"After a yearlong investigation, the Justice Department said Thursday that it won't bring charges against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. or any of its employees for financial fraud related to the mortgage crisis."
"But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them - and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime - a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history."
"To recap: Goldman, to get $1.2 billion in crap off its books, dumps a huge lot of deadly mortgages on its clients, lies about where that crap came from and claims it believes in the product even as it's betting $2 billion against it. When its victims try to run out of the burning house, Goldman stands in the doorway, blasts them all with gasoline before they can escape, and then has the balls to send a bill overcharging its victims for the pleasure of getting fried."
"So let's move on to something much simpler. In the spring of 2010, about a year into his investigation, Sen. Levin hauled all of the principals from these rotten Goldman deals to Washington, made them put their hands on the Bible and take oaths just like normal people, and demanded that they explain themselves. The legal definition of financial fraud may be murky and complex, but everybody knows you can't lie to Congress.
""Article 18 of the United States Code, Section 1001," says Loyola University law professor Michael Kaufman. "There are statutes that prohibit perjury and obstruction of justice, but this is the federal statute that explicitly prohibits lying to Congress."
The law is simple: You're guilty if you "knowingly and willfully" make a "materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation." The punishment is up to five years in federal prison."
"Lloyd Blankfein went to Washington and testified under oath that Goldman Sachs didn't make a massive short bet and didn't bet against its clients. The Levin report proves that Goldman spent the whole summer of 2007 riding a "big short" and took a multibillion-dollar bet against its clients, a bet that incidentally made them enormous profits. Are we all missing something? Is there some different and higher standard of triple- and quadruple-lying that applies to bank CEOs but not to baseball players?"
l love the sound of breaking glass Especially when I'm lonely l need the noises of destruction When there's nothing new
Oh, nothing new, sound of breaking glass
I love the sound of breaking glass Deep into the night l love the sound of its condition Flyin' all around Oh, all around, sound of breaking glass
Nothin' new, sound of breaking glass Oh, all around, sound of breaking glass Nothin' new, sound of breaking glass Safe at last, sound of breaking glass
I love the sound of breaking glass Deep into the night I love the work it can do Oh, a change of mind Oh change of mind, sound of breaking glass
All around, sound of breaking glass Nothin' new, sound of breaking glass Breaking glass, sound of breaking glass
Interestingly, younger Americans âoehave significantly more positive opinions of the TSA than those who are older,â Gallup said, noting that 67% of people between 18 and 29 rate the agency as excellent or good.
"And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny." -- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 1
Many more Americans remember that Michael Jackson sang "Beat It" than know that the Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution.
60 percent of Americans can correctly identify the number of children in reality-TV show couple Jon and Kate Gosselin's household (eight), but more than one-third do not know the century in which the American Revolution took place (18th). Half of those surveyed believe the Civil War (1861-1865), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), or War of 1812 occurred before the American Revolution (1775-1783).
More than 50 percent of Americans surveyed wrongly attributed the quote, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" to George Washington, Thomas Paine, or President Barack Obama, when it is in fact a quote from Karl Marx, author of "The Communist Manifesto."
With a popularity poll. A significant portion of that 54% of Americans, when read the Bill of Rights, believe you are describing an antithetical, Socialist manifesto.
As If the posting were actually taking such a position of pompous self-importance - and not spoofing the use of mathematical and technical jargon to elevate status in meetings among engineers.
It was a pseudonym used in Hollywood by writers who no longer wanted their name attached to a production - usually after other writers were brought in.
Harlan Ellison used it, and I think David Gerrold.
BBC used to differentiate between "Thousand Million" and "Billion".
I believe the changes came as recently as the crash of the housing bubble, in 2005. There were to many interviews and sound-bites that needed constant translation.
Slashdot Mirror
I dunno. What do you propose calling this "Tea Party" thing of yours, anyway?
"After a yearlong investigation, the Justice Department said Thursday that it won't bring charges against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. or any of its employees for financial fraud related to the mortgage crisis."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443537404577579840698144490.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
"But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them - and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime - a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history."
"To recap: Goldman, to get $1.2 billion in crap off its books, dumps a huge lot of deadly mortgages on its clients, lies about where that crap came from and claims it believes in the product even as it's betting $2 billion against it. When its victims try to run out of the burning house, Goldman stands in the doorway, blasts them all with gasoline before they can escape, and then has the balls to send a bill overcharging its victims for the pleasure of getting fried."
