- And when you lose control, you’ll reap the harvest you have sown.
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone.
And it’s too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw
around.
So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone,
Dragged down by the stone.
Pink Floyd- Dogs
Via Barry Ritholtz, this bit by Sam Antar about how Goldman’s reaction to the SEC complaint filed Friday may have made their situation worse is a pretty interesting read. I won’t be the only one who would be thrilled if their ginormous egos and their feelings of invincibility caused them to react rashly and hurt themselves even more.
As a side note, I found it pretty interesting that Antar is a convicted felon and has managed to turn that into a marketing scheme in and of itself. He discloses that at the end of this post, on his about page, and clearly uses it to give himself street cred for his new job- teaching people how to catch folks like himself, which reminded me of this post I read the other day at the Epicurean Dealmaker:
Now Dick Fuld, at least in his prime, was a forceful and scary man. It takes a certain kind of personality to tell such a man to go fuck himself to his face. Fortunately, we just happen to have a substantial supply of brass-balled, take-no-prisoners, kill-’em-all-and-let-God-sort-’em-out people ready to hand. By happy coincidence, these individuals also happen to be intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the global financial system, the nature and construction of the myriad securities and engineered products polluting financial markets, and the numberless tricks and stratagems large financial institutions use to end-run rules and regulations designed to keep them in check.
These people are called investment bankers.
That’s right, boys and girls: It’s time for the chickens to band together and hire themselves some foxes to guard the chicken coop.
***The answer, of course, is obvious, if politically difficult to put into effect. Staff the SEC, or whatever “Super Regulator” the government decides to deputize to oversee this mess, with a bunch of highly-paid, tough-as-nails, sonofabitch investment bankers. You will have to pay them millions, just like regular bankers. (You can tie their incentive pay to improvements in the value of securities held under TARP and TALF, if you like.) Pay them well, and investment bankers won’t be able to treat them like second-class citizens at the negotiating table. Pay them like bankers, and your regulators won’t hesitate to read Jamie Dimon or Lloyd Blankfein the riot act, because they won’t give a shit about getting a job from them later.
Trust me, these are the kind of people you will need on your team: highly educated, financially sophisticated, psychotically hard-working, experienced professionals who know or can figure out CDOs, SIVs, balance sheet leverage, and credit default derivatives just as easily as the idiots who created and trade this shit. Leading your enforcement and supervision teams you need a bunch of smooth, smart, plausible, grandiosely self-confident senior bankers who will not hesitate to tell Vikram Pandit to go fuck himself, his mother, and the cow she rode in on if he ever tries to fuck with the United States government, the US taxpayer, or the pizza delivery boy again. You know: psychopaths.
This is not a new idea. For yonks, the Brits have known that the best person to hire as gamekeeper on your ancestral estate is a former poacher, someone who knows what they know, how they think, and where to punch them in the genitals to get maximum negotiating effect.
Not all folks that get caught up in wrongdoing are as willing to turn to the other side- Henry Blodgett has spent the last three days at Clusterstock furiously spinning for Goldman. My favorite line from Henry- that Goldman will get off because they were only screwing savvy investors (Hey- they only robbed the smart and rich folks!).
Personally, I’d give Elliot Spitzer a billion dollars to fund the staff he wants along with the jurisdiction he needs, a box of condoms and permanent immunity for any future callgirl scandals, and then unleash the mean bastard on Wall Street.
Mark S.
They were just like Robin Hood, except for the giving to the poor part.
licensed to kill time
Dick Fuld sounds like some kind of crotch fungus.
Dave Fud
Damn straight on Spitzer. He won’t even need to get paid, because he’s already rich. He will be extra mean because of his recent dry spell on the sidelines. He will be ready to take these guys down, because they celebrated his downfall.
We could only hope.
Karatist Preacher
‘Piggy Pig Pig’ from Procol Harum would work as well.
geg6
Damn straight. Why do you think FDR chose Joe Kennedy to head the First iteration of the SEC? I think Spitzer would be an inspired choice to take on these fuckers. He’s not only a mean mother fucker and too rich to give a shit, he knows those bastards wanted to take him down and it would be payback time. It would be endlessly entertaining. I might have to invest in some popcorn futures.
Cat Lady
Shorter Sam Antar to GS: Richard Simpson’s in ur base about to kill all ur d00dz.
