Jed Clampett

Good reading Tim, thanks.

I like the conclusion…

‘Q. Is anyone saying we could just erase all these contracts?
A. Financial commentator Ben Stein has said that’s just what the federal government and the New York state government should do. (Most U.S. credit-default swaps are sold in New York.)
“After all, there was no insurable interest in most cases, which tends to void insurance contracts, which is what a CDS (credit-default swap) is.”
Because of the murkiness of the market for credit-default swaps, it’s hard to know who would take a financial hit if the swaps were erased.’

Who would take the hit? Speculators, gamblers in a sense that transferred their risk to third parties in an effort to win regardless of the outcome. Gamblers should not be bailed out by the rest of us. Erase the contracts would be my solution, period.
Why are gambling losses tax deductible anyways? Is there some particular reason the taxpayer should underwrite gamblers bad behavior? Perhaps our laws are being written by the mafia.

Peace

…Why are gambling losses tax deductible anyways?

Because gambling gains are taxable!

Newport – You just don’t get it! This isn’t because it is deductible or not, it is because we need to create a fair tax code for the disadvantaged so they can get their fair share.

Obama is about Change!

The hedge fnd market was out of control. These things were b0ught on everything as a hedge against risk. Completely unregulated, the companies offering CDS were not required to have a store of capital to back up the claim (like any insurance company would).

They will have to write down these losses. Our tax d0llars are better spent bying company stock. The companies will turn around again once transparency is restored.

I still want to know what we are going to do for the homeowners who are continuing to face foreclosure at an accelerating rate. Why isn’t there a condition to these government fnds that the institutions halt all foreclosures? Why does nobody in the media talk about this?

So its a string of dominos, not a house of cards?

Jed Clampett

TFH, this is a touchy issue. They don’t want to hurt the banks because they control much of the markets due to our monopolized system.
Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post wrote a good analysis of the proposed rewrite of bad mortgages. It’s basically designed to discourage people from having their mortgages rewritten and to give the banks huge profits regardless of how it is restructured. It will probably have the effect of hurting the markets even worse because it will drive people into bankruptcy. Here’s the piece…

http://www.washingtonpost.c om/wp-dyn/content/article/2008 /10/18/AR2008101800189.html

T hey are afraid that if they reduce the value of the loans, as should be done, there would be too much backlash from the ones that control much of the media, which unfortunately is difficult to counter with limited resources.
In Chile the media has to follow strict regulations and cannot be used as a political mouthpiece. Something we learned from 20+ years of military oppression. Here in the US, we live under corporate oppression; they have learned well from what Germany did during their ‘troubles’, unfortunately, rather than preventing the media’s misuse, they decided to capitalize on it. Laws should be passed and enforced to regulate this. In fact, there were laws on the books that were ignored or reinterpreted by Mr Powell, Colin’s son, such as owning multiple outlets in the same market and over the nation as a whole, that allowed this fiasco to happen.

Peace

Lets see ..
Somebody’s going to get screwed here. Either its us or the bankers. Hmmm.. who do you suppose is going to win that one?

Why does this all seem like 1988 all over again?

Jed Clampett

Orwell was a visionary, seer of the future. His year was merely a message.

Today, security cameras see all we do and perhaps even hear it. Companies are working on a way to make television a two way system.
Double speak is alive and well. Help America Vote Act. Patriot Act. Military Tribunal. Military Intelligence.

Read 1984 and understand what it means and where we are headed if we the people don’t put a stop to it.

Peace

There appears to be some critisizm of the current bailout from the chair of the FDIC, Sheila Blair.

marketplace.publicra dio.org/display/web/2008/10/16 /mortgage_fix

@Carolina

I think it’s a string of Houses of Cards running across a shooting gallery.