That is SOME piece of work. Thank you.

That’s a whole new room here at the lake about which I knew nothing. Now I have to clear the clutter from a nook in ye olde cranium to move all this new info into.

(((Thank you, selise)))

hmmm, HE had full authority to disburse the first $350 billion to the banks, solely at his discretion as to whom and how much and whether justified. And nobody knows what went with the money. …

Would that this understanding of how others see us (and judge us, whether ‘fairly’, or not) were common ‘currency’ in America, it would help with our ‘revival’ (in the Rocky Raccoon sense, you know our …broken ‘dreams’ because ’someone’ has ’stolen’ the myths of our fancy …)

“In 2004, at the request of the major Wall Street investment houses, including Goldman Sachs, then headed by Paulson, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed unanimously to release the major investment houses from the net capital rule, the requirement that their brokerages hold reserve capital that limited their leverage and risk exposure. The complaint that was put forth by the investment banks was of increasingly onerous regulatory requirements — in this case, not U.S. regulator oversight,

easily one of the architects of this depression

i guess i’m thinking that we americans may have very little say in what our government does – but from the perspective of a peruvian coffee grower, we do have some. and far more than he does even though he also is affected by the choices made here.

“In 2004, at the request of the major Wall Street investment houses, including Goldman Sachs, then headed by Paulson, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed unanimously to release the major investment houses from the net capital rule, the requirement that their brokerages hold reserve capital that limited their leverage and risk exposure. The complaint that was put forth by the investment banks was of increasingly onerous regulatory requirements — in this case, not U.S. regulator oversight, but European Union regulation of the foreign operations of US investment groups. In the immediate lead-up to the decision, EU regulators also acceded to US pressure, and agreed not to scrutinize foreign firms’ reserve holdings if the SEC agreed to do so instead. The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, however, put the parent holding company of each of the big American brokerages beyond SEC oversight. In order for the agreement to go ahead, the investment banks lobbied for a decision that would allow “voluntary” inspection of their parent and subsidiary holdings by the SEC.

During this repeal of the net capital rule, SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson agreed to the establishment of a risk management office that would monitor signs of future problems. This office was eventually dismantled by Chairman Christopher Cox, after discussions with Paulson. According to the New York Times, “While other financial regulatory agencies criticized a blueprint by Mr. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, that proposed to reduce their stature — and that of the S.E.C. — Mr. Cox did not challenge the plan, leaving it to three former Democratic and Republican commission chairmen to complain that the blueprint would neuter the agency.”[11] In late September 2008, Chairman Cox and the other Commissioners agreed to end the 2004 program of voluntary regulation.”

link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson