President Obama Warns Americans about Threat from Financial Terrorists
I first suggested that AIG’s masters of the universe had strapped themselves in semtex-lined vests in this post. I then noted that they had issued further threats on the pages of the WaPo.
Apparently, Obama has noticed the semtex-lined vests, too.
But today, President Obama took that rhetoric in a different direction. He actually upped the ante explaining that AIG is like a suicide bomber.
“We had to step in, it was the right thing to do, even though it is infuriating,” Obama said, explaining why the government needed to bail out the troubled banks.
“The same is true with AIG,” he said. “It was the right thing to do to step in. Here’s the problem. It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.”
Thing is, I’m not really sure we’re making any progress at talking them out of their terrorist attack, and I’m not convinced the terrorists have full control over whether or not their vests go off.
It is a bit insulting that his speech writers can lift from you and somehow think we’ll all hold hands with joy that O reads here and “that” should be enough.
My guess is some of your posts are getting close to the reality. “They” don’t like it.
Well, I’m grateful they’re reading EW, if in fact she’s one of their sources.
And I think MediaFreeze makes a good point. If what everyone here seems to be thinking is in fact true, then this really does fall under law enforcement and financial terrorism. Which means more law enforcement resources need to be put into play.
Mr. Obama’s rhetoric is only helpful if he’s instructed his bureaucracy in no uncertain terms to follow his lead. That means giving them the juice they need to renegotiate their deals and to pressure reluctant actors.
Bobo Brooks’ fretting to the contrary, that just means he should be empowering and instructing his direct reports to act like majority shareholders. The management they have allowed to stay in place is tanking the company and running off with all the cash. Blow the whistle, demand reforms and consequences, or get new shareholders’ representatives (of any sex) with the bollocks to do it.
Well, I’m glad that Obama is taking hold of the fear theme and redirecting it.
Maybe this is a li’l paranoid, but I was already thinking that another subtext of the AIG fear-mongering might be all the shifty logic we’ve been tracking for years about the militarizing of domestic law enforcement. Among his other purposes, Liddy definitely wants someone to think of ordinary citizens as the threat.
So who is calling whom a terrorist? And who gets to call in NORTHCOM?
meanwhile, things continue to go BAD for lushbo limpballs and the repuglitard party he leads
last we heard, lushbo was telling his dittoheads that every one of them could make $250,000 a year
now we got mark haines of cnbc telling us that people who make less than $250,000 per year are somehow inferior
well, which is it ???
are we all qualified to make $250,000 per year, or are people who make more than $250,000 a year somehow superior to the rest of us ???
I know one thing, most people are able to identify that repuglitards are talking out of BOTH sides of their faces
doubling down on TEH STUPID
sounds like a winner
FOR DEMOCRATS
Oh, gawd, I love it.
Meanwhile, the people who grow the food that feeds these egotistical people, who produce the milk in their lattes, the steak on their plates, and the lettuce in their salads are all supposed to burn through their equity and pay 22% interest.
The ‘Midas touch’ with a new twist: starve the people who are supposed to get the food to your table.
Somehow I missed how that translates to ’smart’.
You’re not supposed to notice that contradiction.
You want some real fun?
Get into a nice, polite calm conversation with a Rushbot. (Restrain yourself)
Be an attentive questioner and don’t argue.
Get both prongs of the contradiction out there.
Ask how they both can be true. Be patient.
Watch their heads do like a fembot in Austin Powers.
Works every time.
I regret to say that one of my siblings fits that criteria, and it does make for requiring some extensive diplomatic skills at times. Exhausting…
scribe, you should consider running for office. God knows, the government could use a mind like yours!!
I think I would be more effective on the outside, than on the inside.
Unless you got me a high-level counter-torturer job at DoJ or Obama’s job.
I’m not that good in organizational settings and in dealing with “let’s have a meeting to set the agenda for the meeting so we can talk about deciding to select what we’re going to talk about deciding. And did you hear that so-and-so’s a real meanie?” Crap like that causes old Army habits – cutting sarcasm, barking orders, snarling into the faces of others, really vile* profanity – to uncontrollably pop out of their storage boxes.
