The Financial Crisis

[Barbara Branden]

Here are two important articles on the financial crisis. Note that in 2005 Alan Greenspan told Congress how urgent it was for it to act in the clearest possible terms: If Fannie and Freddie "continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road,'' he said. "We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.''

Barbara

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How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis:

Commentary by Kevin Hassett

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The financial crisis of the past year has provided a number of surprising twists and turns, and from Bear Stearns Cos. to American International Group Inc., ambiguity has been a big part of the story.

Why did Bear Stearns fail, and how does that relate to AIG? It all seems so complex.

But really, it isn't. Enough cards on this table have been turned over that the story is now clear.

Continued on: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...id=aSKSoiNbnQY0

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Why the Bubble Burst

By Robert Bidinotto

The bursting of the housing bubble -- which in turn precipitated the collapse of the financial and credit house of cards -- is entirely government-made. Point fingers where you will, but I point mine at those congressmen and administrations that sought to win popular support by turning the Federal Reserve System, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac into public reservoirs of easy credit and home loans, available even to the riskiest and most credit-unworthy of borrowers. For years, the federales have artificially lowered interest rates and opened the loan spigots for institutional borrowers which -- under inducements and even statutory pressures -- opened their credit spigots, in turn, for just about any and every would-be homeowner. The usual tests of credit-worthiness that typically govern lending practices in a free, competitive marketplace were recklessly abandoned -- sometimes under "moral" claim that rigorously screening prospective borrowers is "discriminatory." So, lending has become increasingly indiscriminate, especially in the sub-prime, adjustable-rate-mortgage market.

Continued on: http://bidinotto.journalspace.com/

[BaalChatzaf]

Not only is this problem government created, it is not government curable. The reaction of the financial community to the proposed $700 billion bailout has been to fart in its general direction. The old New Deal magic is not working this time.

Could it be that we will all have to bite the bullet and suffer for the next ten years paying down the debt? It is either that or repudiate the debt which will cause a financial meltdown the likes of which have not been seen since 1893.

There is an old saying: May you live in interesting times. Well, we are living in interesting times.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[algernonsidney]

The old New Deal magic is not working this time.

It didn't work then either. There are plenty of books you can read about how they prolonged the depression.

Could it be that we will all have to bite the bullet and suffer for the next ten years paying down the debt?

I'm not biting any bullet or suffering. I don't collect any checks from the feds. If these programs go away, I don't see how I will be effected.

Doctor Paul was apparently predicting the crisis with Fannie and Freddie as early as 2003.

[william.scherk]

Sorry. Trying to embed a video and can`t quite figure it out. I have tried it with Chrome, Firefox and Explorer. I use Vista . . . which might be the problem.

Michael, if you see this, can you point me to some How-To information?

Edited September 26, 2008 by william.scherk

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Willim,

Paste in the embed code. (I suggest using the standard mode toggle instead of rich text mode since rich text eats the code if you edit it later. The toggle switch is to the upper right with the two curved arrows in the same button.)

Then before posting, scroll down to a field that says "HTML Off." This only appears when you are posting. Open and select "HTML On - Auto Linebreak Mode."

Then post.

Some threads on OL do not have HTML enabled (but this one does). We have to do that by hand one-by-one, so we never got around to all of them. If later you want to place a video on one, give a shout and I will fix it.

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Michael; Can't some of these technical questions be answered off-forum.

I am also wondering if tighter control on some of the topics as the posts get very far from the original.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Chris,

I wish I had 75 hours each day, but I don't. Unfortunately the organization of an Internet forum is a bit sloppy by nature.

When things go really offkey, I agree with you and at times I have split topics (and a few I have even hauled out to the garbage pile), but in general I just don't have the time to do all the library sorting I would like to do. There is even a small bit of work that got left over from the time of the hacker attack.

Later, when the commercial plans leave the planting stage and go into harvest, I intend to hire some people to do some really nice things.

Kat and I don't do SEO (search engine optimization) or promotion on purpose right now. Kat used to do a little bit of Adwords, but it has been months since the last time. Frankly I don't want too much more traffic at this stage. More traffic means more work. The traffic OL gets at this moment is all natural (called "organic" in SEO jargon).

When we finally open up our promotion arsenal, we will need a staff. From the things I have learned, I already know that traffic will be huge for a site like this with lots of new people joining everyday. I am making plans for them to be customers in addition to participants. (And I am studying some schemes to spread the wealth a bit among the regulars who have supported the site.) At that time we will organize all this stuff a bit better. But right now it's too soon.

Call this a necessary evasion... I mean... a necessary intrinsicism... I mean... a necessary evil...

Michael

[william.scherk]

Willim,

Paste in the embed code. (I suggest using the standard mode toggle instead of rich text mode since rich text eats the code if you edit it later. The toggle switch is to the upper right with the two curved arrows in the same button.)

Then before posting, scroll down to a field that says "HTML Off." This only appears when you are posting. Open and select "HTML On - Auto Linebreak Mode."

