When CEOs Speak Like This …

March 15, 2009

"There is absolutely no truth to the rumors of liquidity problems."
…
"Bear Stearns's balance sheet, liquidity and capital remain strong."
Alan Schwartz, CEO, Bear Stearns, March 10, 2008

March 16, 2008: Bear Stearn Forced To Sell For $2 Per Share,

—

"Our capital and liquidity positions have never been stronger."
Dick Fuld, CEO, Lehman Brothers, September 10, 2008

September 15, 2008: Lehman bankrupt as crisis engulfs Wall Street

—

"Not just the Chinese government, but every investor can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States"
Barack Obama, CEO, United States of America, March 15, 2009

Summer 2009: The US government defaults on its debt

… investors better run away.

Posted by b on March 15, 2009 at 16:32 UTC | Permalink

Comments

“Stuff happens, and an administration has to be able to respond to that and we did,” Cheney told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 15 2009 16:36 utc | 1

These comments come from the same shop as “peace process”, “defense of democracy”, “rule of law”, etc. Like advertising dirigibles floating over a city on fire.

Posted by: seneca | Mar 15 2009 16:52 utc | 2

I imagine Obama figures that if financial top dogs can get away with lying to investors, he (being America’s top dog) should have no trouble doing the same thing to the American people.

Posted by: Cynthia | Mar 15 2009 17:31 utc | 3

CEO, USA, sounds like a great job, but who reads the resumes and choose the candidate ? 🙂

Posted by: totoro | Mar 15 2009 17:38 utc | 4

This is akin to the (possibly apocryphal) stories about how the Germans knew WWII was not going in their favor after reports of the victories kept getting closer and closer to Berlin.
Since the system as it stands demands investor and consumer confidence, it is the job of televised brokerage representatives to paint everything as flowery and only mention rough spots after those patches have well and truly passed. For this reason, I rarely pay much heed to the normal blather they engage in. They’re just doing their jobs. However, when a system has truly “never been stronger”, there is not much need to pacify the public by stating that fact. Therefore, anything above and beyond pleasant “doing great, thanks, and you?” announcements have always made me a little twitchy.

Posted by: Monolycus | Mar 15 2009 17:42 utc | 5

Yes, but run where?

Posted by: Dick Durata | Mar 15 2009 18:59 utc | 6

Updated the above for a bit more clarity …
Where to run? No good idea here …

Posted by: b | Mar 15 2009 19:40 utc | 7

Bailout King AIG Still to Pay Millions In Bonuses
Geithner Gets Firm To Make Revisions

The issue came to a head when Geithner called Liddy and told him the payments were unacceptable and had to be renegotiated, said an administration official who was not authorized to comment on the Geithner conversation.
In a letter to Geithner yesterday, Liddy agreed to restructure some of the payments. But Liddy said he had “grave concerns” about the impact on the firm’s ability to retain talented staff “if employees believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”

…
Last week, AIG agreed to restructure bonuses for the next 43 highest ranking officers at the company, who are to receive half of their bonuses — which total $9.6 million — immediately, the administration official said.

So $4.8 million was saved (temporarily). Great deed Geithner!!!
If only the numbers were not fudged …
AIG to Pay $450 Million in Bonuses

American International Group Inc. will pay $450 million in bonuses to employees in its financial products unit. That division was at the heart of AIG’s collapse last fall, which compelled the U.S. government to provide $173.3 billion in aid to keep it running.
…
Together, the three programs could result in roughly $1.2 billion in retention and bonus payments to AIG employees.

Retention payments? As if these folks would get jobs elsewhere.
Pitchfork time …

Posted by: b | Mar 15 2009 20:17 utc | 8

funny thing you updated with that good old GEAB report, coz GEAB n°33 is coming in a few hours. (each month, 15th day around midnight EST usually ). I’ll add a link if I get it before going to bed , although it’ll be french only 😉
in geab°32, they didnt’ say “investors better run away”, but instead “US citizens should relocate in regions with much less guns” …

Posted by: totoro | Mar 15 2009 20:17 utc | 9

Pitchfork time …
They’ll be no pitchforks, only minimum grumblings and continued slumber. It’s the United States of Acquiescence, after all.
Well, that is unless… dare I say it?
Also see, Joe Cassano: The Man Who Brought Down AIG?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 15 2009 20:55 utc | 10

Hello? is this thing on?
I posted a comment about 8 minutes ago, and have yet to see it. I’m use to them being posted almost immediately is the lag time a yet, new typepad feature? So perhaps this will be a double.
Pitchfork time …
They’ll be no pitchforks in the Land Of the Fee and Home of the Craven.
Unless, you fuck with television the drug of the nation..
Don’t mess with America’s most top idol wanted…
Doh!
Joe Cassano: The Man Who Brought Down AIG?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 15 2009 21:14 utc | 11

Your comment has been posted.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 15 2009 21:14 utc | 12

So, my comment similar to #10 just vanished…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 15 2009 21:18 utc | 13

GEAB33 delivery (french…) :
http://www.mediafire.com/?mx5iy4olnow

Posted by: totoro | Mar 15 2009 22:45 utc | 14

i just noticed today a certain word being used A LOT by people, particularly when they are lying through their teeth: ABSOLUTELY. when you hear this word, be very, very weary.

