The lunatics don't just run this asylum, they built it.

I say "lunatics" instead of "criminals" because technically no crimes were committed but it takes a real collection of sociopaths to pull the kind of shenanigans the modern investment industry as a whole considers business as usual.

I guess I was wrong yesterday. The G-S employees are getting good ROI on their investments

/Just who are his golf buddies?

Barack Obama: A wholly owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.

Why on Earth would Barry prosecute one of his biggest donors?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-owners-across-the-nation-sue-all -bank-servicers-and-their-offshore-havens-spire-law-officially-announc es-filing-of-landmark-lawsuit-2012-04-23

That article is gone but

Home Owners Across the Nation Sue All Bank Servicers and Their Offshore Havens; Spire Law Officially Announces Filing of Landmark Lawsuit

Largest International Money Laundering Network in History Formed During Obama Administration; U.S. Banks' Theft of Home Owners' Money Laundered Through Cayman Islands, Isle of Man and Numerous Offshore-Based Affiliates

NEW YORK, NY, Apr 23, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- In a lawsuit alleged to involve the largest money laundering network in United States history, Spire Law Group, LLP -- on behalf of home owners across the Country -- has filed a mass tort action in the Supreme Court of New York, County of Kings. Home owners across the country have sued every major bank servicer and their subsidiaries -- formed in countries known as havens for money laundering such as the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Luxembourg and Malaysia -- alleging that while the Obama Administration was publicly encouraging loan modifications for home owners, it was privately ratifying the formation of these shell companies in violation of the United States Patriot Act, and State and Federal law. The case further alleges that through these obscure foreign companies, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, Citigroup, One West Bank, and numerous other federally chartered banks stole hundreds of millions of dollars of home owners' money during the last decade and then laundered it through offshore companies. The complaint, Index No. 500827, was filed by Spire Law Group, LLP, and several of the Firm's affiliates and partners across the United States.


Far from being ambiguous, this is a complaint that "names names." Indeed, the lawsuit identifies specific companies and the offshore countries used in this enormous money laundering scheme. Federally Chartered Banks' theft of money and their utilization of offshore tax haven subsidiaries represent potential FDIC violations, violations of New York law, and countless other legal wrongdoings under state and federal law.


"The laundering of trillions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money -- and the wrongful taking of the homes of those taxpayers -- was known by the Administration and expressly supported by it. Evidence uncovered by the plaintiffs revealed that the Administration ignored its own agencies' reports -- and reports from the Department of Homeland Security -- about this situation, dating as far back as 2010. Worse, the Administration purported to endorse a 'national bank settlement' without disclosing or having any public discourse whatsoever about the thousands of foreign tax havens now wholly owned by our nation's banks. Fortunately, no home owner is bound to enter into this fraudulent bank settlement," stated Eric J. Wittenberg of Columbus, Ohio -- a noted trial lawyer, author and student of US history -- on behalf of plaintiffs in the case.


The suing home owners reveal how deeply they were defrauded by bank and governmental corruption -- and are suing for conversion, larceny, fraud, and for violations of other provisions of New York state law committed by these financial institutions and their offshore counterparts.


This lawsuit explains why loans were, in general, rarely modified after 2009. It explains why the entire bank crisis worsened, crippling the economy of the United States and stripping countless home owners of their piece of the American dream. It is indeed a fact that the Administration has spent far more money stopping bank investigations, than they have investigating them. When the Administration's agencies (like the FDIC) blew the whistle, their reports were ignored.


The case is styled Abeel v. Bank of America, etc., et al. -- and includes such entities as ML Banderia Cayman BRL Inc., ML Whitby Luxembourg S.A.R.L. and J.P Morgan Asset Management Luxembourg S.A. -- as well as hundreds of other obscure offshore entities somehow "owned" by federally chartered banks and formed "under the nose" of the Administration and the FDIC.

In violation of the Patriot Act

I don't know anything this is just stuff I found on the web.