Bnut
How come when a Repub has a sex scandal it’s always someone they can throw in the gutter and be done with it? We always lose the good ones to it.
aimai
Cat lady puts it the best. I did think the extra info on Simpson was well worth clicking the link. Fascinating use of the double team in the description of why the civil suit first, before the criminal suit.
aimai
robertdsc
Hire Megan McArdle?
trollhattan
@Cat Lady: t
Cripes, I first read it as Richard Simmons being chosen as top gun. Now THAT would be ruthless.
demkat620
Which is exactly why that crap about Spitzer came out. The big money boys wanted him gone and that’s what they got.
Exactly, turn him loose on them and weed these fuckers out.
chrome agnomen
@Bnut:
because there’s hardly a single republican who could be thrown in the gutter that anybody would miss.
boomshanka
think this will fit on a bumper sticker?
Sly
@boomshanka:
Spitzer for SEC Chief: He screwed hookers and banks before. He can do it again.
boomshanka
@Sly: awesome!
demkat620
@Sly: And exactly what can the Party of God say when Vitter and Ensign still hold public office?
Give Spitzer the job. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Heads. On. Pikes.
stevie314159
Nothing against Spitzer, but he’s a lawyer, not a trader.
I have been a trader (options and futures) for 26 years, working for myself, first on the floor of a stock exchange then from a home/office.
I could have told you Madoff was full of shit in 5 minutes–just from how much option volume he was claiming to have done, and how steady his returns were.
There is definitely something to be said for former or retired traders to be put to work ferreting out the assholes who almost destroyed this country and have certainly made me embarrassed to say what I do for a living.
I’m not retiring yet, and couldn’t leave my home area, but I wouldn’t need “millions” to go work for the SEC–maybe only a few hundred thou. It would be my honor to serve my country using what useless to society skills I have.
We need the lawyers to be hard cases in court and in dealing with the banksters, but we could use a lot more Harry Markopolises in government to figure out what the hell’s going on.
robert green
i’m working with sam antar right now on a movie about crazy eddie, and without giving too much away i can say that it is extraordinarily germane to what is going on today on wall street.
sam is well worth seeing when he speaks–he knows where the bodies are buried and where to get the shovels as well.
also, not related: that pink floyd quote is just the fucking best thing roger waters ever wrote.
Linda Featheringill
Wow. I read the Antar article. It looks like Goldman Sachs is toast.
And it has only been one day? They were served yesterday?
This could get interesting – and I really don’t care about high finance. Bring on the popcorn. But I don’t want to get too close for fear of being hit by flying whatever.
Napoleon
I have been thinking thinking about something the last few days after the Goldman story broke. Someone here posted a link to something where it is unusual/potentially illegal for Goldman not to have disclosed the investigation against them in their securities filings. So did they do that because 1) they think that in fact they did not need to, 2) they are stupid, or 3) they have so bought off the government they figured it would never come to light because the government would never in fact charge them?
frogspawn
This is not a new idea. For yonks, the Brits have known that the best person to hire as gamekeeper on your ancestral estate is a former poacher, someone who knows what they know, how they think, and where to punch them in the genitals to get maximum negotiating effect.
Hoskins is now going to thrash you…
MattF
Hmm. I’ll betcha that there are bets on GS stock going down in the first few minutes of trading tomorrow morning. And after that, who knows… but my sense is that there’s blood on the floor. We shall see.
Salt and freshly ground black people
I think the SEC should be run by Harry Markopolos.
NobodySpecial
A brilliant plan, putting bankers in charge of the SEC.
Except, of course, the part of the plan that involves putting the foxes in charge of henhouse security, assuming that the foxes are going to magically grow a set of moral values that they never showed before. Or that they’re going to forget their buds in private practice and not use their position to cover for them.
What could go wrong? /rolleyes
The Grand Panjandrum
Epic Racist Fail.
FBI, Secret Service, and even SEC agents are not a bunch of dumb fucks. Sure pay them more, but the idea that paying a bunch of guys bankster salaries will fix the problem belies how they own the system. It isn’t that the regulators don’t have the authority to crucify them, it is that the people who hold the purse strings (Congress) and the badges (Executive Branch) WON’T crush these fuckers. The relationships have gotten too cozy, but maybe, just maybe, the Obama administration really is signaling that the game has changed by this tiny baby step against Goldman. We’ll see.
I would love nothing more than to cut Eliot Spitzer loose on this degenerate atavists with a band of brass knuckled Feds to punch the banksters teeth in, but maybe we could find some bad asses who weren’t also closet racists.
jl
The refrain is the same.
Talk to the Hand!