"So let's move on to something much simpler. In the spring of 2010, about a year into his investigation, Sen. Levin hauled all of the principals from these rotten Goldman deals to Washington, made them put their hands on the Bible and take oaths just like normal people, and demanded that they explain themselves. The legal definition of financial fraud may be murky and complex, but everybody knows you can't lie to Congress.
""Article 18 of the United States Code, Section 1001," says Loyola University law professor Michael Kaufman. "There are statutes that prohibit perjury and obstruction of justice, but this is the federal statute that explicitly prohibits lying to Congress."
The law is simple: You're guilty if you "knowingly and willfully" make a "materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation." The punishment is up to five years in federal prison."
"Lloyd Blankfein went to Washington and testified under oath that Goldman Sachs didn't make a massive short bet and didn't bet against its clients. The Levin report proves that Goldman spent the whole summer of 2007 riding a "big short" and took a multibillion-dollar bet against its clients, a bet that incidentally made them enormous profits. Are we all missing something? Is there some different and higher standard of triple- and quadruple-lying that applies to bank CEOs but not to baseball players?"
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?print=true
l love the sound of breaking glass
Especially when
I'm lonely l need the noises of destruction
When there's nothing new
Oh, nothing new, sound of breaking glass
I love the sound of breaking glass
Deep into the night
l love the sound of its condition
Flyin' all around
Oh, all around, sound of breaking glass
Nothin' new, sound of breaking glass
Oh, all around, sound of breaking glass
Nothin' new, sound of breaking glass
Safe at last, sound of breaking glass
I love the sound of breaking glass
Deep into the night I love the work it can do
Oh, a change of mind
Oh change of mind, sound of breaking glass
All around, sound of breaking glass
Nothin' new, sound of breaking glass
Breaking glass, sound of breaking glass
At last.
The Windows 7 perpetuity machine is fully fueled, and ready to roll.
Interestingly, younger Americans âoehave significantly more positive opinions of the TSA than those who are older,â Gallup said, noting that 67% of people between 18 and 29 rate the agency as excellent or good.
"And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny."
-- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 1
-- "83 Percent of U.S. Adults Fail Test on Nation's Founding"
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/83-percent-of-us-adults-fail-test-on-nations-founding-783
With a popularity poll. A significant portion of that 54% of Americans, when read the Bill of Rights, believe you are describing an antithetical, Socialist manifesto.
How can you judge if the TSA is "doing a good job", if you are among the 44% of Americans who are unable to define the Bill of Rights?
I for one DO believe the TSA does a good job. That job is one of eroding fundamental protections of basic rights while enriching cronies.
Look, you have to take risks, if you are going to advance the sum of our shared, human experience and understanding.
Sometimes, you have spectacular and awe inspiring occurrences - that thrill as much as they inform.
Other times, you just successfully land on Mars.
As If the posting were actually taking such a position of pompous self-importance - and not spoofing the use of mathematical and technical jargon to elevate status in meetings among engineers.
Isn't BBedit now TextWrangler? Hasn't it been for years?
Math = USA usage
Maths = UK usage
Der.: MathematicS
How will you ever correctly use the word "orthagonal" in a meeting, and command all credibility, without having taken maths?
Wheras Dotcom had no crime.
I'm sorry, Lad.
1975 was a long time ago... Nearly in a galaxy, far, far away....
I don't kno.... (Insert "Wilhelm")
Back to the topic. :-)
Who says you need to demolish it? You just need to deflect the angular momentum to a tangent that doesn't intersect with the Earth's orbit. Right?
RUGGED? Like and iPad with a carpet?
What is your quest?
What is the air-speed velocity of a coconut-laden swallow?
FBI raids in New Zealand.
If that phrase doesn't trigger the "something's-fucked-in-Denmark" hairs, on the back of your neck?
Then, you are really far too gone for a discussion that shares any common frame of reference or values.
Say his name aloud.
It was a pseudonym used in Hollywood by writers who no longer wanted their name attached to a production - usually after other writers were brought in.
Harlan Ellison used it, and I think David Gerrold.
BBC used to differentiate between "Thousand Million" and "Billion".
I believe the changes came as recently as the crash of the housing bubble, in 2005. There were to many interviews and sound-bites that needed constant translation.
Herr Hitler! Herr Docktor Von Braun has a BRILLIANT machine, to extend and preserve your thousand-year reich!
Really, tho.
For American units of "billion". ;-)
On Bernie Madoff.
But who really robbed people for tens of millions?
Noah Ward.