If you haven’t yet seen Frontline’s documentary about Brooksley Born, the woman who warned about the dangers of the Derivatives markets during the Clinton Administration, and the resulting financial disasters that ensued from deliberately choosing to ignore her, you simply must see it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/…
Frontline is one of the few true journalistic documentary shows remaining in this country. And in this case they do their usual superlative job in presenting the story of what happened when Wall Street took over Washington, and when an idiot named Alan Greenspan channeled tricked everybody into thinking he was a genius.
And yes, Virginia, it was Clinton’s fault. It happened on Clinton’s watch, when Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Alan Greenspan convinced everyone that NO REGULATION of the markets, of Wall Street, was a good idea.
Can you believe that? Alan Greenspan actually came out and said that even going after blatant fraud on Wall Street was a bad idea, a mistake even, because “the markets would take care of it themselves”. He gave fraudsters a GREEN LIGHT.
This is like saying we shouldn’t fight gangs of street thugs because it will sort itself out. Police? Just stay home. Rapists and murderers and thieves will somehow just take care of themselves and will magically eradicate themselves.
Indeed this was a classic example of Magical Thinking.
And Magical Thinkers ran this country’s economy, and almost destroyed it completely.
And what is worse, is that the policies that led to this are still in place. Nothing has changed, and I mean nothing.
And some of the people who LED this disaster are now back in power, with the Obama administration. Larry Summers, for one, who was “the enforcer” for these fools, the tough guy who would really play hardball with people (and how that must have made his balls swell with manly pride when he would do that) is now Obama’s chief economic adviser!
This is just insulting as hell.
This is like putting Charles Manson in charge of security for the Oscars.
Obama is an idiot to have these guys anywhere near his big-ass ears. These people should be too ashamed of themselves to ever step foot in Washington ever again, but here they are, in control.
What is astounding about this documentary is that what this woman warned about, regarding the derivatives market, happened.
No, not in 2008. It happened in 1998.
In 1998, exactly as she predicted, a major, enormous hedge fund went under and almost took the economy of the United States down with it. And what was the result? Nothing. Greenspan and the other fools managed to convince Congress that NOTHING was the thing to do, that NOTHING was the plan, that NOTHING could be done. “I can’t conceive of any way we could regulate this!” was his refrain. He didn’t want to. He had a childlike fascination with Ayn Rand and thought that there simply should be no regulations of any kind, that government should have absolutely no ability or power to TOUCH industry, or banking. And here we had a guy with this kind of MAGICAL THINKING in charge of the Federal Reserve! For years. And touted as a genius.
It blows the mind.
And keep in mind this happened on a Democrat’s watch. Bill Clinton, the best Republican President ever, as I’ve always said. Indeed he was.
So what happened in 1998 happened ten years later, AGAIN, almost to the date. Only this time it was a mega-meltdown, the mother of all meltdowns, and once again EXACTLY what this woman warned against. This woman whose job as a regulator was destroyed by an Act of Congress, a woman who was deliberately neutered by these fools who didn’t even know what a derivative WAS. And this time it nearly did take the economy of the world down with it and still very well might.
And what do we have now? This slimy old piece of dung FOOL, Alan Greenspan, saying “gosh, I guess I was wrong all my life”. And his buddies Larry Summers and his mop-topped protoge Timmy Geithner back in the White House.
Obama, you’re an idiot. Larry Summers, you should resign in shame at once. Congress, you should figure out a way to impeach Geithner and get rid of him. They all gotta go. If they don’t clean house, this is all going to happen AGAIN. And that’s not me saying that, that’s Brooksley Born saying that, and she’s saying that now, that if this isn’t dealt with, and it is STILL not being dealt with, that this will happen again. And again. And again. Until we learn and finally get it right.
We have learned, and we are deliberately not getting it right? Why? Because Wall Street makes money off of it. Yes, the banks. And they will be bailed out, and they will have their billion dollar bonuses, and this country will see what is in effect NATIONALIZED GAMBLING taken hold, by the ultra-rich, in a game that they can never lose.
In fact, just today, it has come out that Geithner’s idea to “fix” things, this little fuck actually has the gall to come out and propose that the Big Banks have an unlimited line of credit from the Executive Branch of the country, that they should be able to do whatever the FUCK they want and be PERMANENTLY BAILED OUT. With no limits as to the dollar amount behind the bailouts.
What the FUCK is this shit? This is throwing good money after bad taken to a literally insane level. Here, check this shit you, you simply won’t believe it:
In my opinion, Geithner’s proposal is “TARP on steroids.” Section 1204 of the proposal [the proposal being the “Resolution Authority for Large, Interconnected Financial Companies Act of 2009”] allows the executive branch to use taxpayer money to make loans to, or invest in, the largest financial institutions to avoid a systemic risk to the economy.
Geithner’s proposal reminds me of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the $700 billion Wall Street bailout adopted last year, but the TARP was limited to two years, and to a maximum of $700 billion. Section 1204 is unlimited in dollar amount and is a permanent grant of power to the executive branch. TARP contained some limits on executive compensation and an array of special oversight authorities. Section 1204 contains absolutely no limits on executive compensation and no special oversight.
When I asked Geithner whether he would accept a $1 trillion limit on the new bailout authority (if the executive branch wanted to spend more, it would have to come back to Congress), he rejected a $1 trillion limit, insisting that the executive branch be able to respond without coming back to Congress.
That’s Geithner’s idea of how to “fix” corruption on Wall Street — KEEP GIVING THE CROOKS MONEY.
Why the FUCK does this guy have a job again? Why the FUCK isn’t he fired? How DARE he propose something like this?
This documentary should be required viewing by everyone in this country.
And after watching it you will never want to see Larry Summer’s ugly face ever again. But you will, because he’s Obama’s “guy”.
With Dems like these, who needs Republicans?
They’re all crooked. Time to throw them all out. All of them. Every last one.
It’s just so appalling.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/…
