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Kathy Pickering Ellis - Here is another of several hundred good reasons why we were driven to OCCUPY WALL STREET ... Henry Paulson!
While CEO of Goldman Sachs, he built very close ties to Chine, visiting that country over 70 times.
According to the NY Times, he is the one that “led the Big 5 Investment Banks charge on the SEC” for over a decade trying to get them to drop regulations and oversight of the investment banks. In an April, 2004 meeting in which they were pressured again, he finally succeeded in getting The Commission to exempt them (the Big 5) from the regulations which restricted the percentage of debt-to-capital ratios. The SEC complied, and the resulting trillions of dollars they allowed the Investment Banks to loan without any capital support (the leverage ratio skyrocketed upwards from a regulated cap of 3-1 to unprecedented 43 -1!) THIS is what created the tsunami of 'false' credit available to consumers. The release of billions and lack of accountability made it possible for not only Paulson's Goldman Sacks, but Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley to invest in mortgage-backed securities, (and made an enormous amount of money available for citizens to buy all those goods that were being made in China).
Without this flood of unsupported credit, this debacle would never have happened. Freddie and Fannie constitute about 15% of the overall problems. The de-regulation of the financial institutions created the free-for-all, which created exorbitant corporate executive pay scales and bonuses reaching into the billions. THEN - Paulson is made Secretary of the Treasury.
When this house of cards all fell down, he leveraged his 'expertise' to get 'unprecedented authority' over the $700 Billion US Tax Dollars to SAVE his Big 5 when they failed. He convinced the administration that these banks were TOO BIG TO FAIL! – and that they should be bailed out with no oversight and no restrictions on how OUR TAX DOLLARS WERE TO BE SPENT! Then he was put in charge of dispersing all of it. Help for struggling homeowners? Support of US manufacturing? Auctioning off those 'bad debts’? no no no ---- In what has been called 'A classic bait and switch' there are more guarantees for MORE bank debt and unlimited bank deposits in 'certain accounts', of course! First things first -- bonuses HAD be paid first!
According to Bloomberg News, as of November, 2008 … 3 years ago ! ..there were 2 Trillion dollars --- TWO TRILLION DOLLARS of OUR TAXES that has been 'loaned' to financial institutions without congressional oversight - and Paulson wont tell to whom the money went to, or why. This isn't even a part of the $700 Billion -- it is just 'extra' help.
What is Paulson doing now? According to Bloomberg News: 'former U.S. Treasury secretary, will join the University of Chicago as a senior fellow and start an independent institute located at the university…. the Paulson Institute will promote international engagement, with a special emphasis on relationships between the U.S. and China …'
So, he is using a public university to house his private interests in China. … he recently said 'Every global concern -- economic, environmental or security-related -- can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together,' Paulson said in the statement. He is making a billion dollars putting the Chinese to work - The fox has been put in charge of the hen house, so don't ask why there is carnage in there! THIS IS WHY WE OCCUPY WALL STREET!
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