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Comments

1. #1
   On March 27th, 2009 at 5:28 am, JohnnyD said:

   ….Scott Polakoff, who has been serving as acting director of the OTS, would be replaced by OTS Chief Counsel John Bowman during the review by the Treasury Department.

   OTS will now be run by a lawyer? what could go wrong?

2. #2
   On March 27th, 2009 at 5:33 am, JohnnyD said:

   Oops, hit submit too soon…need more coffee.

   But a tax cheat now heads Treasury, so I guess everything will be okay.

3. #3
   On March 27th, 2009 at 6:29 am, Anita said:

   It’s not like Tim Geithner can afford to lose any of the few officials who are actually working at the Treasury Department with him, but last night, he put one on leave.

   This would be main news today IF Bush admn. did this. Is there a media out there, really?

4. #4
   On March 27th, 2009 at 6:50 am, ajmontana said:

   Follow the Money, oh wait… they’re incapable.
   On the upside they don’t need a very big “sack” over there.

5. #5
   On March 27th, 2009 at 7:14 am, Peejz said:

   It is curious..Curious as in how Schuemer’s name doesn’t appear in the articles..Remember how he went discussing IndyMac and there was a run on the bank?

6. #6
   On March 27th, 2009 at 7:20 am, conservativesRus said:

   But of course we don’t need to look at congress who caused the whole mess in the first place.
   Bank A is told they must loan to group B or they will lose their right to be a bank.
   Bank A protests they will acquire bad debt.
   The gov’t says “don’t worry – we’ll back you. We’ll even make money available so easily that Group B doesn’t have to invest any of their own”
   So Bank A loans the money
   Group B lives up(down) to the expectation…and defaults
   The gov’t says “Oh no you can’t re-posses the asset. We’re backing you. Oh by the way Bank, you need to increase your capital requirements because you now have bad debt.”
   Bank A folds or Bank A gets a “bailout”

   Bank A is the bad guy.

   What did I miss?

7. #7
   On March 27th, 2009 at 7:22 am, Lifeofthemind said:

   The worst case implication here is that Polakoff was following a trail that would expose corruption among the regulators that benefitted important persons tied to the Democratic party. Either that or he was himself the source of embarrassment who was trying to cover his record with a lot of hand waving about what happened last year. Someone is up to no good and it is par for course in the bureaucracy to destroy the messenger before he brings bad news.

8. #8
   On March 27th, 2009 at 7:29 am, Ralph Gizzip said:

   The wheels on the bus go thump, thump, thump all through the town.

9. #9
   On March 27th, 2009 at 7:48 am, DesertLover said:

   OK … first we had “New Math” … that was followed by “Fuzzy Math” … and now we have “Geithner Math” …

   1+1=______ (Fill in the blank with the desired result) …

10. #10
    On March 27th, 2009 at 7:50 am, ajmontana said:

    =____zero____.

11. #11
    On March 27th, 2009 at 7:52 am, ajmontana said:

    Ralph Gizzip said:
    The wheels on the bus go thump, thump, thump all through the town.

    And Bawney Fwankers bus goes, swish, swish, swish…. lol

12. #12
    On March 27th, 2009 at 7:59 am, Mainah said:

    And Bawney Fwankers bus goes, thswish, thswish, thswish…. lol

    think I fixed that for ya

13. #13
    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am, cabrerski said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 7:20 am, conservativesRus said:

    Well put! Nice job on making a complex scenario into simple words that even a liberal or friend of Obama could understand.

    Wait…this just in. Our quick research team just applied this conservativesRus’ explanation to our group of 30 test liberals. Here are the results…

14. #14
    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:45 am, cabrerski said:

    Sorry, no coffee yet…

    Results…

    10 are befuddled, wait 2 minutes, then break out into “We are the World”

    8 are calling for firebombing the executives of Bank A.

    5 are complaining about the loss of jobs overseas.

    4 are staring longingly at a photograph of Bawney Fwank.

    2 are dressing up in drag to mimic Nancy Pelosi

    and the last one is demanding that John Murtha be given the Medal of Honor

15. #15
    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:45 am, babiesgrandma said:

    conservativesRus said:
    But of course we don’t need to look at congress who caused the whole mess in the first place.
    Bank A is told they must loan to group B or they will lose their right to be a bank.
    Bank A protests they will acquire bad debt.
    The gov’t says “don’t worry – we’ll back you. We’ll even make money available so easily that Group B doesn’t have to invest any of their own”
    So Bank A loans the money
    Group B lives up(down) to the expectation…and defaults
    The gov’t says “Oh no you can’t re-posses the asset. We’re backing you. Oh by the way Bank, you need to increase your capital requirements because you now have bad debt.”
    Bank A folds or Bank A gets a “bailout”

    Bank A is the bad guy.

    This is the best explanation I have ever heard – very succinct and precise!

    Of course, it doesn’t solve any problems, but at least there is some comfort in knowing what happened.

16. #16
    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:51 am, TXGator said:

    99 bodies of libs on the Mall,
    99 bodies of libs,
    Fire one down, hire a new clown,
    98 bodies of libs on the Mall.

