Posted on 10/10/2009 8:18:53 PM PDT by RobinMasters
William White predicted the approaching financial crisis years before 2007's subprime meltdown. But central bankers preferred to listen to his great rival Alan Greenspan instead, with devastating consequences for the global economy.
William White had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life after shedding his pinstriped suit and entering retirement.
White, a Canadian, worked for various central banks for 39 years, most recently serving as chief economist for the central bank for all central bankers, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.
Then, after 15 years in the world's most secretive gentlemen's club, White decided it was time to step down. The 66-year-old approached retirement in his adopted country the way a true Swiss national would. He took his money to the local bank, bought a piece of property in the Bernese Highlands and began building a chalet. There, in the mountains between cow pastures and ski resorts, he and his wife planned to relax and enjoy their retirement, and to live a peaceful existence punctuated only by the occasional vacation trip. That was the plan in June 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Ping.
Thanks for the post.
ping
Like a Greek tradgedy...
Thanks for post.
So did a guy with a sign on a street corner in downtown Detroit. Uncanny!
bttt
How much of all this misery was caused by a few in Congress and the Senate? Their pushing of low prime loans to those that could not afford them for housing along with their defenders ACORN and associated groups that pressured banks for those same loans...and hope to continue their efforts toward the same outcome I see...
Well, can the complete international banking failures be blames on just a few Congressmen with greedy ideals? Maybe Dodd, Rangel, and the gay guy (can’t remember his name).
That might actually be true... Their insistance of loans to those that could not afford them along with the push by ACORN and associates against banks created this mess. The banks then sold these assets (so to speak) to other banks and mortgage houses to make money themselves. Who is to blame?
Well, I would have to make our government to blame for the whole mess - international and all! They were the greedy ones who tried to force banks to make ill-backed loans which they later sold as “government backed” paper to financial institutions. Our own government is the cause of this major failure - not regulations as they would insist upon...
This is a great article! There were many people who were sounding the alarm about different aspects of meltdown.
Here is another link which is very lengthy and has numerous fascinating links within it. Amazing how far back the roots of this crisis go and how many people were ignored.
http://www.crashopedia.com/index.php/Main_Page
parsy, who hopes you enjoy
You are ignoring reality. Nobody was forcing these banks to do squat. They couldn’t write the loans fast enough. There were high fees, and they could money reselling them, and off the derivatives. The reason why this is important is that Congress is trying to some degree to fix things, and Wall Street would like nothing better than to stop them.
Heres a good link to a Wall Street guy who figured out the con game Wall Street was running:
parsy, who hopes you enjoy
Well, maybe you missed ACORN and associates outside of these banks protesting that they did not loan to minorities! Maybe you also missed that fact that Congress passed laws that focused on loans made to minorities and of course those that could not afford homes. Maybe you missed most of the last decade!
Yes, banks made the most of Governments “do it” programs so they could also make money - just who made that possible with low or no interest loans and forced loans to minorities regardless of credit ratings?
I doubt that you really looked into the cause of this crisis but rather took too many left leaning comments to heart.
If you really want to determine the cause, just find out how many of those loans that failed were because the individuals that got the loans were not qualified or were promised things that they did not qualify for.
Yes, if the government guarantees loans to individuals, most all banks will be happy to provide those loans...now if they fail - go the the government for help. That is what has happened with government guaranteed loans - same as those that Barny Frank has...
I was b*tching about bad loans back in 2001. I actually changed parties on March 15, 2001 and posted it on FR. But read the links I provided. Its a lot more than the simplistic “the banks twisted the poor widdle bank’s arm.” From Issa’a GOP report from house, CRA loans were never more than 3% of originations. The CRA fault seems to be that doc standards were first lowered with those loans, and the lenders were pleasantly surprised by low default rate. The default rate shot up thought when middle class and rich started getting loans. Not CRA ones. They had enough savvy to tell banks to “stuff it” when they got upside down.
Please read the links. Do you want one to Issa’a Report?
parsy, who has read up on this stuff
I really don’t need to read those kind of excuses again...yes, the banks and all capitalistic enterprises were to fault...but why is that? It was because the government made it a risk free enterprise! If you don’t understand that than I am wasting my breath. Fannie Mae and associated groups that were backed by government monies made all of that possible!!
4 am bump! ;-)
You’re not wrong. Government had a big role in it. But not just thru CRA alone. Gov’t also de-regulated some of the things that might have limited or prevented the meltdown. There is plenty of blame to go around and Wall Street is the bigger villain by far. You are cutting off a full understanding of the problem when you stop at gov’t.
parsy, who encourages you to read some of these things
Well, actually deregulation played a very small part! The major part of the problem was the simple fact that regulation was not actually DONE! Government usually has no decent (knowledgeable) people in charge of regulation so just how are they to perform their jobs! What, leave it to Congress - those idiots, especially when it involves economics!-—geez.
As to the Fed, FTC, and most other groups, just who do you think was qualified to regulate? Most were just biding their time and collecting their pensions.... Regulation for the most part is a JOKE!!
So...now that we know that government regulation is just a joke, how do we regulate rampant criminal activity? Well, I really don’t know - it is a major problem but I don’t see an easy solution. Politics is too corrupt to solve it - what is your answer?
By the way...those things were deregulated by “Barny Frank” so that those unfortunate individuals could buy houses without the necessary down payment or decent credit... Then he made sure to pass laws to insure that minorities could own houses without credit...
Re-set the regulations on Glass Steagall. Put derivatives on exchanges. Ban some outright. Set positions and limits on energy commodities. Set leveraging limits. Enforce consumer protections. Ease up on cram down laws to keep lending more real. Make bankruptcy easier. No more bailouts.
parsy, who would start there
Blaming Wall Street is like blaming the sharks for showing up when you go chumming for dolphins.
Well, sorry...don’t understand your statements - not exactly an economics major here.... Assuming that you are correct in your requests - just what will that gain us? With the political forces against all capitalist remedies..just how to you think that this could occur?
Actually, most of your regulations/limitations would not do so much to limit the problem as to qualify it to a limited degree. If you really wanted to prevent the run-away abuse of most of the problems - just make it a loss for those that participate in it - that is capitalism.
With housing problems, that means that those that lose money in the market actually lose their money...no government interference! The same with any and all stock market activity. Keep the GOVERNMENT OUT of BUSINESS! You might be surprised at the changes that occur...
Of course that means no GM interference, no Bank interference, no Mortgage interference, etc.... You would be surprised at the changes that might occur...
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