APEC 2024 Peru. Biden shafted to a corner in the back row. Xi in front row next to Peru's President
10/06/2008
Myth 191 - The Big Apple
The Big Apple is the greatest success story of modern history. After WW2, in a matter of 50 years, the US saw tremendous exponential growth to propel it to become the undisputable superpower in military, intellectual and economic terms. All the great success stories came from America. From rags to riches and from family fortunes to bigger fortunes. The best brains of the world are gathered in the US.
But the moral of the story is that the shine of the apple is only the exterior. You do not know how bad is the rot. Even with the best and brightest running the show, it can still go wrong. The saddest part is that it was going wrong for too long but the Americans were lulled by the good times, the complacency, to know that hell is calling.
Do not be deceived by the juicy big apple. Dig in to find the truth. Take the good news with some caution and scepticism. The financial failure and coverup were a near perfect job in deception at the highest level in corporate America and govt.
The best and the brightest brains doesn't mean they are all upright. That is also true in the falsehood of assuming that paying talents top salaries will make them less corruptible.
ReplyDeleteA former Dutch boss of mine once told us that asians are not as trustworthy as westerners. We told him that when westerners cheat, they cheat BIG. He had no answer. We told him the truth.
The 3 men who brought down Wall Street...
ReplyDeleteHere is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have brought down Wall Street. Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was
forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe
irregulaties in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The
Wall Street Journal noted, " Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite
mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that
"mistakes were made" and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier
promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators
to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company's books ran afoul
of generally accepted accounting principles for four years." Fannie Mae had to reduce
its surplus by $9 billion.
Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government
filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear.
http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ .. The Government noted, "The 101
charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their
bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls,
misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the
public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate
accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie
Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner." These charges were made in 2006. The Court
ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the
miss-stated Fannie Mae profits.
Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong
internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern
of earnings" at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government
Investigation determined that, "Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide
adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,"
On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to
investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in
October 2004 when theydenied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement
to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the
company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998
earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004.
Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his
position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise
Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and
you'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae
had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public,
reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21
million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from
Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.
Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.
This was emailed to me.
The American make-believe world was(is) an enjoyable one all these years. Big house, big car and big everything.
ReplyDeleteThe core of the big apple is rotten, but beyond the core there was plenty of juicy flesh. Of course it was eaten and Americans are looking for the next harvest.
A small apple, rotten on the inside, on the other hand makes the make-believe real with nothing to salvage beyond its' skin. It is misleading and gives false comfort.
patriot
'Three men brought down Wall Street....".
ReplyDeleteWill there be three men to their rescue?
patriot
What about the Singapore system? Is it a smaller version of the USA Apple?
ReplyDeleteThe party is over for the bigwigs who had been weaving all these lies all this while.
ReplyDeleteBut these bigwigs are climbing on their horses and are riding into the sunset with saddle bags full of gold. It is the common folks like you and I who are left to foot the bill.
ReplyDeleteWhat can we do to bring in a little justice???
isn't it shocking to know that these supertalents were cheating all the way to earn their millions?
ReplyDeleteand the best part is that no one is hanged.
Hanging is for the ordinary folks who commit crimes. For the super talents another set of rules apply. That is the sad truth or tooth, Singapore style.
ReplyDeleteAnd the best of the best part is that after this crisis is over the thieves will be back to continue their plunder. Lessons are never learnt in life and in due time greed takes over again and again. Want to bet?
ReplyDeleteWhy all the doom and gloom?
ReplyDeleteLike everything else, all "bad times" pass, and the American's — the heroes of the world — will prevail yet again.
Always remember: they got the most guns.
When all else fail, they can start another war
ReplyDeleteguns are for front door not for backdoor, cowboys
ReplyDeletewe are lucky that bush will not be in the white house for much longer. or a world war is very likely given his temperament and those of his advisers.
ReplyDeleteBush is not smart enough to start a world war. The thing about Bush is that he is "safe", because he's not intelligent enough to be an effective dictator.
ReplyDeleteA world war is more likely to be started by those rag-headed Muslim paedophiles.
Perhaps Cheney is the real dictator, eh? And the entire White House is populated by people closed tied to the Rockefellers and Morgans.
ReplyDelete*closely
ReplyDeleteLee Kuan Yew is one of the advisors for JP Morgan.
ReplyDeleteWe're all connected... 6 degrees of separation :))