History-Making Week for U.S. Financial Community

The obvious answer:
More deregulation
More wars that pay for themselves
More “value based” appointments in Justice
More rosy scenarios from the President’s Press Officer
Less accountability
Palin/Gramm 2012

Don’t forget – more tax cuts too. In fact let’s cut capital gains taxes to zero.

Don’t forget – more tax cuts too. In fact let’s cut capital gains taxes to zero.

It may be true that most of the banks have reasonably healthy balance sheets, but few people talk about the hundreds of trillions (yes, Trillions) of dollars invested in unregulated derivatives contracts that cannot be valued with any confidence at this junctur–because there is no market for them. (These include credit default swaps and a variety of other flavors of derivative investments. These are held to a significant degree off the balance sheets of large institutions.) It’s likely that the problems with derivatives, which include the mortgage-backed securities that have caused a great deal of trouble already, have quite a bit further to run.

Hey guys, while we are all bickering on party
participation, the financial community is
going belly up! Now here is a new one for
you to digest. You know all those insurance
companies that are covering all those disasters
in Texas and Louisiana. They also will be looking
for handouts from our Government. Maybe we
should think twice before we hand out money
to other countries and get our own priorities
back in shape.

can anyone say that they have seen worse than the last 8 years—bush mcbush —-never again

For all you younger voters out there. This is what it felt like when Nixon was pulling his shenanigans. The gas lines, inflation, war and perceived moral decay. Things really haven’t changed all that much have they?

Think about this, if people like kerry get their way, the idiots, McCain/Palin will be in the white house to destroy what’s left of America. Don’t let the neo-cons finish off the US, vote democrat, vote REASON for a change.

At what point do the bailouts stop. Maybe the government should bail out every mom and pop business that has failed because of the rediculous economic policies of Bush.Reagen also proved this to be the wrong path. Trickle down economics is a failure and only makes the rich become richer and the rest of the country looses.

I hope more Americans are paying attention to the facts and outcomes of our nation economics. There are political tendencies by some to blow smoke and mirrors to hide the economic incompetence (government and enterprise) of the past eight years. Political idealism alone can be dangerous facility to govern, regardless of the bias.
When there are a record number of bank failures, trending unemployment, trending inflation, high national and personal debt and unstable world markets and commodities shaken by war and political regional turmoil, then one must recognize these events as symptoms of a greater problem of poor leadership and weak political competency as the root cause.
Smart politics follow efficiencies as do the free-markets in relative cycles. Poor performance should never be rewarded nor should political excuses be considered as solutions.
Change by nature is historic, change with clarity of purpose, parity, and competencies are historic steps forward for us all.

Perot once warned us of that sucking sound of money leaving the country…
Its’ gone, only we haven’t felt it yet…
Thanks to all those jerks in office that supported deregulation and outsourcing…they have betrayed America.

Who could of imagined these banks failing? Ron Paul has been screaming at you guys about this stuff and you spent too much time trying to prop-up McCain. Ron Paul says it’s going to get worse. I believe him. Report on that.

We are in for a rough ride while we liquidate this debt, that is if the fed allows it or it is forced upon us from outside entities.

Wayne Kensey – We need to open up the debates to 3rd party candidates. Certainly people like Paul or Nader would spew truth in the face of the unrealistic and bankrupting policies of the top 2 candidates. Barr, Baldwin and McKinney would add a little extra. If it just Obama and McCain get ready to hear all sorts of junk about reverends, lipstick, bridge to nowhere, and the like.

I am all for opening up the debate to 3rd party candidates. Obama has a lot of traction because he was for real change, and not a typical Democrat. Other parties should be allowed onto the stage as well. Nader has been a spoiler in past races though, and has contributed little (in my view). Ron Paul is asking all the right questions, and made a lot of on-target predictions.
Barr is a real Patriot as well, and McKinney tried to exposed the voting scandals…

Wayne Kensey – What Nader does is point out the corporate fascist state that exist in this country. I realize you are a dem so you may want Nader to go away, but he would really bring change whereas Obama….well let’s just say the jury is still out. I do want Obama over McCain, if not for three reasons: diversity, it is the dems turn to screw things up even more, and foreign policy. The fundamental roles of government need to change. That I do believe.