(e.g., people get nicknames like “f*ckstick”)
;-)))))))))))))))))
Oh, I completely understand the meeting allergy.
ask them what went really well during 43’s administration? they always answer “we did not get attacked again”
Sure do not like it when you respond “they ignored Richard Clarke’s warnings” prior to 9/11
You need this Yiddish proverb:
With money in your pocket,
you are wise and
you are handsome and
you sing well too
This is first on my list of evidence that they are stupid.
It’s like the operators of a nuclear power plant demanding a big ransom or they’ll let the plant blow.
This statement is pretty astounding in its candor.
A quibble, though: he’s not just “kind of talking to them, easing their finger off the trigger.” He’s paying the ransom money.
When cops see things going that way, they are inclined to give Jimmy the Sniper the green light to take the shot, if only so they can get home in time for SportsCenter. I don’t see His O-ness being that … direct.
I’m amazed that he used that language. It could be a coincidence I suppose, but if not, who in their camp is coming here and reading?
Seriously, that would be a good thing if someone was… the research results, critical thinking and knowledge and that gets told here is amazing.
To paraphrase Amy Goodman: “Steal my stories, please.”
I have heard questions lifted right from this blog and asked during hearings. Terrific! If they can not think of the appropriate questions that dig deep the blog team and other big brain types. at FDL will do it for them or at the very least add to their list of questions and insights.
AIG has their finger on American. pension and retirement plans trigger. And all Liddy kept bringing up were “his people” What about the pension and retirement plans of Americans? I guess millions of Americans did not make Liddy’s “my people” list
Liddy’s message “don’t ask names” or will pull that trigger
Next thing you know we’ll see EW as a PAID Obama speech writer.
I thought she was going for the Cheney ghost gig.
LOL !!!
Yeah, I mean Obama hasn’t accumulated enough dirt yet to make it worthwhile. And if you assume the ghost writer has to wait until the ghost writee’s ticker gives out before releasing all that secret info, I’d have to wait a lot longer with Obama than Cheney.
HA!
ew is gonna take or rex ???
she better bring sushi
for those not in the know, bob johnson’s dog rex is a big time cheney supporter
for those who don’t know bob johnson, he’s a guy who once worshiped a squirrel, and who has a dog named rex who likes sushi, ocassionally posts at DKOS using bob’s ID, and works as dead eye dick’s head of intelligence
I’m for having her question all these fookers and expose their lies.
Obama’s analogy was a great one … turning the GWOT meme against the bullies who have done more damage to America than every terrorist act.
He needs to use shame much more, in order to beat back their bloviating and return power back to the people.
Someone asked about this earlier in the week, and I put up a link to the relevant domestic terrorism statutory definition.
The point is
twofoldthreefoldfourfold:1. Obama is almost always on message and chooses his words carefully (Special Olympics bowling banter aside). Saying this, as he did, in a prepared environment, indicates he meant to send a message.
2. The bankers are well aware of what happened to Iceland when Gordon Brown decided to label some of the Icelandic bankers under the UK’s terrism laws. Then the UK seized some of their assets to protect the UK’s account holders. Suddenly, no one would even acknowledge their existence, let alone carry out deals with them.
It did not go over too well for Brown, as this note indicated.
But, the world has somehow managed to survive.
The question is: at whom is Obama pointing this threat? At a company? Or at individual bankers? Or at the pitchfork and torch crowd? Or at the people stirring the rage pot?
3. This could be a message sent as a way of facilitating hiving off the worst of the mess into a bad bank (i.e., take an axe to all of AIG’s connections to the greater economy analogous to FDR’s bank holiday, then get in and figure out what’s going on), or overcoming some resistance to a bad bank. Or it could be a warning to the banksters, personally, to quit dicking around with withholding information and playing cute and coy with the government. I dunno. But it does show that Obama is getting deadly serious about this.
4. FWIW, the economic mess is domestic terrorism – within the statutory definition – against the average Janes and Joes. I have a near-impossible time meeting my bills, and might well lose my home. I’m near-broke and in a labor market flooded with people of like or better qualifications laid off because of the economic catastrophe. To say that my situation does not qualify as a “victim of bankster terrorism” (even though I try to maintain my normal good cheer) would be to speak untruly.
