If they had just let the market cleanse itself, and let the bad companies go bankrupt, instead of running around like lunatics with a different plan every day, would we be better off right now?
Methinks 'twas so.
Capitalism is messy, free markets are messy, but you need to trust them. Once you're banning short sales, closing down trading, propping up some companies while not propping up others, and rushing around trying to stop asset prices from falling, well, then this is what you get.
A disaster.
But now, here we are. Now we have a disaster. Because of a total and complete loss of confidence and trust.
Having Paulson, Bernanke and Bush running around for a year saying "subprime is contained", "the fundamentals are strong" and then a few days ago do a 180 and tell us the world is ending unless we cough up $700 billion within hours, well, that didn't do much for trust or confidence folks. At that point, they were exposed as liars at best or incompetent and clueless at worst.
When history writes the book, they'll find that our government got us into this problem by not properly regulating the financial affairs of the land, because they were corrupted by the REIC. And then our government accentuated this problem with its haphazard, scatter-shot, unpredictable, dishonest and panicked response.
Monkeys.
And people obviously don't trust monkeys.
The Government Is Contributing to the Panic - It's time to let markets do their messy work.
Despite all the hard work and good intentions on the part of our public officials, when economists and historians look back on the current financial crisis they are likely to conclude that government intervention prolonged and deepened it. In particular, officials at the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Treasury Department are to blame for publicly losing confidence in the very economic system they are supposed to protect.
The Fed, the Treasury and the SEC appear to be in a state of panic. A crisis mentality led the custodians of the U.S. capital markets publicly to jettison their lifelong commitments to the capital markets in favor of a series of short-term regulatory quick fixes. Even more troubling, for the past several months the doyens of U.S. fiscal and monetary policy have ignored the most fundamental principle of central banking, which is that the primary responsibility of central bankers is to promote stability and to maintain confidence in the capital markets. Our central bankers appear to have suddenly lost confidence both in their own abilities and in the standard tools of fiscal and monetary policy.
October 12, 2008
Did Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, George Bush and the monkeys in Congress crash the stock market and just make matters worse?
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Alright!
Who's in charge here?
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Ben Stein, who is normally an idiot, nails it this time:
How to Ruin the U.S. Economy
1) Have a fiscal policy that creates immense deficits in good times and bad, burdening America's posterity with staggering burdens of repaying the debt.
2) Eliminate regulation of Wall Street and/or fail to enforce the regulations that already exist, instead trusting Wall Street and other money managers and speculators to manage other people's money with few or no regulations and little oversight.
3) Have an energy policy that disallows producing our own energy and instead requires that we buy energy from abroad, thus making our oil prices highly volatile and creating large balance of payments deficits, lowering the value of the dollar and thus making the problem get progressively worse.
4) Have Congress mandate that banks and other financial entities lend money to persons they know in advance to have poor credit ratings or none at all.
5) Allow investment banks, insurers, and banks to bet their entire net worth and then some on the premise that borrowers known to be improvident will in fact repay those loans.
6) Allow the creation of large betting pools called "hedge funds" that can move markets and control the outcome of trading, thus taking a forum for savings and retirement for families and making it into a rigged casino game that exists primarily to fleece suckers like ordinary working men and women.
7) Have laws that protect corporate officers from being sued for misconduct but at the same time punish lawyers in the private sector who ferret out such misconduct and try to make accountable the people responsible for shareholder and investor losses. If one of those lawyers gets particularly aggressive in protecting stockholders, put him in prison.
8) Appoint as head of the United States Treasury Department a man whose whole life was spent on Wall Street, who became fantastically rich through his peddling of junk bonds at his firm while the firm later sold short those same sorts of bonds.
9) Scare Americans into putting up $750 billion of their hard earned money to bail out the billionaires and their friends who created the market for loans to poor credit risks (The "subprime" market) and the unbelievably large side bets on those loans, promising that such a bailout would save the retirement savings of Americans, then allow the immense hedge funds to make the market crater immediately afterwards.
10) Propose to save the situation by surtaxing the oil industry, which is owned by our fellow Americans, mostly in their retirement plans, thus penalizing Americans for investing in companies that efficiently and legally produce an indispensable product.
