Posted on 01/26/2009 10:00:29 AM PST by BGHater
The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part.In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump,Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis
Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006
Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with star status, named the "oracle" and "the maestro".Now he is viewed as one of those most culpable for the crisis.He is blamed for allowing the housing bubble to develop as a result of his low interest rates and lack of regulation in mortgage lending.He backed sub-prime lending and urged homebuyers to swap fixed-rate mortgages for variable rate deals, which left borrowers unable to pay when interest rates rose.
For many years, Greenspan also defended the booming derivatives business, which barely existed when he took over the Fed, but which mushroomed from $100tn in 2002 to more than $500tn five years later.
Billionaires George Soros and Warren Buffett might have been extremely worried about these complex products - Soros avoided them because he didn't "really understand how they work" and Buffett famously described them as "financial weapons of mass destruction" - but Greenspan did all he could to protect the market from what he believed was unnecessary regulation. In 2003 he told the Senate banking committee: "Derivatives have been an extraordinarily useful vehicle to transfer risk from those who shouldn't be taking it to those who are willing to and are capable of doing so".
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Those who are pointing partisan fingers are playing into the Washingtonians' hands- if they at least can keep the people split along a partisan divide, they don't have to worry that the citizens will unite against the real enemy- the Wall St/Washington oligarchy that controls our country.
Vin f/k/a/ wegotsarah.
Greenspan doesn't escape blame -- you're correct that he could/should have tried to do something. But more than that: whether he was lucky or good, he basically led the Fed into the trap of believing that they could "manage the economy," with all of the perils that implies. And once he handed over to somebody who was not as lucky or good, problems would be almost inevitable.
uuummm... what?
I’m sorry, bad wording. What I meant to say is that even a gay person, looking at the picture, would probably feel sick.
Soros was the master manipulator (IMHO). Makes me a skeptical cynic as well..
It is indeed up to the SEC and Congress to regulate them. But their appetite for risk, especially in the face of these idiotic computer models of risk, was fed by Greenspan’s backstopping them for the EXACT same failure in ‘98.
You’re right that Greenspan doesn’t escape blame - I blame Greenspan the most for setting an expectation of bailing out funds that take idiotic levels of risk.
Bernanke, if he had any market experience, would have told the Street that a) he isn’t Greenspan, b) that means he isn’t going to backstop the i-banks for their idiotic appetite for risk, c) because their portfolios had become far, far bigger than LTCM’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros
Currency speculation
On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros became immediately famous when he sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the Bank of England’s reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency.
Finally, the Bank of England was forced to withdraw the currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue the pound sterling, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed “the man who broke the Bank of England.”
The Times of Monday, October 26, 1992, quoted Soros as saying: “Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell.”
According to Steven Drobny,[15] Stanley Druckenmiller, who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. “Soros’ contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position,” in accord with Druckenmiller’s own research and instincts.
In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish ASEAN for welcoming Myanmar as a member.
Insider trading conviction
In 1988, he was asked to join a takeover attempt of the French bank Société Générale. He declined to participate in the bid but did later buy a number of shares in the company. French authorities began an investigation in 1989, and in 2002 a French court ruled that it was insider trading as defined under French securities laws and fined him $2 million, which was the amount that he made using the insider information.
Punitive damages were not sought because of the delay in bringing the case to trial. Soros denied any wrongdoing and said news of the takeover was public knowledge.[17]
His insider trading conviction was upheld by the highest court in France on June 14, 2006.[18] In December, 2006 he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that the 14-year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing.[
I am looking for the date when he became a naturalized citizen....
Liz, thank you for the info excepts you’ve provided here!
Punitive damages were not sought because of the delay in bringing the case to trial. Soros denied any wrongdoing and said news of the takeover was public knowledge.[17]
His insider trading conviction was upheld by the highest court in France on June 14, 2006.[18] In December, 2006 he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that the 14-year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing.
This is what I am not getting....if Soros was convicted of insider trading in France, a conviction upheld by the highest court in France in 2006, are there any restrictions on what he can do in the US financial market?
Especially with statements such as this:“America, under Bush, is a danger to the world,” Soros told Laura Blumenfeld of the Washington Post. “Then he smiled,” she wrote, “’And I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.’” [FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, November 13, 2003 ]
Um, they do put blame on Clinton, CRA, Dodd (although they skip of Frank), and irresponsible borrowers.
You’re very welcome.
Congress’ Financial Mess
Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
http://townhall.com/Common/PrintPage.aspx?g=a756db7f-c982-4a19-affa-49fbb4cd2558&t=c
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