The term is on the loose. That is the terrible thing about the terrism term: it is on the loose, and we can’t tell where it’s going next or who’s going to be wielding it next.
I really do hope that Obama has the loyalty of the generals and the admirals.
did you see Colbert Nation the other night when Colbert sharpened his pitchfork? He settled by the end of the program for wrestling matches between CEO’s on Wall Street who have or will be caught with their pants down and their greed showing
The Word – Keeping Our Heads
Stephen wants CEOs to be stripped naked and locked together in a rusty steel cage in an arena packed with screaming taxpayers. (07:10)
http://www.colbertnation.com/t…..-our-heads
Many of them are tired of this hogwash
This average Joe is hanging in there but damn its getting tough.
Scribe, I read your posts with intense admiration. I am sorry to hear of your personal troubles.
As my Depression suffering Grandfolks told me. “At least we were all poor together” God I admire that generation. I hope we can tough this out.
Thanks. I needed that.
I agree that BO chose his words carefully, WRT the “suicide vest” … the threat that if these Corps die, they’re taking the American economy along with them and perhaps the World economy as well.
What I think he’s doing is, showing them that they’re in a no- win situation and they’d better ease off the trigger before they cause more destruction.
The example of Iceland is profound … those Bankers got it handed to them. Shame is a powerful tool and Obama has to use it more … maybe he will ask the great psych minds here to give him pointers on “behavior modification techniques”.
Dealing with a guy in the suicide vest is relatively easy (once you know he’s wearing one – and, in this instance, we do).
You establish a safe perimeter, keep people away, and talk to him. If he comes down off the idea of blowing everyone up, great.
If he doesn’t, it’s just him blowing up. Because you isolated him.
Good piece by Michael Lewis (Liar’s Poker author) in the current Vanity Fair about the Iceland debacle. Insightful as well as hilarious in places. Typically fun Lewis writing.
Thanks for that link. I hope that he is nice to Iceland. That’s where I plan to make my refugee application, or at least I was so planning before the current troubles.
But did you see this article by Michael Lewis?
He may have insider insights, but he sounds like Santelli:
“The guy who defaulted on mortgages on his six spec houses in the Nevada desert has turned himself into the citizen enraged by the bonuses paid to the AIG employees trying to sort out the mess caused by his defaults.”
and…
“Since the beginning of the crisis I’ve wondered why the government has found neither the will nor the way to attack the root of the problem — the people who borrowed money to buy homes they shouldn’t have bought.”
Missed that one. I’ll take a look.
There is some degree of merit to the “shouldn’t have borrowed the money” POV but, as with every commercial transaction, there were two sides to that deal and the lenders weren’t exactly shy about pushing those loans.
And Bushco wasn’t shy about protecting the bankers pushing those loans from little inconveniences like … state anti-predatory-lending laws.
And Bushco wasn’t shy about whacking Spitzer for calling them on that.
And the bankers weren’t shy about making other deals secured by real estate that had nothing to do with spec houses in the Nevada desert.
Stuff like (for instance, reported AFAIK only in the local German paper) a mountain of what look like sale-and-leaseback deals involving most of the worthwhile infrastructure in the city of Leipzig, Germany, undertaken by AIG to take advantage of some obscure tax provisions. They got the Germans to tie up (among other things) the Messe (convention center) and the streetcar tracks (just the tracks) in those deals. That city’s government is crapping their pants over the deals now – b/c they might have to pay off the deals if AIG goes south.
So, while there is plenty of blame to go around for all these different deals, blaming it on some guy with a spec house or an overpriced mortgage is pointing a cannon at an eggshell. Because the value of his mortgage is not even a couple seconds’ worth of interest-rate float.
Interesting. Seems like they found a way to privatize city transportation and facilities…I wonder who might be interested in those? That is, who was the deal done with, etc.
The deals were done with AIG as a participant, but the newspaper article was quite unspecific as to whether AIG was a counterparty or just a facilitator selling a product with some other entity as the counterparty.
I know CSFB had a unit that was working on buying infrastructure, but that was stateside and they’re currently laying off people. I would suspect that all of the major IBanks had them.