This is where I have problems. Here is a screenshot of the posting form in Internet Explorer (Google Chrome renders similarly) --

-- I must be blind, but I can't find the HTML - On - Auto Linebreak Mode. Can you show me where I am goofing up, please, master?

By the way, in Firefox (the latest version 3.02), neither the side-panel nor the top posting bar show up -- all in all a bit of a Grrrrrr moment for me, as I thought of myself as technically savvy. Plus ça change . . .

[Chris Grieb]

Willim,

Paste in the embed code. (I suggest using the standard mode toggle instead of rich text mode since rich text eats the code if you edit it later. The toggle switch is to the upper right with the two curved arrows in the same button.)

Then before posting, scroll down to a field that says "HTML Off." This only appears when you are posting. Open and select "HTML On - Auto Linebreak Mode."

Then post.

Some threads on OL do not have HTML enabled (but this one does). We have to do that by hand one-by-one, so we never got around to all of them. If later you want to place a video on one, give a shout and I will fix it.

Michael

Michael; I understand you and Kat have a tough job. My comments were also addressed to my fellow posters

Edited September 26, 2008 by Chris Grieb

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

[Barbara Branden]

I listened to the debate of the two presidential candidates tonight. I was sickened by the failure of both of them to have a clue about the sources of the present financial crisis -- although, without understanding the cause, they were emphatic in claiming to know the solution: More governmental regulation of the economy. As Rand used to say about collectivists, "They believe that the cure for the illness of America is to give it more of the poison that is making it sick."

See Robert Bidinotto's blog - http://bidinotto.journalspace.com/ -- for a valuable audio by the Managing Director of Lehman Brothers.

Barbara

P.S. I posted this to another thread, then realized that it belonged here.

[kiaer.ts]

Test

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYpLGxAetg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYpLGxAetg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYpLGxAetg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Where is this mythical HTML off button? Michael, what browser do you use?

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ted,

It's not a button. Scroll down and above a bunch of emoticons at the bottom (while posting or editing), you should see a thingie called "Post Options" with a small rectangular field beside it that can be opened. Default is "HTML Off." Open the little drop-down and there are two other options:

HTML On - Raw Linebreak Mode

HTML On - Auto Linebreak Mode

Choose "HTML On - Auto Linebreak Mode."

It looks like this before opening:

Michael

[Dragonfly]

-- I must be blind, but I can't find the HTML - On - Auto Linebreak Mode. Can you show me where I am goofing up, please, master?

I can't find it either (I use Opera). Next to "post options" I see only "enable emoticons?", "enable signature?" and "enable email notification of replies?", but nothing about html.

By the way, in Firefox (the latest version 3.02), neither the side-panel nor the top posting bar show up -- all in all a bit of a Grrrrrr moment for me, as I thought of myself as technically savvy. Plus ça change . . .

Did you click on "toggle side panel"? That should at least bring the side panel back.

[Dragonfly]

I just discovered that the "toggle side panel" doesn't work with the IPB default skin (and other things don't work either), but it does work with the IPB 2.2.0 default skin. So William, you could try to change your skin.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I just fixed the problem. Following a hunch, I just checked and found the little varmint.

Following an older recommendation from the forum software company, I had disabled HTML posting for the Members category as it can be used maliciously.

I just enabled it for Members, so the resource I mentioned earlier should now show up.

If there are attacks on the forum through this, I will disable it again and, then, if anyone wants to post a video, I will request him to post the code and activate it myself.

Michael

[syrakusos]

"We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.''

These entities buy risk.

http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pridealers_current.html

Primary Dealers List

Memorandum to all Primary Dealers and Recipients of the Weekly Press Release on Dealer Positions and Transactions

The latest list reflects the following changes:

Effective October 1, 2008, Bear, Stearns & Co. was deleted from the list of primary dealers as a result of their acquisition by J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

List of the Primary Government Securities Dealers Reporting to the Government Securities Dealers Statistics Unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

BNP Paribas Securities Corp.

Banc of America Securities LLC

Barclays Capital Inc.

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC

Daiwa Securities America Inc.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

Dresdner Kleinwort Securities LLC

Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Greenwich Capital Markets, Inc.

HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.

J. P. Morgan Securities Inc.

Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc.

Mizuho Securities USA Inc.

Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated

UBS Securities LLC.

This is the list as it was in June 2006.

June 2006

ABN AMRO Bank, N.V., New York Branch

BNP Paribas Securities Corp.

Banc of America Securities LLC

Barclays Capital Inc.

Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc.

CIBC World Markets Corp.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Countrywide Securities Corporation

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC

Daiwa Securities America Inc.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities LLC.

Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Greenwich Capital Markets, Inc.

HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.

J. P. Morgan Securities Inc.

Lehman Brothers Inc.

Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc.

Mizuho Securities USA Inc.

Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated

Nomura Securities International, Inc.

UBS Securities LLC.