Wall Street’s Unraveling

The Seven Deadly Sins seem to have been forgotten...GREED (Wall St.), PRIDE (US Government), LUST (Entertainment), GLUTTONY (just look around you), SLOTH (our welfare state... for those who give nothing back), WRATH (world religions pitted against each other... for God's sake), ENVY (look at ourselves).

We learn, we forget... we can only blame ourselves for the General Population's lack of interest in what REALLY happens in our world. We forget we are lucky enough to change anything... if we want, to direct our country's policies... if we want, to control the economy... if we want. The Common Will is the most power force in Society when it has direction and purpose.

We need both.

We're witnessing the true legacy of Ronny Raygunz and his clueless foot soldiers Bush and McCain. McCain has been part of the problem for 26 years and we cannot trust him to now change his wicked deregulatory ways and fix the mess he helped to create. Only Obama/Biden have the intelligence and honesty needed to guide our economy out of the mess the republicans have created!

Everyone, take a look on the bright side.

After we all go broke, there's nowhere left to fall. Your zero-based portfolio will beat the market handily.

After a certain threshold of us go broke, the obscene profits these guys are making will also be valued at roughly zero. At that point, we're all in the same boat.

And by "boat" I mean "roving mob of looters".

(Truthfully I'm not sure things will get anywhere near this bad, and the obscenity of the bonuses on Wall Street sickens me, but you also have to remember that these people spend lavishly, sometimes accumulate lots of debt on the idea that their fortunes will last forever, and tend to throw themselves out of windows when they become "ruined", that is to say, when they can only afford tri-tip for dinner instead of filet mignon.)

I am curious how CEO's and boardmembers can take the millions and millions in pay beacuse they know the most, yet when times get tough they can't keep to company up.

I have been reading comments of MSNBC internet users re what has been happening on Wall Street. I don't believe that most Americans (or these users, in any event) understand that what has happened on Wall Street will eventually affect their eonomic well-being, some sooner rather than later, unless mitigated. First, what has happened is the result of years of lack of reasonable regulation and rational oversight. Any marketplace must have rules and regulatons to prevent abuse and overreaching, to protect the market from inefficiencies arising from greed and self-interest. Second, government intervention is necessary to prevent the damage from spreading. It is not rewarding the bad guys for the government to do this; rather, it is ultimately protecting the fundamentals of our market-based economy that many view as "sound" a'la McCain. No market can long survive, however, without a sound financial structure in place controlling cash flow and credit. A sound financial market makes our economy sound. Should the bad guys behind this mess be punished? Without a doubt but let us first obtain stability in our financial sector before it implodes, dragging everything else down with it.

The local home builders and realtors and brokers are all partly to blame. They build home the average american can not afford. The realtors and the title companies and layers of there support staffs and the attorneys are also partly to blame. They all need to be regulated stricly at the local levels.

The local home builders and real estate brokers and agents all contributed to this crisis. They build Homes no one can afford and the realtors are just a guilty. Time to ban them for life, jail some and regulate them at the local level. America need affordable housing not over priced Mc-mansions.

Wall Street is failing mostly because they Repub's and Dem's deregulated it!!. The real problem is that when everything started to spike and continued in '03 & 04 when the Repub's held everything, they just played greedy and continued to look for the gold at the end of the rainbow. I'm only your average citizen, but only an idiot did not see this coming. The issue is they knew and DID NOTHING, AS USUAL!!
AND ANYONE WHO HAS TO ASK IF THE ECONOMY IS REALLY THAT BAD, IS ALSO AN IDIOT!! AND IF YOU CONTINUE TO THINK THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE, THEN YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING; SO YOU HAD BETTER BE CAREFUL AND WATCH IT!!!!

The 'voodoo' unregulated economics that has been the norm of the past 8 years has finally been exposed in a most resounding fashion given the latest announcements on AIG, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie mac, etc. Funny thing is, until less than 2 years ago, Sen. McCain was Chair of the Commerce committee that had oversight on the regulation of the banking and financial investment industries, he along with his buddy Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) did everything they could to deregulate such protections designed to protect the American people in order to allow their supporters to steal and gamble. Farewell to Bush/McCain/Palin, it has not been so nice knowing you as the chickens finally come home to roost!

Just to make sure things are accurate:

2008 contributions Obama - http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

2008 contributions McCain - http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?id=N00006424&cycle2=2008&goButt2.x=11&goButt2.y=7&goButt2=Submit

Career contributors Obama - http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00009638

Career contributors McCain - http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00006424&cycle=Career

Don't just parrot what your read on the news sites. Try doing some thought for yourself.

There is no miscalculation here - the Iraq war was deliberate and very very profitable. So has the Wall Street mess been and continues to be. After all, what do they have to lose when the taxpayers have to pick up the tab? Good ole' Republican greed credo at work

What miscalculation? The Iraq was deliberate and VERY PROFITABLE - so is the current mess on Wall Street. The equivalent of war profits nicely stowed away where the cops can't locate them and the courts cannot force restitution. Guys, there is nothing "mistaken" about all this - it is the Republican greed credo at work.

Yeah, because Wall Street has beeen dominated by the Republicans, who keep bailing it out while ignoring the plight of workers.