17. #17
    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:59 am, dtestard said:

    The OTS was implicated in a Rolling Stone article. Anyone else read the article? Is there any truth to it (other than truthers)??

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

18. #18
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:10 am, Frank DiGiorgio said:

    The wheels on the bus go thump, thump, thump all through the town.

    Anyone out have a list of all the people that have been thrown under the bus? I imagine the list is getting quite long.

19. #19
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:11 am, GraniteMan said:

    If Geithner can become head of the treasury and owe all those back taxes and HE asked Scott Polakoff to leave then this Polakoff must be a real winner.

20. #20
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:16 am, Wade said:

    Stop the world. Investigate. Remember when Bush fired attorneys?

21. #21
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:28 am, nbarry said:

    Let’s just say that the Rolling Stone article is plausible. But will there be a thorough investigation followed by legal reforms? I’m not holding my breath. The players contribute to political campaigns.

22. #22
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:32 am, Mainah said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:51 am, TXGator said:
    99 bodies of libs on the Mall,
    99 bodies of libs,
    Fire one down, hire a new clown,
    98 bodies of libs on the Mall.

    I just spit Pepsi all over my desk, dammit. LMAO

23. #23
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:51 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    So the poor slob S&L clerk has to fall on his sword? Methinks something is rotten in Denmark. Curiouser and curiouser. (munching popcorn) “More cheese Gromit!”

24. #24
    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:55 am, Reg.conservative said:

    link george soros

25. #25
    On March 27th, 2009 at 10:39 am, MarcoPolo said:

    Would you expect these civil servants to really understand the risks attached to derivatives that are designed by Math PhD’s to play the odds on pieces of paper that “derive” their value from a mortgage backed security that can’t be valued itself (except maybe by another math nerd).

    It was insane to think that the banks can buy insurance against investment losses. It’s one thing to guarantee against fires and floods, but market risk?

    The geniuses who bought these things are as culpable as the firm that sold them.

    Also, I am under the impression that AIG bought the S&L then lobbied to be supervised by the OTS. So somebody in the government approved that, too.

26. #26
    On March 27th, 2009 at 10:40 am, MarcoPolo said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 8:59 am, dtestard said:
    The OTS was implicated in a Rolling Stone article. Anyone else read the article? Is there any truth to it (other than truthers)??

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

    Yes, I read it. I think he’s probably dead on.

27. #27
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:19 am, Pasadena Phil said:

    There is one thing we might want to keep in mind while these odd events keep occurring. We are all judging these events against various partisan narratives that may not be true. As we continue to link money to events to corruption (think Dodd/AIG/Countrywide/Fannie Mae and Hillary/Chine e.g.), how would it look if someone like Geithner was actually laying the groundwork for cleaning this up? Would anyone pick up that narrative? No one is asking the right questions.

    Just sayin’.

28. #28
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:22 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    Little Timmy needs a phone book. Hire the first twenty or so names in the book and tell them to have at it. It really doesn’t matter, does it?

    As far as Scott Polakoff, what is the sense of having power if you can not abuse it?

    credit default swaps–legal reforms? “Words, just words”- BHO.

29. #29
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:28 am, vickisoup said:

    What?
    

30. #30
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:37 am, WarTip said:

    Being fired certainly sucks but it is better than going “Vince Foster”

    Just my two cents.

    Now if that happens … it would start to smell even worse.

31. #31
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:45 am, RabbidSquirrel said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 9:55 am, Reg.conservative said:

    I was just about to bring that up…

    And like Degan McDowell said on Cavuto yesterday, ‘Where’s the conservative George Soros?’

    Do you trust Soros?

    ‘I trust him to manage my money’

32. #32
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:46 am, Pasadena Phil said:

    It will be very interesting to see who Mr. Polakoff’s political patron’s, the people who got him this job, turn out to be. Why do I expect he will turn out to be Sen. Dodd’s good friend?

33. #33
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:49 am, tre said:

    Won’t be long ’til Tim Geithner won’t even have a janitor working there.

34. #34
    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:57 am, lgm said:

    This is a good thing. If we keep refusing people for ethics violations, maybe we’ll get an ethical government.

    Also, this guy is a Bush appointee. Voters threw all them under that big yellow bus in November.

35. #35
    On March 27th, 2009 at 12:00 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

    BTW, just saw Ken Lewis breaking a very important taboo as he answered a reporter’s question upon arriving atthe White House for that “summit” meeting of top bankers. He revealed that he will be recommending breaking up the big banks to separate commercial banks from investment banks.

    That is a very, very good sign. Still, I would have preferred that he actually said “I am going to recommend re-instating the Glass-Steagall Act”.

    There are certain things you are not allowed to say these days, that is one of them along with “nationalization”, “war on terror”, “unlawful combatants”, “sovereignty” and a few others.

36. #36
    On March 27th, 2009 at 12:13 pm, Pat said:

    Another regulator who failed to do his job.

    Disband the Fed and the SEC and let the Polakoffs of the world look for real jobs.

