The real threat to America

[Chris]

The Other Plot to Wreck America
By FRANK RICH
January 9, 2010

THERE may not be a person in America without a strong opinion about what coulda, shoulda been done to prevent the underwear bomber from boarding that Christmas flight to Detroit. In the years since 9/11, we’ve all become counterterrorists. But in the 16 months since that other calamity in downtown New York — the crash precipitated by the 9/15 failure of Lehman Brothers — most of us are still ignorant about what Warren Buffett called the “financial weapons of mass destruction” that wrecked our economy. Fluent as we are in Al Qaeda and body scanners, when it comes to synthetic C.D.O.’s and credit-default swaps, not so much.

What we don’t know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a more devastating scale than any Qaeda attack. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the Amsterdam airport. And without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks — secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/opinion/10rich.html

 

[Lost Soul]

The Other Plot to Wreck America
By FRANK RICH
January 9, 2010

THERE may not be a person in America without a strong opinion about what coulda, shoulda been done to prevent the underwear bomber from boarding that Christmas flight to Detroit. In the years since 9/11, we’ve all become counterterrorists. But in the 16 months since that other calamity in downtown New York — the crash precipitated by the 9/15 failure of Lehman Brothers — most of us are still ignorant about what Warren Buffett called the “financial weapons of mass destruction” that wrecked our economy. Fluent as we are in Al Qaeda and body scanners, when it comes to synthetic C.D.O.’s and credit-default swaps, not so much.

What we don’t know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a more devastating scale than any Qaeda attack. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the Amsterdam airport. And without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks — secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Other Plot to Wreck America - NYTimes.com

Finger points right to Clinton, Dobbs and mostly Franks.

 

[kyzr]

Obama got the most payola from Fannie & Freddie. I'm still waiting to see how they split up AIG and the other "too big to fail" corporations. Then again, the Feds made money bailing out the banks. I'd rather that the Feds stop a corporation from "capturing" a federal agency like the SEC. When Bernie Madoff brags about being the next SEC head, there is something wrong with the system.

IMHO we need to stop derivatives & options and other non-capital raising casino devices. We need the SEC to only allow long-term capital raising instruments that create US jobs. "Globalism" and the "Service Economy Hoax" are killing the US middle class.

 

[garyd]

Sorry no what is killing the American mddle class is too much government. Every one in this country -if he lives long enough will draw a some point in time in his life -most likely several - a government check.

nearly 20% of us work for state federal and local governments, another 5 to 10% are on welfare and another 10 to 15% of us are on social security. That is a minimum of 45% of us currenly drawing a government check, that means 55% of us are carrying the water for the other 45%. Something has to give and increasingly what is giving is the middle class standard of living which increasingly requires more and more money to obtain.

 

[Contumacious]

The real threat to America

1- The Demopublicans
2- The warmongers and military interventionists
3- The parasites


.

 

[kyzr]

Sorry what is killing the American middle class is too much government. Everyone in this country -if he lives long enough- will draw at some point in his life -most likely several - a government check.

nearly 20% of us work for state federal and local governments, another 5 to 10% are on welfare and another 10 to 15% of us are on social security. That is a minimum of 45% of us currenly drawing a government check, that means 55% of us are carrying the water for the other 45%. Something has to give and increasingly what is giving is the middle class standard of living which increasingly requires more and more money to obtain.

Totally agree. Only the 15% in SS/Medicare already paid for those services.

We need government employees to start being in SS & Medicare instead of guaranteed/separate Cadillac publicly funded entitlements.

 

[Chris]

The Other Plot to Wreck America
By FRANK RICH
January 9, 2010

THERE may not be a person in America without a strong opinion about what coulda, shoulda been done to prevent the underwear bomber from boarding that Christmas flight to Detroit. In the years since 9/11, we’ve all become counterterrorists. But in the 16 months since that other calamity in downtown New York — the crash precipitated by the 9/15 failure of Lehman Brothers — most of us are still ignorant about what Warren Buffett called the “financial weapons of mass destruction” that wrecked our economy. Fluent as we are in Al Qaeda and body scanners, when it comes to synthetic C.D.O.’s and credit-default swaps, not so much.

What we don’t know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a more devastating scale than any Qaeda attack. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the Amsterdam airport. And without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks — secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Other Plot to Wreck America - NYTimes.com

Finger points right to Clinton, Dobbs and mostly Franks.

Wrong.

Phil Gramm is the one who snuck an amendment into a spending bill on the day before Christmas recess deregulating the financial industry.

Can't you get anything right?

 

[Chris]

Obama to correct Phil Gramm's costly mistake on derivatives - DailyFinance

 

[kyzr]

Obama to correct Phil Gramm's costly mistake on derivatives - DailyFinance

Strange bedfellows. Clinton was the one who started the mess by pushing for mortgages to the unqualified.
Bill Clinton's drive to increase homeownership went way too far - BusinessWeek

Real cause of the subprime mortgage crisis

FrontPage Magazine - They Gave Your Mortgage to a Less Qualified Minority

If Gramm screwed-up the derivatives, that makes it more non-partisan. Although, I think the CDOs & CDSs were a more severe condition to the banks like Lehman, and the derivatives did-in AIG until the bailout. I'd eliminate derivatives all together. Like Buffett said, derivatives aren't "evil" but they are dangerous.

 

[Harry Dresden]

The real threat to America

1- The Demopublicans
2- The warmongers and military interventionists
3- The parasites
4- the people who think like Chris


.

i put the fourth one in you forgot.....

 

[garyd]

Chris again the derivatives markets were never unregulated. The problem is everyone on both sides decided for one reason or the other to game this one to some extent. And the SEC failed to provide due dilagence.

 

[Chris]

Obama to correct Phil Gramm's costly mistake on derivatives - DailyFinance

Strange bedfellows. Clinton was the one who started the mess by pushing for mortgages to the unqualified.
Bill Clinton's drive to increase homeownership went way too far - BusinessWeek

Real cause of the subprime mortgage crisis

FrontPage Magazine - They Gave Your Mortgage to a Less Qualified Minority

If Gramm screwed-up the derivatives, that makes it more non-partisan. Although, I think the CDOs & CDSs were a more severe condition to the banks like Lehman, and the derivatives did-in AIG until the bailout. I'd eliminate derivatives all together. Like Buffett said, derivatives aren't "evil" but they are dangerous.

Let's get this straight. It wasn't the mortgages that brought down the economy.

Only 6% of the mortgages were in default.

It was a $516 TRILLION DOLLAR derivative bubble.

It was the derivatives, not the mortgages.

 

[The Rabbi]

As usual you post ignorant rantings.
A 6% mortgage default rate is phenomenal. I remember when people got nervous because FNMA loans approached a default rate of over 1%.

 

[editec]

Totally agree.

Islamic terrorism is minor rash on the body politic of this nation.

Our career criminal banking establisment is a cancerous parsite.

 

[California Girl]

Totally agree.

Islamic terrorism is minor rash on the body politic of this nation.

Our career criminal banking establisment is a cancerous parsite.

Banks are businesses, not charities. There is plenty of blame to go around and certainly the banks carry a share of it, along with our politicians and the American people. Anyone who spent more than they could afford to pay back and everyone who bought a house they could not afford to pay for.

Key words: Personal Responsibility.

No back employee held a gun to anyone's head and forced them into debt.

 

[uscitizen]

Personal responsibility???? Now that is a real hoot.

Thanks for starting off my Monday with a big laugh.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Personal responsibility???? Now that is a real hoot.

Thanks for starting off my Monday with a big laugh.

why?......just askin....