Jed Clampett

Hey TD, how long ago was it that they decided to make corporations and businesses equal to a citizen?

Isn’t it telling that they don’t count them as citizens when they pull up statistics on how wealth is distributed?

I think whats telling about this is that it only tells half the story. Glass-Steagall, by all accounts, should have been repealed. It was an old and oudated law that held about as much relevance to our high speed, high tech, digital, international world of modern business as a stagecoach on a jet runway.

The real criminal act is that the regulations that succeeded it were either completely ineffective or ignored. Why point to Glass Steagall? Why not the failure of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which if it had been followed correctly, would have made Glass-Steagall’s dissolution moot? Why not the failure of the Basel Accords? Why not point to the rise of Mark-to-Market Accounting and adjustable rate mortgages, both of which were on the rise before the repeal of G-S…never mind the fact that it was effectively gutted in the early 80s by the DIDMC Act?

If G-S had been irrelevant for nearly 19 years until it was fully repealed, and was replaced by supposedly tough regulation, the failure lies not with its repeal, but the inability afterwards to enforce its succeeding regulation. We were fine for 19 years after G-S was first gutted (in fact, we experienced the greatest expansion of the economy in modern history), so the fault clearly lies in something other than the dissolution of an old, outmoded bill.

So, the dissolution of Glass-Steagall is just a red herring…simply enforce the laws currently on the books. We dont need more regulation, we just need to follow what we already have in law. But, it does ring very strange that Obama has surrounded himself with the same people that helped cause this mess…I guess change was just a myth, or perhaps, a codeword for business as usual?

It’s just not the federal government, but the state and local government corruption as well. If I bounce a check, I go to prison. If I get a loan to the government to buy a house and I refuse to pay the bank back, the government will help me either stay in the house or to walk away without penalty.

Oh sure the government went it to help the poor, but how many people on welfare can afford to buy a house when many have trouble even paying rent? In reality, it helped people flip property with little money down and just walk away if the property price went down. The government even helped the flippers more by puting pressure on the banks to loan out this money.

Even today, the Obama administration is complaining the banks are too tight with the money they have. Why are the banks being bashed for loaning out too much and loaning out not enough at the by the same group of people?

Also the FDIC has been a major part in the too big to fail business. Imagine if the government handed over a failing department store to Walmart, the FDIC does that with banks.

The housing crises and part of the banking crises was created by government intervention.

It makes me sad that Clinton, after 7 years of the greatest economic expansion in American history, would throw it all away by allowing the deregulation of those institutions. I really don’t think that he had any idea on how things would turn out later.

if you read clinton’s comments at the signing ceremony he’s talking about how this was going to benefit under-served communities. not sure if he was spinning or if he got snowed. Whatever the case there’s no recognition of the Pandora’s box he’d just opened.

This is after he was put through the ringer over the Monica fiasco. The ‘contract on America’ crowd were enjoying every bit of their new found power and shoving legislation through by shrouding it in doublespeak and must pass legislation.
You must remember that Golden Sacks was the primary provider of economic advice to presidents even then. They are the true architects of this massive transfer of wealth from the people to the already wealthy.
Sickening that it’s still allowed to happen and that the perpetrators are allowed to enjoy the fruits of their crimes.
Prison’s too good for them, Hanging’s too good for them, skinning alive is too good for them.
Strip them of all their wealth and set them loose in the sewers of Bangalore, now that is a punishment I’d like to see.

Reading the comments at the signing, one important point stands out… privacy of business transactions… this is the mechanism by which the thefts are made possible. It is how the oligarchs were able to put through leveraging of imaginary a.ssets as Taibbi exposed in his murder of Lehman report and how the regulators were prevented from exposing the corruption as reported on Fronline’s ‘The Warning’.

Even better, these trades are hidden from taxation, thereby making the whole nation poorer.
These guys are master criminals and unfortunately, they would rob from anyone.

Dont’ forget Travelers and Citigroup illegal merger 2 years before repeal of Glass Stegall, then Robert Rubin, Clinton’s secretary of treasury and former Goldman Sachs junkie went straight to Citigroup.

We must remember who had control of congress at that time. While Clinton may or may not have known what would happen with this legislation, it wasn’t drafted by him. Neither were the previously mentioned (by merk) succeeders. As soon as the Democrats regained control of congress, these things are being reformed.

Or, maybe Clinton figured, like Bush, he needed to ‘give’ a bunch of money to the banks on his way out. Who knows. Either way, banks need to be regulated by an outside entity, much as any other multi-billion/trillion dollar industry needs to be regulated.

Have we all learned that by now?