37. #37
    On March 27th, 2009 at 1:16 pm, cheapseat said:

    war tip, both vince foster and the black department head whose g4 fell out of the sky. i can’t remember his name, just bill walking out of his funeral and joking with some of his staff, and then spotting that he was on camera, and going from laughing to crying in 1 step.

38. #38
    On March 27th, 2009 at 1:38 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

    Another observation. The financial media is now openly referring to the Glass Steagall Act which is a major step forward. If Geithner is now sacked to be replaced by JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, that would signal that there is no interest in DC in solving the actual problem of housing conflicting interests under one roof.

    Think of it like resolving a problem of constant explosions in the storage shed because you insist on storing explosives side-by-side with detonators and fire. Wouldn’t it be better to simply store them separately rather than hire thousands of people to monitor the inventory?

    Let’s see how long this terminology lasts in the public discussion. I expect the globalists to intrude to end this line of reasoning.

39. #39
    On March 27th, 2009 at 1:39 pm, WarTip said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 1:16 pm, cheapseat said:
    war tip, both vince foster and the black department head whose g4 fell out of the sky. i can’t remember his name, just bill walking out of his funeral and joking with some of his staff, and then spotting that he was on camera, and going from laughing to crying in 1 step.

    I actually could not remember Vince Foster’s name and did a google search with a variety of terms that I thought were related. Some of those pages looked to be on the verge of paranoid but some of the results were pretty scary!

40. #40
    On March 27th, 2009 at 2:07 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

    Ken Lewis succumbs to the globalists. He has now issued a statement “correcting” his earlier comments about reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act. He was speaking “rhetorically”. Was a weasel.

    Face it folks. The globalists have a stranglehold on the entire system right down to controlling lexicon of terms by which the issue can be framed and discussed.

    Disclosure is also a taboo subject. Jon one is to restore confidence to markets but disclosure plays no role. The mafia logic of liars, weasels and crooks.

41. #41
    On March 27th, 2009 at 2:19 pm, cabrerski said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 1:16 pm, cheapseat said:
    war tip, both vince foster and the black department head whose g4 fell out of the sky.

    Are you referring to that political hack, the late Ron Brown?

42. #42
    On March 27th, 2009 at 2:28 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

    Apparently every banker attending that WH meeting agreed not to divulge any details of what was discussed but instead to ring out the message of “we’re all in this together (kumbaya)”. Whatever they agreed to, it’s none of our business.

43. #43
    On March 27th, 2009 at 2:30 pm, conservativesRus said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:57 am, lgm said:

    This is a good thing. If we keep refusing people for ethics violations, maybe we’ll get an ethical government

    Yep – ethical just like Geithner

44. #44
    On March 27th, 2009 at 2:51 pm, PKAmmoTroop said:

    On March 27th, 2009 at 11:57 am, lgm said:

    This is a good thing. If we keep refusing people for ethics violations, maybe we’ll get an ethical government.

    Also, this guy is a Bush appointee.

    Yeah, he was probably caught paying his taxes or hiring a legal immigrant. We don’t what that kind of behavior on Team Obama.

45. #45
    On March 27th, 2009 at 3:24 pm, happyscrapper said:

    There is a good reason why they can’t find anyone to nominate for the treasury, and have had trouble with other nominations. There are two kinds of nominees…the honest, moral ones, and the corrupt, immoral ones. If you are honest and moral, why would you want to compromise yourself to work in this administraton? You would turn it down, or get out of it as soon as you found out what they are really doing. If you are corrupt and immoral, you can get the job IF no one finds out about your dishonesty or your immorality. That is why so many from the Clinton administration have been given positions in this one. Simple as that. I think we will eventually find out there is corruption in each and every member of this administration.

46. #46
    On March 27th, 2009 at 6:34 pm, Dimsdale said:

    Must be the “it takes a thief to catch a thief” school of economics.

    Hope and change is all we are going to have left after Obama’s economic Keystone Kops are done with our economy and country….

47. #47
    On March 28th, 2009 at 10:46 am, flaming_o said:

    this guy is a Bush appointee. Voters threw all them under that big yellow bus in November.

    If that were the rationale behind this story, maybe Geithner should be running the Treasury all by himself.

48. #48
    On March 28th, 2009 at 1:04 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

    This is why any new regulatory regime will not work. Apparently it is “too hard” to do it right.

    “Still, bringing back Depression-era regulations, such as the Glass-Steagall Act that separated deposit-taking institutions from investment banks, would be difficult, Blankfein said. “It’s hard to turn back the clock,” he said.”

    Separating the inherently conflicting interests represented by commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies is the only solution. We can’t do that? That is what the Glass-Steagall Act did. As difficult as it may be, we need to at least go back to what works.

    These guys are categorically eliminating the obvious solution to the problem for reasons they refuse to specify. The alternative to efficient and effective regulation is oppressive bureaucracy. These guys want neither but will get the latter. So be it.

    A generation that was educated in one-room school houses managed to put men on the moon. Why can’t today’s elite ivy leaguers do anything right? Have their lives gotten so intellectually bankrupt that they are metaphysically incapable of solving this problem?