‘Very Skeptical’ Brooksley Born Takes on Goldman Brass
If there's one person we'd want to see grill Goldman Sachs bigwigs about certain fishy pre-financial-meltdown practices in which they apparently engaged, such as their failure to give useful details about (continued).
If there’s one person we’d want to see grill Goldman Sachs bigwigs about certain fishy pre-financial-meltdown practices in which they apparently engaged, such as their failure to give useful details about their vaguely defined and even less specifically tracked derivatives, it’d be Brooksley Born. Thankfully, that’s exactly who showed up “skeptical” and ready with some questions during a special panel investigation on Thursday. –KA
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“I am very skeptical that you really can’t measure these derivatives revenues and profits,” said Brooksley Born, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairwoman and now a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. “I urge you to provide us with the information we are asking for; it’s been about six months.
“You don’t give it to your regulators; you don’t give it to the market in financial reports; you don’t give it in any forum in which your customers can see what you’re making, and you are refusing to give it to us,” she said. “I hope very much to see it soon.”
David Viniar, Goldman Sachs Group’s chief financial officer, repeatedly argued that the Wall Street powerhouse (GS 131.10, -0.04, -0.03%) doesn’t break out derivatives profits from the rest of its profits.
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When will the president give Lawrence Summers his pink slip? He can thank him for his years of service and use the excuse that his top economic adviser wants to spend more time with his family. I don’t care how he sugarcoats it.When will the president give Lawrence Summers his pink slip?
Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan faced the proverbial firing squad, or in this case the congressionally appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, to answer questions Wednesday about his leadership choices at the Fed with regard to some key factors that triggered the financial implosion in 2008.
It would be nice to blame Ronald Reagan for the economic meltdown, as Paul Krugman did recently, but the facts don't support it. Unfortunately, the real villains are closer at hand.
There has been much hand-wringing, not to mention finger-pointing, regarding who knew what, and when, about the financial calamities that have recently come to pass. However, Brooksley Born and Sheila Bair won't be counted among the willfully or accidentally ignorant: They've been named this year's winners of the JFK Profile in Courage Award for sounding the alarm far ahead of time.
Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont who is independent in spirit as well as party label, has placed a hold on President Obama’s nomination of Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sounds like a minor issue to get worked up about, but I see this appointment as further evidence that the president has entrusted his economic policy to the wrong people.
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