Call me a cynic, but I couldn't resist posting the following quote (hat tip to The Cunning Realist):
"This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."
--Hank Paulson soberly planning for contingencies, July 12, 2007.
Thanks, Hank, for all your help.
(Proof positive that money and power don't make you smart.)
(Proof positive that money and power don't make you smart.)
I take this statement with a grain of salt.
A handful of "smart" crooks are taking the tax payer along
with rest of the world to the cleaners.
Posted by: roger | July 14, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Re: Thanks, Hank
Michael, I respectfully disagree. Being dumb may get you into the treasury but not to the top at Goldman Sachs. That Mr. Paulson stated such nonsense rather confirms a different suspicion: that people in the administration and on Wall Street will always be cheerleading and tell us whatever suits them, no matter if it is true or not. And wasn't it the time when Chuck Prince and Citigroup were still dancing?
Posted by: Wilfried Glaeser | July 14, 2009 at 12:16 PM
They are only dumb or failures if you assume that they work by the same set of values and rules as most other people do.
They are not dumb and failures if you consider the following:
Blowing up a company is not failure, if you succeed to enrich yourself and your colleagues in the process without leaving any actionable traces. That's success and that's why those people get those - to us outrageously high - bonuses.
Those people are not dumb and they are not rewarding failure.
Accept this and deal with the consequences.
Posted by: Alexandra | July 14, 2009 at 01:27 PM
Technically, he was correct...as global trade was still booming, et all, even as the cracks in the housing market were getting wider & wider. And I agree w/ Roger...Hank ain't dumb, just a slimy & deceitful.
Posted by: Todd R | July 14, 2009 at 06:03 PM