Posted on 04/06/2010 2:10:57 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Nobody held a gun to the Greeks head forcing them to go into debt they couldn't repay.
Don't like the terms of debt? Don't go into debt.
Jeez. A few thousand wasted words above.
Part and parcel of liberal fascism. Favored companies become looters.
I hope all the whizzes in our city and state government look at this story long and hard and educate themselves. Our rail system (Honolulu) will be a bigger boondoggle than their sewer system since it’s only “supposed” to cost $5 billion (!!!)
“Don’t like the terms of debt? Don’t go into debt.”
Hmmm, it’s a shame nobody told OUR FedGov that.
I think the article was predicting our future.
It's somehow preferable to shift the burden of this mountain of debt to the taxpayers, who are compelled to pay, than for this woman to find employment elsewhere?
The article is long on bleeding hearts and short on accountability.
Who's fault is the debt? Who has been spending more than they have?
It's somehow preferable to shift the burden of this mountain of debt to the taxpayers, who are compelled to pay, than for this woman to find employment elsewhere?
The article is long on bleeding hearts and short on accountability.
Who's fault is the debt? Who has been spending more than they have?
Sorry for the double-post... :-/
I agree but the point of the article is that public officials who didn’t understand finance were bribed to agree to loan arrangements that were very bad for their constituents.
Local governments need to use debt to finance major capital projects just as we need debt to finance ours, like homes. It is not feasible to tax people to pay in one or two years the cost of a major project, like a road or wastewater plant. Like it or not, wastewater plants are damned expensive things. And your average voter would scream if he were hit up for the costs on a “pay as you go” basis. Just like you wouldn’t want to live in a home you could only afford to pay cash for.
So you spread out the cost over a period of time less than the life expectancy of the asset. That’s responsible fiscal policy.
The point here is that predatory banks bribe the decision makers to sell out for personal gain. It is no longer an “arms-length” transaction where the public figure represents the borrower’s interests.Then everyone is “shocked” when it’s a crime.
I’d say some of the fault lies with citizens of Birmingham for electing a bunch of crooks. I’ll bet they were democrats.
You a nut. How can you read this and totally miss the whole point the way you do? You must be one of them Libertarians.
parsy, who is shaking his head.
Hey, I’ve been posting without reading the thread since 1998.
Why start now?
;-)
Stupid people getting fleeced. Had they not voted for the idiotic environmental project in the first place, they wouldn't be in this mess. It was "only" supposed to cost $250 million, like this is the first government project to suddenly cost way more than projected.
True, and who passed the law that created the Fed? Our wonderful intelligent Congress. All it needs to do is reverse the process. No more Fed. Chances of that happening, zero. Congress loves the perks, the power, the control and uncontrolled spending of other people’s money and with the blessing and help of the Fed.
Bribes aside, the bonds were insured. The insurance companies went bust. The county should have litigated at that point. The banks covered their liabilities through the swaps which are just a sort of insurance.
It all comes down to adequate reserves to cover liabilities. Heck JP Morgan took a $647 million hit without blinking.
yitbos
Absolutely no sympathy here!!!!
If you borrow money, pay it back or suffer!!!!!
Politicians lining their pockets while hanging taxpayers on the hook for billions. What’s new. This is yet another reason why we build prisons, and hopefully a lot of people went to one over this.
This is where I stopped reading. Apparently, corrupt and incompetent public officials made bad decisions with taxpayer money and it's the fault of JP Morgan. I could have stopped with the freely-engaged in stereotypes of dumb Southerners but here is where the main story ends. I'm just going to assume everything past this point is rank generic anti-corporate ranting.
You know what? There’s A LOT more to this than what your eye is seeing. These banks PRECISELY took advantage of small-town mentality and the tendency of some humans to turn on their greed switch - this was calculated, this was planned. Has nothing to do with borrowing more than you can afford to pay back.
These banks are looking to bankrupt (no not bankrupt...financialy annihilate) each and every state one-by-one so that TOTAL and complete servitude of the American people will be pledged to them even MORE than we are already.
Ever read “Confessions of an Economic Hitman?” It’s going on RIGHT HERE under our noses, not just in third world countries.
Oh, I apologize. You didn’t read the thread? I wasn’t aware you were a Congressman. What state do you represent?
parsy, who don’t want to get in trouble with Congress
Notice that Matt only mentions the party affiliation of 1 person in the entire article, an IL Republican, while leaving out the former Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party William Blount and the Dem Mayor and council members in Birmingham that went to prison. so should we assume that every politician Tiabbi writes about when he talks about cesspools of corruption is a Democrat unless specifically mentioned as otherwise?
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