• Re: GM

    From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to ED HULETT on Sat Apr 24 05:50:00 2010
    ED HULETT wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 04/23/2010 06:27 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL wrote:
    Well well, it seems General Motors has paid back ALL
    it's TARP funds with interest and 5 years early at that
    so the U.S. taxpayer no longer owns GM as was
    recently maintained here.

    Another bit of good news.

    Only a year ago the TARP bailouts were project to cost
    500 Billion, now the projected figure is 87 billion
    with most of that accounted for by Freddie and Fannie.

    Ahem, GM used the TARP money that was put in an escrow account to "pay back" the smaller amount that was called a loan. So, basically, all
    they did was take taxpayer money to pay back taxpayer money. Plus, the
    US government is still 60% owner of GM with the Canadian government
    being a 12% owner. GM says they plan to fix that by issuing an IPO and
    go public... again... as if 72% government ownership isn't already
    public.

    Fannie and Freddie are the quasi government agencies that were at the center of the housing bubble collapse.

    Nope, that's the propaganda now being sold.

    Freddie and Fannie were the result of bad derivative packages sold to investors.

    Fannie and Freddie were thus a result of Wall Streets misbehavior and irresponsibility
    as in the Abacus Investments derivative packages now in the news sold by various investment
    firms such as Goldman Sachs.

    Then Goldman Sachs and other investment firms shorted the very Abacus Investment
    accounts they'd promoted to their clients betting against the very investments they had promoted.

    Since those deriviative investment packages largely consisted of sub-prime loans of course when their lack of any value it impacted Fannie and Freddie

    Large banking institutions engaged in speculation with investors monies
    in derivatives is the cause.

    Bill Clinton is partially to blame while the Republican Congressman from
    Texas who first proposed the repeal of the Glass Steagall act is dead center
    to blame.

    Bill Clinton could have vetoed the repeal of Glass Steagall but his financial advisors
    advised him they would be good for the economy, he's recently come out and admitted
    his mistake.

    BTW The Glass Steagall Act was first enacted after the Great Depression to prevent
    PRECISELY this sort of irresponsible lending by banking institutions.

    It took a mere eight years after the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act
    repeal for the house of cards to come crashing down.

    Actually only two years as the first down was Enron then WorldCom
    which should have alerted to these bad practices as these were precisely
    the sort of speculative packages sold as derivatives.

    IOW's both the Great Depression AND the current massive recession had
    almost identical causes.

    The Great Depression was caused by buying on margin and the current recession by speculation on derivative packages engaged in by large banking at up
    to 32 to 1 margin.

    Just as the current recession hit investment banking was gambling with derivative packages of dubious value at the margin of 30 - 1 actual
    dollars, banking dollars, like those kept in checking anbd savings accounts.

    It's rather easy to gamble with other peoples monies for short term huge personal
    financial gain.

    The current "fix" proposed by Democrats is to reduce the magin from 32 - 1
    to 10 to 1 and to limit the size to which large banks can grow.

    This amounts to a reinstatement of a rather watered down version of the Glass Steagall Act that had been rather effective in preventing such enormous financial meltdowns since the 1930's.

    The banks after the repeal of Glass Steagall rolled themselves into investment firms buying on margin just like individual investors in 1929 and just as in 1929 this came back and bit the American economy in the a**.






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  • From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to ROSS SAUER on Sat Apr 24 05:58:00 2010
    ROSS SAUER wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    "WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL" <1:123/140> wrote in
    news:29955$POL_INC@JamNNTPd:

    Well well, it seems General Motors has paid back ALL
    it's TARP funds with interest and 5 years early at that
    so the U.S. taxpayer no longer owns GM as was
    recently maintained here.

    Another bit of good news.

    Only a year ago the TARP bailouts were project to cost
    500 Billion, now the projected figure is 87 billion
    with most of that accounted for by Freddie and Fannie.

    Also Obama's "socialism" has driven the Dow into a *REALLY* steep decl...err...the Dow has hit 11,000 now for the first time in 5 years.

    Damn them Democrats!!!

    The Teabaggers are whinign about raising taxes, when their *OWN* taxes have decreased.

    Yup, posted on that.

    Also the gun rights tea bagger people in Virginia protesting while on
    federal park property illegal until Obama signed a bill giving them the right to
    carry in federally maintained parks.

    Kind of amusing in a dark way to the thinking man not brainwashed by our current
    media which is acting like a supermarket tabloid.


    But the rich right-wing media blatherers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn
    Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Sarah the Quitter, etc, their taxes have increased, due to all the cash they pull in.
    And that's TREASON! (sarcasm off)

    Yeah poor Rush and Glenn, just 22 and 32 million a year to try to scrape by
    on and try to make ends meet.

    I'm weeping right now thinking about what they must have to endure.

