Do you really have faith in the Richie Richies of Wall Street??

Bird of Prey

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Goldman Spent Millions to Bail Out 2 Executives
By LOUISE STORY

Published: March 27, 2009
The financial giant Goldman Sachs bailed out two senior executives last fall who were tens of millions of dollars short on cash, according to the bank’s preliminary proxy statement filed on Friday.

In an unusual move, Goldman repurchased stakes in some internal investment funds from Jon A. Winkelried, the bank’s co-chief operating officer, and Gregory K. Palm, the bank’s general counsel.
Both executives are among the largest shareholders in the bank, owning more than a million shares each, and bank directors were concerned that a large sale of Goldman shares by the two men would alarm investors during a period of market turmoil, according to a person briefed on the matter.
To avoid the stock sales, Goldman paid Mr. Winkelried, who retired last month, $19.7 million to purchase about 10 percent of his investments in internal hedge funds and private equity investments. The bank paid $38.3 million to Mr. Palm for about a quarter of his investments. . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/28goldman.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

Isn't it great?? Isn't it just wonderful that the honest investor is played for such a fool??

Change the system, ladies and gents. It starts by "just saying no" to Wall Street. Your money is better served thrown in the gutter.
 

Bird of Prey

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What money?

Lol!! I was referring to that paltry sum. . .that chump change - that was left in your pocket while all else was stolen through bold-faced deceit on Wall Street.
 

Kris

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Okay, I absolutely think that dishonesty as well as ridiculous risk-taking are part of the culture on Wall Street. But how is throwing your money in the gutter going to help anybody? Nihilism doesn't scare Wall Street. ;-)
 

Bird of Prey

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Okay, I absolutely think that dishonesty as well as ridiculous risk-taking are part of the culture on Wall Street. But how is throwing your money in the gutter going to help anybody? Nihilism doesn't scare Wall Street. ;-)


The gutter is better than lining the pockets of mega millionaires bailed out by their own company to deceive - aka not alarm - the average investor. I would rather bulldoze everything I've got into a landfill, than line the pockets of these full fledged traitors to their country.

These people should be serving life.
 

Unique

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Trust? :roll:As if!

Wall Street: 'I got mine; too bad about you.'

What was done in your article, bird, sounds worse - much, much worse than insider trading. Did a person bail out these two with personal funds or did someone make the decisions using company funds?

I say make their money worth paper again. Then they will know what 'being broke' feels like. I'd love for a bunch of them to have to 'hunter/gather' for a week. See how long they last.

Or be dependent on charity. T'would be a good object lesson.
 

robeiae

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This is what happens when you GIVE people money they didn't earn or don't deserve. Some of those people are gonna do things with that money that are wrong/inappropriate.


Really, I continue to be disgusted by this class envy/hatred on display. This is the fault of the Government, no one else.
 

Unique

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Rob - you're a hoot.

This has nothing to do with class envy/hatred. I could give a shit if someone has a boatload of money. I don't want their money. I want them to give a shit.

I don't even mind being poor. I hate having the crumbs snatched from my mouth so some rich beggar becomes even wealthier.

BoP's post was re: the act of the company bailing out one of their own using company funds - so it didn't 'panic the herd'.

Chew on that and spit out an answer. That's what bird posted the article about. YMMV
 

Bird of Prey

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This is what happens when you GIVE people money they didn't earn or don't deserve. Some of those people are gonna do things with that money that are wrong/inappropriate.


Really, I continue to be disgusted by this class envy/hatred on display. This is the fault of the Government, no one else.

Rob. The "class envy/hatred" on display here - I'd call it something else, but that's O.K. - is warranted.

What's so odd about your condemnation here is that it seems that you have argued individual responsibility more vociferously than most. And yet, when it comes to these rich shysters, it's the government's fault, as if these people are children that can't be blamed for stealing, because, after all, we innocently left our wallet out there in plain sight. How stupid can we be??

The country can't survive if crooks are on the loose, stealing hard earned money, leaving the hard working taxpayer with the inability to trust anybody. And yes, the crooks are CEOs with a bunch of Feds in the mix, and they should be serving time for fraud.
 

robeiae

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What's so odd about your condemnation here is that it seems that you have argued individual responsibility more vociferously than most. And yet, when it comes to these rich shysters, it's the government's fault, as if these people are children that can't be blamed for stealing, because, after all, we innocently left our wallet out there in plain sight. How stupid can we be??
They're not stealing. They're using the money for what they consider to be valid purposes, justifiable, or at least necessary purposes.

Again, you give someone money--or even loan it to them--you really shouldn't, imo, get all bent out of shape with how they choose to use that money when you have no say over such usage, to begin with.

