Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Posted on 06/16/2010 2:35:43 AM PDT by Scanian
Blanche Lincoln may represent Arkansas in the US Senate -- but given the pain she's trying to inflict on New York's financial sector, she might as well hail from London or Hong Kong.
With talks under way to reconcile House and Senate financial-reform bills, the powerful Agriculture Committee chairwoman is reportedly working overtime to resurrect a plan that would force banks to part ways with their lucrative derivatives-trading operations.
Which, in turn, would separate New York from a healthy chunk of its tax base -- and a whole lot of jobs.
Few would dispute, of course, that the market for credit derivatives -- complex bets about whether a company will default on its loans that were at the heart of the financial crisis -- needs reforming.
But both the House and Senate bills do that already -- by creating transparent marketplaces for the trades and requiring firms to put cash down before they bet.
Lincoln's proposal, by contrast, is nothing but thoughtless Wall Street-baiting.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
In Rush’s part of Florida , Palm Beach County , 67% of the county money invested for benefits and such for retiring city workers is invested in derivatives such as Mortgage Backed Securities , CDO’s and such ... The “morgage crisis” is no such thing ... it is a Wall Street Crisis that is being pushed down on all of us to pay ,, they committed fraud to the tune of $$TRILLIONS$$ with derivatives that ultimately are not secured ,, with ratings that were bought not earned and they created the bubble that is killing us by pouring money down on local banks , relieved of any worries about repayment because they were in actuality just originators collecting a fat fee.
No. Do you actually believe the politicians? THEY are the problem.
At its core the economic problems we are experiencing are the result of bad public policy advanced by Lincoln, Schumer and pretty well the entire political establishment - yes, Clinton, Cuomo, Bush etc.
If politicians would just leave markets alone and not try to force outcomes - like higher rates of home ownership - this crisis would not have happened. No Fannie/Freddie, no stupid low interest rates, no mortgage interest deductibility, etc. If we didn’t have all those distortions this crisis would never have happened. Those messed up market instruments you decry are the direct result of distortions caused by anti-market public policy.
Let’s go for smaller government, free markets, a flat tax, lower rate, lower attachment point, and remove all the deductions/perks - like the lower dividends capital gains rate.
It makes me ill to hear politicians try to scapegoat Wall Street - that’s very hypocritical. It also makes me even sicker when people actually believe the politicians.
Excellent point. And don’t forget Chris Dodd and Barney Frank... and the Community Redevelopment Act (CRA)... going all the way back to Jimmy Effing Carter.
And don’t forget the Republicans who joined Clinton in legalizing gambling (overriding state laws against unsecured betting in the financial markets).
Liberalism tried to kill Capitalism. The free markets were merely remarkably adroit and inventive in attempting to survive the idiocy of forcing banks to make bad loans to NINJAs (no income no job no assets). The fore mentioned liberal politicians are responsible for the world wide crash. Will any of them be punished? Not if the past is any guide. History shows that politicians who make the laws go scott free. CRIME PAYS IF YOU ARE IN POLITICS.
Another instance: Jamie Gorelick and the wall between CIA and FBI she and Clinton created resulting in the 911 attack. She gets herself put on the 911 commission! CRIME PAYS IF YOU ARE A LIBERAL POLITICIAN!
A large part of the price of gasoline is WALL STREET SPECULATORS. Absolutely nothing to do with supply, demand, production, distribution. Just GREED!
The bulk of the gas price goes to the Federal government through leases, corp taxes and gas taxes. The futures markets serve a purpose: producers can increase supply because they can hedge against price changes.
As we saw in the “flash crash”, speculators DO INDEED drive prices on stocks and commodities. Spot market prices have little or nothing to do with supply, demand, production, or distribution. The federal govt’s take is a constant. Not some variable to factor in on price speculation. The motive is greed on wall street, and the oil market should be closed to speculators. If you don’t own a refinery, you CAN’T buy oil. Or, to keep it a “free market”, if you buy oil, you MUST TAKE DELIVERY OF IT at your location. That would be the desk of some NY broker, most times. Nice and messy...
All true, but notice the effect works both ways, the speculator take might be a big part of the price one day and a net subsidy to the price some other day. How much money does Wall St make off of oil net? Why would that be any more than any other commodity? My only concern is if the futures markets are manipulated by the government for political reasons. E.g. the govt sends in their agents to bid up oil in advance of a vote on alternatives to make the alternatives seem cheaper. I can think of lots of other bad scenarios and no easy ways to stop them.
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