"No one is above the law." (0.00 / 0)

How many times have we heard that statement over the last year?  Goldman Sachs and Moody's, (McClatchy did a great story on Moody's) based on news reports and in the case of Moody's on congressional record may have committed acts that reach the level of RICO Statute violations.  Can you say potential "Criminal Enterprise"?

Now, it could that DOJ is quietly investigating and building potential criminal cases against both organizations.  But I won't hold my breath.  In order for the rest of us to regain confidence in our financial system there has to be real accountability and "No one is above the law" must stand for something.

RebelCapitalist - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.

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by: RebelCapitalist @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 13:14:56 PM CST

Here is the McClatchy story on Moody's (0.00 / 0)

How Moody's sold its ratings - and sold out investors

RebelCapitalist - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.

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by: RebelCapitalist @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 13:18:54 PM CST

[ Parent ]

"I am the law." (0.00 / 0)

The Treasury is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldman-Sachs.  Geithner insisted that GS be paid 100 cents on the dollar in the AIG scam.  This is the type of corruption that is too big to be punished or deterred.  That's what they really mean when they say that they are "too big to fail."  

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by: Jbearlaw @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 16:23:22 PM CST

[ Parent ]

There was an opportunity to break up Goldman (0.00 / 0)

It was when the whole banking sector was on the verge of collapse.

Thanks to TARP, Bush, Paulson, and the Democrats who pushed it through, that opportunity is gone. Long live investment banking.

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by: Zugzugzug @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 13:50:13 PM CST

It's sickening (4.00 / 1)

It's sickening because Obama is apparently in Goldman Sachs's pocket.

I've argued against third-party efforts in the past, but that's because I think they're futile and an energy sink. But this kind of news makes me think that everything is futile.

The Democrats' weak campaigning is because they have nothing to campaign on. They're not as good as the Republicans at flat-out lying, so the Republicans will be able to win this issue even though they're significantly more culpable. What they'll say is that the problem was caused by too much regulation and home loans to non-white people, and they'll win with that.

The Democrats who aren't corrupt are complacent. I'm starting to think that one kind of liberalism makes people incapable of doing anything at all.  Republican mobilization is ten times better than ours.

This really puts me on the verge of giving up.  

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by: John Emerson @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 13:55:43 PM CST

Perpetual War (4.00 / 1)

I cannot substantially disagree with you about the status quo in the Democratic party. Fortunately, there are a few bright exceptions.

Whenever I think about stepping back or giving up, I consider the life I would be surrendering to. Orwell's 1984 comes to mind. Perpetual War is what the GOP has in mind for us. I also think of the first few pages where Winston shaves with a rusty razor, and him recovering in his cell from being hit with a truncheon. I know there are some even more convincing portrayals of a totalitarian state than 1984, but since I read it when I was 12 (right after I finished Animal Farm) it made a deep impression.

We really have to win our struggle for progressive control of the Democratic party. A third party can't help us out in the foreseeable future. Save your energy for the primaries in 2010.

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by: Mark Wallace @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 15:44:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]

stuff we could (try) to do (4.00 / 3)

Dis-elect the bad ones Identify at least a few of the worst elected officials complicit in this and defeat them. If we can beat them in a primary, fine. If we lose the primary or if there's nobody to run, put up a third-party candidate, encourage a boycott, even (horrors) give money to the other party. Corporations don't care what letter is after your name, as long as they can count on your vote. We can't hold that (D) sacred either.

Protect the good ones Support the people who are definitely on our side - by their actions as well as words - and make them independent of business funding and of the national and state parties. No donations to the DSCC or DCCC or any of their ilk. (It'd be nice to get union funding on this track too, though it seems unlikely anytime soon. Maybe after they've been screwed a few more times.)

Get our hooks in Way too often, we raise money and work for Rep Jones, and then Rep Jones gets into office and starts doing weird things, and thinks a conference call once a month will cover it. Boilerplate is not enough. If they disagree, if they have reasons to believe that what they're doing is the best thing to be done, we need to get somebody from the office to say so, to be available for follow-up, to respond to factual queries. You say this is only the starting point, fine: what concretely is the plan for further progress? Alliances need to be substantively two-way.

Connect I really don't know much about how to do this sort of thing, but the more of a left there is, the more it could do. Build up existing organizations or make new ones or whatever the best approaches are. Groups that are two-way, or multi-way - where people can be active in discussion and decisions. (And not just geographically-centered, either, some people are not fortunate enough to live in the right places.)

This is all pretty much "well, duh" stuff (I'd hope) and slow slow slow. But we can get started. Especially on that first one.

not everything worth doing is profitable. not everything profitable is worth doing.

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by: tatere @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 15:47:24 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Eliot Spitzer is right. (4.00 / 1)

This morning he wrote that Democrats are giving the GOP an opportunity to capture the "populist" mantle in 2010.  Consider this

Obama Administration Helps House Democrat Gut Post-Enron Reforms

Rep. Maloney's amemdment to Sarbanes Oxley exempts more than half of publicly traded companies.  I agree with Rep. Kanjorski comment below:

Rep. John Adler, a New Jersey Democrat who supports the amendment, also chimed in that the White House and Treasury Department back the repeal.

That prompted Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D., Pa.), who said a permanent exemption would be a "bad day for the American investor," to ask Adler to identify the administration folks with whom he had talked.

Adler said he discussed the matter three times with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

RebelCapitalist - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.

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by: RebelCapitalist @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 16:41:22 PM CST

Ah, America (0.00 / 0)

Spitzer screws a call girl, loses career.

Rahm screws every Dem voter, gets promotion.

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by: glenjo @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 18:48:32 PM CST

[ Parent ]