The Monster That Ate Wall Street

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  • Posted By: fu2bush @ 09/28/2008 8:31:10 PM

    Why do the so called free press lie 2 us and cover for them. Our free press is free propaganda

  • Posted By: jdoez1 @ 09/28/2008 8:30:58 PM

    not true angryvoter. notice where the majority of this mess started...the sub-prime market. primarily made of those with terrible credit and as such, mostly poor people. these are the people the democrats protect. everyone seem to forget clinton putting forth legislation to force banks to provide loans to very risky buyers b/c it would be illegal and discrimination if they didn't. in 2005, the pubs tried to put a stop to this but the dems refused. see the linke below:
    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/09/25/fox-news-blames-democrats-financial-crisis-bill-clinton-agrees




    i

  • Posted By: pol.nut @ 09/28/2008 8:30:15 PM

    Funny, isn't it? Thousands of words written by thousands of 'experts' to explain something that can be explained in just three words...Too much credit.
    You can dress this up a million ways if you like but it all comes back to that same basic problem.
    50 years ago someone came up with the biggest con game ever foisted on an unsuspecting public, all designed with the sole purpose of increasing commerce and making a lot of companies and banks alike rich, the companies got expanded trade and the banks got the credit charges.
    But it was all built on a foundation of sand, a plan that ignored the most basic truth in life no matter who you are.. If you spend more than you earn,sooner or later, you will go bankrupt, no matter how you play with the figures.

  • Posted By: mpinsc @ 09/28/2008 8:29:02 PM

    Check out Phil Gramm, John McCain's economic adviser, if you want to get an idea of which candidate might better be able to navigate us out of this mess:
    *** Gramm was responsible for the ???Commodity Futures Modernization Act??? in 2000, which unleashed risky new investment instruments (which Warren Buffett called ???financial weapons of mass destruction???) that led to the Bear Stearns bailout and the current epidemic of mortgage foreclosures.
    *** Enron CEO Ken Lay was chair of Phil Gramm???s 1992 re-election campaign to the US Senate. Gramm???s wife was a director of Enron from 1993 to 2001.

    Check out: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html, or research this guy for yourself.

  • Posted By: mpinsc @ 09/28/2008 8:25:28 PM

    Take a look at Phil Gramm (John McCain's economic adviser) if you want to get a sense of which candidate might better navigate us through this mess.
    ** Gramm was responsible for the ???Commodity Futures Modernization Act??? in 2000, which unleashed risky new investment instruments (which Warren Buffett called ???financial weapons of mass destruction???) that led to the Bear Stearns bailout and the current epidemic of mortgage foreclosures.
    ** Enron CEO Ken Lay was chair of Phil Gramm???s 1992 re-election campaign to the US Senate. Gramm???s wife was a director of Enron from 1993 to 2001.
    ** Gramm co-authored Reagan???s first budget, which drastically cut Social Security benefits.

    Check out:
    http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
    or just do some research for yourself on Mr. Gramm's background.

  • Posted By: fu2bush @ 09/28/2008 8:21:41 PM

    You did not explain how these companies lobbyiest paid our representatives to change laws so this could happen and look the other way while it went down.

  • Posted By: angryvoter2008 @ 09/28/2008 8:20:56 PM

    Let's get real. The deregulation that was originally signed by Clinton was pushed and sponsored by Republicans in a heavily Republican congress. The vote on the deregulation was such that there would've been no chance for any presidential veto. Period. The anti-regulation Republicans are the cause of this problem and their cronies in office are still tied to the old dead idea of "let the market economies be free to expand and invest without oversight" Their mantra is that all those good old boys will be successful and that success will trickle down to the common man on the street by supplying jobs and investment capital to expand. How's that working out? They don't care about the common man on the street, they care about continuing their greed mongering ways to advance their own agenda. Bush is blamed because he's the king of these morons who think that letting the fox guard the henhouse is a good idea. Bush's misguided policies on Iraq and his inability to understand anything as it relates to economics has put us further in debt and has contributed to our current status. Just as the magician's helper distracts from the reality of the magician, Bush's policies on Iraq have distracted us from oversight of our financial institutions and now we have to pay the piper. Face the music. Republicans pushed for this deregulation in the 90's, voted it into law overwhelmingly and now one of the main architects of the legislation is an advisor to McCain. As Auditman666 accurately states, greed rules our economic structure and while there are those in congress who are getting paid by lobbyists to push their agendas on both sides of the aisle, someone will always find a loophole or vote new legislation to further that greed and we as consumers will always be left holding the bag. We also have to take the blame for voting these morons into office.

