He insisted on no bailout firmly the week before this LEH and ML were BK and bought. Now, he asked the congress for such a big bailout. The result, LEH and ML guys are totally scr$#ed by this Goldman guy again…
LEH and ML screwed themselves - they have nobody to blame but themselves
Every firm f#$%ed themselve up in this case. But Paulson waited and sent mixed signals that led to some firms gone and some left unscratched. Well only GS left literally…
drs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > LEH and ML screwed themselves - they have nobody > to blame but themselves Exactly. They leveraged themselves out to maximize their profits and got caught with their pants around their ankles. I’m pretty sure it’s ok to say screwed by the way.
Alphaseeker - I’m with you on this. Yes, LEH and ML got screwed because of bad decisions, but Paulson/Bernanke used their power and influence to selectively help some firms while letting others fail. This brings an entirely new meaning to the term “corporate raider”. As Jim Rogers rightly pointed out, this is all socialism for the rich.
How did Paulson ‘help’ GS and hurt LEH / MR? I think all three had a fair chance in the markets and he had no bias towards GS.
“Posted by: projectplatnyc (IP Logged) [hide posts from this user] How did Paulson ‘help’ GS and hurt LEH / MR? I think all three had a fair chance in the markets and he had no bias towards GS.” To answer your question: Had Paulson acted this Thusrday-night-Super-bailout-plan as early as last week, LEH and ML will be saved. Had he wait till next week, GS will need to find a ML type shotgun marriage too.
They had to test the ability for the private sector to handle this problem and the only way to do that was to stand firm with saying no. LEH could have been bought, but Fuld was too arrogant to accept the price…why was THAT Paulson’s or Bernanke’s fault? They tried again to make the private sector deal with the mess when they turned AIG away, but when no one was willing to help they were forced to offer the credit facility. Even then they sent a pretty strong message of “deal with this yourselves” when they charged Libor + 850 basis points AND gained an equity exposure of 79.9% Having seen the continued mess, they finally went all in to help. Am I thrilled about the RTC model? No, but it didn’t seem like anyone else was working. Am I ok with the short ban? HELL NO, it makes me want to puke. These firms dug their own grave. Just stop and think about the crap loans that they were all making…a 8th grader wouldn’t make the loans that these guys were.
LEH, BSC, ML all got screwed. When MS and GS are in for the next round of beating, Govt. stepped in, stopped shorts, announced plans, Calsters/Calpers stopped lending MS/GS, Feds pumped in 200B… ++++ All the gods were aligned to save them. It looks like two sets of rules, when GS is in danger of catching fire, Paulson and his friends from GS try to turn the market around. Not a fair play.
Same thing happened with FRE and FNM. They came to help when stock prices went down to next to nothing. Had they help earlier, we wouldnt be in this big mess.
One big giant snowball
I’m amazed at all the GS conspiracy theory drivel on this thread. Why don’t you just go all the way and say the Fed is owned by JP Morgan? >“Had they helped earlier, we wouldn’t be in this big mess” Oh, you mean reward bad decisions before too much pain was inflicted on the shareholders? Great idea, prop up the downside so we never see prices go too low.
I agree that there is a GS alum effect here. “Oh, you mean reward bad decisions before too much pain was inflicted on the shareholders? Great idea, prop up the downside so we never see prices go too low.” Well, how do you know GS doesn’t’ have skeletons in the closet? Why don’t you let the market sort it out?
Sponge_Bob_CFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m amazed at all the GS conspiracy theory drivel > on this thread. Why don’t you just go all the way > and say the Fed is owned by JP Morgan? i think its because paulson used to be the CEO of GS. > > >“Had they helped earlier, we wouldn’t be in this > big mess” > > Oh, you mean reward bad decisions before too much > pain was inflicted on the shareholders? Great > idea, prop up the downside so we never see prices > go too low. i would probably tend to agree w/ you here. just because its painful when the bubble pops, doesn’t mean its not necessary. at the same time, there’s the line that no one really wants to cross. the point of no return when the financial system itself crumbles into an unrecognizable heap. i don’t think its to that point like some people obviously do. we will see what the world looks like after this weekend.
Chuckrox8 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > One big giant snowball Hah! That reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhNmjUImygw I guess the guy who tripped in the beginning could represent the first mortgage lenders who started giving out subprime and liar loans.
lol. nice one Gator!
Nah, he didn’t screw anyone that didn’t have it coming to them anyway. All he did was allow those who were “too toxic to save” to get out of the way of the bailout he knew they would make.
Agreed … But why stop the game or alter rules just when fire is going to catch his former company? He should have let the game run for 1 more week. Then we will have known what GS is really worth. There is no conspiracy story here.