Friday
Oct072011
Max Keiser: "Goldman Sachs Are Scum That's The Bottom Line" (Best Keiser Video Of All Time)
This clip is outstanding. Whether it's 100% true is unimportant to me. It's unadulterated, emotional satisfaction. I transcribed the entire opening salvo from Keiser:
- "Goldman Sachs are scum. I mean that's the bottom line They have basically co-opted the U.S. Government, they have co-opted the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve functionality. They've co-opted the Obama administration. And Barack Obama dances to Goldman Sach's tune. They are really crooked and abominable in what they've done."
- "Just remember, Hank Paulson held Congress hostage, took them in the back room and said give us $700 billion or we're gonna crash the market. He's an arsonist; he's an outlaw. And yet he's given praise. If you go down the list, they're all Goldman Sachs scum, whether it's Hank Paulson, whether it's Geithner...you know Geithner has very strong ties to Goldman Sachs...and of course all these banking bonuses are paid out to all their cronies who are Goldman Sachs scum."
- "And America for some reason has allowed this coup d'etat to take place, this silent coup d'etat, where Goldman Sachs and their friends now control the US Government, and they are manipulating prices in the market."
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Now part 2....
Video: More from Max on Goldman...
Editor's note - A flashback to 2009 - Nothing has changed.
Oct 7, 2011 at 10:01 AM
Reader Comments (38)
What the guy in the clip is ranting about, what do you think the US has been doing round the world for the last 20 years? Now it's happening at home. You guys are crying about it?
Here look up this. Bhopal. That was the US banks and corporations did!
But now it's at home, Americans can be heard crying about it?
Please understand, I mean no disrespect to the dead and injured.
But, how many died on 9/11? Now look up how many died in Bhopal? Seriously look it up, how many died in a day? Now the US is suffering from it's own government/corporate induced Bhopal, the rest of the world can here America crying about it?
I can go on. But then it would seem like a rant and disingenuous. What I would like to know is, after the way America has behaved since the end of the cold war (hmm coincidence?) why do you think the rest of the world should now give a shit about the US? Here's a hint. Maybe you could ask an Iraqi?
The US should NOT be holding it's breath while waiting for sympathy from the rest of the world.
Note: This does not mean that when it's all over, America can then use that lack of sympathy as excuse to start the same shit all over again. Your system does not work and is a danger to the rest of the world, the planet and the human race. And no I am not a Liberal tree hugger.
Like your site keep up the good work.
Understatement of the century perhaps? Read the following executive orders in their entirety if you are not of the squeamish variety. Note that these are not federal laws passed by the United States Congress, but personal declarations made by a member of the Executive Branch and are equally legally binding.
Executive Order 6102 - Requiring Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates to Be Delivered to the Government
April 5, 1933
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14611
"By virtue Of the authority vested in me by ... "An Act to provide relief in the existing national emergency in banking, and for other purposes," in which amendatory Act Congress declared that a serious emergency exists, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do declare that said national emergency still continues to exist and pursuant to said section do hereby prohibit the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States by individuals, partnerships, associations and corporations and hereby prescribe the following regulations for carrying out the purposes of this order ... All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve Bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933 ..."
131 - Executive Order 6260 on Hoarding and Exporting Gold.
August 28, 1933
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14509
"Within fifteen days from the date of this Order every person in possession of and every person owning gold coin, gold bullion, or gold certificates shall make under oath and file as hereinafter provided a return to the Secretary of the Treasury containing true and complete information relative thereto ... A return made and filed in accordance with this Section by the owner of the gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates described therein, or his duly authorized agent, shall be deemed an application for the issuance under Section 5 hereof of a license to hold such coin, bullion, and certificates."
Executive Order 11825 - Revocation of Executive Orders Pertaining to the Regulation of the Acquisition of, Holding of, or Other Transactions in Gold
December 31, 1974
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=59185
"By virtue of the authority vested in me ... it is ordered ... Executive Order No. 6260 [et al] ... are hereby revoked."
And just as easily as gold ownership rights were restored in 1974, with the wave a the presidential magic legal mandate flute, it can all be taken away again. Be warned.
Yes we can. It is ordered. So mote it be.
"... a thing might be a spirit and not good for you." - Ransom to Weston (C.S. Lewis, Perelandra, pg. 93)
nosce te ipsum
I just want to say that I believe these are the most important videos you have ever posted. This guy flays them!
I agree...it's some pretty impressive truth telling and with a very appropriate level of disdain for Goldman and Paulson...
FWIW, I finally got around to putting a most recent stories list into my site header...i think it will improve the functionality for people so they don't have to scroll as much....thanks for the suggestion last week...
Not sure what this reference to feeling fire and stepping on it are about, but Moncef Cheikh-Rouhou is clearly advocating single world governance with the same corrupt players in control of it. Special drawing rights set by a super IMF. This is none other than the New World Order being talked about by bankers and politicians for years. Yeah, integrity and governance all right. Even thieves will murder each other when the spoils get divided. Moncef should reread The Pardoner's Tale.