Josh Marshall | April 18, 2010, 5:46PM
Senate Republicans rebuff a key White House concession on financial reform and up the ante. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says it’s time “to go back to the drawing board” and start over with new legislation.
talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/04/talk_to_the_hand_2.php?ref=fpblg
I seem to have heard this line from the Republicans before somewhere. But not sure where. Maybe some kindly Balloon-Juicers could refresh my memory.
It’s on the tip of my tongue. Ah! So close. Can’t quite place it.
Edit; bold type is my emphasis added.
Edit edit: no offense to the Obots here, but the refrain is the same from the WH too. Make pointless unilateral concessions early that will accomplish nothing.
John Cole
@The Grand Panjandrum: I didn’t even catch that until you pointed it out. Just thought it was a variation on the horse you rode in on.
DougJ
You left out socks.
J. Michael Neal
@Napoleon:
The lack of an 8-K following the Wells Notice, which they got nine months ago, is potentially a much bigger problem for them than the rest of the stuff Antar goes on about. I don’t think that the press release from Friday is really that big a deal as a 10b-5 violation. It’s boilerplate that no one is going to take very seriously. If the SEC adds it on, it’s so that they have nitpicky stuff to negotiate away.
The lack of an 8-K, though, is a big fucking deal. What Goldman is going to claim is that, “Hey, we thought it was just the SEC asking us for information. We didn’t think there was any sort of real investigation that would lead to charges or anything. We had no way to know that it was material.” My guess is that such an argument would be complete bullshit, but it might stand up in court if no one can produce any evidence that it’s false.
What it does do is provide a perfectly legitimate way for shareholders to start lawsuits. I don’t think that there’s any way that Goldman would be able to get them dismissed easily. Not disclosing an SEC investigation, if that’s what they realized was happening, is a serious violation of disclosure requirements. You know that 13% of their share value they lost on Friday? They may owe a chunk of that to the people who lost the money.
Throw all of this on to the pile of reasons I think we’d be better off if we could figure out a way to make the investment banks go back to being partnerships.
bayville
Henry Blodget spinning for Goldman?
And the Captain is shocked there is gambling at Rick’s too.
Wile E. Quixote
@Mark S.:
How’s this for irony. According to his Wikipedia page Lloyd Blankfein serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization seeking to alleviate poverty in New York. Let me see if I understand this correctly, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, whose actions helped contribute to a massive amount of poverty in this country is on the board of an organization seeking to alleviate poverty. I don’t know, but perhaps if Lloyd really wants to alleviate poverty he should quit working for the Robin Hood foundation, put on a three piece suit with a vest made of C-4 and then set it off during a meeting of the board of directors and senior executives at Goldman Sachs.
Isn’t this like, oh, I don’t know. OJ Simpson working at a shelter for abused and battered women? Or Dick Cheney giving lectures on firearms safety? Or Bristol Palin appearing in a PSA designed to prevent teen pregnancy.
chicago dyke
dear, sweet Mr. Cole. say it with me, if you can: predatory state. you live in one. with a black man in charge of it. get used to it. it’s not going away any time soon.
Corner Stone
Yeah. Because as we’ve seen proven, there is a certain defined limit to banksters greed and avarice.
These mythical regulators would be as captured as elected politicians but just make more outright cash. Before they quit their post and make more buckets O cash in the private sector. Because rich people usually have a stopping point.
Fuck this fucking guy and his stupid fucking proposal.
And when will we stop deifying people like Spitzer, et al.?
He’s a smart guy who fucked up and gave them a way in against him. Nothing more.
FlipYrWhig
@jl:
People who don’t pay that much attention to politics always think that the two sides should keep talking until they find a middle ground. Making conciliatory sounds helps the WH sound like reasonable adults, and when the Republicans keep complaining and refusing to engage it makes them look petty and childish. Among the general public, the WH almost certainly benefits from stories about its “concessions” _more_ than it benefits from stories about kicking Republican ass, even though we, Obot and hippie alike, greatly prefer the latter.
Corner Stone
Fuck me. Goldman knew about this for months. This isn’t a kiss of death or anything close. It’s a buying oppo for insiders when GS hits the January low.
Wile E. Quixote
@John Cole:
Hell I saw it, got it, laughed my ass off and when I saw Panjandrum’s post figured that he just put it out there because he felt it was important to let us all know how gosh-darned sensitive, high-minded and enlightened he is.