My question to Ron Paul supporters is why hasn’t Paul endorsed Barr? They have similar philosophies, but the appearance is that they are at odds with each other. If Paul supported Barr, they could both gain some traction. Obama got where is he by building alliances.
Thats why I am still supporting Obama. Paul has good ideas, but seems to want the stage alone. I hope I am wrong…

ron paul deserves the stage after what they did to him after he spoke truth

Wayne Kensey – I believe Paul is has multiple loyalties, and can’t choose one over the other. Paul’s focus right now is to open up the debates to more views. A 3rd party win in my opinion would be the greatest thing that could happen to this country.

I believe Ron Paul and all the hard money economists when they say it’s going to get worse.
People, you need to google and learn about the dangers of a central bank and fractional reserve banking. The Federal Reserve is a private bank that basically controls our government. The bankers own us. Period.
Watch the online movie “Money as Debt”

it’s time to abolish the fed … send bernanke running for the hills!
those central planners need a good ass kicking

Fabian – I agree. Bin Laden is laughing at us. I do have some ties to the intelligence realm due to the nature of my work. Those in the intelligence communities are certainly not gungho on current republican tendencies. They realize subtle things like the islamic world is outbreeding us by a large margin, they do realize that the dangers will never ebb, and they do realize that current policies are inciting great hatred, and it could be argued rightfully so. I am a big believer in the “Golden Rule”.

Fabian, you brought up the Russian collapse. Well, they collapsed fighting Osama in Afghanistan. And we armed Osama.
It is clear we have learned NOTHING from this. Now we are fighting Osama and expending all our resources doing it, just like the Russians did. Our whole economic system is crumbling around us, and we are outspending them 100 to 1. We don’t undertand that this is HOW OSAMA BEAT THE RUSSIANS!!!
He won by staying in the fight until they were broke.
Boy, everybody agrees that we are stupid…and we are proving it all the time.
Take your money out, while you can.

interventionism will never work no matter what it comes to … whether it is the economy, or foreign policy, or family matters, or anything
the grand adventure that this country is being put on is a hell of a ride with thrills just like a rollercoaster … but when the cars go off track .. there is no coming back

Wayne Kensey:
I am a Ron Paul supporter, and I can tell you my opinion of Barr. He is not a Libertarian. No true Libertarian in their right mind would have voted for the Patriot Act, and that is exactly what Barr did. He is another neo-con Republican in sheep’s clothing. If we all really want CHANGE, vote 3rd party, anyone other than the Dems, or Repubs, and do some serious research on the 3rd party candidates, at this point our best choices are going to be Chuck Baldwin, and Nader.

Wayne – the soviet union collapsed because it was economically unsound
we are following the same path as the soviet union … we are economically unsound … our military is spread to thin … we are engaging in foreign wars and adventurism with the very same people we used to call allies … the engagement in afghanistan with the soviet union dealt a blow to them as it will to us soon ..
only we are doing it on a much larger scale .. we want ww3

Good night. Finally a thread with some sanity. Later.

Ron Paul said specifically 3 years ago that Fannie and Freddie would fail. Listen to the Austrian Economists, they are usually right.

“Who could have imagined that …?”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Anyone with a mediocre knowledge of economics and who hasn’t been brainwashed by the American media could’ve foreseen this!
A lot of people are mentioning Ron Paul in this thread, and they’re right. But here’s the deal: it doesn’t take genius or a crystal ball to figure out how incredibly rotten the US economy is. It just takes a knowledge of what “market value” is.
Try to figure the market value of mortgage based securities, and you’ll see that the banks have been lying in their balance sheets for at least a year. THIS IS FRAUD, AND A LOT OF PEOPLE SHOULD BE IN JAIL. Not only bankers, but analysts who say blatant lies on Bloomberg and CSNBC every single day.
It takes a tremendous amount of stupidity to miss how bad things have been for the last year. If you think this was a surprise, then you should get another job.