11) Insist that the free market requires that banks and insurers with friends of the Secretary of the Treasury be saved but allow other entities not so fortunate to fail, thus creating total uncertainty and terror among financial institutions, and demolishing all of the confidence built up in financial circles since the days of FDR.
12) Then have the Republican candidate say he would keep on the job the Treasury Secretary who facilitated the crisis, failed to protect the nation from the crisis, got the taxpayers to pony up to save his Wall Street buddies, and have the Democratic candidate, as noted, say he would save the day by taxing the stockholders of energy companies.
There, that should do it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/112984
We'll know by next week just how much damage they're monkeying around will do.
The G7 is useless, and besides, the problem cannot be dealt with at a global level since the damage varies from economy to economy.
It's every man for himself now - let's give a hand to Bush Co.
I wore my "Who Is John Galt?" shirt to the gym the other day and got into an interesting conversation with a bloke there, who said that John Galt has apparently left the building.
He mailed a copy of "Atlas Shrugged" to our congressman Campbell after his vote in favor of the $700B bailout. Campbell claims "Atlas Shrugged" as one of his influences, but his vote contradicts that.
Methinks every member of Congress who voted for the banker bailout really needs to read that book.
It's all by design. You people need to learn about the New World Order:
A History of the New World Order
It's nothing mysterious or crazy. It's just the fact that wealthy, powerful interests - the elite - are highly organized, highly paranoid and psychotic when it comes to protecting and elevating their power and wealth and they don't give a damn about the average joe. They see themselves as seperate from humanity, the masses and the "useless eaters".
America has to be brought down to be merged into Canada and Mexico and the global economic order.
That's what's going on.
Ignore the New World Order at your own peril.
Perhaps it's by design.
You can't stop a crash.
It's like trying to step in front of a freight train. The results will be messy.
I almost feel sorry for Bernanke and Paulson. They will go down in most histories as villains. It took all of us working together to make a mess this big.
US Hedge Funds start to learn how to use Yen Carry Trade and derivative market grew ->
Excess Global Liquidity from Yen Carry Trade created Asian market bubble ->
Long-Term Capital Management made mistake in derivative market ->
Asian market busted ->
US lower Interest Rate but did not lower enough to effect Yen Carry Trade ->
Excess Global Liquidity from Yen Carry Trade and Domestic Liquidity from lower US interest rate went to create the tech bubble ->
US Raise Interest rate ->
Tech Bubble Busted ->
US lower Interest Rate ->
Yen Carry Trade unwind and 9/11 ->
Dow Collapse, US Dollar Strengthen, Yen got weaker, crude oil price lowest point ->
Stronger US Dollar and weaker Yen gave chance for US to lower Interest Rate to one percent or enough to trigger a mortgage refinancing boom ->
US housing boom ->
For Re-Election President Bush and Treasury Snow announced Weaker US Dollar policy to get votes from northern manufacture that have lost allot of jobs from the stronger US Dollar policy ->
Euro and Yen Strength ->
Oil and Gold price raise ->
US raise Interest Rate recreating the Yen carry trade gap ->
2nd raise of Yen Carry Trade -> created more Hedge Funds ->
derivative (bond) market boom ->
Subprime Loans were developed from derivative market ->
US housing continue to boom ->
Yen Carry Trade raise again ->
Excess Global Liquidity create more derivative ->
Alt-A Loans were developed from derivative market ->
US housing boom again ->
Yen Carry Trade raise again ->
Excess Global Liquidity create more derivative ->
option ARM Loans were developed from derivative market ->
US housing bubble peak ->
Yen Carry Trade raise again ->
Excess Global Liquidity create more derivative ->
Housing market in developing countries started to benefits from Excess Global Liquidity ->
US foreclosure raise and Hedge Funds and speculators begged US Fed to lower interest rate, but Fed did not ->
US Dollar got stronger and Yen got weaker ->
Yen Carry Trade raise again ->
Excess Global Liquidity from Yen Carry Trade create more derivative ->
Excess Global Liquidity from Yen Carry Trade went into the Asian Stock Markets ->
Austria and new Zealand interest raise rate to contain inflation which weaken the Yen and created more Excess Global Liquidity from Yen Carry Trade ->
Speculators (Japanese housewives) got into Yen Carry Trade ->