Alonjar: natas6.0: people keep voting in the same folks who make the laws that allow banks and wall street
to rake in the cash.
it is the new american culture to blame someone else for their own ignorance

whar is my monys..whar?

people deserve exactly what they get
when you smile and throw away your future
and yer paid exactly what you deserve
tired of crying? change it
...we both know you won't

That would imply people have an actual choice. They get handed a group of pre-selected crooks, and choose the best crook for them. Voting for a non-crook simply isnt possible, as the only way to get to be a candidate for such a lofty government position is by being a crook in the first place.

Pretty much nailed it.

Of course, this is the reason why the second amendment exists. It's almost like they knew this might happen...

EnviroDude: Has the Obama admin sent any Wall Street exec to jail for their part in any of the 2007 meltdowns?

Is that an Administration job? I would have thought that work would belong to the FBI, or the SEC, or the justice department.

We get it, he's a blah president, but not every bad thing in the observable universe is entirely his fault.

ghare: jodaveki: The CRA? Are we still peddling that old trope? Are we still blaming a law that reminded banks not to make risky loans for forcing banks to make risky loans?

For farking real??

Dude, Romney's ads are now claiming Obama wants to reduce the amount of work required for welfare when in fact the requirements are INCREASED. Are you really surprised that facts are no longer at all relevant to the Republican party?

I guess it's just wish-thinking on my part to hope Anne Coulter's indictment of Conservatives isn't true. But sadly, no, their reading breadth and depth are as shallow as a farking urinal.

Gunther: Dadoody

Ron Paul has been predicting a financal crisis for 30 years, and one finally happened... but he got every detail wrong. I mean FFS; he thought deflation would be the big problem. To give him any credit for his "prediction" is just absurd.

It's like listening to a weather man who predicts tornadoes every day - sure, one day he'll look like a genius, but on every other day it's obvious he's a goddamn moron.

Deflation? Inflation and he was dead right ;)

Here's a douche who proves RP right:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article5259-an-antiron-paul-deflationary-ec o nomic-theory.html

Hell, Ron Paul's always been attacking the inflation and loss value of the dollar. He jumped into politics after Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold. And the man lives as he speaks. Hell, his millions come from gold investments through out the years.

Mugato: First of all, Romney doesn't have any cornerstones. Second, everything that comes out of his mouth is either a blatant lie or subject to change without notice

And this is different from Obama, Biden, Holder and Geithner in what respect?

thomps: cman: Wasn't this promise to prosecute bankers one of Obamas cornerstones in his campaign?

i don't think so. no. i don't think it was even mentioned by either campaign.

The promise to "fix the economy" was made over and over.

You can't "fix the economy" by protecting the fraudulent bankers who destroyed the economy in the first place.

What Obama did instead was stack the Justice Department with millionaire Wall Street defense attorneys like Eric Holder.

Obama delivered heated rhetoric, but his actions signaled different priorities. Had Obama wanted to strike real fear in the hearts of bankers, he might have appointed former special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald or some other fire-breather as his attorney general. Instead, he chose Eric Holder, a former Clinton Justice official who, after a career in government, joined the Washington office of Covington & Burling, a top-tier law firm with an elite white-collar defense unit. The move to Covington, and back to Justice, is an example of Washington's revolving-door ritual, which, for Holder, has been lucrative--he pulled in $2.1 million as a Covington partner in 2008, and $2.5 million (including deferred compensation) when he left the firm in 2009.

Putting a Covington partner--he spent nearly a decade at the firm--in charge of Justice may have sent a signal to the financial community, whose marquee names are Covington clients. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Deutsche Bank are among the institutions that pay for Covington's legal advice, some of it relating to matters before the Department of Justice.

But Holder's was not the only face at Justice familiar to Covington clients. Lanny Breuer, who had co-chaired the white-collar defense unit at Covington with Holder, was chosen to head the criminal division at Obama's Justice. Two other Covington lawyers followed Holder into top positions, and Holder's principal deputy, James Cole, was recruited from Bryan Cave LLP, another white-shoe firm with A-list finance clients.

Putting the very people who defend Wall Street into the top positions at the Department of Justice?

No wonder they refuse to prosecute anyone despite the fact that the SEC and two separate Congressional bodies have referred criminal cases to them.

Weaver95: And you know what? nobody will even blink. billions gone, entire regional economies shattered and...nobody will care. they'll just shrug, and go about their business.