  • Posted By: Christian_Democrat @ 09/28/2008 3:08:31 PM

    Why doesn't anyone stop to think that we have lost a sensible definition for "bad loans." Thirty years ago a bad loan was one that was not going to be repaid, and smart bankers with common sense who understood people made the call. Now, a bad loan is one that is some number of days past due, a computer makes the call, and banks lose millions of dollars calling in loans that would be paid if they would wait. Government now wants to RAISE the level of oversight . . . in other words, authoritative control. Not the right answer. If bankers had more control right now, we'd have fewer problems.

    • Posted By: MTR1973 @ 09/28/2008 8:20:09 PM

      What exactly are they supposed to wait for? The person who holds the loan to double their salary to where it should have been before they even considered home ownership to begin with? The millions of other mortgagees who 'just need a little more time?' SCALE. This collapse didn't occur because of a few bad loans, or even a few hundred. It was hundreds of thousands of bad loans, entered into by greedy parties on both sides of the equation - homeowners who were -knowingly- extending themselves well beyond their means and lenders who took short-term profits over long-term fiscal reality/responsiblity.

      When you couple a greedy home buyer who wants to lease a lifestyle that they cannoy afford with a bank who wants to originate as much business as possible, disaster is imminent. Unfortunately, d-day arrived and took down several financial institutions (and hundreds of thousands of mortgage holders) all at once. Both tried to take a shortcut to success and wound up going over the cliff. Now the rest of us (people/companies who did NOT try and do a cash-grab) are going to have to pay the bill.

    • Posted By: markci @ 09/28/2008 3:18:00 PM

      *** If bankers had more control right now, we'd have fewer problems. ***

      Bankers have all the control they need; who do you think installed the computer programs? Nobody forced them to make any loans at gunpoint. It was pure greed on the bankers part.

      I guess it would be great if we could go back to borrowing money from the First National Bank of Hickville on main street, right next to the barber shop, then stop off at the ice cream parlor for a sasparilla afterwards. But we can't.

      • Posted By: Christian_Democrat @ 09/28/2008 7:19:50 PM

        I am neither stupid nor old-fashioned. Why the sarcasm? Are you incapable of civil debate, or of accepting opinions other than your own?

  • Posted By: fu2bush @ 09/28/2008 8:18:16 PM

    U didn't explain how Lobbyist for these companies paid our representatives to change laws so this could happen and look the other way while this was going on..

  • Posted By: pearsoncrz @ 09/28/2008 5:09:11 PM

    In 2005, for the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill, S. 190, was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets. If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0



    In support of S 190, also known as the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, John McCain said: "For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay."

    http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16

    Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 would have Amended the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 to establish: (1) in lieu of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an independent Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Agency which shall have authority over the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac); and (2) the Federal Housing Enterprise Board.
    Most importantly with regard to the CDS situation, S. 190 set forth operating, administrative, and regulatory provisions respecting: (1) assessment authority; (2) authority to limit nonmission-related assets; (3) minimum and critical capital levels; (4) risk-based capital test; (5) capital classifications and undercapitalized enterprises; (6) enforcement actions and penalties; (7) golden parachutes; and (8) reporting. Adoption of these regulatory provisions would have undoubtably affected the way CDSs were dealt with in "private" enterprises.
    The bill would have also amended the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to establish the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation., and transfered the functions of the Office of Finance of the Federal Home Loan Banks to such Corporation. If this had been in place three years ago, this whole situation might have been averted.

    http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190&tab=summary

    • Posted By: MTR1973 @ 09/28/2008 5:43:41 PM

      Great oversimplification of the politics surronding said bill - but since specifics don't matter, I'll keep my question high level: if John McCain is such a party-line-busting maverick with the ability to work so successfully with both Republicans and Democrats, why wasn't he able to get it through at a time when his own party had majorities in both Congress and the Senate?

