How We Got Financial Disaster: A Tale Of Democrat Lies And Deceit

Start Thinking Right ^ | February 12, 2009 | Michael Eden

[KC Burke]

Michael,

As Tomas points out there are issues like credit default swaps, changes to Banking regulations for insurance-like vehicles to allow banks to hedge bad investing, commodities standards of trading altered by the Gramm Banking committee and vastly changed rules in shorting, hedge fund operation and arbitrage operations.

I would love to see the focus put on the history of this finacial disaster because the primary blame is on socialist policy and corruption. A secondary role has to lie with finacial interest largely assisted by Republicans.

Like the old movie line goes of the lawyer talking his client into being forthright in his testimony goes: “You have to be crucified, before you can be resurrected.” We have to be honest that outside of traditional conservatism lies a group riding in the side car that chants free-markets, free-markets at every road juncture and they have played a role. We might as well include discussing that secondary role if we want conservatism to be properly understood.

Conservatism since its first recognition in the era of Burke realized the value of what we inherited in western civilization and knew that change was necessary for the preservation of society and that cultural inheritance. They knew that this change MUST be careful small empirical reform to avoid destructive revolution rationalistic change. With conservatism adhering to the inherited role of Property and Free Exchange we are often found riding in the same bus with Free Marketeers who care little for careful reform with empirical testing and trial.

Empirical knowledge of the effects of careful reform allows for the bad effects of wholesale change to be mitigated and oftern avoided. Men can rely upon their property, their interest and their decisions because they know, under a conservative system, that in the future the rules won’t change so much as to steal from them by arbitrary power under careful reform.

We all have seen (Hernando DeSota, The Mystery of Capital) that in countries outside the western europeon and American model Free Markets alone don’t bring prosperity. Only with the full culture of settled Property Rights and settled law can property be brought into action as capital.

To correct the failure and expose the corruption we must take those short sighted gross ideologues that hitched a ride on our Virtues and expose them along with the corruption and mechanics of the leftists.

I included Dave in this response as perhaps he can shed some light on wholesale rule changes to short selling, or other systems, that were brought about in too sudden a manner so as to produce a fertile climate for instability

[KC Burke]

Good to see you over on the other thread. This article and the position I hold in #21 might benefit from your opinion as well. I know my take won’t be wildly popular.

[proudmilitarymrs]

Thanks so much Mr. Eden for your kind words. Please keep the information coming.

Freegards,

mrs

[TomasUSMC]

About shorting. Wow, has that changed. It used to be you had to be lent a stock, sell it, buy it back and give it back. Now...
..you can just buy a TRIPLE LEVERAGED BEAR ETF. Thats it.

FAZ FAS are two examples. Folks making mucho dinero on the down days too. Today FAZ is up around 9 percent. It Crazy.

And we have a weak President being buffeted by economic advisors that are scaring him into doing singing and dancing the very way they want. I'd like to know what those advisors were saying in 2007.

And the real trouble is that the world leaders are going to try the same tactics against US.

[Michael Eden]

I’m presuming you’re speaking of the Gramm-Leach-Bailey Act which essential repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. Basically, the repeal allowed banks/bank holding companies to own other financial companies and increase their rich (and, of course, increase their risks).

A couple of things: first of all, President Clinton signed it, so you can’t JUST attribute it to Republicans. And second, that act in and of itself didn’t create any disasters, but were in the mix of a LOT of things that all contributed.

But, your basic point is correct. Republicans did a lot of screwing up. They abandoned their conservative principles. The BIGGEST example? As the size of government and government debt increased, Pres. Bush never vetoed a single spending bill while Repubs were in charge.

Your understanding of The Mystery of Capital needs a caveat: that capitalism by itself does not transform a society/culture. Rather, capitalism - a product and invention of Christianity - depends on a particular moral worldview in order to function. As we become less and less religious and less and less moral (i.e. less and less ‘Protestant work ethic,’) you can expect to see capitalism reveal its failings. Right now, it is no longer Christianity, but Darwinism, which is prevailing. And therefore you can expect to see “social Darwinism” creating disasters of greed, predation, and abuse. And since we do not seem willing to return to our Christian heritage, I would expect these issues to become more and more of a problem.

As a society becomes less moral and religious, it requires more and more oppressive laws/regulations to keep the people in check.

