Posted on 11/06/2011 4:01:51 AM PST by Clive
Conservative columnist Michael Taube recently criticized me and other fiscal conservatives for expressing some sympathy for the Occupy Wall St. movement and its Toronto offshoot.
He wrote in the Ottawa Citizen he was puzzled why Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney (now heading the G20 Financial Stability Fund), the Fraser Institute’s Mark Milke and Conrad Black, have not been totally dismissive of the “Occupy” protesters.
Speaking for myself, here’s why:
I support the protesters for correctly identifying Wall St. as the scene of a massive heist of global wealth, jobs and homes that started with the subprime mortgage securities crisis of 2008 and continues to this day.
As a result, tens of millions of people world-wide have lost trillions of dollars in their pensions and life savings — including in Canada — along with their jobs and homes.
Most are hard-working, law-abiding, citizens, who pay their taxes, never signed for mortgages they couldn’t afford (given they didn’t expect to lose their jobs in a global economic meltdown) and have never demonstrated in the streets or occupied a park.
As a fiscal conservative, I believe in free markets and the rule of law, not fraud markets and crony capitalism, in which profits are privatized and losses socialized.
That’s what happened in the 2008 global economic crash, where the worst damage wasn’t caused by the subprime scandal itself, but by the global credit freeze it led to because banks no longer trusted each other’s assets.
That not one senior Wall St. executive has been charged, let alone imprisoned, as a result of their companies’ misrepresenting the true nature of the subprime mortgage securities they peddled to institutional investors globally is a disgrace.
The fact they bet against their own investors without telling them — and indeed, privately mocked them — is a disgrace.
The fact credit rating agencies in the pay of Wall St. graded junk subprime mortgage securities as Triple A safe investments, is a disgrace.
The fact most Republican and Democratic politicians don’t want any criminal trials arising out of this scandal is a disgrace.
The reason they don’t want them is that would shine a light on the billions of dollars they accepted in campaign contributions and other favours from the financial services sector, in return for gutting the regulatory safeguards on that industry which led to the ’08 crash.
The fact these banks were bailed out of the financial destruction they caused with hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars is a disgrace.
The fact they are being allowed to walk away from what they did by paying insignificant corporate fines (compared to profits), negotiated by an emasculated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with no one being held personally responsible for what happened, or even having to admit wrongdoing — is a disgrace.
Worst of all, because the Wall St. banks that survived ’08 are now bigger than ever — so big the government decreed they were “too big to fail” via the bailout — there is every reason to believe they will do what they did again.
Not only have they escaped any “moral hazard” for their actions, they had their huge bonuses paid for by taxpayers.
The fact Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other — Democrats by accusing Republicans of caving into Wall St., Republicans by accusing Democrats of forcing banks to extend mortgages to people who couldn’t pay them back — is another disgrace.
The reality is both parties and their presidential candidates, happily allowed themselves to be bought by the U.S. financial services sector in the years leading up to the crash.
The reality is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the two U.S. government-sponsored mortgage underwriting agencies — walked away with paying minor fines (relative to their assets) for massive accounting manipulation.
And the fact is fraud is fraud, whether it’s done by a welfare queen or a bank. But when it’s done by a bank, it does a lot more damage.
Yes, the Occupy protesters may be naïve, misguided, troublemaking, freeloading, commies and hippies, in cahoots with professional left-wing agitators and public sector unions.
I certainly don’t want them occupying a public park in downtown Toronto all winter.
But they didn’t cause the global economic devastation we’ve been experiencing since 08.
And the real disgrace is the people who did, got away with it.
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Government’s fault - not Wall Street’s fault.
Great article. Thanks for posting. There is certainly alot of blame to go around and while we line up against each other the bad guys get to ride off into the sunset.
It’s not just a disgrace, it’s criminal!
Why aren’t they camping outside Barney Frank’s house. I would camp there with them.
Why arent hey camping outside the Capitol, where the Congress can use “insider information” to become rich while it being perfectly legal for them.
Why aren’t they camping outside Bill Clinton’s home he is the one who loosened up bank loans for people who could not afford the loans.
Why aren’t they outside the White House which has spent or shared 3 trillion dollars of stimulus money and not created one job with it.They have paid off the Unions though.
Perhaps Wall Street is a part of he problem, but the greatest part of the problem is politicians who are more worried about getting elected than in doing what is right.
And these very protesters are the same ones who will vote again for the POS they helped elect the last election.
The government is individuals. Individuals should be held to blame. Everyone knows the Democrat leaders Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are to blame for leading the party down the road to doom.
The punishment should be far more than prison. Heads should roll and be posted at the city gates on pikes
I find myself agreeing with much of this article...except the starting date of 2008 for the crisis....it goes back much further than that.
And he nails it with this comment...
“As a fiscal conservative, I believe in free markets and the rule of law, not fraud markets and crony capitalism, in which profits are privatized and losses socialized.”
Crony-Journalism is at least half the problem.
Occupy is a warm up. Things are only going to get worse.
And, IMO, who is POTUS won’t matter. Unless they truly draw a line in the sand.
The last POTUS to draw a line in the sand got his head blown off in Dallas.
"The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud."
--Hosea 12:7
The writer of this article is a disgrace.
When government sets forth laws that attack free market principles and create an environment whereas it is obvious that investors are being robbed by political activists with the help of Congress it is then a disgrace to blame those who simply are trying to use the best possible stradegy legally to protect their investments as being the cause of the problem.
The author of the article claims to be a conservative but comes off as either a liar or as extrmemly ignorant.
Basically this author is upset that investors on Wall Street didnt do their best to make the crony capitalism sheme created by ACORN and Congress work better.
This author would be happier if the democrats financial systems were still in place and blames Wall Street for not finding better ways to prop it up.
This author is a disgrace.
BTTT
The more freedom these institutions had, the more problems they caused and the media likes to conveniently overlook the fact that the scumbag politicians are more responsible for these ills then anyone.
Then top it off by the fact that the whole movement has been hijacked by Commmunists and you have a recipe for disaster. Stupidity and Communists made for a real bad combination.
Then government is just as much to blame, if not more so.
impimp wrote: “Government’s fault - not Wall Street’s fault.”
.....I rather view this as a team effort. Wall Street is no innocent in this debacle. We have today the the best government money can buy; our government has been bought by Wall Street, is more or less controlled by the financial elite, and, judging from the immense financial benefits derived, probably stands as one of the best investment Wall Street every made by Wall Street.
What line did Kennedy draw?
The only one I remember is when he forced the Soviet ships back from Cuba. Ships that wouldn’t have been there in the first place if he hadn’t caused the problem, by chickening out at the Bay of Pigs.
Businesses can hardly commit fraud for long in a free market. To truly rob people, you must use force - the gun, if you will. Government is the gun. Unscrupulous men are always drawn to illicit power.
So we have a government of unscrupulous men being bought by unscrupulous men in business. We must disarm our government, then businessmen will have to go back to being honest to get ahead.
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