One of the great canards in the fall out from the mortgage debacle is the idea that no one in charge could have known that this was going to happen.
A canard incidentally is a French word meaning duck.
It is used in English to refer to a story that is deliberately false or misleading. Its use originates from an old French idiom, "vendre un canard à moitié," meaning "to half-sell a duck."
In other words, it’s a fancy way to say something is BS.
Of course, the real truth about who might have known is otherwise. Lots of people saw this coming from a mile away.
In fact, most of them knew it long before the term "sub prime" became the word of the day.
But in the shark infested waters of Wall Street, closing the beaches simply wasn’t an option.
So the con game went on long after it should have ended—even though everyone knew what was beneath the waves.
But when there is so much profit involved in the game, power and money trumps common sense every time.
By now though one thing should be perfectly clear. This is a crisis that was purposely created by Wall Street and Washington D.C. working in tandem. It was not an accident by any means
In that regard here’s another one from the archives. And while rap is not exactly my style, this is one I understand all the way.
It’s edgy, angry, and dead spot on.
Remember that as you stare at the ceiling all night wrestling with the ghost of Tom Joad.
But wait… it gets even worse since that’s just the first part of the story.
Because the most insidious part of it all is how certain companies have made fortunes on both sides of the deal. And to pull that off, it never hurts to have friends in the highest of places.
In that regard, Goldman Sachs has been sitting in the catbird seat for years. So here’s a follow on to yesterday’s post.
Of course, you will be happy to know that Goldman Sachs employees can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular quarter.
Despite the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression, the firm has set aside $11.3 billion to hand out to its employees for their work over the last six months. That’s an average pay per employee of around $1million this year.
The game is rigged, folks. And we’re the stooges.
By the way, if you still haven’t read Matt Taibbi’s story in Rolling Stone on Goldman Sachs you need to. It’s something of an eye-opener.
You can read the full article here.
Related Articles:
The Plunge Protection Team: How the Invisible Hand Moves the Markets
How Uncle Sam Fiddles with the Figures
Warren Buffett says the economy is in a ‘shambles’
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