Knowing what we now know, the Goldman Sachs was teaching and making godzillions of money off of showing how the Greeks to hide their 'bad toxic debt' this new revelation is just stunning to me.
How in the hell after Europe has been screaming and yelling about 'American is all to blame for the world wide financial catastrophe' did a major player from Goldman Sachs end up with pushing out, and then replacing the most important person in this tragic fiasco of a final 'new Icelandic Meltdown' in Greece?
Now I feel like I am in one of those old surreal Fellini Movies. You know, the ones where nothing is as it appears, and it is all this great 'fake mystery' that, after the movie we go and discuss with people that pride themselves on the deeper meaning of Ingmar Bergman, only to end up later calling it all 'bullshit' in the end, and thanking god for Woody Allen who made us all see the 'underneath it all is was as shallow as a class of cheap Merlot?' And that what we thought in the first place, what what it really was in the beginning: Metaphor Madness and pretentiousness, instead of, just more bullshit?
Let's review the past few weeks:
Goldman Sachs Hid Greece's Debt
Greece's overwhelming national debt has set off yet another global economic crisis—and just like the last one, American banks are at the center of the story. According to the New York Times, Goldman Sachs and other U.S. banks played a key role in postponing Greece's day of reckoning while it racked up more debt by using a variety of complicated financial tactics reminiscent of the mad science that sparked the subprime mortgage crisis. Just months before the current crisis, in November 2009, Goldman president Gary Cohn led a group of banks in offering Greece a way to refinance their health-care debt, but it was hardly the first of such efforts. In 2001, Goldman Sachs engineered multi-billion dollar loans for the government hidden behind currency trades to help it skirt the EU's deficit rules. "Politicians want to pass the ball forward, and if a banker can show them a way to pass a problem to the future, they will fall for it," Gikas A. Hardouvelis, an economist who's studied Greece's accounting, told the Times.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Now, I will include a recent update by 'goingsouth' one of my favorite Kossacks on an article 'we both' read and were very interested in:
More on GS from Yves Smith. (89+ / 0-)
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I thought this was pretty interesting from Yves at Naked Capitalism:
There is a TON of new stuff on the Goldman/Greece affair, starting with the most damning accusation:
Goldman Sachs contre, tout contre, la Grèce Jean Quatremer (hat tip Eurointelligence). I’d translate the piece, but my French is not what it once was (as in I can read it but I might muff some of the finer points). He accuses Goldman and John Paulson’s hedge funds of being the moving forces behind the attack on Greece and the euro:
Je peux donc vous confirmer que, selon des sources concordantes, Goldman Sachs et le fonds spéculatif dirigé par John Paulson seraient les deux principaux acteurs des attaques contre la Grèce et l’euro.
Merkel hits out at banks over Greek deals Financial Times. Putting two and two together, if the Quatremer J’accuse is confirmed, the wrath of the EU may come down on Goldman. They may not be able to take any immediate action, but look how many believe that Bear was at least in part a victim of its failure to participate in the rescue of LTCM a decade before. If this report is confirmed, I will have to rethink my view that Goldman remained TBTF (more accurately, too interconnected to fail) no matter what the official pretenses were. Goldman may have just made itself Too Controversial To Save.
Brought a smile to my face.
"Capitalism is irresponsibility organized into a system." -- Emil Brunner
by goinsouth on Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 04:25:33 PM PST
So...to continue this conversation and new information this is the new and stunning 'lowdown'....
And my question to all of you is this: Knowing what we know now, how in the hell did this 'cockroach' from Goldman Sachs become appointed to handled this 'debt' crisis, when Goldman Sachs were the ones that 'were behind the entire scenarios to help Greece hide their debt? Why is this any different from the way that Arthur Anderson helped 'Enron' hide their debt? Why is it any different from the blatant Securities Fraud that continues as the SEC has been sitting on a new Regulation that they voted in last September, but has yet to actually enact? Why is it any different, than what is being allowed world wide to destroy our 'Financial Credibility throughout the entire world'?
How and why did this guy from Goldman Sachs become 'appointed' in Greece after GS were the ones that helped Greece to hide their debt the exact way that the 'largest surviving five Banks and Investments Houses' have been hiding all of their debts with the help of the Federal Reserve in the Maiden Lane 'secret cheat sheets funds'...where they are still making money coming and going, in addition to being able to skim off the tops of the 'Bail Out Funds' and why is our government still allowing the Banks not only to make more money off of foreclosures, because of the bailout procedures instead of allowing the natural path of foreclosures to take their course in our courts?