Of course if he really were sensitive, high-minded and enlightened he would have pointed out that the post was not only “Epic Racist Fail” but also “Epic Sexist Fail” because it assumed that only Vikram Pandit’s mother rode in on the cow and “Epic Speciesist Fail” because it didn’t properly respect the cow and thus reinforced anthropocentric paradigms about the subjugation of nature. The fact that he didn’t only goes to show what a total sexist and speciesist bastard he really is.
WereBear
Yes. Sad but true. It must take a lot of self-control not to.
The way they beg for it.
Wile E. Quixote
@chicago dyke:
Nope, that predatory state sure isn’t going away any time soon, and if it ever does it won’t be because of any of the useless, link-trolling twats over at correntewire just as it won’t go away because of the efforts of the PUMAs or the birthers, or the baggers.
jl
@FlipYrWhig: I understand your point. However, my recollection, especially from health care reform, is that these concessions by Obama were never taken back after the GOP told him to F-off. So what happened was irreversibly weakened legislation and worse policy.
If I am wrong on that, someone please give me some examples of where, after the GOP told Obama to F-off, Obama said, ‘OK, fine, I’m going back to my original proposal because that is the best policy’.
I would prefer to make legislative proposals based on sound policy, and explain and defend them, and give them up reluctantly, and not until the other side had shown some willingness to actually bargain.
Then even if you had to concede, at least you had the ‘I told you so’ afterwards.
Corner Stone
@jl:
Hmmm…it’s almost as if that were the end game.
jl
But I don’t want to get caught up in nuances of Obama’s approach. He did get health care reform started, which is a very big deal. And I think I should wait until bill is close to final form before I starte to nitpick seriously.
But the GOP seems to be stuck in an infinite loop at this point. I assume the public can see that. I hope it makes the GOP as clownish to the average voter as it does to me.
$chadenfreude 4 a Gang$ta
When they get on the fa$t track – the only thing that matters i$ $troking their ove$ized ego$. Why they earn 300 times what the lowest employee earn$ i$n’t because they are really worth it – it’s becau$e they are Playa$. They have to ki$$ a lot of a$$ and have $trong oral $kill$$. Just Ask Joe Naccio Chee$e Chip – currently $pending time in a lovely country club federal facility. Joe wa$ CEO of Qwe$t and i$ $erving time for in$ider trading. Hope u r having a nice $tay – NOT. EVery body that ha$ ever had the mi$pleasure of working with you wi$he$ that this country had the ball$ to do with you ba$tard$ what the chine$e would do. There is no corporate accountability in this country – Ba$tard$ want it thay way. But I’m not bitter. Bwah ha ha ha. Bwah ha ha ha. Cough Cough Cough.
youtube.com/watch?v=FtwiGLx8h-M
Corner Stone
@Wile E. Quixote: Only one sentence? You’re slipping.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Wile E. Quixote: @Wile E. Quixote: Not sensitive at all. But technically it isn’t racist. He is taking either a religious or cultural slap at Pandit. It is really uncalled for and unacceptable in my book. Pretty simple call if you ask me.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Wile E. Quixote:
Matt Yglesias brings up this theme a lot in his posts, but it’s important to realize that the people who work there DON’T see things that way. The bit about how the fraud is ok because it’s “expected” when one is doing business with sophisticated clients gives an important window into their thinking: it’s all an abstract game for domination. It doesn’t have any actual consequences.
In this light it’s not surprising Republicans are taking GS’s side. I think a lot of them (and a lot of the blue dogs) approach political economics in a similar way: they’re sequential thinkers (stuff happens, who knows why?). There’s no real morality attached to the fact that a policy decision can indirectly result in someone being screwed down the line, and it’s not their fault.
Kirk Spencer
@J. Michael Neal: Antar mentions that 8k.
This is the tip of the wedge — or maybe first strike of the stone chisel is a better metaphor. The issue is aimed at one chip — Paulson — which will in the process expose more points to apply the chisel. GS’s response to this in light of the 8K that’s missing notice of the Wells creates an excellent fissure for the next strike. The SEC knew it’d get Paulson with this, knew it had the 8K point for another strike, but was hoping the Friday strike would get more.
And it did.
I’m going to guess this will take a year or two to play out. GS will probably survive it as a corporation. On the other hand, I said the same thing during the first week of the Enron mess as well. It depends on what the repeated chips expose — a cult of corruption, or an ugly department with some connections through the rest of the company. If it’s the former and the chipping exposes it… Bye bye GS.
