SEC Charges Goldman Sachs with Fraud

Yee Haw!  In civil fraud, the legal standard the Plaintiff must meet in order to establish liability is “clear and convincing” evidence, and not “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  Got that GS?  We’re talking anything over the 51% or so mark; makes more likely than not, you committed this fraud.  (Easier to prove civil fraud but, I sure wish, criminal could be on the table.)

At what point are they going to charge the individuals with criminal fraud? There should be some jail time comming for these fellas, a nice cot next to Bernie.

Please read the WaPo article.  It spells out exactly what GS is being accused of.  The hedge fund that paid GS to bundle those bad mortgages and sell them as investments; was actually betting against them, knowing they were junk.  GS sold them without advising the purchasers, the company that bundled these is betting against them.  Did GS KNOW these were junk; or did they really believe they were good investments?  In that case, their only fraud was in not telling purchasers, the hedge fund that formed the bundles was betting against their handiwork.  But, what if everyone on Wall Street who was buying/selling these toxic bundles KNEW this was junk; and wanted to make as much money as they could from trading these bundles, before everyone knew these were junk and the bottom fell out of the housing market?  Maybe GS is going first to make a deal for the civl fraud; and later, the SEC will ask the U.S. Attorney to go after the remaining players for criminal fraud.  Hmmm…  (I like all this talk about fraud; I have been yelling election fraud viz a viz the ballot, since the summer of 2008…)

Good call LD.  Nothing like being prophetic.

On another note, Feds indite ex-Blackwater chief:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_bi_ge/us_blackwater_probe

Not only that, GE filed over 7000 tax returns last year, and paid no, zero, zilch in taxes.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/index.htm

Sowsear:

I know the opinion I am going to express now will probably get me a lot of flack, but I think any person, LLC, and corporate entity  (enforcement of copyright, patent, etc.) that receives benefit from the United States government ought to pay some sort of tax. I, personally, don’t mind paying my fair share–so long as others also pay and that the tax is reasonable. Everyone should pay something, even if a mere pittance and no one should pay zero (0).

While a good scapegoat, I don’t think that this is the major cause of the collapse of the housing market.  Years of the Federal Gov’t forcing lending institutions to give loans to favored identity groups regardless of whether they had the means to pay them back is the major cause.

On another topic, did anyone notice that Obama said the following, and then a meteor lit up the sky through five states, Northern Europe got covered in ash from the mid-Atlantic rift and we have thousands of TEA Partiers marching along the Mall?

“I’m not exaggerating,” said President Obama. “Leaders of the Republican Party … called the passage of (the health care reform bill) ‘Armageddon.’ Armageddon! ‘End of freedom as we know it.’

“So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there were any asteroids falling or some cracks opening up in the earth. Turned out it was a nice day. Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall.”

Kinda spooky, no?

Exactly, some guy is going to take a big fall and then it’ll be forgotten. Too bad they can’t find some woman to stick this on.

If he says it’s so, it is…doncha know?

I suppose I’m just a curmudgeon at heart.

As far as I’m concerned, GE should pay taxes. They receive benefit from doing business in this country and their intellectual rights are enforced by this government. The alternative is for them to go it alone and take their lumps. I don’t believe in corporate welfare, either.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638`

I see Bill Clinton now is chiming in with the Obamacrat party line that TEA party people are dangerous, calling them conservatives and hinting at them being almost the same as the OKC bomber… all in a round about way. Clinton went on ot say the original TEA party people weer taxed without representation and says this isn’t the case today. I say he is statutorially right, but functionally in practice incorrect. Look at the health bill. It was passed without being read by underhanded means. Representatives as much as said their constituents were too ignorant to know what they wanted. It isn’t true that every representative can be voted out. Districts have been gerrymandered to the point that representatives don’t need to represent constituents. This is the sentiment of the TEA party. It isn’t about taxes at all. It is about representation. Bll is wrong, either that or he is just playing party politics… which would make it worse than being wrong.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100416/D9F4EPUO0.html

Docelder, negative opinions of the Tea Party will only serve to further isolate the critics from the increasing mainstream sympathetic to the general Tea Party sentiment. In fact, I was hearing so much negativity I decided I had to attend an event personally and form my own opinion. We’ve given NQ permission to republish our report (cool if they do or don’t). You can read it here:

Exclusive report: Democracy is still alive and well!

There’s a link to a major slide show of the Tea Party event at Boston this week.