When are you going to cover Sergey Aleynikov and Goldman Sach's frontrunning code? Never got around to posting these, but hey, Max Keiser makes the point. MSM, where are you? Oh right, captured like our government. The Hearst news model is alive and well it seems.
The system never tells me if there are items awaiting moderation... i have to check to see if there are any waiting...and maybe 5 posts per week end up needing my approval, presumably because of all the links...so i didn't know they were there until you told me.
As for the Goldman Stolen code story, I didn't see the angle...a trader leaves GS to join a new start-up off-shoot from Citadel and Ken Griffith...he tried to take the whole or parts of the GS PT code with him to benefit his new firm. What else is going on there that I'm missing.
I followed the false alarm that TD had about the NYSE GS weekly program trading snafu from last week...so I correctly didn't report that story or I would have looked a bit shameful for getting it wrong in calling it a GS conspiracy. But tell me what's happening with the code story that I'm not aware of.
Here's the problem with the story. The entire thing is from one source. And I think that he got it wrong. I don't think GS is frontrunning their clients in the manner alleged. It's that simple. His entire theory is based on the language used in a marketing disclaimer for a trading platform. Not exactly a smoking gun. It's supposition based on the notion that GS are cheaters therefore let's look for proof in their PT software disclaimer.
I beat on Goldman pretty aggressively for the bailouts, but the Program Trading dominance is simple...they have fewer competitors and spreads are wider...and having worked in the industry, for 2 decades I can tell you that plain-vanilla front-running is common, though not of the type alleged here. You have a huge customer order that you're trading floor is filling all day and so you use that knowledge to make trades for your firm in that same stock...So it doesn't raise my ire quite like the AIG conduit bailout or the TLGF FDIC backed debt, or the switch to the bank-holding company in the Fall. My reputation comes before anything else. Getting just one thing wrong, can get one labeled, fairly or not.
Now the stolen trading code is a different issue, but again I don't see how it means anything other than a guy going to a new firm and trying to take some code with him. Tell me if you see another, more sinister angle.
I would love to see those emails...thre is no way in hell you can tell me that wasn't a personal decision by Paulson...he wanted Lehman gone and off the map...how about emails between the fed, treasury and goldman leading up to the AIG bailout...or the decision to pay AIG counterparties at PAR....
There has to be some juicy stuff there, as well...
I went back and read every single one of the stories...and first I need to say that Denninger is careless sometimes (he reported these allegations as though they were fact)...people should be careful...he's a computer guy not a markets guy, though he is apparently a successful day trader...he's very easily swept up into conspiracy theories...i don't consider him to be the most cautious of bloggers...and TD is not the model of caution, either. But, don't get me wrong. They both are fighting on the side of good, and the more voices the better.
Yves Smith is the only blogger I'm aware of who has worked in the industry longer than I have..,Mish is a computer guy who admits to knowing virtually nothing about the markets until after 9/11 and learned about investing on silicon investor...CR also came from SI and is a retired corporate exec., denninger worked in computers and TD is probably a 29 year-old kid max...i've got 26 years of experience with markets and 21 years in the industry and it naturally makes me more cautious.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/mad-world-chinas-bind-is-ours-too.aspx?page=all
China has been buying up every hard commodity ( copper, nickel, brass, etc.) it can for several years and that is partly what was driving the scrap markets the last couple of years.
They have also been buying up mining and oil interests globally to prepare for the inevitable.
"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves."
-- Thomas Jefferson.
"..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority to set brush fires in people's minds"
-- Samuel Adams
Fair enough. Thanks for explaining your reasoning.
@S. Gompers
Thanks for the link. The fact that China is preparing for the inevitable should put everyone on notice.
"and TD is probably a 29 year-old kid max..."
It's funny, I was poking around last night (only a couple of new posts), so I happened to check out his "manifesto." It's not completely embarrassing, but I was thinking there's NO WAY anyone over 30 would write like that. The tone reminded me of myself at about 19.
Also, re the Goldman front-running allegation, has it been disproven that they were bidding up almost every trade that came through, or is that a non-issue regardless? My understanding of all that is very abstract.
Finally, what kinds of things does Denninger "miss" that someone like yourself wouldn't? (Just curious.) I have noticed that he gets basic facts wrong once in a while -- but I guess bloggers are held to a much higher standard than "real" journalists ;-)
I just watched the Jim Sinclair video on Dark Pools. I'm just going to have to do more reading on this -- I really don't have a concrete understanding of how orders are filled in any case, but I also don't exactly understand what the "dark pools" do and how prices are determined when trades are executed through them.
What do others know of Jim Sinclair, and is he on to something here? I've heard rumblings about "dark pools" and bad execution before, but what's the deal? The allegation is that Goldman (and others?) were systematically taking money from retail investors. True? Overblown?