Just remember – the deal in Leipzig was just for the streetcar tracks. Not the rolling stock, not the caternaries, not the signals.
Apparently you can chop transit systems into tranches, too….
Tip o’ the iceberg
As I always say when I hear of one of these deals (which will probably be from Chicago), you can only sell it once:
From Reuters
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Thanks. I needed that, too.
(Canadians are kinda shy about doing this sorta thing, but, y’know, aw shucks …)
(((scribe!)))
Yeah, but you Canucks do that to keep warm, so you’re good at it, eh.
Thanks so much.
The most disconcerting experience I’ve had was in a very warm meeting hall, with a “Guru” wearing a Dark Hood, sitting in a wheelchair and cleaning his Shotgun.
Several people who’d lost their blue collar jobs asked how they could rescue themselves and save their families from ruin.
He replied in a raspy pitch, “You can’t ! Remember, it’s always darkest just before it goes completely black !”
IIRC, his name was Chick Deney !
… how long does it take for Beamish to leave your bloodstream ?
Depends on whether I’m sitting here or not.
As the one interviewee says: “This is where I sit to lay down the law”.
Scribe, this is actually a response to your comment on a previous thread taking issue with my suggestion that it’s time to consider that perhaps Geithner, Summers et al may have already passed their sell-by date, and who might be viable replacements. FWIW, I’m not the only one thinking this way. In case you haven’t already seen it check out John B. Anderson’s post at the mothership.
I’m taking issue with the idea because I think it’s a bad idea at present.
The core problem is these bankers and their buddies think they are irreplaceable, and won’t lose that idea until it is proven false. Removing them now will put them in the same position as the old Communists who complained it never had a chance, so it could not be called a failure. They were wrong, they were likely deluded, but regardless of the proofs laid before them they would not accept it until they, personally, tasted the ashes.
Oh – and if you want to get rid of Rubin (and with him, maybe, his acolyte Summers) – ask him about his multimillion-dollar partnership investment with one of the Madoff sons.
My concern is that if the O team doesn’t start showing more savvy and competence in managing this crisis soon it’s going to start tarring Obama personally. I don’t think it has to much extent so far, but time on that is running out. If we reach that point then not only will his effectiveness on this matter be undercut, but his ability to sell some of the other elements of his agenda, such as health care reform, will also be greatly diminished.
BTW, best wishes for turning your situation around in this crappy economy. Your insights here are really thought-provoking and there’s got to be many a place where those skills would be of great value.
OT, I see our residents Canucks are here today…
Do you guys know anything about David Black, the Canadian newspaper publisher? He just bought my local rag, that San Diego Union; otherwise known as the FishWrap around here…
Afraid not, but he is no relation to Conrad Black and is apparently not keeping abreast of the rapid demise of print media.
Skdadl knows more peeps in the print industry, maybe she’ll drop by and tell you more about Mr. Black.
All I know, randiego, is that he isn’t Conrad, nor is he related to Conrad, and he likes to buy up community daily newspapers (mind you, that’s how Conrad got started too).
His name came up just btw in a Maclean’s article today about the possibility that the Harper government will bail out teh floundering evil CanWest, which in one of its manifestations would be a competitor of Black’s. I also found this out-of-date speculation from last year (it’s out of date because the dollar advantage has shifted), which contains this interesting tidbit:
You guys don’t call it the Onion anymore?
Though I guess someone stole that name since I used to live in SDCA.
Not sure, but whenever I call it the fishwrap, everyone seems to know what I’m talking about…
The previous owner was the Copley family, and the history has been Republican newsrag – when I was a kid there seemed to be a lot of connections on the editorial staff to Nixon.
For several years now, the entire front section has been nothing but wire copy. There was a discussion this morning on the local NPR affiliate, the feeling is that Black’s model is to enhance the local coverage over wire service crap. We could really use it – I think it serves a vital local service, and I really hope it doesn’t go under.
Isn’t the trigger provided by the continued free-flow of transactions involving CDS and derivatives? ISTM the way to lock the trigger is to declare a “holiday” (like the bank “holiday” declared by FDR back in the Great Depression) on all CDS transactions and derivatives, while the FDIC does a massive clean-up of all institutions like AIG.
and as has been pointed out here at the Lake, it ain’t just the CDS; the whole “insurance” thing is following the same pattern. The trigger lock has to be applied to those transactions, as well. Its the only way to get those semtex vests off.
