The Greatest Conspiracy Ever- Part One
In the fall of 2008, it was absolutely breathtaking to watch the stock market crash. I had shorted a number of stocks, particularly Countrywide Mortgage, but covered that position far too early. I had no idea of just how toxic that company had become. Clearly it exceeded my expectations. Fannie, Freddie, and many of the giant banks were every bit as bad and still are.
The size and scope of the problem revealed itself when the FED was finally forced to disclose how much it had lent it's member banks back then, which was just released a couple of months ago. Over 9 trillion dollars. That was in addition to the 1 trillion Hank Paulson and Congress extorted from the American people. Ten trillion dollars. 10,000,000,000,000.00. http://nation.foxnews.com/bailouts/2010/12/02/shocking-fed-s-trillion-dollar-foreign-bank-bailout
So why didn't the FED, who apparently had a spare 9 trillion dollars laying around, simply loan that last 700 billion to it's member banks? Why did it seek that bailout loan from Congress?
In fact, that question is so prescient that it begs to be asked. The answer I believe- is far more sinister than anyone cares to believe. In fact, that 700 billion dollars was used to co-opt and corrupt Congress. Here is the even more sinister part. The FED could not bail out the insurer, AIG. American International Group is a private insurer, a public corporation, not a primary bank or dealer. It's counter party losses were staggering. The beneficiaries of those losses were the banks. If AIG were allowed to fail, all those banks were not going to get their insurance money.
So Congress, it's most influential members already placed in office with the help of million dollar campaign contributions from banks, was co-opted. Called on to pay back the bankers. Once the money was turned over, they became co-conspirators. Although I am certain that some knew precisely what was happening, I'll bet many did not. They were herd animals and probably felt they had no alternative. You can't bite the hand that feeds you. And at some point in time and certainly thereafter- you can bet they figured out they had been conned.
It is the nastiest lie in Washington. Prosecuting bankers, means Congress members are also at risk. Not only criminal prosecution but undoubtedly re-election loss. Particularly those that knew precisely what was happening. Slick bastards like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. But now I am going to take you where nobody has ever gone before. This is how the mind of an old cop works.
If all of this is true, and I believe that is, there are two other huge problems. One is the existing President, and the other larger pressing problem, is the incoming President. You have to be able to co-opt both of those men to make your plan work. Because both of those men have the power to stop this dead in it's tracks. They are the heads of the executive branch. The enforcement division of the United States. If either man were not on board, the plan would unravel. Bush was clearly elite, sympathetic, and he had been co-opted long ago. It was his staff who put this ugly plan into motion as Bush was about to leave office. Bush had suffered at the hands of an American people who were very bitter and angry with him. Quite honestly, I don't think Bush gave two shits whether the American people got hosed or not. The Katrina backlash comes to mind. Bush might have even viewed it as revenge. But the most interesting piece of this puzzle is Barack Obama.
Remember how Obama literally came out of nowhere?
I clipped the following table from Open Secrets who I think is a pretty reputable source of campaign contributors. Obama raised nearly 1 billion dollars. Here are some of the larger beneficiaries. Hmmm...Berkeley, that makes sense. A million from Goldman Sachs- oh yea- they are the ones that got all of that money from AIG...(Hank's bailout) There's Google who has been helping the government recently. There's Citibank- the most bankrupt of the TBTF banks, JP Morgan the United States Hedge Fund, UBS with all of those elite Swiss Bank Accounts and my favorite, GE. Get a load of this link and keep those campaign contributions in mind. Remember too- that Jeffrey Immelt of GE just became Obama's new business Czar and suddenly President Obama wants to build a train? http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/ge-obama-affair-and-jeff-immelt-s-harsh-words
The size and scope of the problem revealed itself when the FED was finally forced to disclose how much it had lent it's member banks back then, which was just released a couple of months ago. Over 9 trillion dollars. That was in addition to the 1 trillion Hank Paulson and Congress extorted from the American people. Ten trillion dollars. 10,000,000,000,000.00. http://nation.foxnews.com/bailouts/2010/12/02/shocking-fed-s-trillion-dollar-foreign-bank-bailout
So why didn't the FED, who apparently had a spare 9 trillion dollars laying around, simply loan that last 700 billion to it's member banks? Why did it seek that bailout loan from Congress?
In fact, that question is so prescient that it begs to be asked. The answer I believe- is far more sinister than anyone cares to believe. In fact, that 700 billion dollars was used to co-opt and corrupt Congress. Here is the even more sinister part. The FED could not bail out the insurer, AIG. American International Group is a private insurer, a public corporation, not a primary bank or dealer. It's counter party losses were staggering. The beneficiaries of those losses were the banks. If AIG were allowed to fail, all those banks were not going to get their insurance money.
So Congress, it's most influential members already placed in office with the help of million dollar campaign contributions from banks, was co-opted. Called on to pay back the bankers. Once the money was turned over, they became co-conspirators. Although I am certain that some knew precisely what was happening, I'll bet many did not. They were herd animals and probably felt they had no alternative. You can't bite the hand that feeds you. And at some point in time and certainly thereafter- you can bet they figured out they had been conned.
It is the nastiest lie in Washington. Prosecuting bankers, means Congress members are also at risk. Not only criminal prosecution but undoubtedly re-election loss. Particularly those that knew precisely what was happening. Slick bastards like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. But now I am going to take you where nobody has ever gone before. This is how the mind of an old cop works.
If all of this is true, and I believe that is, there are two other huge problems. One is the existing President, and the other larger pressing problem, is the incoming President. You have to be able to co-opt both of those men to make your plan work. Because both of those men have the power to stop this dead in it's tracks. They are the heads of the executive branch. The enforcement division of the United States. If either man were not on board, the plan would unravel. Bush was clearly elite, sympathetic, and he had been co-opted long ago. It was his staff who put this ugly plan into motion as Bush was about to leave office. Bush had suffered at the hands of an American people who were very bitter and angry with him. Quite honestly, I don't think Bush gave two shits whether the American people got hosed or not. The Katrina backlash comes to mind. Bush might have even viewed it as revenge. But the most interesting piece of this puzzle is Barack Obama.
Remember how Obama literally came out of nowhere?
I clipped the following table from Open Secrets who I think is a pretty reputable source of campaign contributors. Obama raised nearly 1 billion dollars. Here are some of the larger beneficiaries. Hmmm...Berkeley, that makes sense. A million from Goldman Sachs- oh yea- they are the ones that got all of that money from AIG...(Hank's bailout) There's Google who has been helping the government recently. There's Citibank- the most bankrupt of the TBTF banks, JP Morgan the United States Hedge Fund, UBS with all of those elite Swiss Bank Accounts and my favorite, GE. Get a load of this link and keep those campaign contributions in mind. Remember too- that Jeffrey Immelt of GE just became Obama's new business Czar and suddenly President Obama wants to build a train? http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/ge-obama-affair-and-jeff-immelt-s-harsh-words
| University of California | $1,591,395 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Goldman Sachs | $994,795 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Harvard University | $854,747 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Corp | $833,617 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Inc | $803,436 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Citigroup Inc | $701,290 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| JPMorgan Chase & Co | $695,132 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Warner | $590,084 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sidley Austin LLP | $588,598 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stanford University | $586,557 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National Amusements Inc | $551,683 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UBS AG | $543,219 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wilmerhale Llp | $542,618 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skadden, Arps et al | $530,839 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IBM Corp | $528,822 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Columbia University | $528,302 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Morgan Stanley | $514,881 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General Electric | $499,130 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| US Government | $494,820 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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