In contrast, we give our government money every day. And we do have a real say--though it's being watered down--so that is where, imo, your anger should be directed.

Now, if something is done that is expressly illegal by a "richie rich," I'm all for bringing charges and burning them down.
 

robeiae

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Rob - you're a hoot.

This has nothing to do with class envy/hatred.
You said:
I say make their money worth paper again. Then they will know what 'being broke' feels like. I'd love for a bunch of them to have to 'hunter/gather' for a week. See how long they last.

Or be dependent on charity. T'would be a good object lesson.
Yeah, I'm way off base.
 

ad_lucem

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Do I trust them?

No, no, and #$@#$@# no.

I don't trust any of the people claiming the virtues of a growth economy, either.

In a finite world, there are limits to growth. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand the word "finite".
 

Unique

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You said:Yeah, I'm way off base.

I know what I said, rob. Just because you took it in a way I didn't intend doesn't make me guilty of class envy/hatred; it just means you didn't understand the context of what I said.

Do I trust them?

I don't trust any of the people claiming the virtues of a growth economy, either.

In a finite world, there are limits to growth. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand the word "finite".

The point I try to make all the time. Not all growth is good; uncontrolled growth is suicidal. Basing our economic status on "growth" is foolish in the extreme. There's a lot to be said for status quo in this regard.
 

ad_lucem

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The point I try to make all the time. Not all growth is good; uncontrolled growth is suicidal. Basing our economic status on "growth" is foolish in the extreme. There's a lot to be said for status quo in this regard.

Amen to that. The trouble I find with the notion of sustainability and steady-state economics, is that the people most interested in those ideas are often neo-Luddites, or to the stranger side of the spectrum, anarcho-primitivists bent on an end life as we know it.

Of course, most people aren't terribly fond of a message predicated on the notion that only loincloths are sustainable or that the only way to save the world is by abandoning the burbs for a cave retrofitted with solar cells. Go figure.

I keep waiting for sane voices to rise above the din, but I haven't heard anything yet.
 

whistlelock

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I have, over the years and the recent meltdown has confirmed it, a belief that people who are interested in money are rather boring and not the sort of people I want to hang out with.

So, no. I have no faith in them. When I was younger I thought it was odd that the Japanese considered merchants and money handlers to be the lowest of the low. Now? Well, now I think they may have been on to something.
 

Zoombie

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Ah, but in an INFINITE world, we can sustain growth constantly.

The trick is remembering we've got an entire solar system, and beyond that, a whole galaxy to explore out there. We just need to keep on till we can overcome the things chaining us to this planet.

I predict that space industry is going to be really really important in the future. And by the future, I mean *RIGHT NOW*.

We just need to give it a push. And fuck those people who say, "But we need to solve those problems on Earth before we go into space"

That's a pile of shit. We can solve a lot of those problems by exploiting space. The new technologies that would be unlocked by working in space would massively improve quality of life, the environment, international relations (no more oil wars...possible with cheap solar power beamed down from solar satiates and electric cars running in streamlined batteries developed for space ships)

We're SO close to "making it"...I'd hate to see us stumble and fall right now.
 

Don

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Zoombie, I'm afraid when the history of the Universe is written, Earth will be described as one of those planets where the chicks never matured enough to peck their way out of the egg.
 

Zoombie

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I refuse to believe that.

If we let ourselves get so far and just turn away from whats before us, we're going to be screwing over not just every single human in the future who's going to look back and ask us what the FUCK we were thinking, but we're also going to be fucking over every single one of our ancestors who looked forward and imagined that, just MAYBE, the future might be a little bit better than the past.
 

Don

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Um, we know N>=1, rob. N<2 may be accurate, however. :D

Then again, the definition IS intelligent, so you may be right afterall.
 

Zoombie

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There are thousands of reasons as to why we have not been contacted yet.

Some off the top of my head.

Distance.
Objects between us and the signal (nebula, dust clouds, radiation, whatever).
They could have been using radio when we were single celled life forms and now are using something different.


In an infinite universe, the implausible can happen an infinite amount of times.
 

robeiae

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No it can't.

But if there was intelligent life elsewhere, the most plausible reason for them to not contact us is that we just don't have anything significant to say...

Back to you, Don.
 

Don

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I think there's a whole galactic civilization out there, and some of them waste a little time watching "Earth: The Reality Show" when there's nothing better on the other three million channels.

If enough beings vote we're civilized, we'll get an invitation to join one day.




On the other hand, this could be the week we get voted off the Universe.
 

Zoombie

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Its fully possible.

Well, till then, lets keep being funny.

Quick, have the FedGov do something really stu...

Wow, they work fast!