The Great Clash of '09

In the battle, lie with disinformation, as many of these folks have done.

YOU are such a Pink-o

YOU are such a Pink-o

Fincanal CEO scandels, including Madoff, are meer pennies on the dollar compared to the credit crisis mess that Freedie/Fannie created and ENCOURAGED.. The CEO(s) and Congressional oversight should be haled in front of the peoples court and held responsible. The whole program is joke when it backs loans for unrelable people who need 3 jobs to pay a mortgage they cant afford (when they cant even keep one job). The market will take what the regulations give them - EVERY TIME. The Fannie/Freddie CEOs, homosexual slob Franks and uber-tard Dobbs need to be exposed for the derilicts that they are. That kind of fre-market regulation we do not need, but pushing the agenda and blaming everything on the market takes the heat off the real murderers.

Democrats and their media whores want to blame private CEOs for everything. BUT ITS JUST A SMOKE SCREEN FOR A FALL GUY to blame the murder on. GOVERNMENT CAN'T FIX A PROBLEM IF THEY JUST COVER THEIR EARS, SHAKE THEIR HEADS AND GO "HAAAAA" when the problem POINTS DRIECTLY AT THEM.

The press is all over private ceos, but when unqualified big mouth congressmen screw up all the press says is they tried their best. And the political tards get re-elected!.

If thats the way we're going, then we going to get what we deserve. But fortunate people like me, wealthy politicians lawyers (we have too many of them), and a few construction unions will not be affected much - the middle class will, and the divide between the wealthy and middle class will grow in the next four years as a result.

Everybody jumped up and down after the election. I cant wait until the middle class get their calculators out and finally see how much their vote cost them compared to what they actually got. And thats only for people whoi kept their job. No credit means no growth folks- its as simple as that.

Like much of the recent proliferation of simplistic Chairperson-Born-saw-this-whole-thing-coming-but-everyone-prevented-her-from-stopping-it revisionist history, this story is OK as far as it goes but misses the most important points. Under the law in effect at the time, swaps and other "over-the-counter" derivatives would have been unenforceable if they were futures. But Chairperson Born's agency, the CFTC, had the authority to issue its Concept Release reaching to pull swaps onto her regulatory turf ONLY if they were futures. Thus the reasoning set forth in the Concept Release implied that trillions of dollars of contracts on the balance sheets of the worlds' biggest institutions were unenforceable. The very issuance of the Concept Release could be evidence of unenforceability in a lawsuit where a firm with a losing swap position tried get out of paying. If a judge had agreed that the swap was unenforceable, the entire system would have blown up around the world in a crisis that probably would have taken down even more institutions than the current one. That's WHYthe Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) was ultimately necessary -- because of the legal uncertainty created precisely by Chairperson Born's Concept Release. It may be true that the CFMA legalized swaps in a way that was too deregulatory, but even that has not been reported correctly. Under provisions inserted by the House Banking and Financial Service Committee, the CFMA allowed for multi-lateral clearing of swaps but required the clearing to be fully regulated by the Fed, SEC or CFTC. Had this been developed, then the collapse of a Lehman would not have damaged all of Lehman's trading counterparties. But for the first eight years of the CFMA paved the way for regulated clearing the regulators could never agree on who had the turf to regulate the clearing so it never happened -- until the end of 2008 after the worsening of current crisis when the Fed, SEC and CFTC have FINALLY entered into a "memorandum of understanding." Also, the CFMA gave the SEC anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority over credit default swaps based on debt securities. The SEC now claims manipulation in credit default swap trading but never used its CFMA authority when the crisis was looming.

In some other societies, a few hundred years ago, people who had utterly failed such as our political and economic leaders have, would have thrown themselves upon swords and suicided themselves as the honorable thing to do.

It's too bad we are not living in those times, and too bad we don't have any honorable leaders.

"Principles-based" regulation. Is this a joke? If so, it's a bad one. If those people who caused our financial crisis had any principles, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. Not only did they let the horse out of the barn, they had the fox guarding the hen house. As for the official with the Office of Thrift Supervision who helped IndyMac Bancorp, he should have been fired, not "reassigned." We definitely need strong regulation with specific rules which must be enforced.

Obama campaigned for Change. He needs to step up to the plate and act aggressively to set up rules to be followed. Change is what we need. Change that prevents this mess from ever occuring again.