Here is what is going on with Goldman Sachs now being allowed to 'take over the debt' in Greece after they helped Greece to 'cook the books' so that once again, they could 'make a killing' and as I've stated before...whether it is 300,000,000 million Americans or an entire country like Greece (and yes, Greece must and shall and always will hold it's own responsibility for how this all came to be....) happened:
Head Of Greek Debt Office Replaced By Former Goldman Investment Banker
And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday's news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the CEO of the NBG Tamvakakis), as can be seen on the org chart below. Yet was is oddest, is that Mr. Christodoulou worked not only as head of derivatives at JP Morgan but also held comparable posts at Credit Suisse, and... wait for it, Goldman Sachs... Uh, say what?
Petros' profile from Forbes: Petros Christodoulou, born 1960, is the General Manager of Treasury, Global Markets and Private Banking. Before joining the Bank in 1998, he worked in various positions in Global Markets for Credit Suisse First Boston and for Goldman Sachs. Additionally, at JPMorgan he led the derivatives desk, followed by the short-term interest-rate trading and emerging markets division in London as Managing Director. He is a member of the Investment Committee of EH and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research. He holds a BSc from the Athens School of Commerce and Economics and an MBA in International Financial Markets from Columbia University.
But, but, we thought it was all Goldman Sachs' fault for annihilating Greece? Wasn't it all Goldman's fault for fully (not) disclosing the terms of its nearly decade worth of swaps, which apparently were obvious to Risk magazine but oh so incomprehensible to Eurostat. Although it may all be good - it appears that Greece has found a new enemy. Reuters now reports that Greek opposition lawmakers said on Thursday that Germans should pay reparations for their World War Two occupation of Greece before criticizing the country over its yawning fiscal deficits. The fact that Greece's survival is now reliant on Germany's goodwill, seems to be lost on everyone.
Well.....................this is so 'cherry'.....this article is claiming now after another silent coup d'état of yet 'another Goldman Sachs predator' stepping into to actually 'replace' a Greek Government Official to for what Goldman Sachs has become most infamous for 'NOT DISCLOSING' that the reason is that in the end this is all 'Germany's Fault' for something that happened during WWII? OMG....Any excuse will do....I mean, that is an 'out our ass last minute thought by some idiot that I cannot even imagine actually 'has' a job in this fiasco....
That Germans should pay reparations for their World War Two occupation of Greece before criticizing the country over its yawning fiscal deficits.
I mean, LMFAO......It's all the Nazi's fault.....
But, whatever we do, let's not pay attention to the fact that this Goldman Sachs guy upsurged an actual long term official in the Greek Government at ..........................just the right time....
And why to me is this such a total Fellini déjà vu moment in time...oh, shit, just call it, 'been there, done that...'
Déjà vu examples: An impression of having seen or experienced something before: Old-timers watched the stock-market crash with a distinct sense of déjà vu.
While one may or may not have feelings about Goldman's tentacled capture of various regulatory agencies, the most recent news out of the SEC that it would be hiring a 29 year old former Goldman Vice President Adam Storch as its COO, questions the rationale behind this move. First, and not being ageist here, but a 29 year old to run what is arguably the most critical post at the SEC - that in charge of operations? Keeping up to date with market developments, the one area where the SEC has been an utter disaster (along with all other areas actually), is a core responsibility: at least the SEC could have hired someone with actual market/broker experience. Based on his record, Mr. Storch is not even a licensed (Series 7/63) broker: would it not be logical to hire someone who has at least had some market experience? Yet according to the SEC's Robert Khuzami, Storch is just the (very young and inexperienced) man for the job:
The COO, who started Oct. 13, has "a great deal of background" in technology and managing processes and the pace of work, Robert Khuzami, head of enforcement, said yesterday in Washington. Storch, who worked since 2004 in a unit at Goldman Sachs that reviewed contracts and transactions for signs of fraud, will be charged with making the unit more efficient. Storch, reached by telephone at the SEC, declined to comment.
We shall be following young master Storch's exploits closely. As for the timing of an ex-Goldman retention 5 days ahead of a critical hearing on dark pools, we can only surmise this is a total and complete coincidence.
http://www.zerohedge.com/...
Coincidence, my ass.....
Welcome again to the 'World of Goldman Sachs'...it is without a doubt 'Their world, lock, stock and barrel'...the rest of us are just fodder to be 'had as they go for the jugular every time, suck what they can and leave us as Carrion (from the Latin caro, meaning meat) refers to the carcass of a dead animal.
How's that working for you?
Thanks as always...