now this is good one:
http://market-ticker.org/archives/62...an-Idiocy.html
Greenspan Idiocy
Listen up folks.
Greenspan said today in his testimony that ALT-A MBS "appetite" (that is, marketability) will likely never return.
This means that any of these "assets" that the TARP (you, the Taxpayer) "buy" will never be resold to anyone. You will eat them, and Hank Paulson's claim that these "assets" will return a "profit" to the taxpayer is false.
Second, if home prices are doubling but incomes are not increasing, what part of that did you willfully ignore Mr. Greenspan?
The job of regulation is to prevent people, who are naturally greedy and will press whatever advantage they can manage to acquire, from doing so in a fashion that develops into systemic risk, and guaranteeing that the risk they pile on inures only to them when their bets turn out badly.
In this regard both Greenspan and Bernanke have been utter failures, and both had the ability to put a cork in this crap by cutting off dealers who violated prudent standards for lending and risk management from Fed facilities.
Neither did so.
Congress held plenty of hearings, but in point of fact what Congress has not done is exercise its prudent and proper role as an overseer of those who are supposed to regulate our financial markets, immediately removing from office those who refuse to discharge their duties properly and replacing them with someone who will, indicting the malfeasors when appropriate.
And before someone says "they didn't know", that's a bald-faced lie.
Both Congress and Alan Greenspan were explicitly warned that this would be the result.
On July 7th I wrote on this matter, and those who have forgotten need to go read that Ticker again, along with the written testimony given to Congress in 1991.
Specifically:
""If Congress again opens up banking to Wall Street speculation, as it opened up S&Ls and banks to real estate speculation, regulators will quickly lose control over the complex series of events that a pervasive marketplace will immediately set in motion. Insider abuse, self-dealing, and back scratching relationships between institutions will run rampant"
All "unexpected" eh Al? Eh Congress?
No.
Not unexpected.
In fact, you were explicitly warned what would happen.
You did Wall Street's bidding, and exactly what was predicted happened.
Wall Street took the money, speculated with it, and blew serial bubble after bubble, with the explicit permission of both Congress and Federal Reserve, and the consequence has been the destruction of our economy.
Take responsibility Congress, repeal your erroneous laws, including the EESA/TARP and put Glass-Steagall back in place.
Appoint a special prosecutor - in fact, dozens of them - to investigate everyone involved, including Henry Paulson, and indict each and every one of them who committed an act of inside dealing or selling products with knowing or negligently inflated valuations.
Oh, and stop lying to America.
The record is what it is and we the people are tired of the lies and bailouts you expect us to pay for, when you were explicitly warned that what your cronies on Wall Street wanted would lead to precisely this result.
Now our 401ks are 201ks and the responsibility for what has happened, along with what is to come, squarely rests on Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Congress itself.
Grow a pair and stand up for America and Americans, not your corporate sponsors.