Ron Paul has been on top of this for years now. McCain or Obama? It does not matter in the least. Essentially these parties are one and the same. Want some real CHANGE? Then get off this dog and pony show and look to the constitution for guidance.

The post before this by MARK is right on. If we put the GOP in again we will get what we deserve=NOTHING BUT WHAT WE HAVE HAD THE LAST 8 YEARS, God help us.

No surprise here. I’ve been hep to what Ron Paul has been saying since the 80′s. Too bad the media shut him out or we would stand a chance of real corrective action. As it is we will have a world-wide depression of many years’ duration due to the piracy of the Federal Reserve and other nations’ central banks.

People, this election is not worth wasting another 4 years of either McCain or Obama. Please take a serious look at the 3rd party candidates. Nader and Baldwin come to mind, both are sharp as a tack, less prone to mistakes and would deliver what America really needs. Do you really think McCain or Obama will bring positive change?, improve our image to the world, instead of getting into more wars?, or god forbid, back our currency with gold, so our money is really worth something? America is living on pure debt. It’s no wonder all the banks and financials are, or are about to collapse. When Dr Paul said the Fed just keeps printing more money out of thin air, he is telling the truth, there’s so much money in circulation, it’s de-valued the dollar, that’s why the Euro and the Canadian dollars are clobbering us, that’s why foreign investors love to buy up business in America, their money is way more powerful then our once mighty dollar. Vote 3rd party if you really want America to get better, she’s pretty sick right now, we need real change, vote 3rd party.

for that matter, lets cut ALL taxes to $0 and borrow 100% of the federal budget. Oh, and at the same time, lets triple federal spending and start a few more wars. That’s basically the conservative mantra.
We sure are leaving a great gift to future generations – the legacy of all of their tax dollars going toward debt service on the money we’re living off of today.

8 years of the worst government ever—-mccain with bush 95%—-no way now how no mccain—ever

At least the government is saying it won’t bail out Lehman. Well that’s what they say. That could change like everything other promise they’ve broken.

ONLY IN AMERICA–
GOVERNMENT BORROWS MONEY FROM CHINA–GIVES US STIMULAS DOLLARS—-AND THEN WE PAY IT BACK WITH INTEREST—–DOES ANYONE QUESTON WHY WE ARE IN FINANCIAL MESS—

Ron Paul has been warning us about this for a long time. Too bad most people didn’t listen, especially McCain, who was rude to Ron Paul. You can’t run a Ponzi scheme like the Federal Reserve or Social Security without somebody getting hurt. It sure won’t be the fat cats on either side of the aisle in Washington. Vote third party this year!

Ron Paul predicted this years ago. You might want to look at what he is predicting now, if you don’t just prefer to run another similar article shortly about ‘who could have predicted!’ things obviously predictable.

Ron Paul predicted all these things many years ago. Other people like Peter Schiff, Lew Rockwell, and Fred Rogers also had some common sense and saw the logical conclusion to this mess.

I agree with many who proclaim a particular Texas republican as the guy who continues to tell us the real problems. The irony is that he is a republican from Texas! Dems and Reps don’t really care about us. They make laws to restrict our freedoms, and they make laws to line the pockets of companies contributing to them.

We knew this was coming plus a heck of a lot more. That is what is so great about being a Ron Paul supporter. We know and you don’t. Wake Up and look into Ron Paul and what he has to say. You will be glad you did. Peace

Yeah Woody (7:07pm),W calls them “the elite”, his “base”, “the haves and the have mores”! And when he leaves office with that $400,000 a year presidential pension secured and the $10,000 a pop honorarium; he and his good buddys from Halliburton and Bechtel (who’ve been making loads of money off the war)will just kick back, with the economy in the crapper, while the little people suck on it.
It wasn’t just a coincidence that Pope Benedict, while in Paris yesturday, “condemned unbridled passion for power, possessions and money as a modern day plague”!

