Big Freekin’ Deal
When Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen tells me that something is a big freekin’ deal, I tend to believe him. However, I could be blind and deaf and see that this is a BFD.
A stunning about-face by one of Wall Street’s trailblazers is emboldening lawmakers who have long called for breaking up the nation’s largest banks.
Sanford Weill, the former chairman and CEO of Citigroup, shocked the financial sector and its critics Wednesday, when he publicly called for the breakup of big banks to ensure the end of “too big to fail.”
Really? Really, big banks? You developed a conscience?
But Weill’s comments carry added weight because they come from a man who initially led the charge on creating gargantuan banking systems. Under Weill’s watch, the bank Citicorp merged with the financial firm Travelers Group to become Citigroup — a move that ushered in a new era of Wall Street giants and helped press Congress to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act.
This just ain’t a big freekin’ deal. This is a miracle act of God big freekin’ deal.
Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen who personally invented the Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate Blizzard.
Of sourse, the dude is probably now retired and not raking in millions every year….
1Sandy made lots of money breaking Glass Steagal and creating monster banks and now he wants to make more breaking up the monsters he created.
2Sometimes in old age people look back and have second thoughts about their earlier actions and try to make amends. Not always, of course.
3@montag: eloquently said and flawlessly logical.
4Jamie Dimon, his former protege, is right now calling him going “Dude! Buzzkill. Harsh.”
5Yeah? Well being president and CEO of Citicorp maybe be a pretty big deal BUT inventing the Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate Blizzard sorta puts everything in proper perspective, don’t ya think?
6I am seeing this trend of people who thought some conservative dream was a wonderful idea when it was first done now turning around years later and saying it was a bad idea. Repealing Glass-Steagall and invading Iraq with too few troops and no plans are two examples.
Of course, those of us who saw at the time these were bad ideas were shouted at a lot.
If I seem bitter, it’s because I am paying attention.
7My mother worked for a bank and during the S&L melt down her retired former boss made a killing moonlighting as an evaluator of failed / failing S&L’s. He went in and evaluated their assets and made recommendations to the Feds about what should happen next. He hired her to write up his reports (the man could not write a compete sentence), which she did on our old manual typewriter on the kitchen table. It made for some interesting reading.
All of this leads me to believe, that while I would like to think that Sandy Baby has found God – kinda like Barry Goldwater did in his dotage, my guess is that montag is dead on. There is a buck to be made in this….
I love Bill Clinton, but ditching Glass Stegall was a bad idea even if it was the price for averting impeachment.
8Sandy cashed out first, before making this statement. The only halo he will get from me will be completely tarnished and/or rusty beyond recognition. It isn’t heroic to state the obvious after you’ve spent years making sure the right thing didn’t happen.
9He’s got a plan to make more money off this–gotta be true–these types stay true to their bloodsucking natures–I personally know a NBA sports team owner and his family ripped people off left and right..and a bank owner–no $$ problems there either–I’m a nobody and have a 1%er in the family–not people that “you people” would like or want to know–but the view from Long Island across to NYC is million dollar, especially at night when the lights are on, and I like standing on the beach looking across—I really had to wonder at trailer park trash like me being there at all…
10Some people should never be trusted. Sandy is one of them. You can depend he has a trick up his English, tailor-made, $5,000 suit sleeve.
11Don’t anybody get fooled. We’re nothing but ants in their big ol’ ant farm, and they love tipping us back and forth to watch us scramble this way and that.
“Seen the light” my fat old lefty behind.
12Makes me wonder if Weill has some terminal illness. That’s usually when these guys grow a conscience. Short of that I can’t see him turning on his cronies. I mean, what would they say at the country club?
13When you see one of “those people” slithering toward the nearest rock, it’s not because he is afraid of you. I suspect there is something Mr. Weill can make out of this sudden about face. Time will tell.
14When is he gonna give the money back?
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