I don't get it. I really don't. you grow a couple of pot plants or run a file trading/torrent indexing site and you'll get helicopters and SWAT teams chasing you down 'till they get you. but bankers who destroyed BILLIONS of dollars in value...won't even get a slap on the wrist or a harsh word said about what they did.

In defense of this sham, those same bankers also created BILLIONS of dollars of value out of thin air. Now, sure, it has major economic and political consequences when it disappears again, and they've managed to sock what they've grabbed away in protected off-shore accounts and such, but I suppose it was theirs to destroy since they were the ones to create it.

It's a shame that people can get actually rich and make many other people actually poor by playing with imaginary commodities.

Of course not, their CEO is Obamas #1 advisor.

The only crime stories that are covered in the US are sensational stories where some kid gets murdered or a woman is missing, stories that have zero impact on 99.9% of the country.
Bankers stealing everyone's money and destroying people's livelihood? Boooooring

edmo: The funny part is how many Farkers think it makes any difference what political party is in power....

Nadie_AZ: ecmoRandomNumbers: Nadie_AZ: Can we get some regulation placed on those newly trust busted financial firms?

This is rhetorical, right? Because I think you already know the answer to that one.

Not under Republicans or Democrats is that going to happen.

That's not good. Do people realize this?

Remember, when people scream about "bipartisan" what they are basically asking for is single party rule.

SilentStrider: You know, I'm amazed nobody has done something incredibly stupid and violent to these people yet.
Not that I endorse or even condone it, but if it happened, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

Horrified, maybe, but not surprised.

It's sad that innocent movie goers and Sihks get shot up, and these bastards go about their rotten lives without worry.

edmo: The funny part is how many Farkers think it makes any difference what political party is in power....

Yep. Which is what I've been saying all along. However, it seems when I try to say that Democrats == Republicans, I get a breathless personal attack defending Democrats.

It's almost like there's a strange force that surrounds us and binds the stupid together.

The good news however, is we are about 10 more years aways from Goldman Sach crippling the economy again. Next time they might leave the US how they left Greece and Spain.

pxlboy: jodaveki: ghare: jodaveki: The CRA? Are we still peddling that old trope? Are we still blaming a law that reminded banks not to make risky loans for forcing banks to make risky loans?

For farking real??

Dude, Romney's ads are now claiming Obama wants to reduce the amount of work required for welfare when in fact the requirements are INCREASED. Are you really surprised that facts are no longer at all relevant to the Republican party?

I guess it's just wish-thinking on my part to hope Anne Coulter's indictment of Conservatives isn't true. But sadly, no, their reading breadth and depth are as shallow as a farking urinal.

I got through about a paragraph of that word-vomit she calls a column and realized that she was only wrist-slapping them for not being on their game.

When I read that, at first I was all



but then I was all

I think one of Obama's concerns has been not to rock the boat of the markets- a concern not shared by the tea baggers in congress who are willing to rock the country back on its heels to conform to some inflexible ideology, as in the debt ceiling fiasco.
If he had gone after the bankers he would have been labeled a 'commie who hates business.' It doesn't matter what he does, as long as he's always wrong.
Also thank Scalia and Citizens United for every politician now having to rub the privates of big business to get elected.

Dadoody: Deflation? Inflation and he was dead right ;)

Oops, I meant inflation of course. He's been claiming for 30 years that we were just about to have a financial crisis caused by runaway inflation, a financial crisis finally hits and... Deflation is one of the big problems we're faced with.

How the hell is he dead right?

Void_Beavis: edmo: The funny part is how many Farkers think it makes any difference what political party is in power....

Yep. Which is what I've been saying all along. However, it seems when I try to say that Democrats == Republicans, I get a breathless personal attack defending Democrats.

It's almost like there's a strange force that surrounds us and binds the stupid together.

Leave the Politics Tab Alone!

More obama failure. Oh that's right when he farks up it's not a fark up. It's people with unrealistic expectations that refuse to grow up and realize obama can't do anything about it.

But whenever something goes right obama deserves credit.