Jed Clampett

It doesn’t matter to me if they were red or blue ties, they are all selfish jacka.sses working against the well being of their people rather than the benefit of all. This is criminal, dereliction of duty and a crime against the population, it must be treated as such; if my uncle kills his wife, I want him arrested, tried and convicted, I don’t care if he’s family, he decided to be a criminal. Since he is family, like all people are part of our human family, we must find ways of reforming him, making him understand that what he did was wrong and why it should never be done. The same for these crooks whose huge monetary crimes have caused anguish to countless others.They must be made to recognize their crimes, work to repair the damage they’ve caused, and help make sure others don’t do it again.
sending people to prison to rot, torturing others into insanity and hate, destroying more lives and ignoring the original problem will never provide us with viable solutions. We will be doomed to repeating the cycle instead of advancing as a species.

The Coach blame theory

Dems control the White House but not the Congress – GOP’s fault
Dems control the Congress but GOP has White House – GOP’s fault
Dems control White House, Congress, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NY Times, LA Times and WaPo – Fox News’s and GOP’s fault

The Reich Winger theory

If we have control of any branch, we can force everyone to accept out way of doing things.

If they control an office, we can gripe and whine until we force them to conform to our way of doing things.

Like a child that has never been taught self control or civility, we can throw a tantrum and get our way.

Money trumps everything.

So how EXACTLY does the GOP “force” change when the Dems have a 75 seat house majority and filibuster proof majority in the Senate? Might the problem be in creating legislation no one can support?

People are individuals regardless of how much you might try to label them.
Republicans have to walk in lockstep or be banished, democrats are more inclusive and allow di.ssent. Republicans are totalitarian/authoritarian, democrats are inclusive/progressive.
There might be some Republicans that want to vote for reform of healthcare, but they are afraid of the repercussion if they do so. With a couple of exceptions, they are cowards who are forced to vote against their conscience by threats from funders and superiors.
But the bill as it stands is nothing but a piece of paper that gives the population away to insurance companies.

An analyst on democracy now’s Friday newscast shot it full of holes.

You really have a problem discerning what is written from what you read into it, huh?

Read the second paragraph. I don’t see the word ‘change’ in post at all, do you?

People can be ‘forced’ to do things they don’t want to do by threats of money or abandonment. The mafia works with indirect threats to avoid prosecution.
Republicans and democrats could be brave and come back to representing the people, but they are afraid because they have colluded for so long. Their hands are covered in blood and they are scared of what will happen if they loose control or try to go against the criminals.
Besides, you keep thinking of Reich Wingers as only Republicans, when it’s actually an issue of class, wealth, power.

Anon– I’m assuming that your post concerning Dems and Repubs was written with tonque firmly in cheek…I must admit, it was quite funny. Though if you really believe it, then it becomes rather sad…

The Dems and Repubs BOTH have little straightjacket ideologies, which is why there wont be any change as long as we keep getting duped into voting for one side of the same coin…at the end of the day, they’re still raking us over the coals and laughing all the way to the bank. Simply because Pelosi is a Dem is makes her more inclusive than McConnell? Gimme a break! Theres not much diversity on either side of the aisle. NEITHER party is a paragon of free thought or inclusivity…

So long as you blindly support either side of the current system, may you reap what you sow…

All those wealthy people believe in is money, they have no God, they have no party, they have no flag, merely relationships of convenience and extensive criminal dossiers in the hands of extortionists.

You may assume whatever you want, you always do anyways. Dig your self a hole for all I care, I won’t stop you, that’s where your kind belong anyway, as.s.hole

Not everyone is a partisan or a fervent radical as yourself, but you can as.sume everyone else is like you, it merely helps us recognize your kind and your aims.

BTW- do you also look like Eric Kartman, or just talk and act like him?

Merk, the day you actually rip a republican will be the first time. And, you call yourself an independent.

Not that I really care, because it’s no big deal either way, to you or me. But, you DO realize that you weren’t this combative when Bush was president.

Combine that with the fact that you never rip republiphobes, and I’d say you’re an Independent in Republican clothing, er, IINO(?)

PS: This is said with ‘tongue in cheek’. Not an attack. Don’t freak out

Coach– Why good sir, I’ve been more than fair in my ire towards both parties! I seem to remember being the only curmudgeon on these boards who groused about the inanities of both McCain and Obama.

The only reason it seems like I’m protesting more is because we’re no longer in agreeance as often. We were both against Bush, and his ilk, though I will admit we differ in degrees of dislike of the man. But YOUR boys control Congress and the Whitehouse, so your ideology is now the power structure against which the opposition is going to form. Since the repubs are in effect irrelevant, my ire is naturally going to focus on the Dems, as they are the only ones with the capacity to do any real harm/good/however you want to look at it.

So no worries, I’m sure as soon as a Repub is back in the whitehouse, or they have a meaningful presence in Congress, we’ll have plenty in common to b*tch about, like old times.

Good call on the IINO quip though, that gave me a good chortle.

Coach– Why good sir, I’ve been more than fair in my ire towards both parties!

Yea right!! and Oswald was killed by a disgruntled reporter.