Posted on 02/02/2009 12:41:18 AM PST by Tempest
The basic story line so far is that we are all to blame, including homeowners who bit off more than they could chew, lenders who wrote absurd adjustable-rate mortgages, and greedy investment bankers.
Credit derivatives also figure heavily in the plot. Apologists say that these became so complicated that even Wall Street couldn't understand them and that they created "an unacceptable level of risk." Then these blowhards tell us that the bailout will pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the credit arteries and save the patient, which is the world's financial system. It will take time—maybe a year or so—but if everyone hangs in there, we'll be all right. No structural damage has been done, and all's well that ends well.
Sorry, but that's drivel. In fact, what we are living through is the worst financial scandal in history. It dwarfs 1929, Ponzi's scheme, Teapot Dome, the South Sea Bubble, tulip bulbs, you name it. Bernie Madoff? He's peanuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at villagevoice.com ...
No one knows how much could be clawed back from the soiled derivatives reap. Clearly, it's not $600 trillion. William Bergman, formerly a market analyst at the Chicago Fed in "netting"—what's left after financial institutions pay each other off for ongoing deals and debts—makes a "guess" that perhaps only 5 percent could be recouped, which he concedes is unfortunately low. Still, that's $30 trillion, a huge number, more than 10 times what the Fed can deploy and over twice the U.S. gross domestic product. Such a sum, if recovered through the criminal justice process, could ease the liquidity crisis and actually get the credit arteries flowing.
This clown actually thinks $600 trillion has changed hands? He thinks someone made $600 trillion that we need to "take back"? LOL!
The confusion over these issues would be funny, if it wasn't so sad.
You might note that Bloomberg verified this figure and yes $500 to $600 trillion is involved. Personally, I would like to get back as much as possible using the Enron laws and see these bastids who caused this jailed.
You're absolutely right that policies are having a horrid effect, and they pile on other stuff such as the fading rule of law by having a tax cheat as Treasury Secretary. That said, let's not forget that the American people are a lot more powerful than rag-headed foreigners are able to comprehend, and Obama's a lot less powerful than he'd like us to believe.
I see our nation prevailing much sooner than most peoples expect.
I might also note that the economy should have been protected...but of course was not as important as the trillions involved in these schemes to the traders and our government. What really burns me is we bailed out the POS’s who caused this, and they are still in place waiting to drop another H bomb on our economy. At the very least...top management must be fired from bailed out banks...hopefully, they will soon need the best lawyers they can find.
What really triggered the great depression was the fact that the day Wall Street crashed, everyone panicked. And because most peoples financial status was solvent and most people had savings, they all made runs on the banks to draw out their savings, so they could keep them safe from harm.
But the Banks had loaned their money out, and then closed their doors over night because they went broke. Countless people lost every dime they thought they once had. And there
was no such thing as deposit insurance.
I realize you hate Wall Street, but it was not Wall Street that caused either meltdown, they were simply the trigger that set off the bigger explosion in both cases.
Protectionism is the very WORST thing that could happen to us right now. Free Trade is our best asset, not the opposite as you claim.
This also explains the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street...during times of higher unemployment...like parts of the 90’s. Wall Street was just moving on up...of course they were...they were going to win no matter what...American didn’t need to prosper anymore. How lovely, they found a way to minimize the normal market cycles and maximize their profits. The traders basically helped the street get a divorce from the economy.
Which bastards knew exactly what they were doing? The guys at Bear Stearns? The guys at Lehman? The guys at AIG? Maybe Merrill? Please, take a deep breath and try to understand how wrong you are.
Bloomberg verified that $500 trillion changed hands? Where?
So you are admitting they don’t know what they are doing?
4l8r
Any stimulus that begins with pointing a gun at our collective heads to stealing our money and hand that portion of our lives to some other person or company is most certainly flawed. Y'all can put that in you GWB pipe and smoke it too.
The banks involved were trading securities so yes it was the same bad apples...probably related to our bad apples (Grandsons?)... laws were changed so banks could not longer do this...of course most of those laws have been repealed and here is the result...a bankrupt nation and world. Yes I hate Wall Street and those who caused this including our government.
I see protectionism differently. These Wall Street games- as the author noted- had to do with mitigating the effect of bad trade deals on Wall Street. They knew the trade policies would cause job loss so hedged their bets...bet against this country. As for trade barriers, every country but us has some form of a trade barrier...there is no such thing as free trade. We need to renegotiate ever trade agreement so that it benefits American...not China, Europe, Korea, Japan. We give out trade goodies to those nations we like...trade is too important to be used as a political tool.
You must have forgot to bring your tinfoil cap.
You see, it is a “Globalist” plot to enslave the masses and steal the peeples money for a one-world form of government.
(The Illuminati of course and the Bushes, and the 500 trillion dollar heist.)
You think these guys who lost hundreds of billions of dollars were intentionally crashing the world economy so they could “cash in” their CDS and they lost money anyway?
Read the entire article...also look back it’s in one of the posts.
I would say some knew...others just saw profits...it doesn’t matter, they did what they did. We need to have criminal charges and jail time for those who we can prove acted illegally...restitution must be made...if we can take a drug dealer’s house away before conviction (which I never thought was right)...we should be able to get some of our money back.
Thanks for admitting your error so quickly.
We need to have criminal charges and jail time for those who we can prove acted illegally...restitution must be made
For sure. Now if you can explain why trading a CDS was illegal......
OK, and unemployment is 40% in Kenya. So I'll agree with you that people do badly when they buy into Obama's doom'n'gloom, and you can agree with actual worker headcounts that unemployment's lower now in the US than it was during the Clinton Economic Nirvana.
You really do know very little about this works.
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