tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6521847710874444875.post118521030273549659..comments2024-01-04T11:29:50.296-08:00Comments on THE WULFSHEAD: The Unreliability of the Media Assuring America's Ignorant Citizens Look Forward Fondly to their Trip to the PoorhouseNausicaahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10316597236758211957noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6521847710874444875.post-30452041403674980232010-01-15T08:07:05.357-08:002010-01-15T08:07:05.357-08:00The rack on which the BS is stored has an endless ...The rack on which the BS is stored has an endless supply.<br /><br />Read the Krugman. Sheila Blair and the head of the SEC were pretty much the same. Admitting there had been mistakes and there were problems but that we shouldn't get carried away.<br /><br />Obviously, they are attempting to (a) cover their asses, and (b) leave the way open for future profitable speculation. Wall Street is a place which never sleeps. Standing back and watching the passing scenery is an expression of failure. Wall Street operators thrive on developing new structured investment vehicles (SIVs) which is where they make their money and get ahead. This is a full time activity.<br /><br />It's all up the Congress and the President. If they don't rein in these wheeler dealers then we can expect more bubbles, more collapses, and, horrors, more public bailouts of these unscrupulous firms.Quintyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04353505559085634434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6521847710874444875.post-66913621597719521492010-01-15T03:06:30.927-08:002010-01-15T03:06:30.927-08:00Put down the glass a minute and take a look at som...Put down the glass a minute and take a look at some headlines. McClatchy will be pretty good in covering the hearings~~~<br /><br />On Wednesday "Goldman Sachs' chief acknowledged Wednesday that the investment bank engaged in 'improper' behavior in 2006 and 2007 when it made huge bets on a housing downturn while peddling as safe more than $40 billion in securities backed by risky U.S. home loans."<br /> <br />http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/82270.html<br /><br />And Paul Krugman, after it this morning~~~<br /><br />"The official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — the group that aims to hold a modern version of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, whose investigations set the stage for New Deal bank regulation — began taking testimony on Wednesday. In its first panel, the commission grilled four major financial-industry honchos. What did we learn?"<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15krugman.html?th&emc=thjazzologhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16647170784964378640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6521847710874444875.post-14202267252516501102010-01-14T16:27:11.656-08:002010-01-14T16:27:11.656-08:00Of course, we don't have to wait until Decembe...Of course, we don't have to wait until December.<br /><br />Will the Congress step in?<br /><br />They have had plenty of hearings. The CEOs appear and in a humble manner explain to the Congressmen that they, themselves, are only human. And sometimes make mistakes. And that there may have been a certain over exuberance on Wall Street. But that this is, after all, America, and dedicated innovation should be rewarded. We are not like the decadent and corrupt Communists, regulating everyones' lives.<br /><br />What's more, about the bonuses, do we want to see the best men and women leave the industry to go into other fields because they can be better rewarded? Especially in a time when they are greatly needed, in a time of crisis?<br /><br />Yes, the shelf on which the BS is stored has an endless supply. These guys may even tell themselves all this BS so often they may finally even believe it themselves. I bet they do. And nobody, after all, wants to be unAmerican. Certainly not in the Congress, at least. Where there are yokels back home who will vote them out if they offer even the least indication of a "socialist" or "anti American" mentality. Like not supporting the latest war..... but that is a digression.<br /><br />Damn that beer has got me going......Quintyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04353505559085634434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6521847710874444875.post-38860692382774567622010-01-14T16:06:05.095-08:002010-01-14T16:06:05.095-08:00The report is not due until December?
As Nomi Pri...The report is not due until December?<br /><br />As Nomi Prins tells us (she's my guru at this moment on such matters) it was not merely deregulation, it was not merely the ascendency of Reaganesque values, it was not merely a sleeping news media (most of us would have found this 'news' dull, and, what's more, most of us would probably have approved of such expressions of the American 'entrepreneural spirit) but a lapse of oversight on the part of the regulators. Who blinked even without the aid of Congress and the White House when the latter eliminated Glass Steagall and ermitted 30 to 1 leverage ratios and other regulatory failures. The regulators could have still stepped in to prevent the obscene mergers, which, according to Prins, allowed our savings, mortgages, and other assets, both valuable and worthless, to create the pyramids which finally imploded.<br /><br />Can we wait until December? The question may be naive, since the game on Wall Street has been, has always been, and will undoubtedly continue to be, to get rich as fast as you can. That's what it is all about. And so long as these wanton children are allowed to run free though the candy shop they will help themselves.<br /><br />I've met guys who have that sporting mentality, who love finance for the "game" it is. Money and power are one and the same to them. It's "making it" that's important to them. The money is simply their reward for climbing to the top of the heap. To them, it proves their worth.<br /><br />Listening to Obama and his "team," including those in Congress, is dispiriting, for they are beginning to fudge the facts in that classic optimistic manner politicians have always employed not to admit defeat. Shining the apple up so to speak. (Or, in modern corporate terms, waxing it.)<br /><br />During the campaign, you may say, Obama did much the same thing. Yes, but now it is the real thing: they are discussing everyday facts which touch you and me. <br /><br />If you dig, of course. Oh hell, is my beer empty? Please. Another one.Quintyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04353505559085634434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6521847710874444875.post-75936086442399247572010-01-14T08:25:12.055-08:002010-01-14T08:25:12.055-08:00I'm forever hopeful the strength of the republ...I'm forever hopeful the strength of the republic can fix even a mess of these gigantic proportions. It's been partytime since Reagan, and that's a long time...and the bastards running the really big global corps were ugly even then. Hearings have begun on the "financial crisis," how did it happen, and who did it. We'll see if anything comes of it...or if it will be, as yesterday, CEOs claiming just a few bad apples were to blame, and Gee, I don't know anybody like that. Report on it all not due until December!<br /><br />Media? Congress? Administration? The Bush courts? Who dares to be tough with these guys? They play for keeps. Maybe the Blackshirts are next.jazzologhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16647170784964378640noreply@blogger.com