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Raymond J. Learsy

Raymond J. Learsy

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Barry Bonds Should Have Been Playing for Goldman Sachs

Posted: 04/15/11 08:06 AM ET

The Justice Department knows how to get those guys. You know the ones who hit home runs and abuse themselves with steroids in order to hit more. Not the way the game should be played, but the last time I checked Barry Bonds hadn't foreclosed on anyone's home, nor had his actions pressured the economy to his own benefit while millions were losing their jobs.

Just yesterday a jury found Bonds guilty of obstruction of justice resulting from testimony given to a grand jurythat had been convened to follow up the federal investigation into the use of steroids by athletes.

When it rains it pours. Almost simultaneously with the Bonds' verdict the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 650 page report "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Collapse". Its contents were so damning that Senator Levin, co-chair of the committee, commented, "The report pulls back the curtain on shoddy, risky, deceptive practices on the part of a lot of the major financial institutions. The overwhelming evidence is that those institutions deceived their clients and deceived the public...".

The report was produced by the same Senate committee that conducted an eleven hour hearing in April 2010 with Goldman executives and employees. At that hearing lawmakers questioned Goldman's assertion that it had not bet against the mortgage market as home prices were collapsing throughout the country. As the New York Times reported, Senator Levin pointed our that his committee had found 3,400 references in Goldman documents where its officials used the phrase "net short", Wall Street jargon in this instance for having bet against the housing/real estate market.

Perjury in sworn testimony before a Senate committee? Perhaps, perhaps not. If only Barry Bonds had played for Goldman Sachs we still wouldn't know.

 
 
 
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mike dougles
03:12 PM on 04/16/2011
How much money did the people at Goldman Sachs give to Obama in 2008.

How many good friend of Timothy Geithner work for Goldman Sachs.

This is not very hard to understand, now is it.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
NickfromCali
wants a better Democrat than Feinstein as my Senat
02:39 PM on 04/16/2011
So apparently should have Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute/UltimateBet

All got busted for fraud (UIGEA, which I believe is unconstitutional, since the US Senate never voted on it directly)
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intotheabyss
Imperialism is a form of insanity.
11:31 AM on 04/16/2011
Every country with a central banking system like the Fed. is nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme. We are all suckers for continuing to put up with it. I hope the hacker group Anonymous succeeds spectacularly in taking these banking behemoths down. If the government regulators won't protect our interests then we have the right to defend ourselves by what ever means are necessary. We are having class war waged against us. The government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to intervene on our behalf so it's all up to us.
11:01 AM on 04/16/2011
Watch the movie "Inside Job" the collapse of 2008 , bankers were walking away with billions betting on the housing collapse , Allen Greenspan was made aware and did nothing. No one went to jail or was fined or had to pay back $$$$ from what amounted to the largest Ponzi scam ever. This movie won a Academy Award for best documentary and what really made me livid is that many of the players involved in this Ponzi scheme are now on Obama's economic team. When Obama was campaigning he blamed the fiscal mess on greedy wall street bankers and vowed to crack down , after being in office almost 3 years very few regulations were put in place ? And Wall Street made 5 BILLION dollars in campaign contributions in the past 5 years so who really controls the Government , the white house or wall street ?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Carl Caroli
I just don't understand people
09:48 AM on 04/16/2011
I'm guessing we're down to semantics once again, a favorite political ploy to confuse the issues and deflect prosecution based on what the definition of sex is. We're they intentionally betting against the mortgage market or, as they're feebly using as an excuse, just covering their assssssets? One and the same if you ask me.
09:35 AM on 04/16/2011
Aversion to corporate despotism would appear to be a growth industry that the rich are abling assisting.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AG creative
Ba Gawk!
04:43 PM on 04/15/2011
Great parallel.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Capn Scott
the 'moderated' me
03:35 PM on 04/15/2011
If nothing else this Wall Street fiasco should allow Pete Rose to finally make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame...where he rightly belongs.

Because their illegal gambling makes his gambling look like child's play.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mike dougles
03:15 PM on 04/16/2011
I dont think you understnad why Rose is banned.

If he bet on every thing in the world other then baseball he would be in.

But he not only bet baseball games, he bet games in which his team was playing.

That is mortal sin in baseball.
blogisti
Censor Approved Knowledge Only
01:04 PM on 04/15/2011
That's right. If Bonds had been working for Goldman Sachs he would have been given a "get out of jail card" and a bonus just for being an employee. Commit serious fraud as directed by management and you get an extra get out of jail card and free legal counsel plus a very large extra bonus. Continue this fraud over many years and you get to be CEO.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Michael Dayne
12:44 PM on 04/15/2011
...Pulls back the curtain...? What curtain? Mark Twain managed to sum up the banking business in one short precipitation based quote. Corrupt banking practices, regulators who turn a blind eye, legislators who feign outrage and take campaign contributions from the perps; there is nothing revealing here that we haven't known for a long, long time. The mere fact that hapless dupes like Madoff, Bonds and Martha Stewart are skewered, vilified and sent to the pokey is ample proof that those Wall Street Wizards and the cowardly lions in Washington like things just the way they are and prefer the dog and pony show of celebrity prosecutions to rooting out the real corruption.
12:44 PM on 04/15/2011
http://youtu.be/HGEIl6oR_vU.............................When you are Black and any law enforcement agency wants you to be found gulty....they will make it happen... shield#31187 tax id#904062 as an N.Y.P.D. officer Assigned to manhattan North narcotics My unit and Myself framed hundreds of people to make a fiscal year deadline to justity the budget allocated to the N.Y.P.D.....We were told to target black people because they couldn't afford good legal help......when a Black is wanted to be found guilty.....he will be found guilty.
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No stinking fans
And no stinking badges
12:20 PM on 04/15/2011
Barry Bonds cannot offer prosecutors a lucrative job in baseball after they leave public service, therefore he is a target for prosecution.
Also a baseball player using steroids is much more damaging to society than the financial sector looting average Americans.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
beverlyg
12:19 PM on 04/15/2011
GWBush's Justice Dept. was so bad that it wouldn't take much for Obama's to be better:however, I can find no redeeming features for the current Justice Dept.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Michael Dayne
12:45 PM on 04/15/2011
Eric Holder is, as they say, "a bargain."
12:18 PM on 04/15/2011
Barry should have made a large payoff to Congress.
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Hiphopcrates
Kicking the money lenders out of the Temple
12:09 PM on 04/15/2011
Skin color?