Bob in HI
In my fantasy world, to borrow and idea from someone else, there is some metric that Treasury/Fed could set to zero which would decouple the default contracts from the real economy. Roubini initially speculated that there might have been a way to quarantine the nominal economy when these contracts began to tick. Taibbi’s piece suggests the $$ transfer began long before it was on anyone’s horizon. So, the opportunity to decouple, or quarantine, might have been lost before Roubini even talked about it. I heard Roubini mention it in two different presentations early on, he didn’t add any details as to how he thought it could be accomplished, and I’ve not heard him speak of it since.
Perhaps the opportunity is lost. But, I can’t help but wonder is there isn’t a way to segregate the effects of the “detonating semtex” from what links them to other bank transactions. Bets on bets on bets ought to go to zero. The effects on municipal and retirement investments could be horrific, but at the rate things are going, they may be anyway. If the investment instrument isn’t tethered directly – is more than one step away – from something tangible, then the chances of it ever having a real value is close enough to zero to be zero.
It would seem that one of Obama’s “best and brightest” ought to be able to determine what such a metric might be.
* declare state of emergency
* DOJ issued orders to preserve records under severe penalties of law
* forensic accounting to establish distinctions/lines between fraudulent, legal.
* remove infected financial institutions from flow of treasury gifts.
This should have been obvious by last March.
Indeed. And it also should be defined as such by our elected representatives, rather than pouring $b’s back into ‘em and calling it “fixing the financial system.”
They’re already there… some belly up already, some hoping real estate rebounds before booking CDS losses. Got tons of links to that effect, just ask.
Well, too late. BO didn’t even try, rather cast his lot w/WS. In his short tenure, shit has hit the fan & he’s made every wrong call… strategically & morally. Latest ARG poll reflect this… he’s below 50% on economy, indys have him down 2:1 now.
James K. Galbraith wrote excellent article on a prescription, some of which I hi-lited earlier today here. Good place to start with a plan, if indeed there’s anyone in government capable of articulating the reality of things.
In another signpost along the way, Sheila Bair today said FDIC Reserves May Hit Zero Without New Fees.
Bank reps don’t like it. They say it could affect profits.
One story that could explain why FDIC hasn’t used its receivership powers more aggressively (think back to the days when Countrywide and WaMu started listing noticeably) is that it would have depleted its insurance fund. That would have left it with two (non-exclusive) strategies to remain viable: 1) draw on the full faith and credit, through Treasury and quite likely the Fed, to meet existing shortfalls and accomplish any emergency closings until its fund recovered; 2) increase fees on its member banks to build the fund back up, partly on grounds that the actuarial assumptions of the old schedule have been revealed to be faulty.
Anybody see any difficulty there, now or even more so back in ‘08? Now, of course, there is a bill introduced by Sen. Dodd to give FDIC ready access to a line of credit that would allow them to ease any funding concerns they might have about whether to close a bank that’s deep in the red. We’ll see what happens with that bill. I’ll just note that in the late 1980s it was precisely dilation involving Congress that helped drag out the S&L crisis long enough for the outright looters among the thrift operators to make off with a pretty good hoard.
A couple things about that…
* things much worse now than in ‘08. The Treasury well is near dry. Can’t imagine where Dodd’s credit line going to come from… back to the fed?
To me, I see this as warning of CD’s (which I’ve bought in last 6 mos) solely because of FDIC guarantee. I can’t help but think we’re near the point where US guarantee doesn’t mean much.
* Bair already proposed increase in Bank fees (can’t remember where I read banker’s response)
* This one much bigger than S&L debacle… much bigger. Aside from fact US gov is entirely dysfunctional in this affair, it (and we) also very myopic. Just last week China sounded warnings bout their Treasuries. This is getting worse by the day, w/no meaningful corrections. So if I’m a Chinese Treasury/Investment manager watching this, at what point do I pull the plug? Same for Russia/Japan.