Yen Carry Trade raise again -> Excess Global Liquidity create more derivative ->
Gold, Oil, Food, and developing countries house price boom ->
More speculators (Japanese housewives) got into Yen Carry Trade ->
House price in Japan start to boom ->
BOJ raise interest rate ->
first unwinding of Yen Carry Trade ->
subprime failures ->
US Dollar weaker ->
commodity market boom ->
more subprime failure ->
Bear Stern failed ->
TED Spread widen ->
Lower US Interest Rate ->
US Dollar tanks ->
Hedge Funds switch over to commodity market ->
commodity market bubble ->
Food and Gas Crisis ->
US consumers were effected by higher food and gas price and more people miss house payment ->
housing foreclosure raise ->
TED Spread Widen again ->
US Lower Interest Rate again ->
Yen Carry Trade Unwinds again ->
derivative market show weakness ->
Freddie and Fannie busted ->
US brokerage failure ->
Equity Markets drops ->
TED Spread Widen ->
US bank failure spread ->
Bailout plan passed ->
TED Spread Widen more ->
Lower US Interest Rate again ->
Yen Carry Trade Unwinds more exposing more bad derivatives ->
TED Spread Widen more ->
hedge funds failure spread as redemption came ->
equity markets tank ->
flight from safety made US Dollar stronger ->
Yen Carry Trade Unwinds more exposing more bad derivatives again ->
More hedge funds failure ->
Commodities market starting to fall ->
Yen Carry Trade Unwinds more exposing more bad derivatives ->
Yen get stronger as investor questions USD as reserve currency ->
Yen Carry Trade Unwinds more exposing more bad derivatives ->
TED Spread Widen more ->
All hope is on G7
‘This Makes No Sense’
Japan has little tie to America's toxic securities, but its market melted down anyway, as fear ran wild.
How could the Nikkei have plunged 24 percent in the course of the past week, the steepest decline in 59 years, when the Japanese aren't really involved in the whole global mortgage mess?
Japan has thus become perhaps the most striking victim of collateral damage in the credit crisis. Patrick Mohr, an equity strategist for Nikko Citigroup in Tokyo, cites figures showing that Japanese financial institutions account for a mere 2 percent of the $592 billion in credit-related write-offs worldwide in recent weeks, hardly reason to doubt the integrity of the system.
The United States remains a primary market for Japanese exports, so a slowdown there translates into harder times for the Japanese. Yet until last week those fears hadn't grown into panic. Kubota says that implied volatility of options on Japan's Nikkei stock average—the "fear gauge"— soared to levels far exceeding the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks or the Asian currency crisis in the late 1990s. "I've never seen it that high."
The yen has been rising partly because of the decline of the carry trade, in which traders borrow yen at ultralow Japanese interest rates and invest the money in higher-return markets elsewhere. Last week the carry trade caved in as investors bailed out of currencies like the Australian dollar, sending its value down by 30 percent, and rushed back to the security of the yen.
Long term, the crash in Tokyo could signal an even more fundamental realignment, says R. Taggart Murphy of Tsukuba University. "If over the long term this crisis means the end of American hegemony over global finance, and the end of the dollar's role as the primary international settlement and reserve currency, Japan will have to restructure its economy and its politics."
http://www.newsweek.com/
id/163580/page/2
Every economist agrees that the fundamental problem is that the banks don't trust each other because they don't know what is on each other's balance sheets. Coincidentally, the ONE THING that our government is not willing to do is to force the banks to open up their books.
The derivatives are the problem.
The derivatives are the problem.
The derivatives are the problem.
Please email your congressmen and tell them to open Citi's/BofA's/Morgan's balance sheet up, calculate the derivatives exposure, and determine whether or not they're worth saving.
Please do not let us throw $700BN at this only to have to throw another $3-4Trillion at it over the next 18 months as the default rate on other bonds skyrockets!!!!
And Henry Paulson, if you're listening, please start using the word DERIVATIVE when discussing the problem.
This is so totally corrupt!
I can't believe the monkeys brought forward a plan to buy $700 billion of crap paper from Saudi Arabia and China, got it crammed through Congress, and then days after it passed - THEY COMPLETELY JUNK THE PLAN AND DECIDE TO USE THE MONEY TO BUY UP THE BANKS
(which is what I thought would need to be done anyway)
Chickens. Heads cut off. Monkeys.
