Matt Taibbi called Goldman Sachs a "giant vampire squid," and it appears that they've finally overstepped their bounds. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against Goldman, accusing it of "Fraud in Structuring and Marketing of CDO Tied to Subprime Mortgages."
Well, what does all that mean? And what's going on with financial regulation, anyway? We ask economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the blog Beat the Press to explain it all to us.
Wow, that was well presented. Nicely done. Flanders has a good sense of stickiness on the right points and with Dean Baker in conversation talking the subject back and forth, both are plane spoken yet articulate; surprisingly accessible. Refreshing, honest and accessible. This is a genuine delight. I feel myself sparkling with good wit, as though I had participated.=D)
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The ideas circulating about 2 percent of GDP, or 3 percent as the Safe Banking Act puts forth, these are the best ideas I have heard recently and I am glad to hear Dean Baker speak calming and without being overly excited about including them. In Contrast, I am genuinely concerned when listening to Dodd. He seems to speak from a place as one who has a personal interest in something he is not disclosing. Sort of like a vacuum salesmen who is trying to sell something he knows is out of warranty, or something that he knows if he does not sell, he will not get commission. Yes, I know it may seem odd, but every time I hear him speak about this subject, he seems like he is worried he wont make a sales or performance quota.
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I think the 2 and 3 percent ideas (relating GDP) have Dodd frightened and when he is not frightened at an inner place, he betrays too much giddiness and trying to laugh others off their positions. These are the only two gears Dodd has (two extremes that do NOT restore confidence or serve to build trust) and I think it shows how cold and feral the Banking Lobby is, to have placed so much time and effort on trying to corrupt or influence Dodd’s seat over the years.
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Any chance we can get some of our regulators or top guards like the Attorney General, CIA or FBI to greet Dodd with handcuffs when he retires from the Senate?
By Bruer on April 22nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Does Goldman epitomize the “wise guys” someone once said to me in my first job on Wall St many years ago? The question was “aren’t you a wise guy?”. I wasn’t sure what that was then, but now I think I am.
Also, “vampire squid” is that the same thing as Hobbes’ Leviathan? Of course, he used it to say “government” like the Tea Party say “government”, but in his times, just like ours, Members of Parliament was were bought and sold by land-owners , and nobles, just like our Congressmen are today. The Government in “laissez-faire” England, was the very same thing it is today in the USA, the Doormat of the people who fund the politicians and put them in and out of office!
By planck on April 26th, 2010 at 3:52 pm