The Great Clash of '09

The New York Times,trying to establish themselves as Obaman footsoldiers,wrote an article in the Monday edition so excreable in its revisionism in the past two presidencies roles bearing upon regulation that it is currently being beat up on by everybody from the liberal SLATE,to FORBES and BLOOMBERG ,to INVESTORS-BUSINESS DAILY ,as it confines its revisionism-by-culprits solely to the Bush administration,which is garbage,as any thinking person would have observed.
Key in the failures of the mortgage end of the meltdown was the Community Reinvestment Act, a Clinton-era vehicle championed by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who now sit as key players in guiding further congressional regulatory policies. It was to these that portfolio regulation at FANNIE and FREDDIE,and more importantly,the means to discern borrower ability to maintain payment,was tossed out the window by Frank and Dodd. The insanity of allowing signature home loans to people who did not even have wage verification oversight by F and F and FHA banks was one of the fast crumbling foundations that soon brought the whole edifice down
Worse,is the looming spectre of Rubinomics Redux,as Obama now places Bob Rubin back in the saddle and several of the old-guard Clinton cronies who were at the heart of the original 1990s mess that included the repeal of GLASS-STEAGALL,backed by long-gone GOP senator Gramm of Texas,but most forcefully championed by Rubin,who is again in government. Obama is now being hit by both sides in the Rubin fray. By fiscal conservatives,as well as the far left.[DAILY KOS for instance,wrote a scathing editorial warning Obama to ditch Rubin post haste,as did TRUTHOUT and DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND].
Obama must move immediately to rein in slipshod F and F and FHA practices. FDIC-backed transactions within-national and international banking systems must be not only brought under oversight and regulation,but scrutinized to observe the flow of terrorism monies through the overseas banks,with each member nation creating a sort of INTERPOL for banking institutions,warning of currency gaming,illegal stock transfers and their dividends ,criminal enterprises, and an overdependance on ''free money''. Merkel gets kudos for trying here.

Let's see if I understand this.

Born, a woman, "sought comment from different government agencies on how best to regulate derivatives." A Rubin champion says, "her proposal should not have been shot down so abruptly, and that "everybody kind of exploded at her." "

Then we have Merkel, another woman, who proposed that "international banks supply authorities with more information about their transactions. She "got her head handed to her by Bush and [then-British Chancellor] Gordon Brown and Paulson," says former IMF chief economist Ken Rogoff."

Reminds me of another famous woman, Cassandra, who had the power of prophesy, a gift from Apollo. But when she didn't return his love, he cursed her: she would keep her gift, but no one would believe her; she was forever doomed to tell the future knowing she would be scorned and rejected.

Got to hand it to the Ancient Greeks - they sure understood human nature.

Greenspan also has a new, if belated, understanding of human nature: he states he is shocked that the financial industry was not able to regulate itself.

It seems prudent in the coming days to keep the most fundamental of ideas about the nature of humans firmly in mind, from the venerable Murphy - whatever can go wrong, will, at the most inconvenient time. It seems equally prudent that we go out of our way to make sure the naysayers, the doubters, the pessimists, and the outsiders have a seat at the table.

And finally, although the Obama financial team includes the top 'minds' and the 'most respected' names in the financial business, too many of them were at the table during the Clinton and/or Bush regimes - common sense would say that if they haven't renounced their old ways - like Greenspan has - they will be doomed to repeat them.

Or maybe, we just need more women at the table, like Born and Merkel. And Cassandra.

When you have banks refusing to tell Congress just how the bail out money is being spent, and banking CEO's getting 1.8 billion dollars worth of perks, the very idea of any regulation won't go over well at all. Why should it when you have congressional quislings who lack the backbone to stand up for the rights of investors, and home owners and who cave in to the demands of the powerful banking lobby. They walk away with millions, and we walk away with our dreams destroyed, homes foreclosed, savings and retirement wiped out, dancing to the tune of financial pied pipers who have led us on a road to recievership and ruin. Re-regulation cannot come soon enough.

The Republican (and some Democrats) manipulated a global market melt-down....now we have a mess that's going to take a very long time to fix. The coming Administration knows the steps that must be taken, but are the citizens of our Country willing to bare the pain before the money markets are turned around? Let's hope the healing begins quickly.

It's way past time to rein in the criminal money changers as we've now seen how deregulation only allows the criminal element to screw everything up for the rest of us. The repugnant ones only want to allow criminals to steal all they can get away with without anyone being the wiser because no one is minding the store. This whole credit derivative garbage is nothing but a fancy new term for junk bonds. and we know what happened over 25 years ago with them. I'm so glad that Obama is coming in to clean up the mess that the bushwhacker and "Herman Munster" Paulson made along with "Criminal Lover" Greenspan. Just look at how the repugnant ones made sure that the big banking criminals who brought about this mess didn't ahve any strings attached to our bailout money so they can keep on paying themselves huge bonuses they don't deserve.