Wall Street, 1792 - 2008?

Imagine waking up from a one-year coma and looking at the list of companies below that have either gone under or been merged into another company at fire-sale prices.  Would you consider actions taken by the US government after this has all happened as "bailing out" Wall Street?  The point is, Wall Street has already pretty much fallen, and it will never be the same again.  After seeing how Wall Street is being "bailed out," Main Street may want to think twice.  As Congress bickers, its country is burning.

Comments

[Al-USA:]

In all due respect to the authors, the average American wage earner has seen no increase in wages, after inflation, for the last 8 years or so of this so called economic expansion.

Understandably, the masses are now furious at the proposed $700,000,000,000 bailout of America's billionaires. Their house has been "burning" for years now and now this blatant example of socialism for billionaires and capitalism for the rest of us... Let it fail, only the strong survive in a capitalist society, right?

2008 Sep 26 05:00 PM

[HARM:]

User 270430 nailed it. There was no "we" in the so-called "prosperity" of the last 8 years, and frankly not much in the way of inflation-adjusted gains for the bottom 90% during the previous 20 either.

The only arguments the pro-bailout crowd has are the same tired lies and threats they've been using on the rest of us all along:

1. Financial blackmail: if you don't bail us out, we'll crash the whole economy

Reality: ha! Funny thing is, they've already been doing a good job of screwing the rest of us --even *without* the bailout. I think we can safely take our chances that the sun won't explode if we don't bail out rich a$$holes. If they're so damned sure they can *really* pull off a "Dr. Evil", I say let the f**kers SHOW us.

2. Bluff: if you don't bail us out, the system will grind to a halt. No one will be able to get a loan, access their bank accounts or use their ATM & credit cards.

Reality: Not bloody likely. Despite all the massive failures that have already taken place, I haven't heard of a single credible case of anyone *not* being able to access their FDIC or NCUA-insured money or use their ATM and credit cards. For that matter, plenty of people are still getting mortgages and loans --they're just requiring credit checks and reasonable down-payments now (*gasp* --the Horror!).

3. Conflating Wall Street with Main Street: We're all in this together ("Main Street may want to think twice. As Congress bickers, its country is burning")

Reality: Ummm... sorry pal, but the "country" isn't burning --YOUR hedge fund, IB and/or portfolio are what's "burning". The stock market is down and lots of underwater speculators are hurting, sure, but the rest of us worker-peon (who actually pay taxes) are hardly dying in the street. For that matter, I don't recall anyone ever asking ME if it was a good idea to start handing out NINJA loans to ever crook, liar and speculator on the planet.

There is no "WE" here --YOU gambled, and YOU lost. Tough shit --that's CAPITALISM (the system you *claim* to love so much)!

There is no "CRISIS" here -- reckless gamblers are losing money and want the rest of us to reimburse them. They made their bed, they should lie in it.

2008 Sep 26 06:08 PM

[1worldcurrency:]

Small business association leader said today there was no problem for good businesses to get loans. The credit freeze is for Wall Street, not main street. Let them fail.

2008 Sep 27 12:43 AM

[Joyful Alte...:]

No problems getting mortgages in Pennsylvania. There are even some no money down mortgages around.

2008 Sep 27 09:26 AM

[OldLimey:]

Squashnut: Exactly the same in the UK. I've got a relative running a conservatively leveraged, profitable, medium-sized business; she's having a fight fending off bankers who want to lend. Barely a day goes by without a credit card offer on the mat, and yesterday I went into three shops and was solicited for a store credit card in two of them. What credit crunch?

Sure, there's counterparty risk-avoidance in the interbank market, but from what I hear banks (at least, the larger UK and European 'universals') are awash with cash they won't lend to their mates but are quite happy to push out to good quality corporate credits. Folks like us will probably never know the truth, but I get the sense that we're being played.

2008 Sep 27 09:47 AM

[tjmax116:]

These were the guys that sold us on smaller govt. Deregulation is a lcense to steal. Let them hang.

2008 Sep 27 10:03 AM

[tjmax116:]

First, Goldman got Bill Clinton to repeal Glass Stiegal which was written after the 1929 crash. this law separated investment banks, commercial banks and insurance companies. Then Phil Gramm had legislation passed, to have no oversight on derivitaves. These actions let the crooks out. Now they want us to save thier Asses.

2008 Sep 27 10:13 AM

[Jimbo:]

We desperately need term limits on Congress and a law making it a criminal offense for any former member of Congress to lobby Congress. Both political parties have been massively corrupted by the process. These bastards don't represent the people, they represent themselves!!!

2008 Sep 27 11:08 AM

[deltaVee:]

"If you want open markets, try Haiti or Somalia."


tjmax116, HARM, User 270430 got it exactly right.

2008 Sep 27 12:27 PM

[notsosmart:]

as long as the beer(belgium)swillers can afford a seat at the stadium nothing will change.the romans filled their coliseum without a care.the in crowd are laughing all the way to their swiss banks as they deposit their converted $.

2008 Sep 27 01:59 PM

[OldSnowCat:]

Congress must "skim" the greed out of the deal. Consider, the troubled companies either placed or bought sub-prime loans and they knew [or should have known] they were high risk. They choose to ignore the risks and made a very very big bundle of money from the loans. Now the loans are in default so the greedy companies expect, yes expect, the Congress to pay them again for the default. So double paid for the same very bad business decision. Basically this the DARK SIDE of Clintons "Every-one-will-own-a-... policy in late 1990,s and what drove the big surplus at the end of the Clinton Presidency. YES the financial markets are burning and President Bill Clinton caused it.... Look it up!!

The moneys given to the troubled companies MUST Loans to be paid back with interest!! When we add Billions of dollars of Debt to the troubled companies Balance Sheets the first thing Boards of Directors should burn are the "GOLDEN PARACHULES".

2008 Sep 27 02:30 PM

[mouth:]

Remember, what we are talking about is buying mortgages at a discount. A likely scenario is that the taxpayer loses little in the long run. When a crisis happens you do not do "Nothing" You jump in and fix the problem.

2008 Sep 27 03:59 PM

[User 30121:]

Beautiful posts here. You guys are right on!

If the DEMS wanted to get their package passed, all they had to do is vote it in, period! Remember, they own the Congress. They KNEW that if they did that, the world would blame THEM for screwing us again. So, they wanted the REPUBLICANS to join in. Of course,as I said many times here, the Dems are the party of NO ideas and the Reps are the party of BAD ideas. This time, the Reps just said no way! That created a crisis for the DEMS. Now, IF a bill gets passed, it should be a lot leaner and meaner than the PUSSY DEMS tried to slip by.

As for bailout, or whatever word you want to use, the posters are CORRECT. F$$K them--ALL. We'll take our chances without footing the bill to get screwed and not even get a kiss.

I said (to CLH, and other dollar lovers) the DOW will be at 7000 soon, coming down to meet gold which will be at 3-4000 per oz.

GOD, HOW I LOVE THIS! I lived through losing my savings/retirement/etc in 2000 thanks to listening to my broker (Schwab). In 2005 I started buying PMs, baby! Now its time to sit and wait.

2008 Sep 27 05:12 PM

[tjmax116:]

What the hell is a PM?

2008 Sep 27 09:10 PM

[raising4dau...:]

Every one of those companies was led by a crook that should be frog marched to a federal pen.

Not nearly enough damage has been done to Wall Street. We'll know it was enough when Cramer and the rest of their scum cheerleaders on CNBC are off the air.

2008 Sep 27 10:33 PM

[davcnslt:]

OK, I'll ask the obvious: What was the information value of this post ?(other then to spur several interesting comments). If reads like a proxy for the Paulson/Bernanke bailout pitch., complete with the ubiquitous overly bubbleized FEAR factor. (Insert "hyperbole" if you wish).
In my opinion, opinion is heavily tilted to a NO vote on Paulson's plan as submitted, undergoing substantice changes as we write these comments. For my own small part: I will never support a package that doesn't address systemic change that prevents the unabashed greed that has driven our wisest to bring us to a brink of catastrophe. Nor would I ever support a package that doesn't redress most, if not all, the absurd executive pay packages of those involved, and institutes recovery. Finally, those firms wishing to sell assets to the government bail-out program must relinquish equity above and beyond the toxic waste it wishes to sell, and that eq

2008 Sep 27 11:55 PM

[Abe Fadley:]

It happemed before and the sky did not fall. America is resilient. In 3 months all this will be forgotten and the naysayers will find something else to weep about. Greed is bad but hay greed is the ingredients of capitalism. Politicians are dirty and will stay dirty until the end of the time. To be a successful politician you have to lie, cheat and be dirty. That is life.

2008 Sep 28 01:07 AM

[sumosama:]

The problem with claiming it is only billionaires (or millionaires) getting their due is that it is simply not true. All people who invest in any equity mutual fund is feeling this pain. Very few funds, short of short funds and maybe some metals funds, are up this year or even in the past few years. This is a broad based market issue, although the pain is centralized in the financial arena.

Blaming some people, while cathartic, will not fix the issue nor will it return the billions lost in market value to people of all economic strata who are losing.


As for politics, neither party has a monopoly nor are they blameless as pointed out above re Glass Steagall, GLB, lobbying, et cetera.

2008 Sep 29 12:37 PM