      • Posted By: pearsoncrz @ 09/28/2008 6:52:36 PM

        It takes more than a simple majority. The democrats blocked it because they were in bed with Fannie and Freddy.

        And it was more than simply putting these agencies under one umbrella. Please note the minimum capital levels, capital classifications, limits on golden parachutes, and enhanced reporting, exactly the same provisions the bill in front of our representatives proposes.

        • Posted By: MTR1973 @ 09/28/2008 8:14:12 PM

          What? It's more complex than just ONE THING? <sarcasm intended>

      • Posted By: pearsoncrz @ 09/28/2008 6:50:21 PM

        Because the democrats were in bed with Fannie and Freddy

    • Posted By: bkghd @ 09/28/2008 5:47:00 PM

      There have for years been Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHLMC regulators. The S.190 bill was to do little more than bring them all under the a new umbrella regulatory entity.

  • Posted By: dissapointed and abused @ 09/28/2008 8:12:50 PM

    ffrom what your article said, with others i have read it would seem that the ultra greedy bankers such as the afore mentioned jp morgan's conspiracy to remove the need for cash reserves to protect themselves, and it apears us as well from bad loans. also to get the insurance companies involved so they could get their piece of the pie they spent many millions of dollars for lobiests to loby congress to remove the road blocks that were keeping the insurance comanies out of the motgage business. The bill that made this possible was signed by none other than good old Billy Clinton himself. President Bush's people should have been watching this unfold, but even if they had and they may have been, It is much more difficult to get the cat back into the bag once it has been let out. Then we have the unscrupulous motgage brokers who inflated prices with fraudulent appraisals and sold houses to people who could not make the payments because they didn'f have the income to do so. Foolish people wo took out adjustable rate motgages, thinking the housing prices would continue to go up indefiitly, and they would be able to refinance at better rate inthe future. Follish people who bought too much hiouse, the went and fbought too much car, rmaybe, even worse, TWO of them. So as I see it, there is plenty of greed and responsibility to go around, I for one would like to see the CEOs of all ciomanies such as Freddie Mac and Fannie may stripped of their golden parachute rewards for their greed and incompetence.

  • Posted By: borg-unimatrix-negative 1 @ 09/28/2008 8:12:46 PM

    While i am your fan forever, i say you're in trouble, US! you can't keep on playin' with just money and not catch the fire. There are 3 things you need to do and if you don't in 10 years ahead, well...You gotta have a real industry merged with global industry (not just Big 3 but Big 6 or 10) and be competitive in the world; have real global alternative energy efficiencies because others are superior; and have real land objectives in outer space to optimize the beneficial impulse of exploration. And you can't allow the "other huge centralization" - Wall Street or the CDS - to dupe you into becoming the floundering mega insurer of them all.






  • Posted By: bobdoc1 @ 09/28/2008 8:09:05 PM

    The seminal cause of this mess occured when Barney Frank forced Fanny and Freddy to buy sub-prime loans.Greenspan and McCain warned them of the dangers of this expansion but Frank just belittled Greenspan as an alarmist. Way to go Barney

  • Posted By: bobdoc1 @ 09/28/2008 8:05:42 PM

    The seminal event for all the mess was BARNEY FRANK et.al. who forced Fanny and Freddy to buy sub-prime mortgages and make sure"any one could afford a home.Greenspan and McCain warned against it but Barney mocked Greenspan and told him not to worry. Yeah right.