HP'ers, they truly have no idea what to do.
Be afraid.
But I do think nationalizing the banks globally is the only way out. The only way.
Get popcorn. And a gun.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008257397_econ12.html
Pre-crash McCain up by 5%
Post-crash Obama up by 5%
Hmmm I wonder who might have benefited from the crash and who might have had an interest in accelerating the crash?
1 word: SOROS
These people are self-serving egomaniacs, not economists.
What was Ben's thesis again? That if Hoover would have dropped money from a hot air balloon (they didn't have helicopters back then) on to the streets of New York that the Depression wouldn't have happened?
Hmmm. I'm thinking he was flat-out wrong!
There was no quick fix!
There isn't one now!
We need to hold elections, and let the new government take AT LEAST till the day of the inauguration to develop a LONG TERM course, then we set sail, ignoring the howls from the paid liars.
PS For those who say it's "by design", one can be malevolent and incompetent. Bush, Bernanke, Pelosi, and Paulson fit that bill to a tee.
There is also an amazing theory that claims that the elite use vaccines in a conspiracy to reduce the world's population; vaccines ARE THE REASON THAT THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE! DOPES!
Nigeria just had an explosion of polio after following Alex Jones style quackery.
So yes there are malevolent elites, but they have lost control of the situation.
I think it would be just as bad. The winners and losers would be different, that's all.
L'enfer c'est les autres.
Frank has morphed into an Ayn Rand/Andy Capp bobblehead.
It's getting strange around here!
You summed it up perfectly.
New World Order is on life support and nearly dead. It's overextended and being attacked from all sides.
Death by a thousand cuts...
Yes. Much Worse.
History will not be kind to these guilty treasonous people.
Bush, without any doubt, The Worst President Ever in History.
Ben Stein's list, posted by Keith, is pretty good. It omits a few items:
13. Allow the government-created duopoly in mortgage securities to grow unchecked until they were too big to fail.
14. Ignore the beginnings of the crisis in 2007 and issue platitudes about the soundness of the financial system, rather than work quietly to wind down the derivatives trade before panic arrived.
15. Refuse to change that one section in the bankruptcy code that forbids homedebtors from bifurcating their mortgages into secured and unsecured portions, forcing more and more people into foreclosure.
Yes. Ben Bernanke will go down in history as the worst one because he had the so called expertise in the Depression ere and did nothing to stop this one, the worst one in history. Instead he used his expertise to try and hide what was happening for the sake of the Bush administration's image. He gambled with the well-being of the country and world for the sake of partisan politics and lost. He will be remembered as the Hitler of economics!
Did Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, George Bush and the monkeys in Congress crash the stock market and just make matters worse?
------------------------------------
Yes. The Libertarian's idea of a perfect country is Mexico, where the vast majority is dirt poor, and a handful of rich people own everything.
Say hello to the Libertarian New World Order. The middle class will be wiped out.
i thought fannie and freddy were to enable affordable housing....not cheap loans????????????
coulda been more than a penny ante grifter.............
Anonymous said...
It's all by design. You people need to learn about the New World Order:
A History of the New World Order
It's nothing mysterious or crazy. It's just the fact that wealthy, powerful interests - the elite - are highly organized, highly paranoid and psychotic when it comes to protecting and elevating their power and wealth and they don't give a damn about the average joe. They see themselves as seperate from humanity, the masses and the "useless eaters".
America has to be brought down to be merged into Canada and Mexico and the global economic order.
That's what's going on.
Ignore the New World Order at your own peril.
October 12, 2008 7:51 AM
This writer above is totally correct, but the average American wont take the time to study up on the NWO topics. The plan they have is totally transparent to even the average reader whom is willing to review it with an open mind. There are zillions of hits on the net to search out on it. Is the Laker's Game more important than seeing where YOU are headed?
GOT NET?
Paulson's bailout strategy reeks of cover-up.
It's obvious all the big Wall Street 'players' are/were up to their necks in fraudulent activities.
Could it be that there is so much fraud involved that our Justice Department (SEC, FBI, etc.)is overwhelmed?
Should we give them the benefit of the doubt??
No way.
Our entire federal Justice Department should be investigated for malfeasance/collusion.
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