The Golden Truth: Senator Dodd's Chief Counsel Possibly Traded on Inside Information

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Senator Dodd's Chief Counsel Possibly Traded on Inside Information

From Bloomberg News:

"Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s chief counsel in 2008 traded stock in Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., American International Group Inc. and other rescued companies as the panel considered legislation to address the credit crisis, according to her financial disclosure form filed with the Senate." (LINK).

Someone please explain to me how Amy Friend, Dodd's chief legal counsel, would not have had access to non-public information that inspired her to buy these stocks. Anyone who believes that these are clean transactions is also the type who is expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny next month.

To be sure, under the strict letter of the law, and with some fancy legal maneuvering from the type of legal counsel that got O.J. off the hook, I'm sure if this were to be put under extreme legal scrutiny and investigation, there would be, minimally, ethics violations in the extreme, and most likely evidence of transacting on insider information. At the very least, anyone associated with Dodd's activities as Chair-thief of the Senate Banking Committee should be prohibited in trading financial securities of any kind.

No doubt this will pass by with not even a censure from Congress. In fact, just like Goldman partner, Steve Friedman, who made millions loading up on Goldman stock while he was on the board of directors of the NY Fed - just before the NY Fed bailed out Goldman - I'm sure this egregiously unethical, corrupt activity will get lost in the sands of time.

Back in 2002, a colleague of mine and I opined that, as the financial/housing bubbles popped and the real damage starting collapsing our system, we would see fraud and corruption emerge that would blow our minds. Every day I wake up to new revelations, that of course go unpunished, that blow my mind. I hope someone in Congress takes up this cause, but I'm not expecting anything to happen.

3 comments:

EdwardoThursday, 18 March, 2010
The rule of law, especially where this realm of our system is concerned, has completely broken down. The evidence for this occurs on almost a daily basis.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
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Harvey GeeFriday, 19 March, 2010
Nothing will be done about it, another thing that angers me is that the gov't regulators got bonuses yet the biggest ponzi scheme happened under their watch. Seems like everyone is getting bonuses in finance related world...
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Dave in DenverFriday, 19 March, 2010
Harvey, the case could be made that the bonuses function as a, sort of, hush money payment. It's like in Rome when the Emperor paid his military huge salaries in gold/silver coins - albeit salted coins - but the military personnel had a much higher standard of living than the hoi polloi.
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Why Gold?

Gold is the world's oldest currency. You exchange your fiat currency (dollars, euros, yen, yuan) into gold as an insurance policy against catastrophic Central Bank and Government policies which serve to destroy the value of fiat currencies and destroy democracy.

Gold can ONLY be considered an investment to the extent that it remains significantly and historically undervalued in relation to the fiat currencies against which its value is measured. Otherwise it remains the world's oldest currency and is completely free from the counterparty risk associated with currency by Government fiat (i.e. fiat currencies rely on a Government's "full faith and credit.")

Quote Of The Month Courtesy of "Jesse"

Unfortunately for Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke, and their friends at the BIS, they have not yet figured out how to print physical gold, silver, and other essential commodities, and the world is reaching the point where it might simply start ignoring the New York based markets with respect to essential commodities such as basic materials, oil, foodstuffs, and the like, as they become increasingly irrelevant, fraudulent, and Orwellian. And then where will the financial engineers be, except with no more excuses and no place to hide?

Here is the link to his entire commentary, well worth a read:

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2010/07/gold-daily-chart-shock-and-awe-for.html

Great Quote From Jim Rogers On Govt CPI Reporting

JR: I mean, we have inflation now. If you go to the shop, whether it’s groceries, or education or insurance or health care, prices are going up for everything. The government lies about it in the US. Some countries lie, many countries don’t: Australia, China, India and Norway. Many countries don’t lie about it and acknowledge that we have inflation. Others lie about it, the UK and the US, but if you go shopping you know prices are up.

Q: Are you saying that the American Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is a lie?

JR: In my opinion, yes, of course it is. Have you looked at it? They’ve changed their accounting several times in the past few decades. When housing was 20% to 25% of the CPI and housing was going up, they didn’t count it, saying rents weren’t going up, and then when home prices started going down, they counted it. It’s the same with many things. It’s staggering some of the tortuous reasoning that the BLS has used over the past 25 or 30 years. When the price of gasoline goes up, they say it’s not really going up because it’s better gasoline, better quality, therefore you’re getting more for your money. I mean, it’s endless, the stuff that they say and for some reason people sit there, although more and more people are catching on, and accept what the government says.

source: www.clusterstock.com

Quote of the Week

"The primary function of a Central Bank is to engage in the massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy elite. The Federal Reserve was set up to do this with the blessing and support of Congress." - Dave in Denver

If you refuse to believe the above, please read "The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve" by G. Edward Griffin and then explain to me why the Senate voted down the Vitter Amendment and Congress refuses to pass a law requiring a full audit of the Fed, even though the Fed is using taxpayer-backed money to bailout Wall Street and Europe.