John McCain and Republicans try to scare voters by saying Obama will raise taxes…
Voters should be scared by McCain instead.
Today Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch exist no more…
During this time 10 years ago, before those economic policies which McCain still supports, Merrill Lynch turned a 1.9 billion dollar profit.
Today McCain still wants to continue our economy’s direction towards the wrong direction… Today’s economic bad news certainly could have been prevented had Republican philosophy been rightly dismissed as folly, and had this nation resolved not to go down that path..
Because we did, we are faced with today’s crises. For now, if Wall Street can’t solve their own problems, the Federal government has no choice but to step in… Which means they will need more revenue, which means those who were making billions tax free, will now need to cough up a little more each year to make that happen…
Obama’s plan will right the economic ship.
It worked throughout the nineties… rather well I might add….
kavips 
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September 15, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Tom S.
“Today Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch exist no more…”
tell me exactly which beneficial democratic policies would have avoided this.
“It worked throughout the nineties… rather well I might add….”
because the late 90’s were buoyed by the tech bubble.
September 16, 2008 at 1:17 am
anonone
Regulations and law enforcement. We’ve been through this already, Tom S. See the previous thread that you were a part of at DELib.
September 16, 2008 at 1:52 am
christianliberal
Now the stock market crashes: Taxpayers get the bill, yet you’ll soon realize the big-wig CEOs won’t lose a dime from their compensation, or from their golden parachute contracts. The wheeler-dealer stock brokers won’t lose a dollar from their fat bonuses, but the taxpayers will foot the bill.
And the GOP promises us more of the same.
And STILL, non-thinking voters will support them.
Go figure!
September 16, 2008 at 10:15 am
kavips
The Democrats would not have allowed the greedy deregulation which meant securities could be bundled without disclosing risk…
These securities are causing our financial meltdown.. Under Clinton they were Regulated… but Republican Phil Gramm (John McCain’s former chief economic adviser) sneaked a clause in at midnight on Christmas Eve recess, buried deep within a 10,000 page Omnibus Bill that was launched on the floor and passed sight unseen….
Because of Phil Gramm and Republican belief in getting rid of all regulations and regulatory agencies, across our nation we have close to 1 Trillion in loans on our books that do not, nor never did,… really exist…, It is there simply because there was no one looking over financial institution’s shoulders to make sure enough assets were there to protect the loans…
This is a Republican problem that Republicans are powerless to fix. It will requiring solid Democrat leadership if we are ever to fix it….
I hope that helps.
September 16, 2008 at 10:16 am
kavips
Actually, Tom…(and I’m only basing this on the tone of your question to me above….) it is your fault for voting for George W. Bush twice…
YOU ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS DAMN CRISES.
🙂
September 16, 2008 at 8:16 pm
TomaHawk
In the title, do you mean to say “Imminent” — soon to happen, rather than “Eminent” — standing out, prestigious?
This from http:\\www.Andrewtobias.com of 9/16
Bill D. (an angry investment banker personally unscathed): “Fiscally responsible? This is now the SECOND time in 20 years that the US financial system has been brought to its knees and the US government has had to effectively nationalize large swaths of the financial system. And, in each case, this has been after around 8 yrs of Republican control over the levers of oversight and regulation. The first one being the savings and loan crisis (the Keating Five and all that) and now the current mortgage crisis. The deficit has ballooned after Clinton left us with a surplus. Would you trust the republicans with YOUR money? The GOP likes to say that government is the problem. It sure is… When they are in charge of it.”
September 16, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Tom S.
“Regulations and law enforcement. We’ve been through this already, Tom S. See the previous thread that you were a part of at DELib.”
Check it again, you failed to address my point.
“The Democrats would not have allowed the greedy deregulation which meant securities could be bundled without disclosing risk…”
Exactly which laws are you talking about?
“across our nation we have close to 1 Trillion in loans on our books that do not, nor never did,… really exist…,”
Those houses didn’t exist?
