White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to Washington for at least two events with President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman's employees and their relatives. Several former Goldman executives hold senior positions in the Obama administration, including Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Mark Patterson, a former Goldman lobbyist who is chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and Robert Hormats, the undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs One White House insider who knows something about how Wall Street does business is chief of staff Emanuel, who earned millions of dollars in investment banking after he left the Clinton White House. His work for the Chicago-based financial services firm Wasserstein Perella & Co. intersected with Goldman in at least one deal. Yup, it's the republicans (and Bush's) fault!!
But those Democrats were not involved. They simply received campaign funds from Goldman Sachs just like many Republicans did. It's a meaningless side note that has nothing to do with the topic at hand and had no impact whatsoever on our current economic situation. reed was accurate blaming the Republicans because it was their legislation that removed regulatory oversight. Look up the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. Before this, banks, brokerages and insurance companies were barred from entering each others industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated. it was at that point that the big financial conglomerates started merging, eventually becoming "too big to fail". You can thank Phil Graham (Head of the Senate Banking Committee at the time) for pushing it through and Clinton for caving in. They attempted to eliminate or weaken (I forget) the Community Reinvestment Act which ensure that a certain percentage of loans are made to minorities. Removing that would not be good for Democrats looking for votes. They all made off like bandits as it was probably the most expensive lobbying the country has seen in my generation. So far deregulation has failed the airline industry, tyelecommunications and now the financial industry. It's a great idea in theory,but greedy humans keep ****ing it up.
This is complete bunk. Gramm Leech Baily passed the house with 385 votes and a Democratic President signed it into law. I was actually a Page for the house when the bill was passed, and was on the floor when the final votes were cast.
Of course! The bailout happened before Obama was in office. Did you forget that? And Goldman Sachs former employees worked for the Bush administration, including Henry Paulson, the top crook, who was Bush's Treasury Secretary - a cabinet position! Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Jeffery Reuben, are Goldman alumni. So Bush bailed out his buddies' old firm and Obama is prosecuting it.
I did, and interestingly it passed the Senate 90-8, including 38 Democrat votes, plus it was signed into law by a (gasp):shock: Democrat President. While Enron happened before Bush's term, Democrats and the liberal media had no problem connecting Enron's campaign contributions to Bush. Where is that scrutiny, now that Obama is the one with questionable ties? The campaign contributions to Obama are 7 times that of Enron's to Bush (Yes it is adjusted for inflation). Plus the fact that former top Goldman executives are in cabinet positions. Do you really believe these people don't have a vested interested in Goldman Sachs?
Both GOP and Democrats were lobbied hard for the bill to pass. However, it was written and passed by Republicans. Look it up. #1) Bush as the President of the US has very few ties to Enron other than accepting campaign contributions. For that he received no blame. As the Governor of Texas, he had people had ties to the thieves at Enron, {please, no name calling}. #2) Of course they're connected. The contributions are public knowledge. No one is debating that but that's not what red was talking about. he was talking about the Republican policies that led to the current situation and then one of you morons throws out that Obama collected campaign funds from Goldman Sachs. So ****ing what? That's dirty as ****, but it has no bearing on the current financial situation. Obama's ties are not questionable. He accepted campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs just like many other Democrats and Republicans. There are no ties to him (or his administration) influencing policy that led to the current state of Goldman Sachs because when that problem was created (in 1999) Obama was not involved in national politics in any way. You might as well blame Obama for 9/11, too...
I did, 38 Democrats voted for the bill, the Republicans only had 54 votes, without the Democrats Support, the bill would of died. A Democrat President Signed the bill into Law. How can it only be the Republicans at fault? Tell me how does a bill become law without the Presidents signature? How do you exempt the Democrats from any blame? Once again, the guys who are responsible for the actions at Goldman Sachs: Gary Gensler - Undersecretary of the Treasury 1999 - 2001 worked worked with Sen. Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation, which led to the collapse of AIG and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in US history. Mark Patterson - Patterson was allowed to join the Treasury despite President Obama's executive order signed January 21, 2009, that bans the hiring of a lobbyist to work in an issue area in which they have lobbied over the past two years And then there's Tiny Tim: Timothy Geithner - Geithner also played a significant role in shaping the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package, enacted in February 2009. And he will play a lead role in shaping a financial regulation overhaul to prevent a recurrence of the severe 2008-2009 economic crisis. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009, Geithner was one of the lead architects of the government response to the crisis. It was his decision, along with those of Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, to bail out Bear Stearns in March 2008, to let Lehman Brothers fail in September,and for the government to take over insurance company American International Group. Once again, try as hard as you will, to blame the republicans, the democrats have just as much blame in the Goldman Sachs mess. And while Obama was not involved in the 1999 legislation, Clinton, Gensler, and Emanuel were, and now some of those who helped orchestrate this mess, are back in power. So yes Obama's ties are very questionable. Take the blinders off
