But, it is not corrupt, greedy, or excessive to want to make more money. In fact, it’s the same desire to make money that animates the small business owners that McCain is so fond of praising. If you are not always looking for ways to make more in the market you’re in, you’re going to lose. The point of regulation is to make sure that those business men and women acting in a perfectly rational manner with regard to their own interests don’t inadvertently threaten greater societal interests.
McCain is ill-fit for addressing a crisis like the one we’re facing precisely because he doesn’t understand that it’s not good for capitalism or for the country to rely on capitalists to worry about both their own fortunes and ours.
When you expect companies to be moral actors, that’s when the wheels come off.
weare-mann says
Not the only politician to be that. They all do what they want once they get in power. We’re all used to being lied to. True, he doesn’t have a clue as to what is going on. Neither does in guy in that’s supposedly running the place now.
<
p>Sad fact is that his economics adviser, (sometimes off, sometimes on Phil Gramm) is the guy that slipped the GSEs into the 2002 budget.
<
p>What’s the matter that we can’t get two good candidates out of over 300 million people?
joes says
http://www.motherjones.com/new…
john-beresford-tipton says
Now that the Dow is lower than when our fearless leader took over, we can be happy that the great Republican idea to put our Social Security funds into the stock market failed. You gotta be thankful for something.
<
p>The Big Three automakers are buttonholing our Speaker of the House for $25B, so the run is on. “Get them bucks before they ain’t worth nuthin’!” Is the Zimbabwe dollar soon to be worth more than the US dollar? It will be if all the “businessmen” get their way.
<
p>I haven’t seen anyone contemplate the future. Certainly finer minds than mine have figured out that universal healthcare is comatose if there are no monies to fund it. Has anyone figured out that we could save $1T by closing the foreign military bases? What else could we do? Pull the plug on imperialism? Should be worth a $1T.
<
p>Everett Dirksen, a Republican, once said, “Save a billion here, sava a billion there; soon it starts to add up to real money.” Now it’s trillion, but the idea is the same.
<
p>(I’m sure he sleeps like a baby.)
farnkoff says
I want a bailout from my debts and obligations, care of the taxpayers. Let’s put the names and photographs of AIG’s directors and execs in every post office.
ryepower12 says
we now own 80% of the world’s 18th largest company – as well as over 50% of this country’s mortgages. The “free market” Republicans make me laugh, hysterically. This near financial meltdown, and subsequent government take over of three of its largest companies, is reflective of their disasterious policies.
<
p>I actually don’t have a problem with any of these takeovers. However, if the taxpayers now own 80% of AIG and the two largest mortgage corporations in this country (and maybe even the world), we ought to be reaping the benefits. I think it was Mr. Lynne who wrote a diary on how eventually the government is going to end up taking on most of the insurance duties, that it was basically inevitable, but I doubt he thought it would happen this fast!
<
p>The damaging fact is that we’ve allowed all the major corporations in this country, more or less, to have an expectation that they can make all the profits in the world and, if they go over board and fuck things up, they don’t have to worry about when things go bad. We’ll bail them out. This is the result of the Republican “we don’t need no stinkin regulation” policy mantra.
<
p>It’s a policy that screws regular people in favor of making billions for a few corporate execs. It results in everything from these bailouts and bankruptcies to lead in the paint of our children’s toys. No thanks.
<
p>If we’re going to have to bail out these companies, the benefits and resources of these now must be shared. I wish we had Republicans talking about how we could make sure that the taxpayers will, from here on out, benefit from these arrangements – perhaps offerring government supported home owners insurance, etc. so we have real competition in this industry that is massively, massively profitable (and, as a whole, never has to worry about the true disasters… because they know the government will bail them out anyway). Imagine that! Whether people got their home owner’s insurance through the heavily regulated government, or got it through private means, it would likely cost a lot less than they currently pay and be better, should they need to make a claim. I say that’s a win, win – if we don’t let Republicans fuck it up again.
farnkoff says
Are they mostly “bad mortgages”, I wonder?
