The more that comes out about the origins of the economic crisis the banksters created, the more we find out that nobody on The Street was innocent. Back at the beginning of the month, we talked about Moody's being pretty deep into enabling Goldman Sachs to pull off its betting scam. Now we're finding out it was way more than that. Moody, S&P and Fitch all sent execs to work for investment houses so they could help The Street play out the biggest con game since Henry Gondorff retired.
But for Goldman and other banks, a road map to the right ratings wasn't enough. Analysts from the agencies were hired to help construct the deals.
In 2005, for instance, Goldman hired Shin Yukawa, a ratings expert at Fitch, who later worked with the bank's mortgage unit to devise the Abacus investments.
Mr. Yukawa was prominent in the field. In February 2005, as Goldman was putting together some of the first of what would be 25 Abacus investments, he was on a panel moderated by Jonathan M. Egol, a Goldman worker, at a conference in Phoenix.
The next month, Mr. Yukawa joined Goldman, where Mr. Egol was masterminding the Abacus deals. Neither was named in the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit, nor have the rating agencies been accused of wrongdoing related to Abacus.
At Goldman, Mr. Yukawa helped create Abacus 2007-AC1, according to Goldman documents. The safest part of that earned an AAA rating. He worked on other Abacus deals.
Goldman execs will be testifying this week before Levin's subcommittee, but no one from any of the ratings agencies that made the scam possible is yet scheduled to appear. Maybe later.
Maybe not. McClatchy did a piece this week on the evenness of corporate/financial campaign contributing and frankly, folks, there ain't a helluva a lot of difference between the two sides of the Conservative ND/OGOP.
You might notice in the chart above that the Top 4 on the receiving end of the cash are all Wall Street/BD Dems, with our old friend Chuck Schumer right smack dab at #1.
In the past two election cycles, when Democrats controlled Congress, the Democrats benefited most. So far in the 2010 cycle, the finance/insurance/real estate sector has given $65.2 million, or 56 percent of its contributions, to Democrats. Republicans have received $51.7 million.
People and political committees affiliated with securities and investment banking interests have been particularly kind to Democrats, giving them $21.7 million, or 63 percent of their donations so far.
Commercial banks, though, prefer Republicans; they've given GOP hopefuls $4.7 million so far, or 54 percent of their total.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, an independent research group, lobbyists with connections to the financial sector have hosted 10 fundraisers this year for members of the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees - six for Democrats and four for Republicans. The two panels wrote different parts of the financial overhaul bill.
So are Chuck and Harry (#3) and everybody ashamed of their rake-off?
I know. Stupid question.
"To those still willing to do what is right, to those still willing to help us slam the brakes on Wall Street's joyride, we're ready to work with you," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at a news conference this week.
"If anything, some of us would like further consumer protections that go beyond what is in the bill," added Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Yeah. Right. If Carl was on this list, would the current hearings even be happening?
Just wondering.
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