Nothing surprises me anymore, but this huge 'bombshell' that has been announced on very few news sites, (right before a major election day), takes the cake, it really does.
This is Déjà vu, and immediately reminded me of how Timothy Geithner made the Christmas Eve announcement that he was essentially giving Freddie and Fannie Mac a blank check, directly into the veins of the American taxpayers...anyone remember that? I sure as hell do
Strange how these major announcements come at such opportune time, in hopes that no one notices, isn't it?
Federal Government Asks for Closed Courtroom to Protect Goldman Sachs Secrets
The U.S. Department of Justice has requested that a federal judge seal the courtroom of a trial involving computer code theft in order to protect trade secrets of Goldman Sachs. Sergey Aleynikov was arrested by the FBI on charges of stealing computer code that supports Goldman’s high frequency trading system, which allows the bank to buy and sell stocks in a fraction of a second.
Goldman Sachs and others use "flash trading" to send out automated sell offers at higher and higher prices until one comes back with no buyer. The program then drops back to the highest acceptable price and sells at what the buyer set as his maximum limit. This allows Goldman to always obtain the best possible selling price, while the buyer loses the normal give and take of bargaining. In the case of large orders, such as those from pension funds or mutual funds, this can cost the buyers a small fortune.
Federal prosecutors have argued that the general public should not be allowed to observe the trial when details of Goldman’s trade secrets are discussed. They also asked that any documents related to Goldman’s trading strategies be sealed. While it is common to protect proprietary corporate information during trials,
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
http://www.allgov.com/...
Why does this remind me of how for the first time in our nation's history the records pertaining to AIG, what really occurred and who the hell got paid off and why, were sealed by the SEC?
Why does this remind me of how for the first time in our nation's history the Federal Reserve is using the FOIA, in the case that Bloomberg has brought against them, which is on its way to the Supreme Court?
Transparency, my ass.
The House of Cards, is crumbling before our eyes, and the FRAUD TO COVER UP FRAUD, is unraveling, despite, this latest move by Attorney General Eric Holder (aka Wall St/Banking Lapdog) to keep the public out of a public courtroom, to protect Goldman Sachs, aka, the great Vampire Squid from revealing what most Americans already know, that they have been illegally front running (as sanctioned by the SEC, NYSE and our own complicit government in both parties.)
As I read recently, this makes a great deal of common sense:
Remember my first comment, "Everybody, and I mean Everybody now knows that the entire American subprime mortgage market is a scheme to rob the American people?" Well, in recent testimony before a Congressional panel, the details of the most current aspects of the criminal enterprise are revealed with staggering details: The federal government is pumping billions of dollars into the criminal servicers who are simply pocketing the money, in many cases improperly, with no accountability to the American people.
Read the full report here
I’m just a simple, small town lawyer but what I see on the ground level is exactly what is admitted among and between all the big shots, elected leaders and Wall Street Fat Cats. The Assignments, Affidavits, Endorsements and claims of ownership are lies, fabrications and at best guesses and estimates. (We don’t know who really owns your mortgage, but we’re going to take it anyway.) Our local judges should care about details like real claims to ownership and preventing widespread, systemic fraud and abuses and mega corporations receiving billions of dollars they are not entitled to. Our judges should be looking at the bigger pictures and reading exchanges like the following and understanding that they not only have the power to right the wrongs that are happening to their neighbors and the Amercian people as a whole, but that they have a sacred Constitutional obligation to stop these abuses. Our judges are on the front lines and they hear the stories from struggling consumers who are lied to and abused by servicers. Our judges hear the stories everyday of homeowners who have filled out the endless and conflicting forms only to be shot down, shut out and kicked aside. Our judges, more than anyone else through their interactions with the victims of the servicers have the unique ability to put these statements into their sickening context:
"How do we know that people who don’t have good liens aren’t getting public money essentially under the false pretense that they have a good lien?" Silvers asked Caldwell.
"Again, we don’t," was her reply. "Our focus at this point has been on..."