If & when they do, $USD is insolvent overnight. Period.
hmm.. that gives me an idea. Can we put these financial terrists onto the no-fly list?
If they flew commercial, we could.
I doubt any of them have flown commercial in years.
To succeed, you’d have to set up new regs on private jets and plane travel.
Just sayin’.
It’s a Bouncing Betty. If you take your foot off, you blow up.
Amy shines the light for all to see. Four years ago I presented WOUB our local university station with a petition asking for them to broadcast Amy’s show. A group of Professors and citizens did the same just a few years ago (handed in a petition) to the Board of the station. This group has been tirelessly trying to get her on. The board of trustees, and employees of the radio station have been blocking blocking the group efforts of this formidable group of people.
They are still pushing hard for Democracy NOw. Amazing that a so called progressive station would block Amy. The Board calls NPR fair and balanced. Yikes…have you ever heard Neal Conan allow John Bolton and others repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran over and over again and never challenge him once. Fair and balanced? Yowser
That’s b/c the boards (particularly at the national level) are rife with friends Dick and Lynne Cheney put on the boards.
You didn’t think cutting public financing for NPR (Thanks, Newt) was the only way they intended to destroy it, did you?
what color would this alert be? Green$$$$$?
skdkdl: You Canucks might need a new government.
Yours allows unemployed torturers in to make money (see. e.g., George W. Bush) but keeps out current members of Parliament from the Mother Country because they agree with Hamas? Where’s that notorious Canadian tolerance, liberality and niceness?
No kidding. Think of our citizenship and immigration minister as a sort of male version of Michele Bachmann, and you’ll understand the painful week we’ve just gone through here. Yes, he has barred George Galloway from entering the country. He has also announced his own (ie, extra-legal) standards for denying funding to groups that he determines are anti-semitic or support terrorism. (Supporting terrorism is a crime here, but the minister doesn’t wait for legal determinations of these things. He’s defending “Canadian values,” he says, and that’s good enough for him.)
The only likely government in waiting would be led by Michael Ignatieff. Remember him? Empire-Lite? Torture-Lite? Bush flatterer who embeds plausible deniability in every sentence he writes? Who is propping up the current gang because the Liberals can’t afford an election right now?
I told you I was thinking of applying for refugee status in Iceland. We are so screwed.
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OT – and it may have been in an earlier post, but Dawn Johnseen is out of committee.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/d…..nate-vote/
I’m not sure what difference it will make – I foresee a lot of kabuki whereby there will be gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair bc she says waterboarding is torture, but in the end it will all be naught. She has no authority to do much about anything other than what she is asked about directly, and Holder and Obama have already decided that they want to stake out their pro-torture legacy, whereby commiting crimes of violence is a matter of Presidential policy.
If she does do anything, it will be to give the torturers a bye, and then the kabuki will be complete. Obama as Pilate, saying his hand are tied (washed well, but tied) and republicans and democrats alike saying, “see EVEN Johnsen says our Presidential torturers are above the law”
When it comes to leadership, Obama hasn’t been much, but when it comes to cover up, he and Bush could share underwear.
This is getting worse by the day
All the more reason to do something about it now. Where the reserve money comes* from is much less important at this point than getting it there, which is no doubt why Dodd has been so carefully prepped as an easy target by the opposition. Hopefully some else who understands this part of the issue will show up soon as an additional public face; there are a few old hands from the 1980s still in Congress after all.
====
* Actually the FDIC is already backed by FF&C by law, however for it actually to draw on that legally mandated line in an emergency is, according to experts, not straighforward enough to prevent some kind of disaster like a major bank run from getting out of control, hence the issue of creating a line for it.
One of the troubling moments from the President’s appearance on the Leno show was the response from Obama to Leno when he said ‘Shouldn’t someone be going to jail for this?’ to which Obama shrugged and said ‘the thing is what was done was perfectly legal’….I am hoping that was the President’s poker face and he really has Holder and a team of forensic accountants zeroing in what Cassano, and his team were up to.
on the ‘terrorism’ front there is always ‘naked short selling’
this video is a blood boiler.
http://www.deepcapture.com/the…..the-world/
scribe, this is in deep EPU-ville, but I am very sorry.