This. I die a little inside when I see these political pep rallies with people crying and swooning over some shill.
Republican, Democrat…the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In my lifetime, I’ve seen no demonstrable difference between the two.
Hamburger/Cheeseburger. Same thing, just dressed up a little different.
Lets make sure we aren’t arguing over two different things.
There’s a difference between regulations and oversight.
Regulations are government control over the free market, oversight is the prevention of illegal and malicious behavior.
Oversight is a nice way of saying, we’ll turn a blind eye, since we’re in your back pocket.
Not trying to be a dick, just playing Devil’s Advovate…
To add insult to injury, the free-market system, in regards to the grand scheme of Economics, officially died in 1913.
If every company that was heavily involved in “what was going down” was allowed to go bankrupt, how long do you think it would have been before another board of directors would have allowed that crap to happen again?
Furthermore, without massive cash injections from the federal government(particularly since 2001,) how would they have been able to blow it up that big at all?
You understand the crisis as the media has explained it…that doesn’t mean you understand it.
or both.
I understand the crisis as it was explained to me your right, but why do you automatically assume that it is from the media. Did you read what I wrote, or just jump to conclusions because we have disagreed in the past?
I read what you wrote, in fact I quoted you. I understand what you said, and most Americans probably agree with you. But I also believe it to be wrong.
ETA: I read where your explanation came from…I’m just saying that it’s pretty much the same explanation we hear on CNN.
I think he was right in his time, but I don’t think it’s both today, and frankly religion is largely just a way of playing politics today anyway. it’s not about the big bad monster in the sky judging you, it’s about all the little monsters in the pews next to you on Sunday judging you when you vote for a pro-choice candidate or otherwise break ranks.
Religion, in the context of the quote, has become a subset of politics.
hey, i’ve been saying it for a while. both parties are the problem.
Well, they might behave differently if they knew the counter parties they were screwing would not be backed up by the govt and that they would get paid anyway. Risk of major losses and bankruptcy might help calm down their scheming…
I really don’t care about this party or that party, the real problem is that we let them write trillion dollar ($1,000,000,000,000.00) checks. We let them bribe each other with our money, and tell us what we can do with what we have left. Add in a Federal juducial system that is kept semi-sane by 4 guys and a flip-flopper. I’d elect Karl Marx President and have the PRC’s National People’s Congress fill in for our Congress if we gave them a Visa card with a $20 limit and SCOTUS made up of eight cloned Scalias and one Ginsburg (I love to see her get all hacked off when the constitution gets upheld).
As for GS, and Wall Street in general, I’d take the top 20% of wage earners and ban them from working in the financial industry for life. Someone has to dig ditches. Even if they didn’t have direct knowledge of what was going on, they should have kept their firms out of it or quit. I bet if we did that, the next time companies would reign themselves in better. If Bob in goofy-trades-of-the-month is going to get me booted, I sure as heck am going to make sure he is square up on stuff.
This is essentially what would have happened if we had let them go bankrupt. “Oh you were XYZ that destroyed your company? Yeah I’m not sure if we have a position for you…”
Regulations will not do diddly squat. They will serve to further enlarge the current batch of “too big to fail” companies, while squashing their competition. Never mind it requires me to believe that people in the government are smart enough to catch(or care about) the ways some of the smartest people in the world can massage numbers. Remember, everything about what Enron was doing was illegal at the time, not one law that has passed since then was required to prosecute them.
When did falling on your sword go out of favor. Eviscerate yourself with your Mont Blanc pen or poison yourself with Hemlock Starbucks, I don’t care.
“But we need the bonuses for our ‘talent’!” Talent? Porn stars have talent, you wing-tipped ass-monkeys couldn’t quant your way in a real business.
Not that I’ve thought about it, or have strong feelings one way or the other.
Here is a ton of info on Goldman Sachs.
GS happens to be a very out in the open example of how corrupt the system is.
Goldman Sachs profits by trading ahead of and against its own clients
The secret history of TARP: How Goldman bailed out Goldman…
How Goldman Sachs Scammed The United States, And Made Billions
Everyone of these guys should have been out on their a$$e$ when their company failed. Then they should have been audited by the IRS. Instead, both Republican and Democratic administrations bailed out, aka rewarded, them for robbing US (and U.S.) I think the whole bunch of them should be lined up and shot as traitors and thieves…not that I have strong feelings or anything
That is an awesome way of looking at it, and I agree with you 100%. This is the best statement I have read on this board in weeks. Thanks Rob.
Lots of good comments, especially agree with Rider.
It seems that the more regulation there is the more corruption that occurs. Look at countries with exceedingly corrupt police or customs and you will usually find tons of strict regulations with heavy fines. More regulation is likely to result in even more corruption.
No business, city or state should be bailed out with taxpayer money or Federal Reserve “quantitative easing” (electronic printing press = hidden tax on everyone).
This is true, and I think a great deal of the blame lies with lobbyists and politicians, not with the actual act of regulation. The problem is they game the system for their cronies through regulation that includes loopholes. If the regulation was actually fair we wouldn’t have a great deal of these problems.
We do need regulation, the only problem is the people in charge of it are either idiots or intentionally creating loopholes for their cronies.
You’ll have to eventually find a different boogey man. The genesis for the ‘mess’ predates Bush by most of a decade, and in fact is directly related to government ‘meddling’.
Lots of ex-GS execs in the gov, and GS is basically backed by OUR government to keep doing what they are.
Recipe for failure but it makes a few people rich I guess. When you are dealing with the type of cash they do they have bought lots of influence over the years, and greased a lot of palms.
Bottom line is these people do not get the positions they do without a lot of sleazy shit. Its a BAD BAD BAD combo when our gov is in bed with them, and vice versa. Paulson, Geither, and all these types.