Bought and Paid For – The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street

[WhiskeyGirl]

Excerpted from Bought and Paid For: The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street. Published by Sentinel. Copyright Charles Gasparino, 2010.

But despite his trials, [Lloyd] Blankfein had taken time out of his grueling schedule to help a firm that wasn’t a Goldman client, not even a prospective one. The firm was ShoreBank Corporation, a small community bank located in Chicago that lent money to inner-city businesses and was exploring the possibility of financing nascent and as-yet-unprofitable “green” businesses through so-called conservation loans and environmental banking, according to the bank’s Web site.

To any casual *******, this puzzling scenario raises the question: Why would Blankfein possibly want to save ShoreBank?

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Like the rest of Wall Street, Goldman had benefited from a bailout, funded entirely by taxpayer dollars, to survive. Yet since then, it had used a number of special privileges created by the Bush administration to help the big banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis to make more money than ever before. The profits of the big banks began rolling in just weeks after the 2008 bailout, yet the government support continued through 2009 and into 2010 as the programs remained firmly in place under the Obama administration. These included, among other perks, guarantees on the firms’ debt, superlow interest rates set and then left untouched by the Fed, changes in accounting rules that allowed the firms to create profits out of losses, and maybe most of all, the notion that the remaining banks, backed up as they were by the federal government, were too big to fail. In a desperate attempt to save the economy from total collapse, the government did for a handful of banks what the mob does for its highest, most important criminals: It made them, in effect, made men. This policy, known as too big to fail, asserted that some firms—including many of those responsible for the credit crisis—should not be allowed to collapse for fear that, if they did, the entire economy would follow.

It was an unprecedented assortment of government goodies that allowed Wall Street to survive and, after the initial threat of collapse had waned, thrive. They all made out like, for lack of a better word, bandits; even lowly Citigroup, after two rounds of federal bailouts, was profitable early in 2009, so much so that its CEO, Vikram Pandit, who was nearly pushed out as head of the firm a few months later, found job security and a second chance.

But Goldman was the most adept at gaming this no-lose system, executing a business plan based on government support that made it the envy of every other firm on the Street. Goldman, probably more than any other firm, was able to use its status as a government-protected business to gain access to billions of dollars of borrowed money at rock-bottom borrowing rates and then use those funds to buy bonds—many of which were the same as those that had helped cause the financial crisis but were now trading at just pennies on the dollar.

Thanks to new government guarantees, these once risky investments became sure bets because of another government program in which the Federal Reserve was snapping up mortgage-backed securities in the open market to help prop up their prices. According to the Fed’s Web site, the program is designed to “provide support to mortgage and housing markets,” the theory being that if the mortgage-bond market stabilizes, banks will increase their lending and housing prices will rise. But the biggest beneficiary of this program hasn’t been the average American homeowner (the housing market remains pitifully soft in many parts of the country) but the average big-bank bond trader, who profited by buying debt on the cheap and sitting back and watching his investments pay off thanks to a government payout.

The fact of the matter is, when you strip away the name-calling and class warfare coming from the Obama administration, and when you ignore Wall Street’s gripes about the new financial reform legislation that will put a crimp in some of its profits, these two entities are far more aligned than meets the casual eye. They coexist to help each other—in an unholy alliance against the American taxpayer.

more here - http://biggovernment.com/cgasparino/2010/10/04/goldman-sachs-and-the-shorebank-bailout-exclusive-excerpt-from-bought-and-paid-for/

[WhiskeyGirl]

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
A top reporter exposes the deep ties between the Obama administration and the big banks that are bankrupting our country.

As the recession continues, President Obama has chastised the "fat cats" who feast off government bailout money while unemployment remains high and smaller businesses struggle.

But according to Gasparino, Obama is faking his outrage, and his calls for new policies to rein in banks that are "too big to fail" are just pabulum. In reality, Obama has climbed into bed with Wall Street CEOs, giving them what they want so they will support his liberal, big-government agenda. As a result, the big banks responsible for the credit crisis get rescued, while small businesses and ordinary Americans get crushed by higher taxes and irresponsible spending.

Gasparino draws on interviews with dozens of key CEOs and political players to trace the roots of Wall Street's twisted love affair with one of the most liberal presidents in American history. He shows how, for decades, big banks and big business have colluded with big government, thereby laying the groundwork for today's shady dealings, and how the same bankers Obama now publically reprimands have supported him-not because he promises change, but because he promises business.

Written in Gasparino's characteristic smart yet no-nonsense style, this book is both an exposé and a wake-up call to all Americans to strike back against the people and policies that are ruining our country.

About the Author
Charles Gasparino is an award-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author who has covered financial news for major media such as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and CNBC. He is a senior correspondent for Fox Business Network and frequent contributor at Forbes, The New York Post, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast. His previous book, The Sellout, was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.

http://www.amazon.com/Bought-Paid-Unholy-Alliance-Between/dp/1595230718