Q. (By the chairman): Mr. Corzine, you understand that you have the right to remain silent and refuse to testify before this committee?Reading William Cohan's Money and Power last Spring--i.e., long before the current uproar went viral--I got the distinct sensation that Corzine was an accidental man, a loose cannon, an empty suit. There has to be a reason why he was whisked ouf ot Goldman so briskly and efficiently.
A. (Mr. Corzine): Mr. Chairman, I do not choose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment. I want to give this committee a complete account of the situation, and I am ready to answer any and all of your questions.
Q. We appreciate your forthrightness and candor. In that connection it appears that $1.2 billion of your clients' money has gone missing. Can you tell the committee what happened to it?
A. I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, but I don't have the faintest idea.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Corzine Comes Clean
My pal Michael serves up the shorter John Corzine:
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2 comments:
Reminds me of James Fisk's non-answer to the same question.
After his attempt to corner the gold market precipitated the Black Friday panic back in 1869, a Congressional inquiry understandably wanted to know what happened to the money he made.
Fisk helpfully explained that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."
A footnote: woodbine is a sweet-scented climbing vine that used to be planted around outhouses.
He was "whisked out" (five-plus years is "whisked"? Would anyone but a lifetime appointee think such?) when he Did the Right Thing twice: (1) got GS to assist in the LTCM bailout [look at the fate of the one firm that was asked and didn't] and (2) delayed GS going public.
Hank Paulson disliked both ideas. The second kept a lot of people at GS two or three years longer than they wanted to be, so the math on the ouster is easy.
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