Here’s the list of 10 things wrong with the economy. Read the article for details on each.
What’s the line from Battlestar Galactica (and Peter Pan, oddly enough): “All of this has happened before and will happen again.”
1. We are learning the wrong lessons from the last one.
2. No one has been punished.
3. The incentives remain crooked.
4. The referees are corrupt.
5. Stocks are skyrocketing again.
6. The derivatives time bomb is bigger than ever — and ticking away.
7. The ancient regime is in the saddle.
8. Ben Bernanke doesn’t understand his job.
9. We are levering up like crazy.
10. The real economy remains in the tank.
At this point, I’d trust the capuchin monkeys who were taught how to use money over any politician or government official of any party. At least they made no pretense about really caring about anything other than getting what they could for themselves and to hell with everyone else.
I almost didn’t finish reading that article since in point #1 he uses some rather fallacious logic to exonerate Barney Frank. For God’s sake! Why would any sane or decent person want to do that?
He could have properly mentioned Frank under point #4. and actually, it’s a bit bizarre that he didn’t.
http://foro.univision.com/t5/Dem%C3%B3cratas/Barney-Frank-s-Homosexual-Lover-Herb-Moses-Was-a-Senior/td-p/288192498
I’m going to go with the better observers in this case. The American people reelected the most egregious malefactors and gave them the job of cleaning up the mess they made. (Thanks Massachusetts!)
We can be sure they did a good job this time.
My over-all take: article bears out Sturgeon’s law.
Somebody==well, how do you explain the housing booms in those countries while Barney was in the minority party in Congress?
Thats not “proof” he didn’t play a role, but whats the proof he did?—–minority party members normally aren’t held responsible for what happens under Majority control.
Why should Barney be singled out for inclusion in Point #4 when all the congress creeps do it. What do you want==a list of 535 people?
The financial crises was sparked by housing which the Fannies had a role in but the crises was caused by unregulated debt swap instruments/their collapse/and bailout.
The point that Barney is not as liable as the crooks more directly culpable seems to stand up to me unless you’ve got more facts than mere disagreement with the point made.
Everyone disses those who signed bad mortgages without thinking of the ratscuzz bankers that created the bad terms and iterally lied to people about the real costs and ramifications. Sure, Caveat Emptor, but the evil lying greedy bankers who tricked the people now forclosed are as guilty.
Yes, banks were pushing those ARM loans hard to everyone looking to buy a house. It was a good scam – sell people a loan they can’t afford, let them pay several years of payments, jack up the interest rate, foreclose, flip the property. It was win-win for the banks until the shit hit the fan and the housing market crashed.
I call it the no recovery, recovery. Has not gotten worse, but has not significantly improved. Its just in limbo. My big surprise is how little Congress or our President talk about the economy anymore. I guess when you don’t have any ideals you just ignore it. No sense focusing on a negative so close to election year.
#43 Don’t leave out the politicians who pushed them to make those “soft” credits and did nothing to oversee them.
I do have to wonder how its going in two different parallel universes:
No 2==Let all the banks fail and go thru normal bankruptcy proceedings with “bailout” and support money reserved for whatever was left over and the credit/banking/cash requirements therefrom. At the time, I thought the many local community banks and S&L’s would have provided all the “normal” banking/credit requirements of our society. Hard to see how that was not a winner right from the beginning.
No 3==Do what we did but leaving out the pork and the tax cuts with STRONG prosecution and reregulation.
I wonder which universe would be better off? And the sad fact is: no one can tell because no one understands economics well enough. Its a chaotic system. If it were “predictable” it would be captured by some secret group all to the greater ill of society. Bits and pieces and short term limited effects are understood–enough to skim profits in a system organized to allow such: IE==computerized trading in bulk in nanoseconds of cents per trade IS NOT PLAYING THE STOCK MARKET. It is skimming. A wealth transfer to the rich.
Some things are observable.
#46 pedro
Your argument is not in line with my experience. Banks were pushing the ARMs. I spent a lot of time talking to a loan officer about an ARM mortgage before he’d even admit there were other options. I bet others got pushed to ARMs who would have been served better by other loans too.
There may have been political will for more home ownership, but it was the banks pushing the ARM scam. And they were happy to do it until the market collapsed, turning their scam from an asset to a huge liability.
#41 “fallacious logic” I think with Mr. Frank its called fellacious logic
#48 I wasn’t trying to take the bankers out of that scumbag, but the government is there to watch over so people didn’t get screwed over.
This now popular Self-Help, positive attitude exhortation of “Looking ahead and not looking back” shows poor discipline and is not at all guiding and teaching.
It’s thinking like this that is killing our country.
Pretty sad really but that’s life I guess. But then, we have people like you guys here at DU and other forums and I’m not a bit surprise.
Pedro,
So you support financial regulation?