US secretly tried to make deal with Goldman Sachs in wake of financial crisis

[Crewleader]

By John Byrne
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 -- 9:11 am


Warren Buffett balked at conflict of interest

BREAKING 10:08 AM ET:Vanity Fair will report in the next issue of the magazine that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -- a former head of the investment bank Goldman Sachs -- tried to orchestrate secretive deals in the midst of the financial crisis but got blowback from prominent investor Warren Buffett. The following press release was obtained by Raw Story; the magazine appears today on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles.

NEW YORK, N.Y.—The government secretly tried to orchestrate a deal involving Goldman Sachs in the week following Lehman Brothers’ collapse and considered using the Federal Reserve to help support such a transaction, Andrew Ross Sorkin reports in the new issue of Vanity Fair.

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves, Sorkin reports that the deal, which was nearly consummated, would have merged Goldman Sachs and Wachovia. Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary and former C.E.O. of Goldman, was deeply involved in the process, contacting both Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's current C.E.O., and a Wachovia board member, and strongly urged both to consider it. Wachovia’s C.E.O., Robert Steel, was a former vice-chairman at Goldman Sachs and Paulson’s former number two at the Treasury Department.

http://rawstory.com/2009/09/us-secretly-tried-to-make-d...

[tosh]

1. Thank you, Mr. Buffett!

This is not the first time you've had our backs.

[tosh]

2. "the optics"....Indeed! nt.

[catzies]

3. Vanity Fair's investigative journalistic contributions in the past year have been consistently

outstanding.

They have covered the institutions and individuals involved to a very high degree.

Each issue over the past year has had articles worth re-reviewing almost constantly as events continue to unfold.

For instance: what is for me a local bank, which was covered extensively by Vanity Fair last month, is also now in today's paper reacting to rumors about its imminent failure. *cough* SBB&T *cough*

[truedelphi]

7. Rolling Stone and VF are the only two publications

Worthy of subscription money.

[defendandprotect]

4. k i c k

[girl gone mad]

5. Did you catch the story about Paulson's phone records?

He was calling Blankfein more than anyone except Bernanke during the midst of the crisis.

[truedelphi]

8. Good to know. n/t

[Why Syzygy]

6. k&r

If this nasty bit of treason is an impetus to pass legislation to audit the FED, all the BETTER!

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

[upi402]

10. Buffet eh? Patriots come from shadow and glint alike, I guess. Nader's novel

talks about this sort of scenario. I heard him interviewed on PBS. Nichael Moore's film, "Capitalism, a Love Story" covers this stuff -and wraps it with police crime scene tape.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

11. Buffet said,

“By tonight the government will realize they can’t provide capital to a deal that’s being done by the former firm of the Treasury secretary with the company of a former vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs and former deputy Treasury secretary,” Buffett said. “There is no way. They’ll all wake up and realize, even if it was the best deal in the world, they can’t do it.”

Doesn't sound to me that Buffet was looking out for our backs as much as he saw the folly in trying to manage this PR nightmare. Then again I don't trust any of these people anymore.

[TheWatcher]

12. Well, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

These Criminals that pose as legitimate Companies, Corporations, and ELECTED Leadership are going to continue to be abusive spouses until we deal with them in a severe enough way that they would rather willingly insert their genitalia into a Wood Chipper than face the Wrath of We The People again.

It has become all too painfully obvious what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

Americans can continue to live in whatever feel good fantasy that gets them through the day, and pretend they still live in a functioning system. That's all fine and good, and we've gotten away with it for so long, I guess it can't hurt to see if we can remain Teflon Sheep Serfs forever.

Just DON'T be surprised at the results.

There. Will. NEVER. Be. ANY. Real. Change. Of. ANY. Kind. Until. These. People. Are. STOPPED.

By WHATEVER legal and reasonable means NECESSARY.

And if THAT doesn't work.....

Well, The Declaration is pretty clear about THAT, isn't it?

[clarence swinney]

13. GOLDMAN SACHS ALMA MATER

OUR FINANCIAL ARM OF US GOVERNMENT

GREENSPAN- GEITHNER-SUMMERS-BERNACKE ETC

[IrateCitizen]

14. Ummm... Greenspan, Geithner and Bernanke aren't GS alumni.

Bernanke was an economics professor most of his career before leaving as chair of Princeton's economics department in 2002 to join the Fed.

Greenspan spent time in economic consulting before joining the Council of Economic Advisors in the 1970s.

Geithner has spent most of his professional life in the public sector -- never did he work for GS.