If it's true, it would really add to the anti-bailout argument:
1) We give Goldman 13B+ through AIG and guarantee their debt
2) They make 3B+ in "profit" and pay their employees huge bonuses
3) J6P gets a crappy recession and is out of work and underwater or foreclosed on (by a TARP bank)
4) AND, to top it off (if true), GS has been effectively stealing from J6P every time he trades in the market
China has been gobbling up the world's resources just as you describe...I consider it an extremely smart strategy and hedge against their massive Dollar and Treasury holdings.
They have the surpluses to spend and it's an intelligent decision to be gathering natural assets.
IT's not that KD misses anything per se, just that he is someimes quick to attach himself to occasionally zany, conspiracy theories. This program trading story for example. He didn't do any investigating, he was just repeating what he read elsewhere.
As for dark pools (even the name gets conspiracy buffs excited), they have been around and in use for awhile now. There's nothing new there. Goldman had a great Q because of taxpayer support and a trading environment that no longer includes Lehman, and Bear Stearns...and Morgan Stanley has scaled back their risk-taking dramatically, so GS had a field day.
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer – 58 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion to help the financial sector through its crisis, a watchdog report said Monday.
Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American.
The figures are part of a tough new quarterly report to Congress from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, who accuses the Treasury Department of repeatedly failing to adopt recommendations aimed at making one component of the government financial rescue effort more accountable and transparent.
The $4.7 trillion commitment to the industry equals about one third of the overall U.S. economy and takes into account about 50 initiatives and programs set up since 2007 by the Bush and Obama administrations as well as by the Federal Reserve. Barofsky oversees one of the initiatives — the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Much of the government assistance is backed by collateral and Barofsky's $23.7 trillion estimate represents the gross, not net, exposure that the government could face. No one has suggested that the full amount will be used.
Because of declining participation in short-term loan programs and because some infusions of money have been repaid, the maximum amount actually spent has declined to a current outstanding balance of $3 trillion, Barofsky said.
The agencies and the programs assisting the financial sector include a newly created Federal Housing Finance Agency, increased deposit insurance initiated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and 18 support programs created by the Fed under the special powers it can deploy to address a systemwide financial crisis.
Banks have cut back on their use of the Fed's emergency lending program as well as other programs to ease credit stresses. Given that, the Fed has reduced the amount it will lend to financial institutions under two programs and it has decided to let a program to support money market mutual funds to expire as currently scheduled at the end of October.
Barofsky's $23.7 trillion estimate represents the maximum exposure that the government would face if all eligible applicants requested the maximum assistance at the same time. It does not account for the fees and other costs that some of these programs charge and for the collateral that many of the programs require that participants provide.
"While quantity and quality of the assets backing all of these programs vary, ignoring that side of these programs misrepresents 'potential exposure' associated with them," Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said.
In his report, Barofsky says Treasury has accepted some of his recommendations for greater accountability, but says the department has not taken steps to require all TARP recipients to report on their actual use of funds. He said Treasury also should report the values of its investments in banks and other financial institutions, disclose the identity of borrowers under a nonrecourse loan program and disclose trading activity under a public-private investment fund.
Barofsky says Treasury's inaction means taxpayers have not been told what the financial institutions that have received assistance are doing with the money.
Barofsky's conclusion is contained in a quarterly report to Congress and in testimony he is prepared to give Tuesday to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
"The very credibility of TARP (and thus in large measure its chance of success) depends on whether Treasury will commit, in deed as in word, to operate TARP with the highest degree of transparency possible," Barofsky said.
"China has been gobbling up the world's resources just as you describe...I consider it an extremely smart strategy and hedge against their massive Dollar and Treasury holdings.
They have the surpluses to spend and it's an intelligent decision to be gathering natural assets."
I have followed this closely, I'm afraid we better get ready to live on air, For we as a nation are to shortsighted to see the forest for the trees.
"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. And when you're inside, and look around, what do you see? Businessmen. Teachers. Lawyers. Carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But, until we do, these people are still a part of that system. And, that makes them our enemy. You have to understand: Most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
-- Morpheus (from the flick "The Matrix") after Neo sees the woman in the red dress become an agent.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/pulitzer2010/
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/12/12/law_lab/?page=1
@oic, I agree.
http://www.yurilok.com/uploads/Guay__Kothari____Loktionov__2008_.pdf
Keep watching, and keep talking to people. Start pushing. It pays out. Trust your gut. What's inscribed atop the Pantheon?
Gregory Lemke
Haven't you ever gotten up off your back and beat the crap out of an unprovoked attacker to the point they never dared fuck with you again? I would not fight for you if you have not or will not at least get bruised a little.. And I don't see anybody hurt. Just keep waiting for the opening in their defenses and exploit it it until they have lost. Then kick them in the teeth, legally. Then throw them in jail.If you can't or won't do that, lose it all. You did not earn it, and it was not given to you.