Silvers quickly stopped her. "Hold it," he said. "That’s the issue." He added that he hoped Treasury "would be diligent" in trying to answer "what’s potentially at play — are servicers and banks getting public money under false pretenses? We ought to try to figure out whether that’s true or not,"
http://mattweidnerlaw.com/...
Here's a reminder to you Attorney General Eric Holder, and what you swore to uphold:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is a cabinet-level agency responsible for enforcing the laws of the United States federal government. DOJ ensures public safety against foreign and domestic threats, including terrorism, and preventing crime.
What it Does
The Department of Justice (DOJ) enforces federal laws, prevents crime, protects the public’s safety from all threats, including terrorism, and operates the federal prison system. Key figures and agencies that perform these duties include the FBI, DEA, US Marshals, US Attorneys and the Attorney General of the United States. DOJ employs more than 100,000 attorneys, special agents, other law enforcement personnel and various staff.
So here's a clue AG Eric Holder, your job is not to ask a Federal Judge to close an otherwise open courtroom to the public and the media, to protect Goldman Sachs. You job Holder, is to protect the American public from those that have gamed the system, and have illegally made billions that have literally brought this nation to ruination.
Today we have yet another 'fake news story' on how the SEC is supposedly going after JP Morgan:
SEC Investigating Magnetar, JP Morgan Dealings on Subprime CDO
ProPublica reports that the SEC has taken interest in Magnetar’s role in a JP Morgan underwritten CDO.
We discussed Magntar at length in our book ECONNED, which broke that story six weeks before ProPublica launched its report, and remains the definitive account of how those transactions were structured. (Our continuing beef with the ProPublica account is that it missed what we discussed at length in ECONNED: the systemic impact of the Magnetar trade. It isn’t simply that Magnetar was a bad actor; its Constellation CDO program played a direct and substantial role in increasing the severity and damage of the toxic phase of the subprime bubble).
Per ProPublica’s update:
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether JPMorgan Chase allowed a hedge fund to improperly select assets for a $1.1 billion deal backed by subprime mortgages, according to people familiar with the probe. Called "Squared" and completed in May 2007, the deal was a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO, made up of pieces of other CDOs. The hedge fund, Magnetar Capital, based in Evanston, Ill., purchased the riskiest slice of Squared as part of a strategy to bet against the mortgage market.
The issue is similar to the one that came up in the SEC suit against Goldman in April over a 2007 Abacus trade (this was one deal in a much larger Goldman program called Abacus): did subprime short John Paulson, who did take a short position in that trade, act as a Trojan horse long for a small percentage of the deal (the equity tranche) so as to gain influence over what bonds went into the deal? With the Paulson involvement, it was harder to argue impropriety, since he had made the fact that he was shorting subprime public, and the CDO manager, ACA, (who was nominally responsible for picking the exposures and clearly was negotiating with Paulson what was in and out of the deal) was part of one of the major investors in the long side of the deal (in other words, if one hand didn’t know what the other at ACA was doing, you could hardly blame the failure to communicate on Paulson and Goldman).
ttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/sec-investigating-magnetar-jp-morgan-dealings-on-subprime-cdo.
html
Again the same two parties, again and again and again:
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan...(the few left standing after the great Heist of 2008, which essentially happened to make certain all of their so called 'competition was eliminated.'
And what difference do these stories make, if all the SEC does is to put a insulting fine on them, for what they've taken from us as a nation, or if AG Eric Holder, is now asking a fucking Federal Judge to close to the public what should be open to all Americans.
Who in the hell is Attorney General Eric Holder working for, and jeesshe, don't you wonder if Holder discussed closing down this case to the public with our beloved leader, President Obama? I do.
It doesn't matter, it's all imploding anyway, and that is exactly what is going to continue to happen, as these worthless Wall Street Bankers throw the women and children overboard as they try, in their last ditch efforts to get their places on the 'life boats' of the Titanic.
The Inevitable Has Come To Pass and Those That Insured Guaranteed Blowups Are Being Blown Up - Finally!