Oh, I want to make one note here, now. Anyone who has been well-connected to GS during the past five years or so should probably be making sure they’ve got an attorney on tap as this didn’t pop out of nowhere. (Henry Paulson, Mark Patterson, Stephen Friedman — just to name a few.)
IronyAbounds
@jl: Perhaps the concessions weren’t taken back because the concessions ultimately were made to DINO’s like Nelson, Lincoln et al.. The progressive holy grail of legislation that the Firedoglake crowd circle-jerked over was never, ever possible whether or not there were any attempts to make the legislation bipartisan. Financial reform is not that much different, particularly since Dems in Congress are in Wall Street’s pocket to only a slightly less extent than Republicans. Once again, pie in the sky hopes about what can be achieved only serve to foster disillusionment, which depresses Dem voter turnout, which in turn works to the Repubicans’ advantage.
Corner Stone
@Kirk Spencer:
And I want to make one counterpoint here, now.
They are all laughing on a metaphorical beach right now.
Kirk Spencer
@Corner Stone: Sure, now. But Thursday, John Paulson was on that same metaphorical beach. Over the next few weeks, months, even years, I expect that beach to get emptier and emptier.
demimondian
@Corner Stone: True enough. Their plan may be to just transfer their beach chairs to the inside of some white-collar prison.
For twenty years.
That’s a long time to sit in the same chair without a chauffeur.
kay
Filed at 9:02 p.m. ET
Hope this is accurate:
“NEW YORK (AP) — A newspaper is reporting that federal authorities are picking up the pace in a criminal investigation of former mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. and its role in the meltdown in 2007 and 2008 of the U.S. housing and finance industries.
The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources in reporting Sunday that one of several federal investigations now under way is a criminal probe of Countrywide. The paper didn’t offer details on what charges could emerge.
The paper said a grand jury began hearing testimony about Countrywide last year. “
Corner Stone
@Kirk Spencer: John Paulson has $1 billion dollars to prove he did nothing wrong on this transaction.
No one will ever charge or touch him. I’m casting that marker now.
Corner Stone
@demimondian: C’mon demi.
Na gonna happen.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Corner Stone: You’re one cynical bastard.
Kirk Spencer
@Corner Stone: First, Paulson didn’t get $1B, his company did. Minor, perhaps. On the other hand…
Second, Skilling and Lay got quite a bit more at Enron, as I recall.
Your marker is down. So’s mine. Paulson will pay. Others will probably pay.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@IronyAbounds: That is where we disagree. Just look at the support for EFCA when Dubya was President. That tells me Congress ain’t worth spit and they’re also a bunch of spineless cowards.
BruceFromOhio
@demkat620:
Nails it. Personally, I’d give Elliot Spitzer a billion dollars to fund the staff he wants along with the jurisdiction he needs, a box of condoms and permanent immunity for any future callgirl scandals, and then unleash the mean bastard on Wall Street is precisely why he got taken down.
But Newt Gingrich is showing the way. If a soulless ratfuck sonofabitch like Newty can still command a paycheck and airtime, Elliots’ got a chance.
Corner Stone
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle: I think we’re on the same page here.
burnspbesq
@J. Michael Neal:
“Throw all of this on to the pile of reasons I think we’d be better off if we could figure out a way to make the investment banks go back to being partnerships.”
Oh hell yes. In the Epilogue to “The Big Short,” Lewis describes a lunch with John Gutfreund, the former head of Salomon. Gutfreund says that becoming corporations and going public was the Faustian bargain that sent investment banking in the wrong direction.
burnspbesq
I seem to recall the entire progressive blogosphere going bat-guano crazy when it was suggested that Rodgin Cohen of Sullivan & Cromwell, who has forgotten more about banking regulation than any 10 other people will ever know, and who was eager to retire and give something back to the system that made him rich, would be a good choice for a senior post at Treasury.
fourlegsgood
I just want to point something out. There are plenty of hard working, smart as a whip, fearless people already working in the public sector. Someone just needs to let them off the leash. Most of those people aren’t motivated by money, either. It would be nice if they were better paid, but the idea that they need to be overpaid to compete is dead wrong.
The investment bankers just think they’re the smartest people in the room. They’re not. They’re just the greediest.
Take it from me, I worked on Wall Street for 10 years. Guess where? in the mortgage capital business.
fourlegsgood
@burnspbesq:
Not I!! there’s no better regulator than someone who’s been there.
Cat Lady
@burnspbesq:
Ah yes. Other people’s money.
