Filed under Bobby, we hardly knew you…

this:

“The new CEO of Citigroup, America’s largest bank, is a former Goldman Sachs co-chairman and a former Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin. Goldman Sachs has made record profits in recent months. How? By selling short the subprime mortgage bond market.

Prince (the departing chief of Citi) left his office under a cloud – financial, of course. Nobody gets fired on Wall Street for moral cloud problems. Unlike dark clouds with silver linings, Wall Street clouds are composed entirely of red ink. A Reuters story summarizes the carnage at Citi.

Charles Prince resigned on Sunday as chairman and chief executive of Citigroup Inc, as the bank said it may write off $11 billion of subprime mortgage losses, on top of a $6.5 billion write-down last quarter. . . . Citigroup said it expects to write down $5 billion to $7 billion after taxes – roughly three or four months of profit – for its $55 billion of exposure to U.S. subprime mortgages.

The write-down equals $8 billion to $11 billion before taxes, and may rise if markets worsen, the largest U.S. bank said. Citigroup’s previous $6.5 billion write-down related to subprime mortgages, loan losses and other debt.”

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Aha. So Robert Rubin, Clinton’s Treasury Secretary (and before that, heavily involved with his campaign and head of his economic policy council), former Goldman head, then Citigroup honcho, part of the trio that.. er... sached (that’s Jeffrey Sached…)… Russia in the 1990s (Jeffrey Sachs, Larry Summers, and Rubin), second musketeer of the three who allegedly saved the world (the other two being Greenspan and Summers)…….. yes, that R obert Rubin is back at Citigroup, with another ex- Sachs CEO (Paulson) at Treasury. Now, we only need a Clinton in office to finish the pretty picture.

And who among the candidates has had the chutzpah to take on this wrecking crew of bankers?

Guiliani? Clinton? Thompson? McCain?

Only Ron Paul….

And from research for my upcoming book, here is a glimpse into the inbred family that is US Govt. Inc.:

Goldman Sachs Alumni in Public Office:

Bradley Abelow, Treasurer, New Jersey State Government
Joshua Bolten, current White House Chief
Kenneth D. Brody, former President and Chairman, Export-Import Bank of the United States
E. Gerald Corrigan, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Jon Corzine, Governor of New Jersey, former U.S. Senator from New Jersey.
Paul Deighton, CEO of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games
Mario Draghi, Governor of the Bank of Italy.
Gary Gensler, Undersecretary of the Treasury (1999-2001), Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (1997-1999)
Henry Fowler, United States Secretary of the Treasury (1965-1969)
Stephen Friedman, Chairman of the National Economic Council (2002-2005), Chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2005 -)

Robert D. Hormats, Assistant Secretary of State (1981-1982), Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (1979-1981)
Reuben Jeffrey III, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Philip D. Murphy, National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee
Henry M. Paulson, current United States Secretary of the Treasury
Robert Rubin, Chairman of the National Economic Council (1993-1995), United States Secretary of the Treasury (1995-1999)
Sidney J. Weinberg, Assistant to the Chairman (1942-1943) and vice-chairman of the War Production Board (1944-1945)
John Whitehead, Deputy Secretary of State (1985-1989), Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1996-1999), Chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (2001-2006)
Robert Zoellick, United States Trade Representative (2001-20015), Deputy Secretary of State (2005-2006)

Goldman Sachs Alumni in Senior Executive/Investor Positions:

Pete Briger, Co-head of Fortress Investment Group (bought $260 million in loans belonging to Michael Jackson, the entertainer, from Bank of America in late 2005
Leon Cooperman, Founder and CEO of Omega Advisors
Jim Cramer, Founder of the TheStreet.com and SmartMoney.com, and host of CNBC’s Mad Money.
Gavyn Davies, (London based Senior Partner) Chairman Emeritus of the BBC and with close ties to Tony Blair. His wife, Susan Nye is office manager for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

Dr. Sushil Wadhwani (former director of Equity Strategy at Goldman sachs International from 1991-1995) is on the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee.
J. Christopher Flowers, Founder of J.C. Flowers & Company, member of the Forbes 400 list.
Richard M. Hayden, Vice Chairman of GSC Partners, an $11 billion asset management firm.
Edward Lampert, Founder of ESL Investments and member of the Forbes 400 list.
Eric Mindich, Founder of Eton Park, leading hedge firm
Ed Mule, Founder of Silverpoint, multibillion dollar hedge fund.
Dinakar Singh, CEO of TPG-Axon Capital, global hedge fund.
Stuart L. Sternberg, Owner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (Major League Baseball team)
John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange