Comments on: Lehman and Merrill Hit the Fan (Updated) http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/ Firedoglake weblog Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:34:57 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Cycledoc http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631666 Cycledoc Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:46:17 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631666 <p>Osama must be enjoying the spectacle of the U.S. economy in dire straits. The strategy we employed against the Russians in Afganistan essentially brought them to the point of economic exhaustion before they gave it up. History has the nasty tendency to repeat itself</p> <p>In the current world, we’ve wasted huge amounts of money on the Bush wars, one of which was a war of choice; and we allowed the fantasy of deregulation to encourage Ponzi schemes–loaning money to people, institutions, that could not repay and then passing along the risk. We seem to have forgotten the lessons of the past (Savings and Loan Crisis, Enron, etc) and the need to police markets to protect children from hurting themselves–money indeed makes people do funny things. </p> <p>Is this whining? Do we need more deregulation as McCain intends?</p> Osama must be enjoying the spectacle of the U.S. economy in dire straits. The strategy we employed against the Russians in Afganistan essentially brought them to the point of economic exhaustion before they gave it up. History has the nasty tendency to repeat itself

In the current world, we’ve wasted huge amounts of money on the Bush wars, one of which was a war of choice; and we allowed the fantasy of deregulation to encourage Ponzi schemes–loaning money to people, institutions, that could not repay and then passing along the risk. We seem to have forgotten the lessons of the past (Savings and Loan Crisis, Enron, etc) and the need to police markets to protect children from hurting themselves–money indeed makes people do funny things.

Is this whining? Do we need more deregulation as McCain intends?

]]> By: ekunin http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631583 ekunin Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:08:07 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631583 <p>Yes, there is an alternative-Utopia, a classless, moneyless society. Preposterous, you say? Why? I ask. You say, human nature, greedy, selfish etc. That in a nutshell is the problem. I propose “collective image psychology” which holds that negative perceptions of human nature generate hierarchy as some try to prove themselves “superior” to the rest. This is insanity because we rely on a human standard to make an obviously unrealistic judgment. We are not identical. We come in different shapes and sizes etc, but we are equal in that the richest rich man dies and so far as we know nothing he did in this life has anything to do with the next (assuming there is a next). The rankings we give ourselves are figments of our imaginations.</p> <p>Like individuals, we, collectively, have been driven crazy by inferiority. There are things we can do to start down the path to equality, but the future is by no means certain. Inferiority generates self destructive urges which sometimes cannot be denied.</p> Yes, there is an alternative-Utopia, a classless, moneyless society. Preposterous, you say? Why? I ask. You say, human nature, greedy, selfish etc. That in a nutshell is the problem. I propose “collective image psychology” which holds that negative perceptions of human nature generate hierarchy as some try to prove themselves “superior” to the rest. This is insanity because we rely on a human standard to make an obviously unrealistic judgment. We are not identical. We come in different shapes and sizes etc, but we are equal in that the richest rich man dies and so far as we know nothing he did in this life has anything to do with the next (assuming there is a next). The rankings we give ourselves are figments of our imaginations.

Like individuals, we, collectively, have been driven crazy by inferiority. There are things we can do to start down the path to equality, but the future is by no means certain. Inferiority generates self destructive urges which sometimes cannot be denied.

]]> By: bigbrother http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631426 bigbrother Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:46:35 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631426 <p><a href="http://http//www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/14/barackobama.uselections2008?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews" rel="nofollow">. But before Obama can purge Washington</a> of the scourge of Friedmanism, he has some ideological house cleaning of his own to do.</p> . But before Obama can purge Washington of the scourge of Friedmanism, he has some ideological house cleaning of his own to do.

]]> By: Mauimom http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631408 Mauimom Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:26:50 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631408 <blockquote><p>First Reagan ruined California first as a training ground and then went on to bigger and badder things to the rest of the country… </p></blockquote> <p>One of the key elements in Reagan’s ruining of California was Prop. 13, which in theory “limited increases in property taxes.”</p> <p>In actuality what it did was a) reward people who were able to stay in their homes, since their prop. tax increases were severely limited, despite astronomical increases in the value of their property; b) penalize anyone who had to buy a house, since the underlying “value” on which the property tax could now be calculated jumped with the sale; and c) completely choked off funds for education in CA. You can see the effects of this in the gutted university system and crumpling secondary schools.</p> <p>The true genesis of the “I’ve got mine, now get the f*** out of my way; none for you” philosophy of the Republican party.</p> <p>And what ever happened to the “taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society”?</p>

First Reagan ruined California first as a training ground and then went on to bigger and badder things to the rest of the country…

One of the key elements in Reagan’s ruining of California was Prop. 13, which in theory “limited increases in property taxes.”

In actuality what it did was a) reward people who were able to stay in their homes, since their prop. tax increases were severely limited, despite astronomical increases in the value of their property; b) penalize anyone who had to buy a house, since the underlying “value” on which the property tax could now be calculated jumped with the sale; and c) completely choked off funds for education in CA. You can see the effects of this in the gutted university system and crumpling secondary schools.

The true genesis of the “I’ve got mine, now get the f*** out of my way; none for you” philosophy of the Republican party.

And what ever happened to the “taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society”?

]]> By: newtonusr http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631403 newtonusr Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:22:28 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631403 <p>You are correct.</p> You are correct.

]]> By: Mauimom http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631399 Mauimom Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:19:19 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631399 <blockquote><p>And Namath. Both from Monongahela, Pennsylvania.</p></blockquote> <p>I always thought Broadway Joe was from Beaver Falls, Pa. Many a snickering joke made during his playing years.</p>

And Namath. Both from Monongahela, Pennsylvania.

I always thought Broadway Joe was from Beaver Falls, Pa. Many a snickering joke made during his playing years.

]]> By: bigbrother http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631356 bigbrother Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:43:25 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631356 <p>There are a lot of sweaty palms in the finance industry inclusing regulatory. The axe may fall onm a lot of peole who will be throw under the bus is my guess.</p> There are a lot of sweaty palms in the finance industry inclusing regulatory. The axe may fall onm a lot of peole who will be throw under the bus is my guess.

]]> By: bigbrother http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631354 bigbrother Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:40:00 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631354 <p>The bankruptcy will have a forensic banker to unravel the paper from original to last tranches and cdos. The law was broken many times from the mickeyed applications and phony appraisals to the bundling of bad loans to the investment houses…them the lies to rollover the paper to the offshore markets. The Almighty Dollar is about to be Confederate. What a major and unforgiveable crime.</p> The bankruptcy will have a forensic banker to unravel the paper from original to last tranches and cdos. The law was broken many times from the mickeyed applications and phony appraisals to the bundling of bad loans to the investment houses…them the lies to rollover the paper to the offshore markets. The Almighty Dollar is about to be Confederate. What a major and unforgiveable crime.

]]> By: RossK http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631334 RossK Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:13:18 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631334 <p>Wowser.</p> <p>Looks like the Greenspan Puts have really come home to roost on this one. </p> <p>.</p> Wowser.

Looks like the Greenspan Puts have really come home to roost on this one.

.

]]> By: prostratedragon http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631324 prostratedragon Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:00:43 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/14/lehman-and-merrill-hit-the-fan/#comment-1631324 <p>That headline just hurts.</p> <p>The rest of it explains why I’m so uneasy lately.</p> That headline just hurts.

The rest of it explains why I’m so uneasy lately.

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