Bear and Lehman are pocket change compared to what happened last weekend with Fannie and Freddie. The $5 Trillion in mortgages backed by “Franron” multiplies to somewhere in excess of $70T in Credit Default Swaps and other “Derivatives” being held by US and foreign financial institutions. The hardest part is determining who owes what to whom – it is no different than musical chairs with 100 players and 5 chairs – the rest of these greedy institutions that generated hundreds of billions in fees selling this crap to one another will ultimately go up in smoke. The only people I feel sorry for are the unsuspecting shareholders and the hundreds of thousands of hard working employees who will be unemployed because of a very few greedy “geniuses” at the top.

The problem with the financial industry is a direct result of the inability, or desire, of the Bush Administration to enforce regulations. This crisis, and the related housing crisis, lands squarely on the Bush White House and the individuals that Bush appointed, and that the Republican-controlled Senate affirmed, to important positions in the cabinet and on regulatory boards, positions all held by Republicans. Do you remember the director of FEMA during Katrina, how inept he was? Well, this financial crisis is the equity equivalent to FEMA’s failures in New Orleans. And all of this responsibility lies with Bush and his policies, policies which McCain supports.Make no mistake: McCain talks a good game about reforming government, but what he’s talking about is systemic change. He’s not talking about policy changes. McCain is basically running a campaign based on his promise to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Apparent to everyone but McCain and his campaign is that the ship that is the American economy has been taking on water, and the question is whether the ship will sink before the Nov. 4 election. There are respected economists who think that the ship will sink in October. (See Tyche investments and Europac investments; these private investment firms have been telling their investors, mostly Asian, where to put their money and they’ve been predicting a depression — yes, a DEPRESSION — in the American economy. And don’t forget the Royal Bank of Scotland’s urgent press release to its own investors this past June warning of an imminent collapse of the US economy.) We’ve known of these problems for 2 weeks, but all we got last week was stories about lipstick on a pig! Can the American media be any more irresponsible?

vote out all republicans and all thsi will get better… it is taht simple, whenever democrats are in charge the economy is good when republicans rule it is bad.

On the other hand, how come the banks also fall prey to their own creation. Since when did the magician start believing in his own “sleight of hand tricks”. If they are selling “Brooklyn Bridge” to the customers in the guise of badly designed mortgages, at least they should stay away from similar inter-bank deals. Or perhaps they say they are bankers but they are all sleazies, and got caught in their own “created” world.
Where have all the Nobel Prize winners gone, I think there should be a “public ombudsman” to safeguard the interest of the public. The government cannot do this job. The corporate donations and earmarks are too attractive. And we live in a capitalistic economy, where Dollar is King, or now a “pawn”.

So this is a good cycle. Lend money to people, let them default, then the bank defaults, then have the govt. bail the bank. So the bankers suck the govt. twice. First when the consumer instead of paying tax, get’s a relief as customer pays the mortgage interest. So the govt. loses that revenue. Then the banks need to be bailed out, so they get the govt.’s money again. Then depart with a hefty golden parachute. The directors sit on each others boards to protect this cycle of looting the govt. and make the CEO’s the scapegoat and their tool to get the job done.
Very very convenient. And do it every 25 years so the generation changes. The old one is fed up and the new generation does not understand yet. So after the S&L crisis, a generation later comes 2008. Wait for the next generation and record the events. History tends to repeat itself.

just as i thought. you wont publish my comment. dictator ship in progress.

Re: The Katrina comment
I live in New Orleans. Most people do not realize that it is the Governor of each state that must declare formally that permission is given to come and “help”. At that time our governor was Kathleen Blanco – A DEMOCRAT. She would not make this declaration; she acted as if she were glued to the spot.
You know the rest of the story. We now have Bobby Jindal – A REPUBLICAN.