I urge the current administration supporters to remember what it felt like to be demonized as war protesters. I remember, which is why I defend the Tea Party folks right to protest. Double standards are innapropriate in my view.

I could hardly believe what I just read, Clinton’s remarks and tying TP activities to OKC bombing.  Just can’t believe he would be that irresponsible.  He does know better and he doesn’t speak off the cuff like this.  It was intentional.  Maybe he’s just too insulated by his own wealth to think there are a lot of (what used to be) middle-class folks who stand to lose everything if the economy doesn’t improve.  But I still don’t understand how he cannot view the deficit and gov’t spending as anything other than reckless and unsustainable. 

my comment above is in reference to the original article re GS and the SEC.

Finally!  The SEC has decided that the GS connection is important.  I hope this isn’t a weak-kneed, rattle the cages, and then walk away scenario. Because I’ve become such a cynic of late, I wonder why this announcement was made on a Friday when political types like to bury bad headlines.

But . . . this gives me a whisper of hope. 

We shall see.  But still good news. Thanks for the update, Larry. 

Please join me this Sunday evening (8-9pm) on my radio show as NQR’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle is Having a Tea Party with representatives from the grassroots organization Freedom Works. 

Now do I look like or act like I am dangerous? Maybe dangerous to selected pols and financial regulators who are trying to hide corruption but beyond that….seem like a pretty normal guy, I’d say.  

She said it so very well..  
 
So why the H3LL do they not hear that..  
 
What was said about GW during the previous administration comes no way close to what some of the protests signs say about Obama. 
Yes one very good reason is that they will get jailed for many of the things that were said about GW.  
 
They hung GW in effigy, burned GW in effigy, beheaded GW, threaten to Kill GW and the list goes on..
Do any of this   with Obama’s type doll or name  would get one jailed, but it did not get them jailed for it was GW.  
 
I bet that any of the signs on this site with Obama’s name versus GW’s name would land one in jail  http://www.binscorner.com/pages/d/death-threats-against-bush-at-protests-i.html

Didn’t GS pull the same stunt with the Greece Fiasco?

As for a fair trial and a good hanging..You bet. 

I don’t have much sentiment with the Tea Party.  Taxes are not the problem.  It is the corporatist crony influence in Washington and on the Supreme Court that is the problem.  That has nothing to do with taxes..only how those taxes and policies regarding those taxes are peddled to benefit the few well-heeled and not the country as a whole.

That 47% figure only refers to income taxes.  Nearly every working American pays payroll taxes.  In fact, for about 3/4 of Americans, the majority of their tax burden is made up of payroll taxes rather than income tax.  Check it:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/do_the_poor_really_pay_no_taxe.html

So, not that it isn’t a good talking point and all… but very few Americans actually avoid taxes altogether, and IMO it’s tough to argue against the fairness of the overall system.

I was curious why a criminal complaint was not first.

http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/500/860500-benito-mussolini-picture.htm

A bit off topic Repubilcans have gained some more favoribility in the polls

Been in the +2% spread above the Democrats for the last couple of months and now are at +3.2% spread above the Democrats according to RCP

Republicans 45% approval   Democrats 41.8% approval.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/generic_congressional_vote-901.html

Dam idiots. The first clue was the Title. It had the word “DREAM” in it…. REAM.

mmm
mmm
mmm. (I am looking in the medicine cabinet for my presription of Donna Brazille sayings)

I’m suspicious of the timing of this law suit. I don’t trust it.

Yep, when it appears that they are throwing Goldman Sachs under the bus, you’ve got to be suspicious that it is an attempt to distract us from something else . . .

Reading the comments on MarketWatch today about this subject, quite a few commenters suggested the same thing . . .

See below, on the political implications. Article says civil charges are not going to do much. If Obama were serious there would be criminal charges.

How about Lt. Col Larkin who refused to recognize Obama as his C-in-C.
He has been reassigned to the Walter Reed Army Hospital, but not to tend the wounded…
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread561585/pg1

If BO doesn’t want it, it gets buried…somewhere.

You’re on to something Ferd, but that would mean that policy makers would use their brains.  But alas, they’re in Scarecrow country and Dorothy is nowhere to be found.

That 47% figure only refers to income taxes.
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You are a dumbshit, ahs. What the fuck do you think I was commenting on, you blithering idiot? My comment WAS about income taxes. Check you banal commentary at the door. Moron.