SpectroBoy: EnviroDude: Has the Obama admin sent any Wall Street exec to jail for their part in any of the 2007 meltdowns?

Is that an Administration job? I would have thought that work would belong to the FBI, or the SEC, or the justice department.

We get it, he's a blah president, but not every bad thing in the observable universe is entirely his fault.

You mean, belong to the Executive branch, of which he is in charge?

I'm not saying President McCain would have done a damn thing (and Bush Jr certainly didn't), but perhaps it's time some of Fark's Hopey McChange brigade took time out for a little introspection and then have a look see at the politicians they support.

/Also applies to Republicans of all stripes

Nadie_AZ: ecmoRandomNumbers: Nadie_AZ: Can we get some regulation placed on those newly trust busted financial firms?

This is rhetorical, right? Because I think you already know the answer to that one.

Not under Republicans or Democrats is that going to happen.

That's not good. Do people realize this?

Yes, but American Idol and Football season, OMG!!! Fringe is NEW! Ow, My Balls.
The American people know what's important.

edmo: The funny part is how many Farkers think it makes any difference what political party is in power....

I still do.

This story's disappointing, as was Obama's choice of shiatty human beings such as Larry Summers for important posts. I wish he'd been more aggressive with prosecutions.

But nothing I've seen has convinced me that he's the exact equivalent of a Republican.

Weaver95: And you know what? nobody will even blink. billions gone, entire regional economies shattered and...nobody will care. they'll just shrug, and go about their business.

I don't get it. I really don't. you grow a couple of pot plants or run a file trading/torrent indexing site and you'll get helicopters and SWAT teams chasing you down 'till they get you. but bankers who destroyed BILLIONS of dollars in value...won't even get a slap on the wrist or a harsh word said about what they did.

Follow the money........................

/simple

Hey, isn't Goldman doing God's work? So prosecuting them would be violating the free exercise clause, right?

"Hah! We showed those little peons whose boss again!"

"Sir, there is a mob of people with torches and a guillotine at the mansion door who wish to speak with you."

Justice always has a way of catching up with you.

Bob16: More obama failure. Oh that's right when he farks up it's not a fark up. It's people with unrealistic expectations that refuse to grow up and realize obama can't do anything about it.

But whenever something goes right obama deserves credit.

So, what, praytell, are his fark ups?

pxlboy: I'm not holding my breath, but I can't say I'd feel bad for them, either. No one gets that wealthy without doing some immoral.

SilentStrider: You know, I'm amazed nobody has done something incredibly stupid and violent to these people yet.
Not that I endorse or even condone it, but if it happened, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

Horrified, maybe, but not surprised.

Unfortunately people don't rise up until conditions are really, really bad. When people have stuff to lose they tend to not be very revolutionary. These greedy farkers won't stop until they're killed though. Think how farked up a person would have to be to have hundreds of millions of dollars or more and STILL feel the need to cheat people out of their savings and homes.

jodaveki: Bob16: More obama failure. Oh that's right when he farks up it's not a fark up. It's people with unrealistic expectations that refuse to grow up and realize obama can't do anything about it.

But whenever something goes right obama deserves credit.

So, what, praytell, are his fark ups?

* Caving in to Big Pharma and insurance companies to prevent a public option or single payer health care plan to be introduced.

* Caving in to Republicans on the debt/Bush tax cut bullshiat.

* Caving in to the donors who happened to cause this economic clusterfark less than a decade ago.

They're the kind of farkups that aren't going to be solved by voting by the more obvious of 2 evils, mind you, but maybe the next time Democrats have a chance to elect a president, how about we voters not listen to whom the corporate mouthpieces on TV tell us is "unelectable," and we nominate an honest-to-goodness Democrat?

Kucinich/Weiner '16

So in other words, they can't prove that the actions of Goldman-Sachs actually fit the legal definition of fraud.

Much as this leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I'd have to say that this is the right call. Creative "reinterpretation" of the law to fit a desired aesthetic is not something governments should be doing: they should instead be updating the law through the usual process. This shows us that there's a hole in the law that needs to be fixed, but as it stands, if they can't prove there was a crime then there should be no prosecution.

Fecacacophany: American Idol