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Discretion and Financial Regulation: Always Doing the Wrong Thing

Financial regulations are laws to try to protect the integrity of the market from the inevitable, corruption in all three system, government, business and society.

Just like our laws a flawed, for example we ban marijuana when all data shows that it is much safer than alcohol or tobacco.

The problem is the ability of shucksters to convince people that "this time is different" when is always is the same in areas that cause the problems.

High leverage investments always go bad in the total, but since they work early on at the individual level we get fooled every time.

The simplest advice is if it looks to good to be true is probably isn't true.

As for the assignment of characteristics to institutions, e.g. government is bad, bankers are evil, unions are corrupt, is a fools game.

An unregulated group of people will almost always do the wrong things when money is involved.

Was the AIG Bailout a Goldman Bailout by Proxy?

One of the problems is that people are confusing smart with crooked, GS through Paulson as TS eliminated competition, put tax payers on the hook for their poorly assessed risk and made a killing with our money after paying us back peanuts.

They used fear tactics about the government seizing everything while directing and profiting from the "seizure".

Geithner should be fired and Herny Paulson should be in jail with Alan Greenspan. If we had the spirit that the citizens used to have it would be happening, Now we just play nice and get taken by thugs over and over.


On Jul 27 10:09 PM Common Cents wrote:

> I'm not sure it is worth making this into a "conspiracy" theory.
> My view
>
> GS was "smart" emough to buy "insurance" in a situation that they
> guessed might explode. AIG was "greedy" enough to sell it.
>
> The govt got caught in the middle.

Seven Uncomfortable Predictions for the Economy

Funny how everyone thinks that crime will go up, when it was the huge fraud perpetrated by bankers and politicians, I call them Reagan's mafia.

With more light being shone in the area of wall street crime will almost certainly go down, it will take a lot of petty thieves to make up for one Bernie Madoff or Alan Greenspan.

As far as moving to place with less corruption, good luck on that search, there is no place that is less corrupt and that will be the ultimate salvation of the dollar.

The G20 will talk about replacing it as a reserve currency, another cost of the misguided policies and corruption of the last 25 years.

What can be expected of a country that locks up people for 20 years for smoking pot and 3 years for rape, hopefully Obama can turn this ship before it hits the Conservative iceberg we have been sailing towards for years.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Another step down the ladder by the newspaper business, as an individual that spent the 80's in the newspaper biz and the 90's as an owner in an Internet development company it is with a mixed bag of emotions to watch the printed newspaper business collapse.

In with the new however, journalism is what matters to democracy, not publishing.

AIG Bonuses Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

I think people do care about fairness, even thought it is never really achieved it becomes the symbol of the greed and incompetence. Merrill has not escaped yet, the best anyone with a bonus can hope for is that the focus of our ever smaller and less effective financial press loses interest and moves on to GM or some other failing segment of the economy.

Cramer's Stop Trading! Will the Banks Be Nationalized? (1/15/09)

The argument between socialism and capitalism is invalid as there is clearly a hybrid combination of the two philosophies in the US and most other countries. Reagan was the leader of the obviously flawed theory that free markets self correct, Freidmann and Greenspan were put in charge of creating the largest ponzi scheme allowing bank managers to get paid as laws created more automatic payments through 401K's and pension funds.

No body forced people to give loans, no one removed the fiscal responsibilities of the lenders, the lack of regulation unleased the dogs and now they have picked our bones.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

AIG should have been left to fail with Lehman's, McCain talks about Obama spreading the wealth while the policies that he supports provides Wall Street with our cash.

Add to that the Wall Street statement that the chance of no bonuses is "slim to none" makes this the biggest robbery in the history of our country.

If Wall Street wants to give bonuses, then give us our money back, Greenberg should be in jail and the American people's money should get the same deal as Warren Buffet, super preferred interest paying stock.

Buffet will be on Obama's team and that is the best reason to vote for him.