Our founding fathers understood this crucial point:

“We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
- John Adams

“…And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion…reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
- George Washington, Farewell Address, Sept 17, 1796

“Religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness.”
- Samuel Adams, Letter to John Trumbull, October 16, 1778

“The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor…and this alone, that renders us invincible.”
- Patrick Henry, Letter to Archibald Blair, January 8, 1789

“Without morals, a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”
- Charles Carroll (signer of the Constitution), Letter to James McHenry,November 4, 1800

“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God.”
- Life of Gouverneur Morris, Vol III

“Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity…in short of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.“
- Samuel Adams, Letter to John Adams, October 4, 1790

“In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes, and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government. That is, the universal
education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible.”
- Benjamin Rush, “A Defense of the Use of the Bible as a School Book”, 1798

“In my view, the Christian Religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed…no truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian Religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
- Noah Webster, Reply to David McClure, Oct. 25, 1836

“Information to those who would remove (or move) to America”: “To this may be truly added, that serious Religion under its various Denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practised. Atheism is unknown there, Infidelity rare & secret, so that Persons may live to a great Age in that Country without having their Piety shock’d by meeting with either an Atheist or an Infidel. And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his Approbation of the mutual Forbearance and Kindness with which the different Sects treat each other, by the remarkable Prosperity with which he has been pleased to favour the whole Country.”
- Ben Franklin, 1787 pamphlet to Europeans

“Independent of its connection with human destiny hereafter, the fate of republican government is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian religion, and a people who reject its holy faith will find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions and of arbitrary power.”
- Lewis Cass, A Brigadier-General in the War of 1812, Governor of the Michigan Territory, a Secretary of War, a Senator, a Secretary of State. The State of Michigan placed his statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports…In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens…”
- George Washington, Farewell Address, Sept 17, 1796

“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”
- John Adams, Letter of June 21, 1776

True conservatism demands true religion. We cannot have the freedoms that conservatives wish to have without the constraining bonds of morality which is produced by religion and by nothing else.

[Michael Eden]

I was in the Army infantry once myself. But I’m too old and busted to fight on the battlefield now.

So I have a new weapon (writing) and a new battlefield (the world of politics, religion, and worldview) to fight upon.

Thank you for your encouragement!

[Michael Eden]

“I said to my husband as we watched Glenn that I am beginning to think that a lot of the pork put into this bill was designed to draw all the attention so that the real socialist stuff in there would get lost in all the outrage over the spending.”

I’ve really appreciated Beck’s program since he’s come to Fox from CNN. And I think he nailed that analysis.

[VA Voter]

ping

[IronJack]

Conservatives have often been accused of resisting change. I usually respond that they don't so much resist change as they embrace tradition. Tradition, by its very definition, is established, and has a track record against which its success or failure can be measured. Change, by its very definition, does not. Every change is a risk, and the degree of risk is proportionate to the extent of the change (either in breadth or quality).

Radical change proposes radical risk. So smaller, verifiable, manageable change is valuable. Convulsive change is nothing but disruptive, even if it eventually subsides into a worthwhile endeavor.

In the case of Obama's socialism, first of all, there is really no change there. It is simply the retreaded (and thoroughly discredited) marxism of the past. Secondly, it is convulsive in that America has long been a model of free enterprise. Only since FDR has the socialization process begun in earnest, and the resulting corruption of the free market has contributed more to its failure than any inherent flaws in free market economics.

The basis of free market capitalism is untrammeled control of private property (i.e., capital). Where that becomes regulated, in any degree, the rules of free market capitalism become compromised and the resulting mutation is neither free nor market-driven. And, in accordance with Gramscian dialectics, the resulting problems can then be "solved" with the application of more socialism.

[Jvette]

Yea, it’s nice to be able to watch him without feeling dirty:)

[Michael Eden]

I also watch Lou Dobbs from time to time.

He hated Bush, but a bunch of his reasons were valid (e.g. the Bush failure on Illegal Immigration).

And every once in a while I watch Anderson Cooper.

But it’s nice to see Glen Beck on Fox. I just wish he came on at 7pm PST.

[TomasUSMC]

From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123449113017080599.html?mod=rss_US_News

Derivatives Oversight Spurs House Turf Battle ..................................................................................................

The House agriculture committee bill dropped a provision that would have banned market participants from trading in credit-default swaps unless they had a position in the underlying security. The provision on so-called naked credit-default swaps was widely criticized by Wall Street groups.

The bill does give the CFTC the authority under certain circumstances to suspend trading in naked credit-default swaps after conferring with the president. It would also require the CFTC to set limits on the size of positions taken on nonfinancial commodities.