September 16, 2008 at 11:45 pm
AlanCoffey
What happened to “encouraging home ownership”? Ahhhh, I see. Pols put pressure on lenders to lend to people who should not be lent to and then when it all comes down, well, Phil Gramm did it.
Both parties are at fault here. I thought more of the thinking people of this country would join me in cursing both parties for this mess. Instead many are simply playing the “blame the other side” game.
Well, I hope you had fun. Your turn is over and the game goes on. Without a winner in sight.
Are we ready to play the Social Security Game yet?
September 17, 2008 at 4:36 am
anonymous
I think you got it right. It is eminent, not imminent (in other words, it ain’t gonna happen anytime soon)
September 17, 2008 at 7:51 am
TomaHawk
1. The capital rules were far too lax, and they still are. They may have made sense if you assumed perfectly liquid and smoothly functioning markets, but that is like saying a roof does not leak when it is sunny and mild.
2. The end of the rules separating commercial banks from investment banks — Gramm Leach Bliley — is one reason the government is much more deeply involved now. Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, the fire-sale buyers of Merrill and Bear, have government guaranteed deposits. That amounts to a subsidy, and when times get tough the subsidized firm has a big advantage over the unsubsidized one. To keep the others going, the Fed now will lend them money secured by almost anything they can find, including common stocks.
javascript:document.getElementById(’emailThis_569′).submit();
That’s Phil Gramm, McCain finance guru. The legislation is the Privacy Act of 1999. Note the date—Republican controlled Congress. Clinton couldn’t veto because of the other acts in an omnibus bill presentation.
September 17, 2008 at 7:54 am
TomaHawk
I messed up on the link. It is from the blog of Business Reporter Floyd Norris of the NYT, Sept 15, 2008. Scroll down to the final paragraphs.
September 18, 2008 at 5:46 am
Steve
You are all missing it. The Dems are just as much to blame as the Republicans. Freddy and Fannie was a Democrat caused mess. Do I need to go on, because there is a list a mile long. You can all waste your time firing back and forth at each other like both of the canidates are doing while the house burns down. The System Has Failed. And the tombstone will read…..”Here lies the US economy. Killed by greed & “do-nothing” politicians. It is going down. The people need to take back America. We are so far off from what our founding fathers envisioned for us. The day of reckoning is coming. I hope I’m wrong but I doubt. AlanCoffey has it right. Let’s stop being douche bags and do something.
September 18, 2008 at 3:31 pm
kavips
Steve
2 points you bring up.
The people need to take back America.
If you have NOT heard anything good about the person on the ballot, don’t vote him in for a second term… it’s his job to make sure you know the good he has done, and if he has failed that, get someone else in that office.
And second, if a person is running unopposed, if you are not a big fan, leave that position blank. Do not give a vote up because you feel you have to.. Your vote is a precious commodity. Politicians should work hard to earn it…..
Additionally, to bring a clear eye to the Democrats role in Fannie and Freddie… those vehicles were intended to be riskier investments in order to get new buyers into homes… They served their purpose…. New buyers got into homes
The current crises is one of financial leveraged securities… The bundling of financial derivatives costing hundreds of billions of dollars… At such large amounts, just the slightest hundredth of a percentage point, would yield tremendous profits….
Just the opposite, if it shifts downwards….
ARM’s began the process that shifted things downwards.
So one CAN say that Democrats with Freddie and Fannie had something to do with their demise, and even though it is true (if one stretches the definition broad enough)….. it distracts one from the cause that killed it…
========
Upon hearing of her friend’s neighbor’s sudden heart attack, she turned to her friend and said, ” I kept telling him not to swallow his chewing gum. It really does gum up the intestines……”
July 2, 2010 at 10:32 am
Response to Duffy « kavips
[…] There is nothing wrong with that; I did the same. In fact close readers may remember my warnings that the crises was impending almost a year earlier. Very close readers may remember my telling them exactly when to sell, and at […]