woburndem says
The number of Mortgages in Default sounds staggering at 1.7 million foreclosures last year and a reported 1.2 million this year. Yet the default rate is still well under 20% of all mortgages in the US closer to 12-15% of which my guess would be and the industry does not release this in any one report so it is difficult to lock a true number down 100%, but I would estimate that Freddie and Fannie hold about 60% of the foreclosure paper since they were forced to buy up and hold many of the loans other companies and Indy Mac were unloading to try to survive. You also have to remember that Bear Sterns, Lehman and AIG did not hold mortgages directly but derivative guarantees of mortgage products. So all and all the melt down thus far can be summed up in short order (1) lack of faith in Americans being able to pay their mortgage (clue Bad Economic Times) at a level that investors will make the return they wanted to and (2) those investors cashing out drew down on hand reserves to the point that Cash on hand to pay further requests did not exist. Bear, Lehman, AIG do not have an asset problem they had and have insufficient cash on hand to pay the promises that are being called. To pay out these claims to the big investors they promised to pay when the investor requested it they do not have the cash to do so. Look at the run on the banks that brought the crash of 1929 what happen people went to the local bank with their pass book and wanted to have their money back the bank because it used that money to make loans did not have enough to give back (Clue it’s called a run on the bank) guess what happen to Bear, Lehman, Merrill, and AIG yup a run and the regulations were so poor that they ran out of money long before the line even got long. So who gets the bill? Little ole you and me and the bill keep’s growing.
<
p>Think of it like this you have a $200,000 mortgage, private industry told a billion dollar investor we promise you will make 10% a year if you buy this batch of mortgages and if you don’t we will buy it back. Your $200,000 mortgage just got cashed in by the original investor who the money was borrowed from to make the loan to you now our government (clue you and me) has had to make good on all those promises so that the $200,000 that your only into for 4 years with a promise of 30 years is due to the investor because the bank and the mortgage companies did not tell them they could not have it for 30 years
So you and I are going to keep paying our mortgage for another 26 years and we are going to pay the added interest that our government has had to borrow on top of what we are paying for our mortgage so added up the taxes and your interest in real American dollars is now not 5.25% like you thought it is now 5.25% Plus 4.5% for the new T-bill issued to cover your mortgage. So you and I just got jacked up to 9.25% all because you wanted a piece of the American Dream welcome to Deregulation and un ethical business practices (or should I say it plain Corporate Lying)
<
p>Here is the next thing to watch for to see how low we will go FDIC has almost exhausted all of it’s funds. If Washington Mutual goes under the FDIC (clue insurer of Deposits to 100,000) has less then 20 Billion left in it’s accounts Washington has 120 Billion in bad debt and is already under collateralized on its accounts OOPS who’s going to pay that bill? Got a Clue Yet?
<
p>Best to All
kathy says
That has been the mantra of Republican Party economics. They’re big ole socialists when it comes to government intervention, as long as it is used to avert crisises largely of their own making.
woburndem says
Thinking about McCain I want to know when Mcflip/flop figured out the policies he and Phil Gramm touted for decades were bad for you and me was it Today or Yesterday?
<
p>Last week he said the economy was “fundamentally sound” I think his hearing and his eyesight is going fast what next Dementia
<
p>If you think this old Dog is going to learn a new trick Think Again at 72 I doubt he could balance his own checkbook.
<
p>Best to All
swamp-yank says
With all the flak that the Republicans are receiving (rightfully so), out comes Senator Biden with “taxes are patriotic.” Tells the public where his thinking is. When will the commentators start asking him about the patriotic tax breaks the lawmakers get?
<
p>I grant you that taxes will increase. We can only pray that the lawmakers will temper the tax increases with budget cuts and elimination and merger of agencies. If what is past is prologue, this is a forlorn hope.
<
p>The people that caused the problem will be the ones to fix it. The Republicans may share the lion’s share of blame, but, as I remember, there were Democrats serving with them that did nothing to prevent the disaster. Heaven help us.
ryepower12 says
CNN made a huge deal of it this very after noon.
<
p>But, taxes are patriotic. Are they not? If our troops are patriotic, isn’t you helping pay for them to exist patriotic? Paying your taxes is one of the most patriotic things you can do – even if Biden has foot and mouth disease.
<
p>By the way, if “past is prologue” why would you even think we’ll raise taxes, never mind raise taxes and not make budget cuts? The only taxes that will be raised will be the top 2%… and it’ll probably only be rollbacked to the clinton years, before Bush’s cuts fucked us over.