Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd has realized one thing, the NY Times still runs the agenda for his party.
Dodd, realizing 99% of American’s not only do not know who he is but also do not know he is running for President, found a way to get himself some publicity today. He decided to question the integrity of someone most American’s do know: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. On a side note, if more folks know who the head guy at Treasury is than know who you are, and you are running for President, stop, you are now officially wasting all our time.
Dodd said he was concerned because it appeared that Goldman Sachs (GS) was “aggressively pushing subprime mortgages that they knew to be of concern while simultaneously shorting collateralized mortgage obligations.” Maybe they were. If they were, so what? They are after all a brokerage that has a massive trading operation. Is Dodd suggesting investment houses can only take long positions?
Another thing Chris. Goldman did not sell mortgages. They financed them and that is a huge difference. Goldman has also taken large writedowns on its CDO portfolio, they just hegded against that better than the other institutions.
Dodd said Paulson should “address the concerns” raised by the New York Times article and added a warning: “Failure to do so may be cause for a formal investigation.” Once again, the NY Times telling Democrats what is important and them following like a dog to a burger.
How about this. I would love to hear Paulson address him like this at the upcoming dog and pony show. Chris, let me explain things to you. You clearly have no idea how the real world works and we both know the only reason you are sitting there is because of your late father U.S. Senator Thomas Joseph Dodd. Without him we both know you probably would be asking me if I wanted to “super-size that for only one more dollar” rather than wasting everyones time on this subject.
That being said, you and the group of trained chimps you sit with pass laws on the sale securities. We follow those rules and oh yea, we also have a trading operation that takes all types of positions on all types of securities in almost every country in the world. As a matter of fact, more than 50% of the profits at Goldman profits come from overseas (that means countries outside the US).
You see Chris, almost every bank out there bought and sold these securities (including us) and most hedged these bets. Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Wachovia (WB), Morgan Stanley (MS) etc.. they all did it. The difference is we just did it better. They got greedy and we bet against the grain. Pretty simple really.
Now that we are on the subject, maybe you could help us out. Could you try to win the election? We just ask because the tax increase you are promising will definitely drive the economy into recession and we could really make a killing off these short positions then. Just a thought…
On a side note, speaking of possible “ethical issues” . We know you received more money from Arthur Andersen than any other Democrat — $54,843.00 — and aggressively worked to insulate Arthur Andersen and other accounting firms from liability to defrauded investors in cases like Enron. Now that Anderson is gone, where do you get your $$ from now?
Perhaps this is just payback for Goldman Chief Blankenfeld supporting Hillary for President? That is the only thing that actually would make any sense.
2 replies on “Chris Dodd Goes After Someone People Have Heard Of: Paulson”
I’ve got to say that Bush and the Democratic Presidential candidates are pulling the wool over our eyes on the housing crises.
On freezing interest rates for subprime loans, Bush’s plan today is a total crock. The NY Times reports his plan would “exclude many — if not most — subprime borrowers” including those who are delinquent on their payments. In a nutshell it’s a sham.
But what’s worse: a President no one trusts making promises no one believes or the Democratic candidates trying to replace him covertly aiding and abetting his policies?
Jesse Jackson spelled out the problem recently, noting nearly every single Democratic candidate lacks an agenda to promote African American issues while condescendingly expecting votes from that community. Presidential candidate Senator Chris Dodd is a key example. While loudly denouncing Bush for allowing the housing crises to precipitate, as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he has been helping Bush’s HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson to close the last remaining resource for helping homebuyers avoid predatory loans.
Senator Dodd is siding with Senate Republicans to oppose Maxine Water’s and Barney Frank’s bill in the House to save downpayment assistance programs, which allow nonprofits to help working families with the 3% downpayment necessary for Federally insured home loans.
The posturing on this is reaching new heights….but where is the press in uncovering the double talk? Absent as usual.
anon,
the press… i agree..
african american “issues”. why should the candidates “address” them? time to get their own stuff together. enough is enough..
dodd is clueless i agree
the president: people trust the congress less..
the plan will help a large number of people and some will fall through the cracks, others will find a way to scam it. when we bail people out, this inevitably is what happens