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Appearing on CNBC’s The Call, Kucinich was highly critical of Paulson’s interpretation of events that involved Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis.
“Why wouldn’t Secretary Paulson take action to remove management and Mr. Lewis if he knew, and apparently he did know, that Merrill Lynch had all these losses and that Bank of America didn’t inform [the] shareholders?” said Kucinich.
“You have a signal being sent to Wall Street that if there’s [sic] potential misdeeds, you can still stay in the game,” Kucinich continued. “That creates a moral hazard.”
Hosts Trish Regan and Larry Kudlow took issue with Kucinich’s zeroing in on Paulson, with both suggesting Lewis was more to blame.
Kudlow shouted at the two-time former presidential candidate over inconsistencies in his assessment of the situation, saying, “None of this makes any sense to the viewer, to investors, whatsoever!”
Kucinich countered, “We have to have the ability to tell shareholders that things are legit, and they weren’t legit for the shareholders of Bank of America.”
This further inflamed Kudlow, which led to loud crosstalk between him and Kucinich, before co-host Regan stepped in and again questioned the congressman’s stance. Taken aback, Kucinich said, “How can you even have a show about this when you say shareholders can be notified after the fact?”
Kucinich is not the only lawmaker to grill the embattled Paulson.
“Hank Paulson never should have had that job in the first place,” Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said on MSNBC. “He had a $700 million conflict of interest and everything that he did while he was Treasury Secretary, every single thing that he did, has one explanation – what’s good for Hank Paulson?”
Veteran journalist Robert Scheer also blasted Paulson over his connections to investment giant Goldman Sachs in a column that appeared Wednesday at Huffington Post.
“Goldman Sachs made $3.44 billion in profit this past quarter, while the U.S deficit topped $1 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history,” wrote Scheer. “Since most of the increase in the federal deficit is due to bailing out the banks and salvaging the greater economy they helped destroy, why is the top investment bank doing so well?
“Because that was the plan,” Scheer continued, “as devised by [Paulson], a former CEO of Goldman Sachs.”
This video is from CNBC.com, broadcast July 16, 2009. Click Here to Read More..
