"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.” - Bob Marley

Thursday, September 18, 2008

MaxedOutMama: How Did We Get Here?

MaxedOutMama: How Did We Get Here?

Great explanation of how multiple Congresses and multiple Administrations aided and abetted the pigmen - aka Wallstreet - in ruining the economy through the mortgage/housing bubble.

Special focus on the failure of the SEC to provide independent securities ratings, which would have stopped this in its tracks.
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Also focuses on how Gramm-Leach-Bliley - passed by a Republican congress and signed by Clinton after massive Citigroup lobbying - removed previously existing controls that stopped this from happening in the past. The "Gramm" is Phil Gramm, of fame for his comments that "Americans are whiners" for complaining about the "mental recession". Gramm is also famous for having been John McCain's chief economic advisor and campaign co-chairmen at the time of those remarks.
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5 comments:

OBloodyHell said...

I haven't read MOM's treatise, yet, but

a) Every time I've read her stuff, she tends to be substantially more pessimistic than seems called for.
b) Usually errs on the more severe side of wrong when you study the aftermath -- pessimism, again, but on the "verified" as opposed to "impression" column.

As such, I respect her (I have no doubt she knows more of what she's talking about than I do) but still as a result of the above obserevations, take her opinions -- and especially her projections and predictions -- with a large grain of salt.

bobn said...

Every time I've read her stuff, she tends to be substantially more pessimistic than seems called for.

After the last 10 days, I don't think we can accuse anybody in recent years of excessive pessimism - only of being early.

And that only happened because of massive fraud and lying - countenanced by the Republican non-regulators, and both Dems and Repubs in the Congress - in continuing to inflate the bubble and hide the losses long after it was apparent that it was 'game over' for housing.

Anonymous said...

Uh, bob, I hate to tell you this, but Bush attempted to rein in the FMs more than five years ago, only to be told to get f*** by the dems.

NY Times, 2003

> After the last 10 days, I don't think we can accuse anybody in recent years of excessive pessimism - only of being early

I think we can accuse her of being pessimistic because the problems she has been concerned with SHOULD have been dealt with a lot sooner -- when they would not have been a fraction as dire as she's been painting all along.

The more you look at this, the more obviously the fault of the Dems it gets.

They set it up with the CRD, then refused when Bush wanted to increase the oversight, and then for the last 2 years since they took over, they've been on a snark hunt for something to crucify Bush with, to the point of ignoring every other problem (see drilling, oil), most especially steps which might have been taken 24-18 months ago which would have made it NBD.

Anonymous said...

> “The American people are not protected from the risk-taking and the greed of these financial institutions,” Pelosi said recently

Right there. With someone like Pelosi saying that, hold onto your wallets

:-/

bobn said...

Uh, bob, I hate to tell you this, but Bush attempted to rein in the FMs more than five years ago, only to be told to get f*** by the dems.

And had they put in under regulation of the executive branch, it would have gotten the same sterling regulation as the Banks and the Investment Houses - and that would have fixed it? Suuuurre, you just keep believing that mantra. Bush was gonna regulate more. Right.

The more you look at this, the more obviously the fault of the Dems it gets.


The Executive Branch had the day-to-day regulation - it's part of executing the laws (gee, maybe that's why they call it the executive Branch). That includes regulation of the GSEs which came under the OFHEO.

What is the CRD? If you meant CRA, you're delusional.

The boobs in Congress did cause the GSEs to take on additional bad debt, but that was at the bidding of Bernanke and Paulson. Oh and the bribes they were getting from the GSEs, too.

And Pelosi in that statement was correct. She's a boob, but even a stopped watch is right twice a day.

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About Me

I'm a 57 year old geek. I voted Democratic for 20 years, because I disliked the Republicans more. But now, nobody really speaks for me. I'm for Guns, for more correct government regulation of the financial world, against illegal immigration and amnesty. (in 2008 I ended up voting Republican - too many questions about Obama, and voting against anybody who voted for TARP 1.) In 2010 I voted a stright republican ticket because the Democrats have completely lost their minds.