They made a hell of a lot of money from what amounted to hot air and now that the entire card house has collapsed the taxpayers are left holding the bag.
Pardon me for mixing metaphors and going populist, but I'm pissed!
Here's another thing to consider: We're now looking at $1 trillion dollar deficits in the coming years because of these bailouts, and that gives a potential President Obama and his rubber stamp Democratic congress carte blanche to raise taxes to the skies. If that doesn't sober us up nothing will.
Once upon a time H. Ross Perot heard a giant sucking sound. Now I hear a giant toilet bowl flushing on our economy and our whole gosh darned nation.
Post #12 - “This is interesting, but it doesn’t explain $60 trillion in credit default swaps. That’s more than the entire world’s GDP! That doesn’t even include the value of the mortgage backed securities and other asset based derivatives ginned up by Wall Street. [DING DING DING DING!!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!]
They made a hell of a lot of money from what amounted to hot air and now that the entire card house has collapsed the taxpayers are left holding the bag.” PRECISELY.
I apologize, I haven’t read the rest of the thread YET - and there’s a lot to say (and read) have a shoot to get to, but this is spot on!
I’ll post more later.