.

[Howard T. Lewis III]

I was hoping for an actual evisceration with fanfare and all. This will not do. We have the U.S.M.C., Teamsters, Transportation, Pilots' union and more showing up. The demonstration end of things has barely begun. We need PROSECUTIONS. PROSECUTIONS WITH COMPENSATION. Seizures of all assets as well. Evisceration? Pshaw!

The only way true evisceration will be evinced is with a butcher's implement or making them spend eternity accurately paying people back their money. The name calling is casual redundency which makes swine feel flattered and fit as ALPHA- predators. Feed them spit sandwiches while they go through the procedure of refunding for all the forms of embezzlement they carried out to produce 'profit' entries. Get a pro in there to exact charges. Find an honest prosecutor who has NEVER been to New York to take a bite of The Big Apple. Let these ALPHA-suspects know that all that cocaine they took lied to them just like their mothers did. When mom tells you that you are perfect and that you are safe, she is LYING.