The best way to prevent the next financial crisis, or dampen its effects, is to understand the roots of the current crisis. So it is with sadness that I read this article in the Huffington Post today. The article states that the four Republicans on the Financial Crisis Panel are releasing their own report, blaming the crisis on government policy and the Community Reinvestment act of 1977.
The Republicans, led by the commission’s vice chairman, former congressman and chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Bill Thomas, will likely focus their report on the explosive growth of subprime mortgages and the heavy role played by the federal government in pushing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase and insure them. They’ll also likely focus on the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law that encourages banks to lend to underserved communities…
This seems disingenuous and untrue. It gets worse:
During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases “Wall Street” and “shadow banking” and the words “interconnection” and “deregulation” from the panel’s final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.
The beneficiaries of the biggest bail out in American history are also getting the benefit of this grand whitewashing.
As we move into the election season, opponents of the recovery act will bemoan the wasteful spending on road signs. Michelle Malkin actually posted about this last year, so the attacks started early. If you have not driven along our highways in the last few years:
This reminds me of the plaque I see every day on my way to work.
The WPA was the largest New Deal agency which put millions of Americans to work. So I have a list of reasons why the signage is important:
Makers of signs need employment too
There is a multiplier effect with this spending
It is a small portion of the total spend
They tell people what projects are started, in their community
They remind people of the projects that were accomplished
In the report, which announces near record results that Goldman obtained in 2009, Mr. Blankfein and Mr. Cohn defend the bank’s role of “providing liquidity to markets.”
This would be a plausible explanation if they did not know that they were dealing toxic assets. For example, you do not need to be an expert in the underlying equity to be a market maker in the equities market. In that role, buying and selling equities provides liquidity to the market.
Goldman’s actions are more equivalent to that of a drug dealer than a market maker, since they knew they were dealing with toxic assets. Goldman’s lack of exposure to their own products reminds me of a dealer who has a hard and fast rule not to try their own yayo. To push the analogy further, Goldman had the cops bought off so that when their primary client (AIG) went bust, they still collected on the cocaine debt.
We have a nice long history of prosecuting criminals and drug dealers who profit at the expense of society. It would be great to see them prosecuted for their crimes, but it is unlikely. We can only be hopeful that we have some meaningful Financial-industry reform that prevents this type of sleazy behavior in the future.
Bob McDonnell’s response to the SOTU address does not compute for me.
In the past year, over three million Americans have lost their jobs, yet the Democratic Congress continues deficit spending, adding to the bureaucracy, and increasing the national debt on our children and grandchildren.
Most economists would agree that spending is necessary in order to end a recession. Calling to end spending now would put our recovery at risk. Even if you don’t believe in the Keynesian effect, you would still want to get out of a recession with some spending until you saw an increase in inflation. Thankfully, we don’t face inflation as a serious issue yet.
But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government
This graphic would seem to indicate that we do not have the best medical care system in the world. Sure, we spend a lot of money, but our results aren’t all that great.
Americans were shocked on Christmas Day to learn of the attempted bombing of a flight to Detroit. This foreign terror suspect was given the same legal rights as a U.S. citizen, and immediately stopped providing critical intelligence.
Bob McDonnell seems to be arguing that the foreign terror suspect should have been stripped of his legal rights and forced to continue providing critical intelligence, perhaps through “enhanced interrogation techniques”. This is similar in nature to the stance that Scott Brown holds:
Brown, in response to a question, told reporters that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a passenger jet en route to Detroit on Christmas Day, should be treated as an enemy combatant, taken to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, interrogated “pursuant to our rules of engagement and laws of war,” and not be treated as a civilian criminal suspect. Brown asserted that waterboarding does not constitute torture, but he did not specifically say Abdulmutallab should be subjected to waterboarding. — Link
I am increasingly concerned with the election of public officials who endorse torture.
Former House Republican whip Roy Blunt told a racist-tinged parable at a conference recently. I’m not sure why he didn’t just use any one of the million or so “play the hand you are dealt” analogies for his speech. I’m just astonished that he chose this story for prepared remarks, and that it wasn’t inadvertent or unintentional.
The WSJ is reporting that the organizers of the Tea Party protests are now protesting against the treatment, or lack thereof, they received from the DC Metro.
Rep. Kevin Brady asked for an explanation of why the government-run subway system didn’t, in his view, adequately prepare for this past weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.
As 538 reported, about 60,000 to 70,000 crazies, er people attended the protest in DC.
70 thousand people, rather, is about the number that will attend the Washington Redskins’ home opener next week. That’s a lot of people. Washington — actually Landover, Maryland, where FedEx Field is located — will be inconvenienced. But it won’t be shut down. Business will go on more or less as usual.
The protest organizers are using any and every tactic to show numbers. This includes spreading fake/old pictures. Sadly, the intelligent discourse on health reform is being hijacked by a crazy vocal minority.
It must be a slow news day, since CNN is carrying the following video of Obama taking care of a fly with Miyagi-like reflexes. It’s only a matter of time until someone starts a Barack Obama Facts website.
Unfortunately, the defense being mounted by Bush, Rice and the rest of the neo-conservative crowd is that torture was effective. The effectiveness of a tactic has nothing to do with the legality.
As many people have pointed out, the waterboard used by Pol Pot is on display in the genocide museum in Cambodia. It should not take that type of reminder to remember that torture is bad and against the American and Human ideals.
The only way to prevent torture and preserve human rights in the future is to bring people who authorize torture to justice. Obama very cleverly has exempted the perpetrators from this because as the Milgram experiment showed, they were just following orders.
If there are international or domestic criminal charges levied against the people who authorized torture then Neo-conservatism, and perhaps conservatism, will be haunted forever.
I am a CNBC junkie. Or I was until recently. I started realizing that they have been mixing more and more conservative viewpoints. The topic is covered thoroughly by the NYTimes here.
In recent weeks some have perceived the network to be leading the campaign against President Obama’s economic agenda. Mr. Cramer, who calls himself a lifelong Democrat, said last week that the administration’s agenda was “destroying the life savings of millions of Americans.” One week earlier Mr. Kudlow declared that Mr. Obama was “declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private equity and venture capital funds.”
The liberal establishment has started firing back. DailyKOS is accusing Jim Cramer and CNBC of manipulating stocks. It’s the same story that has been promoted by Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock) who was once considered a nutjob and now probably feeling a little bit vindicated. *
Personally, I think that CNBC might really be shorting the news. They’ve become so pessimistic because their pessimism has attracted a lot of viewers, probably from the right side of the spectrum. Check out the following screenshot from CNBC today. The market rises 5% and their top stories are all about the economy falling apart.
And by the way, if you were wondering where the Daily Show’s takedown of CNBC is, it’s right here:
If you haven’t heard it already, a journalist threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference.
In the middle east, people often take off their fiip-flops and wave it aggressively in someone’s face to insult them. I believe it has something to do with the uncleanliness of feet.