Hoocoodanode.
burnspbesq
@J. Michael Neal:
“What Goldman is going to claim is that, “Hey, we thought it was just the SEC asking us for information. We didn’t think there was any sort of real investigation that would lead to charges or anything. We had no way to know that it was material.”
Anyone who has ever seen a Wells notice will tell you that that argument doesn’t pass the laugh test.
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
“Fuck me.”
Bend over. You’re a douchebag who has never made a positive contribution to a comment thread in the three years I’ve been hanging out here.
Corner Stone
@burnspbesq: Yes. And you’re some kind of ersatz sheriff here at BJ.
You’re a real hero here. I’ve never seen anyone more consistently defend the banksters and their misdeeds than you.
Why don’t you stuff your self-righteousness in a sack, mmmkay?
You got nothing to add here, obviously.
anonymous
“Anyone who has ever seen a Wells notice will tell you that that argument doesn’t pass the laugh test. ”
Yup, nothing like watching a stock price chart do a jump discontinuity on “SEC investigating…”.
Joel
This is a tangent, but one worth mentioning: You know you’ve reached the apex of internet dorkdom when you’re quoting Pink Floyd lyrics. I say this as someone who likes Pink Floyd.
demimondian
@kay: Oh. Wow. That’s going to make the markets interesting in the morning. I don’t think I’d want to be BoA’s PR flack tomorrow, no indeed…
someguy
Yeah, it’s too bad the Democrats don’t control the Presidency, the Senate or event the House. If they did, we could expect some meaningful change here. Oh well.
FlipYrWhig
@jl:
Yes, because you’re a rational person who wants good policy. The problem is that people like you are a small share of the electorate. The larger share wants to see that politicians are “getting stuff done” without being “partisan” or “ramming it down our throats.” Republicans are working to impede getting-stuff-done and enhance the perception of throat-ramming. Democrats are working to get-stuff-done while avoiding the perception of throat-ramming. Thus the need to appear conciliatory to a degree that feels inordinate. Because standing firm because your policy is better _plays as_ unwillingness to get stuff done, and when the stories coming out of Washington are all about not getting stuff done, incumbents lose.
(Incidentally, Republicans when in the majority don’t have to deal with any of this, because everyone expects them to be dicks, and complaining about a known dick acting like a dick can only ever be whining. No one in the media ever allows Democrats to act like dicks with impunity.)
J. Michael Neal
@burnspbesq: Maybe, but I can’t figure out what else they’re going to argue.
Yutsano
@J. Michael Neal: This could very well be why Goldman’s lawyers are getting zero sleep in all of this. Their legal defenses are not adding up, and their hands are so deep in the cookie jar it might as well be a quantum singularity. I have zero doubt they will try some clever or novel legal defenses, but the government has been building this case for quite some time.
meander
Perhaps they could find some seriously devious banksters by exchanging immunity from crimes (or no jail time for serious crimes, only fines) for taking the job and performing well. The fox would indeed be in the henhouse, but the plea deal could be set up so that if fox eats the hens or lets another fox (e.g., the big banks) eat the hens, the deal is off and the bankster goes to jail.
Mnemosyne
@Corner Stone:
Isn’t that what the SEC is accusing them of? I’m not quite getting your argument here, other than that you think the SEC is engaging in some kind of kabuki theater to immunize Goldman against prosecution because shut up, that’s why.
Being sued for illegal acts is an elaborate cover-up for, uh, those illegal acts? Time to add a little more tinfoil to your hat.
DPirate
How about we hire serial killers and give them carte blanche upon banking executives? We probably wouldn’t even have to pay them.
SRW1
A billion for Spitzer? That’s $6.66 per head. Donations from abroad permitted? Where can I donate?
Xenos
@chicago dyke:
Is that the best we can do for a lefty troll? Sheesh, name me a state that has not been predatory, for starters.
Jose Padilla
Mr. Antar is wrong when he says, “Usually, corporate lawyers are unavailable on short notice to work weekends. When a company or individual receives a subpoena or lawsuit on a Friday, they are left to stew in anxiety over the weekend until Monday, before their lawyers can appropriately advice them on how to respond to the SEC.” That may have been the case for the CFO of Crazy Eddie, but it ain’t like that for Goldman Sachs. You can bet that Richard Klapper and his team at Sullivan Cromwell spent all weekend reviewing the government’s papers and preparing a defense. By now the memos have gone out as to what everybody should say when they are interviewed by the lawyers.