  • Posted By: palaceplace @ 09/28/2008 8:04:17 PM

    cds's didn't cause the crises. giving mortgage loans to itinerant immigrants without jobs and then giving them additional loans as house prices kept rising did. the democrats will now piss away 2 TRILLION $$$ , that's right 2 TRILLION, to bail out people that had no right to own a home.
    the innocent victims will be the honest hard working american family that put a down payment on a home and have never missed a payment. why? because they won't have a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Posted By: PutTheLotionInTheBasket @ 09/28/2008 3:26:56 PM

    Because of a liberal run Congress and ACORN, lenders were forced to make 1 low income, nothing down-loan for every 7 normal loans they made. Those ACORN loans are the ones that have gone belly up. And yet, those same liberal Dimocrats just tried to force an add-on to the current bill giving ACORN 20% of all monies recouped on seven billion. Every Dimocrat congressman involved should be tried for treason and imprisoned.

    • Posted By: Liberal Lady @ 09/28/2008 3:42:00 PM

      Make no mistake, this mess happened on Republican watch. The Democrats haven't had the power long enough or in enough numbers to influence anything. No, this is the GOP all the way.

      • Posted By: pearsoncrz @ 09/28/2008 3:49:01 PM

        The democrats have had two years to figure out that this was going to be a huge problem, and it was Democrats who insisted that homebuilders build for and lend to individuals who were not credit-worthy.

        The simple truth is that not everyone should own a home. It is a huge investment that ties up assets that might be better used to further your education and training, or the education and training of your children. It also limits your mobility, your ability to go where the work is, where the best paid jobs are.

        • Posted By: muffinb @ 09/28/2008 8:03:52 PM

          Even if the Dems had 2 years to figure it out, what were they supposed to do with a 1 vote advantage, depending on how Liberman voted. And Bush with his Veto pen in hand. Answer me that my man.

    • Posted By: jarcher1 @ 09/28/2008 3:38:32 PM

      ACORN is it now? Must be the new black helicopters bringing in UN troops for the right wing wacko contingent. Will the loons never cease finding new librul subversives. Here's their website if anybody is interested in who they might be: http://www.acorn.org/

  • Posted By: IWantToRetire @ 09/28/2008 8:02:05 PM

    This stuff is hilarious. Is this thing set up for political nut cases to vent their spleen and share their favorite conspiracy theory that blames the folks they don't like and exonerates those they do? You people make me sick. There is greed, and idiocy and corruption both corporate and political enough to go around. Blaming the other seems to be the favorite sport these days. We are all in the same boat, folks. Grab an oar, or a bail bucket, and help. I planned to retire at the end of the year, and I see my personal hopes and dreams melting down with the economy. What we are seeing is the deconstruction of new financial instruments in an unregulated environment. It is amazing that anyone in the insurance industry would take on unlimited risk for limited premiums, beyond any hope that the available capital reserves could cover the risk being undertaken. Human greed has always needed regulation, moral and legal. The derivatives market served a vital purpose. Save it. Regulate it for the benefit of all of us.

  • Posted By: EastonInformer @ 09/28/2008 8:00:46 PM

    Do Some Research -

    Youtube video form the time of Frank Raines tenure at Fannie Mae at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

    Youtube from a few days ago - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEWCnpNnBQ&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnZMGDG4k4&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n5dKztd96k&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2ufbJb30M&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63siCHvuGFg&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ky_-r5E7ak&feature=related

  • Posted By: EastonInformer @ 09/28/2008 7:57:49 PM

    You need to do some research. President Bush and many Republicans tried to institute reforms, but the Dems fought them. Do some research - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEWCnpNnQ&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnZMGDG4k4&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n5dKztd96k&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2ufbJb30M&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63siCHvuGFg&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ky_-r5E7ak&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o&feature=related


  • Posted By: Auditman666 @ 09/28/2008 7:57:17 PM

    Invest in the tried and true. It may be vanilla/boring and will provide reasonable but not record returns, but will do so consistently over time. In the meantime, it won't feed the invesment banker greed.

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