A friend sent along these thoughts on how to frame the millions that Larry Summers, Obama's economic adviser, got from a hedge fund in the last year.
He and others in the Obama economic council have profound conflicts of interest between their ties to Wall Street (esp. Goldman Sachs, a trading partner of AIG) and serving the interests of Main Street.
But only Chas Freeman's appointment was voided for his supposed conflicts of interest (China, Saudi Arabia, etc). If unions or progressive groups had anywhere near the power of the Israel lobby, our economic policies would not be shaped by the architects of the economic collapse....
Summers and Rubin helped craft the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that allowed CDO swaps or derivative trading, then made millions off them. Rubin helped drive Citigroup into the ground by pushing them to trade in derivatives, then cashed out millions in stock. Their independence was never questioned by Congress-- but Freeman's was and for much less.
But only Chas Freeman's appointment was voided for his supposed conflicts of interest (China, Saudi Arabia, etc). If unions or progressive groups had anywhere near the power of the Israel lobby, our economic policies would not be shaped by the architects of the economic collapse....
Summers and Rubin helped craft the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that allowed CDO swaps or derivative trading, then made millions off them. Rubin helped drive Citigroup into the ground by pushing them to trade in derivatives, then cashed out millions in stock. Their independence was never questioned by Congress-- but Freeman's was and for much less.
Another angle on Summers is
that he made a big deal about anti-Zionism at Harvard in order to gain
moral legitimacy while the bubble economy he helped create ballooned...
At Harvard, Summers was martyred by the diversocrats.
But letting him have power over the economy is like letting a Somali pirate command the fleet in the Indian Ocean.
What's wrong with Somali 'pirates'? It's their ocean, not yours.
Besides, you guys have been dumping all kinds of industrial effluents off their shores for years, which are washing up on their beaches, killing their fish, etc., about which naturally you do not give a damn.
Larry Summers might be said to be "all kinds of industrial effluents", but he's made a mint out of it, and you haven't.
Somali 'pirates' started by trying to drive away the big international factory fishing boats from their territory, and a few realised the opportunity, and went too far.
A pity the Alaskans didn't do the same before the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Goldman Sachs has rather more power than the US Treasury.
Why else would their CEO be in on the meeting discussing AIG's treatment?
It worked – they got paid $12 billion out of the money handed over to AIG.
Larry Summers might be said to be "all kinds of industrial effluents", but he's made a mint out of it, and you haven't… Posted by: Richard | April 05, 2009 at 07:48 AM
I hope he's had the foresight to exchange it out of worthless US-denominated assets, into something useful like renmimbis, then.
Have any of the MSM giants had articles about the obvious conflict of interest Phil writes about here? On network or cable TV?
You guys make our [UK] politicians look like cherubic choirboys. Truly…
Most of our politicians probably were 'cherubic choirboys.'
Incidentally, this Christian concept of cherubs is a hilarious misreading of the hebrew 'keruv', which means sword, and by extension, a sword-wielding angel.
ugly little bloated images, no?