Posted on 03/29/2009 10:29:30 PM PDT by Daisyjane69
The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
RS sucks, period. And, no, I didn’t read the article.
LOL !
Although generally, I agree that RS sucks, they have written some very hard-hitting pieces during the financial crisis. Surprisingly, so I might add.
This is a very well done article. Well worth the read.
Yup. Well worth the read. But don’t read it unless your blood pressure is under control. Wish we could throw all these bastards into prison. This mess is totally out of control. Even if we had an honest congress, they couldn’t take back control. It’s going to require a total collapse and a rebuilding from the ashes.
Normally, I would never go to the Rolling Stone site, but you got my interest.
Gotta admit... It was a very informative article. Usually, when I read articles on this subject, my eyes are spinning and get I feel dizzy. The writer of this article wrote it in lay mans terms that made it easy to understand. I learned a fair bit out of that.
Thanks for posting it.
:)
I found the article very long, endlessly repetitive and some what confusing.
The writer makes statements like “they look for the holes in the regulatory environment”, without explaining which holes. The “lack of regulations” is a favorite Socialist argument - they don’t bother to explain which regulations are missing, just eager to add many new once.
I saw nothing about the mark-to-market rule - a moronic and extremely harmful regulation.
I generally agree with the inanity of having middle class bailout large corporations and wealthy investors, but the article is so long and so confusing that by page 6 I can’t even remember the main topic.
It's about the Democrats' power, without a shadow of a doubt. What they don't see is that their power is based on the system they are unwittingly destroying in their shortsightedness and gluttony.
Glad you liked it.
I mistakenly referred to other articles written by RS; I was thinking of another liberal mag, the Village Voice. LOL
Anyway, these articles are handy ammo for the “Bush created this” crowd:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-01-28/news/what-cooked-the-world-s-economy/1
Gotta keep your powder dry around these nuts! :)
This is what I have been thinking lately. The fight is for control of the golden goose and the goose is being choked to death so it will no longer lay golden eggs.
The communists are hell-bent on taking control of a golden goose they are choking to death in their glee.
This has happened everywhere in the world it has been tried. When fascists grab the reins of existing wealth, they always destroy the capacity of the society to create new wealth.
The New York Times has also been good at exposng Wall Street’s role in this mess. Of course the NYTimes was silent or approving during the bubble years because they won’t rat out their Wall Street buddies.....Except when they are down
It shows that AIG was simply a scam job and Goldman Sachs (ie, Hank Paulson) was in on it up to their eyeballs. Of course, Paulson was able to convince Bush (and McCain/Obama) to bail them out with taxpayer money (TARP). But the bailout is far from complete. In comes Geithner (also a Wall Streeter and a former NY Fed guy) who sees that it’s too slow to go through congress for bailouts, so decides the fed can do it itself within its own powers. He basically gives the finger to the congress and the taxpayer and is committing trillions to God only knows who. And is daring anyone to do anything about it.
Congress doesn’t have the balls to call him on it and apparently, Obama is in so far over his head that he doesn’t know what the hell is happening right under his nose.
RIP USA.
Those are too good articles from the lefty/lib Village Voice
I’ve read it twice now. Good article and worth your time to read.
I have started to save these kinds of articles over the last year. Mostly to provide ammunition to my sweetie (who is a recovering lib in Chicago) so he has the weapons he needs to do battle with the nitwits around him.
These three links are to a very liberal blogger, who was to the LEFT of Clinton, and an Obama supporter. But the research this man did was magnificent. It’s three long parts, all very well sourced.
http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/foreclosed-blame-bill-clinton-redux.html
Hang on to those links the next time someone tells you “Bush caused this.”
;)
Well, I agree that AIG bailout is a scam. However, it is being done with the blessings of Congress and Obama. If the article claims otherwise, then I would say it is inaccurate.
Many articles like this one appear in the left-wing press. All of them tend to give politicians a pass and focus on “evil bankers”. (Quotes intentional.) All of them, including this one, fail to provide an accurate picture in an attempt to push public opinion further towards the goal of increased government regulation and dismantling of of the capitalist economy.
I don’t like these bailouts. The solution, however, is not a Socialist economy. The solution is not doing the bailouts. Let the players who made bad bets lose their money and their companies. A capitalist system will recover fairly quickly. There are many good financial institutions that did not make bad bets that can pick up the pieces of AIG, GS and the rest. The economy would emerge stronger in the process.
These bailouts reward poor management and poor risk taking, in addition to transferring vast sums of money from the middle class to the rich.
Geithner is ripping off trillions right now as we speak and he’s not going through congress to get it. No one but Geithner knows how much or where it’s going. He’s a one man wrecking crew.
Even the left is worried about this crap:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/obamas-banking-rescue-o-f_b_180529.html
> Geithner is ripping off trillions right now as we speak and he’s not going through congress to get it. No one but Geithner knows how much or where it’s going. He’s a one man wrecking crew.
I don’t think thats the case. Geithner received a trillion (what a number!) as well as whatever was left over from TARP. Both funds got Congressional and Presidential approval (Bush and Obama). He is trying to negotiate (and bully) private investors to give him another trillion (sorry, but I can’t believe I am actually writing this number and its real!), but I think that too will require Congressional approval.
So far, I do not believe that Geithner has done anything without getting Congressional approval.
That does not make it good, and it does not mean that Geithner is not helping his friends in GS (he is), but he is doing this with full blessings of Congress and Obama.
> Even the left is worried about this crap:
That was my one hope about the Obama win - his administration could be so bad that it will finally bring the country together.
"Rasoul | March 30, 2009 6:15 AM EST How does one do a credible piece on this catastrophe and NOT even mention Fannie Mae, Barney Frank , Dodd and the HUGE Political contributions to Obama, Clinton, Dodd, et.al, from Fannie Mae? "
"To understand what happened to Fannie Mae and the Social Mission it was chrged with by Barny Frank and the Democrate Congress, is to understand the current issue with reality."
"Matt subsitutes cursing for facts, and reduces the article to just a leftoid rant. "
"Sorry I wasted my time reading it... "
"R."
1. The writer seems to have bought into the "if only we had more and better regulation this would never have happened" mindset. This is hopelessly naive, but about all we could expect from a pro big government liberal.
2. While he does shine a light on the role of the Fed in the various bailout ripoff schemes, he completely whiffs on the role the Fed played in creating the easy money that brought about the whole "irrationally exuberant" mindset that was at the foundation of the housing bubble.
Still, what a positive development that even the lefty press is starting to get some of this!
AIG has always been about Goldman.
Thanks for those links. They WILL be useful.
I’m reading the article. Interesting that the responsibility for the repeal of Glass-Steagal and other de-regulation in the 1990’s is placed solidly on Gramm’s shoulders with abosolutely no mention of the face BILL CLINTON signed it into law. Clinton, the hero of Democrats, could have easily vetoed it. To his credit, the author does admit (although we would “find it shocking”) that powerful Democrats voted for repeal of Glass-Steagal. In fact it passed the Senate 90-8 with then Democrat President, Bill Clinton, signing the bill. The author’s bias definitely shined through, but it was still a good article explaining how AIG and investment bankers got us into this mess.
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