Saturday, August 08, 2009

The ethical challenges of Hank Paulson (R-Goldman)

The NYTimes has a great piece (by GRETCHEN MORGENSON and DON VAN NATTA) detailing the ethical challenges facing former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (R-Goldman) during the Bush bailout last September.

I guess Paulson thinks that his decision to let Goldman Sachs' competition fail (Lehman Bros.) or get swallowed (Bear Stearns) was totally appropriate. And it was also appropriate to bailout AIG... enabling AIG to act as a front man for Goldman Sachs pay its debts, including to the single biggest beneficiary of the initial $85 billion AIG bailout - $13 billion to Goldman.

Unbelievable. And Obama just sits back and breaks his own rules on lobbyists by allowing Tim Geithner to hire Goldman's chief lobbyist as his Chief of Staff at Treasury!

We need real leaders in Congress, such as Ron Paul (Populist - TX) and Bernie Sanders (Populist - VT). Washington is controlled by The Political Class... and they need to go.

Tim White

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