Submitted by Reggie Middleton on 11/01/2010 08:47 -0500
Zerohedge had posted an article this morning that brought back memories of how lonely it can be to have a contrarian, dissenting opinion – Ambac Does Not Make November 1 Coupon Payment, To File Bankruptcy Within A Month If Unable To Raise Additional Capital . You see, I have alleged Ambac to be insolvent for 3 years now – seriously, Ambac is Effectively Insolvent & Will See More than $8 Billion of Losses with Just a $2.26 Billionn in Equity! This post was written in November of 2007. On November 1st, 2010 the chickens are now coming home to roost (again). Of course, the sell side never really agreed with me. After all, there are two sides to every trade (excerpted from the afore-linked article)...
Six Degrees of Separation: Guess who Ambac insures!
Bank of America issued a report on the monoline insurers on July 30th, 2007 that states that ABK’s RMBS exposure to troubled companies is limited to only 4 cos. with vintages primarily in the early years excluding two relatively well performing underwritings. Despite this, they failed to include in this caveat the consumer finance insureds:
o Countrywide, which probably has one of the worst performing portfolios in the industry;
o GMAC, who has also suffered significant losses that GM has been forced to cover, hence hampering a clean sale of the company;
o Indymac, another company that is saddled with mortgage related losses that is on the insured’s list (Indymac and Countrywide have had their shares more than halved in the last few months. I was short these companies. CFC may go bankrupt);
o Lehman brothers has some losses to contend with as well, but I don’t know to what extent since I don’t follow it – I do know that they are the 2nd largest MBS house on the street, next to Bear Stearns;
o Greenpoint Mortgage Funding is defunct, wound down due to losses;
o Then we also have Citimortgage (SIV king whose own mortgage portfolio is a mess);
o Accredited Mortgage Loan (bankrupt or close to it);
o Wachovia (just reported a billion plus writedown on mortgage assets);
o Countrywide Revolving Equity Trust/Alt-A trust (need I say more about undocumented 2nd lien loans from this lender);
o Option One Mortgage Trust (nearly defunct due to mortgage losse);
o BofA, mulit-billion dollar mortgage asset writedown;
o and Newcastle – who I believe is either out of business or close to it. I stopped following it some time ago.
These are the companies and exposure that I am familiar with, at first glance in the consumer finance portion of Ambac’s portfolio, without any research. Just imagine if I took a real hard look at the insureds.
http://www.zerohedge.com/...
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it"
George Santayana
This reminds me of President's Obama blind repetition, that we must look forward and not backward.
Of course, we must always look forward, that is what this nation has always been about, but we can never and must never give a blind eye to corruption, and the rule of law in our nation, that we fought so dearly for in the past.
So unfortunately, we are now in a state of doing exactly what George Santayana has quoted: repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again.
This is exactly why we are now facing such huge losses in our own party, because when President Obama refused to step up to the plate to stop the corruption and madness, and the absolute fury, that most Americans are feeling, because of what the Bankers and Wall Street, have gotten away with and are still getting away with, then guess what?
It opened the doors, to the absolute worst reactionary politics in the history of our nation.
Oh, you thought Rove was bad? Get a clue. Now we've got the Zombie On Ward Christian Soldiers Hating Muslims, Birthers, Racists, Over-turn Women's Rights to their bodies, end Social Security and Medicare, Education Crowd, that are being swept into office...
And you know why? Wall St. The Bankers...............that's why.
Fuck you AG Eric Holder. Trying to get a Federal Judge to stop the public from seeing how Goldman Sachs has been front running for years, just as has JP Morgan, who has been proven to the same thing, and manipulating the silver markets.....
What, they think we don't know what's going on? Well here's a song for you Bankers and Wall Street vipers, as you push the women and children away from the life boats off the Titanic:
Thanks as always, wish it were not so, but it is.
I voted the straight Democratic ticket last week, but my voting hand is getting mighty tired at this point.
Ms. B.