I think strong and efficient regulation is key to our economic recovery. Why can't they keep it simple so that the average American taxpayer can understand where the bailout money is going, why we gave it to them and how are they spending it? Transparency is paramount and a team of people who really know about how money works and doesn't work should oversee each phase of these bailout programs. Also, the bailouts need not go on forever. The recipients of bailout money get one shot at recovering, restructuring their business, and showing return on the investment taxpayers made in them. After that, NO MORE! Do the people who make these decisions have any clue of how many American families are suffering behind their poor decisions? They seem so cold-hearted on TV at these hearings and totally unconcerned about the damage theyve caused to many American people. Yes! Main street has to take some responsibility, but just like the Madoff scheme, many of us got duped. We have to move on and hold ourselves responsible, accountable and concentrate on saving more of our finances. I do hope Americans will help each other, and give more to charities helping those unemployed.

I believe transparancy in the markets is the key to informed decisions by both investors and regulators. At present neither has any idea of the basis of value for the loans on a bank's books and default to "book value" or some other artificial accounting technique. Without more transparancy in the loan process there is no way to determnine the relative value of these enterprises. As a start, I suggest that he HUD -1 form used by all banks on residentail mortgages be a part of the public file. Merely elevate this document up to the status of a mortgage or Act of Sale in the closing process would give appraisers, investors, depositors, regulators, accountants, economists and other interested parties some idea of the value of the underlying properties. Appriasers are a big part of the problem and they would be required to address the reasonalbeness of the purchase price in their appraisal. A small step, but one that would go a long way to stopping the charades that are going on now.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."

Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
Here in Canada we have strict banking regulations and no sub-prime mortgages. Still, my RRSPs (same as your 401Ks) have taken a hit because my bank invested in your country. Years ago I read that the best way to make money was sweat equity. Create your wealth with the sweat of your own brow. If we went back to this principle and tried to live our lives thinking of "we" in stead of "me" we might do a lot better.

I think Our Countries leaders of govt ,should regulate ,or designate whom of such peoples , some type of system ,that each sate , of Co.'s , or Gov't ,or States ,see where the managerial , dept's designated, by their job, rank ,title, role ,
Three branches of Gov't right, the rights of old constitutions . i am neither Dem . or Rep. I am looking to peoples.
even monetary ,could have some type of a regulating ??? to help it ??stay well.in the black.
we are a diversified Country , so I do not think certain peoples faith ,influences myself , or others .
I think the world needs a lot of help. and our U.S. too.
Does our Country follow our avenues, to our own resources of everything .,before going abroad, are we needed to be at war everywhere ,if any fire of what weapons whom or where is going to stop.
whom is standing with our country ,do we help them, and do they help us, do our states help each other ???..
I call our home , crib a fort old ,I try to labor or do chores here , and I tell our family , I don't want to go anywhere, why you may ask.
because We are surrounded . I feel safer here than out there.
i care about my Country, and want things to get better , reform in our own Country. help in our own. We have our own troubles. here ..??
if we have a surplus of something do we trade. or sell. if a price is a bargain do we buy.
I ask myself something of these questions, a lot of the day, well good luck. from the heartland Wis. .
i don't belong to any group or org., I don't keep stocks, or such ,I keep things simple.
Good Day.

The response by leaders in the economic community to the failures and excesses by their colleagues is a lot like the response of the Catholic church to accusations of paedophilia among their priests. If the lay community hadn't stepped in, it would still be going on.
Likewise, unless shareholders invade the halls of Congress and demand our own bill of rights, and justice for the crimes commited upon us, there will be business as usual by the rulers of Wall Street. And the economic mess will never get fixed. Folks, it's really up to us now. We have to get in there and demand justice.

Anyone, who at this time listens to Rubin or Greenspan ought to have his head examined. They helped bring us to this crisis by their Friedman mentality that was exactly wrong for us to do. One of the biggest mistakes was the changing of the Glass-Stiegel Act. As a stockbroker who retired 4 years ago (Thank G-d), I can tell you that ever since Reaganomics was introduced in 1981, it has been a slippery slope down and will continue to be unless President Obama listens to the naysayers and not these idiots that got us into this mess. I admire Obama and have supported him from the beginning, but he needs to listen to the dissenters for the past 20 odd years, not the ones who went along because it was expedient to do so.

The bialout of Wall Street Banks who basically acomplish nothing except for making Wall Street Bankers rich was the lowest point in American History. If we the people can get our money back, I think things would turn around. Right now Americans are pi%%ed off.

Why not just get rid of the Federal Reserve and big finance and Wall St. completely? None of these people produce anything. They contribute nothing to the economy. In fact, they are a drain on the economy. Welfare for the rich. God bless America.