Posted by: Lizard | Mar 16 2009 0:25 utc | 15

The overall strategic objective of the Human resources and Mobility in Finance is to provide broad support for the development of abundant and dynamic world-class human resources in the European financial research system. The aim is to promote trans-national mobility for training purposes, develop expertise, promote scientific excellence and transfer of knowledge between different sectors and to make Europe more attractive to third-country researchers. These actions are aimed at supporting research networks, research organisations and enterprises, in particular SMEs, in the provision of structured global schemes for the transnational training and mobility of researchers, and the development and transfer of competencies in research. The actions concerned are intended to have a strong structuring effect on the European research system, in particular by encouraging junior researchers to pursue a research career.
Shorter version: Chairman Bernanke says, “Recession could end in 2009!”

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 16 2009 1:51 utc | 16

b,
so Obama is the rookie who comes in with five minutes left in the fourth quarter of game seven of the NBA finals and his team is down 30 points. Just because he believes his team can still win, that makes him a liar ?
heres a future Obama headline for you: “The Lies & Fall of Obama”

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Mar 16 2009 2:51 utc | 17

Uncle, whats been happening to me is when I hit the post button, I get a MoA will not accept this data thing. The only way I get around it is to copy my post, go back to main page, go back to the thread and copy the post in. Then it seems to work???

Posted by: anna missed | Mar 16 2009 2:56 utc | 18

Here’s something fascinating that you should all take a look at:
swollen with fantasy backed by nothing. Covers:
Naked short selling (#1 scam that Wall St mafia uses to bankrupt small companies), Wikipedia manipulation, SlimVirgin, Jimbo Wales (founder of Wikipedia), Gary Weiss, DTCC, lies, Jewish mafia on Wall Street, destruction of companies, use of anti-semitism label as a weapon, Bear Stearns fall, Lehman Bros etc etc.
Unbelievable presentation! The level of proof will make your head spin.
You will never look at Wikipedia the same way after watching this!
hahaha, yeah ‘ism’.
@anna missed
Yeah, I’ve had that problem too, and solved it the same way you suggest, however this is different, typepad said my comment had been posted, but it never was. As I said it vanished. Possibly due to the shell game where they switch ‘post’ buttons from one side to the other and replace preview with edit. Who knows, but it’s frustrating.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 16 2009 3:28 utc | 19

Not to mention the recent lag time, where you post and it takes several minutes to show,among 4 or 5 other annoying things… As Did said, it’s the death of 1000 paper cuts. But what irks me the most is the abrupt changes with no warning nor explanation.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 16 2009 3:34 utc | 20

now this is weird – i just posted a comment in another thread & did not see any signs of the YUI component that was implemented recently – the preview was the old style, at the top of the page w/o the YUI interface. but upon viewing the source for that page now, and all these others, i am seeing the YUI code. and just now when i entered txt in the name field, i saw the brief redraw again. but it wasn’t there on the other thread just a moment ago. weird. was thinking for a minute that maybe b changed an option & kicked it to the curb. probably just a glitch in the matrix, tho…

Posted by: b real | Mar 16 2009 3:55 utc | 21

uncle, sometimes what i do (aside from anna missed suggestion) is open another homepage (keeping my original in case i need it) and refresh it a few times. there is sometime a delay in the posting. it prevents me from posting twice.
b, re the update. i think china has a better grasp of what our economic situation is than we do. no one can say investing in us is sound. maybe if a miracle happens. its a crap shoot at best.

Posted by: annie | Mar 16 2009 3:57 utc | 22

U$-
Thanks for the link – I prefer my naked nude as opposed to being exposed on the stock market. That was an interesting presentation.

Posted by: David | Mar 16 2009 4:47 utc | 23

@Uncle – your comment was spam trapped and I released it now. The YUI stuff prevents double posting. But it only works if a page is loaded completely.
Thanks for the links all.

Posted by: b | Mar 16 2009 6:09 utc | 24

test will it “accept this data?”

Posted by: Jeremiah | Mar 16 2009 6:30 utc | 25

U$- thx for that link.

Posted by: Jeremiah | Mar 16 2009 6:30 utc | 26

A.I.G. Lists Firms It Paid With Taxpayer Money
Yeah – they list recipients of some $70 billion the taxpayer gave them. But the total they got is near $180 billion – where did the rest go? The NYT piece does not even ask the question.

Posted by: b | Mar 16 2009 6:40 utc | 27

It is intereating to me that a trading technique that is essentially a scam is being aggressively defended by the corporation responsible by charter for the clearing of all security exchanges or trades.
This means that the entire securities market, in theory and in practice, is corrupt.
Would you trust these people with your wealth? Why? This is an entire system that is bogus.

Posted by: Gaianne | Mar 16 2009 7:48 utc | 28

Really interesting discussion about important stuff happening. I make some research about systemic crisis for an University work. Totoro your .pdf call GEAB 33 was really useful, It was in french and I’m french from Quebec. I would like to know if you have the version GEAB 32 of february 15th. If you have it, it would be really nice to send me. Thats woulds be so usefull for my U work. My e-mail is pole.mire@gmail.com or maybe you have the link. Thanks you for your help. BYE

Posted by: Pierre | Mar 31 2009 9:21 utc | 29

Back to Main