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  • From John Massey@1:123/789 to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE on Sat Apr 24 07:34:02 2010
    On 4/23/2010 9:27 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL wrote:
    General Motors has paid

    General Motors is running ads on all the major networks this week claiming it has repaid its bailout from the taxpayers "in full." But the claim isn't standing up to scrutiny from lawmakers and government watchdogs who have found that the automaker was able to repay the bailout money only by dipping into a separate pot of bailout funds.

    That's like saying a welfare receiver paying taxes using a welfare check.

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  • From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to JOHN MASSEY on Sat Apr 24 08:35:00 2010
    JOHN MASSEY wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 4/23/2010 9:27 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL wrote:
    General Motors has paid

    General Motors is running ads on all the major networks this week
    claiming it has repaid its bailout from the taxpayers "in full." But
    the claim isn't standing up to scrutiny from lawmakers and government watchdogs who have found that the automaker was able to repay the
    bailout money only by dipping into a separate pot of bailout funds.

    That's like saying a welfare receiver paying taxes using a welfare
    check.

    Well I'll not dispute you on this one point as I've only single sourced
    that claim I made.

    Generally I use multiple sources both liberal and conservative and fact check.

    Still and all the current adminstration is claiming the TARP bailouts
    projected at a 500 billion loss only a year ago is now projected to
    be a mere 87 billion.

    Not too bad for preventing a complete economic collapse of
    the U.S. economy.

    I call this one a win.

    Bush legislated the TARP bailout but fortunately Barack Hussein Obama implemented it as he was required to by law.

    Had the Bush administration administered the TARP bailout they legislated into law I'm not very confident they'd have managed the results we've gotten
    under this administrations handling of TARP.




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  • From Ross Cassell@1:123/456 to Ross Sauer on Sat Apr 24 09:16:09 2010
    Hello Ross!

    23 Apr 10 23:46, you wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE:

    decl...err...the Dow has hit 11,000 now for the first time in 5 years.

    The DOW hit higher peaks during so and so's administration, which didnt impress
    your Democrats..

    Why would it impress you now, oops thats right, partisanship.

    ==
    Ross
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    * Origin: The Eastern Star - Spartanburg, SC USA (1:123/456)
  • From Ed Hulett@1:123/789 to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE on Sat Apr 24 14:27:01 2010
    On 04/24/2010 02:50 AM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ED HULETT wrote:
    ED HULETT wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 04/23/2010 06:27 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL wrote:
    Well well, it seems General Motors has paid back ALL
    it's TARP funds with interest and 5 years early at that
    so the U.S. taxpayer no longer owns GM as was
    recently maintained here.

    Another bit of good news.

    Only a year ago the TARP bailouts were project to cost
    500 Billion, now the projected figure is 87 billion
    with most of that accounted for by Freddie and Fannie.

    Ahem, GM used the TARP money that was put in an escrow account to "pay
    back" the smaller amount that was called a loan. So, basically, all
    they did was take taxpayer money to pay back taxpayer money. Plus, the
    US government is still 60% owner of GM with the Canadian government
    being a 12% owner. GM says they plan to fix that by issuing an IPO and
    go public... again... as if 72% government ownership isn't already
    public.

    Fannie and Freddie are the quasi government agencies that were at the
    center of the housing bubble collapse.

    Nope, that's the propaganda now being sold.

    Sold by whom?

    Freddie and Fannie were the result of bad derivative packages sold to investors.

    Look up derivatives. You will find that you are arguing semantics.

    Fannie and Freddie were thus a result of Wall Streets misbehavior and irresponsibility
    as in the Abacus Investments derivative packages now in the news sold by various investment
    firms such as Goldman Sachs.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

    Just keep on believing that.

    Then Goldman Sachs and other investment firms shorted the very Abacus Investment
    accounts they'd promoted to their clients betting against the very investments
    they had promoted.

    They did? Where did you get that information? BTW, you might want to contact the SEC with that to help their case against GS.

    Since those deriviative investment packages largely consisted of sub-prime loans of course when their lack of any value it impacted Fannie and
    Freddie

    Uh, it was federal law which mandated that investment banks take on sub-prime loans with Fannie and Freddie being formed by the federal government to buy those loans as part of that law to help investment banks stay solvent.

    Large banking institutions engaged in speculation with investors monies
    in derivatives is the cause.

    It was federal law that forced them into that practice. The "Community Reinvestment Act" to be precise.

    Bill Clinton is partially to blame while the Republican Congressman from Texas who first proposed the repeal of the Glass Steagall act is dead center
    to blame.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

    You parrot left-wing talking points well.

    Bill Clinton could have vetoed the repeal of Glass Steagall but his financial
    advisors
    advised him they would be good for the economy, he's recently come out and admitted
    his mistake.

    Poor Slick, he was a victim of the bad old Republicans and poor advice.

    Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

    BTW The Glass Steagall Act was first enacted after the Great Depression to prevent
    PRECISELY this sort of irresponsible lending by banking institutions.

    Do you even know what Glass Steagall is about?

    It took a mere eight years after the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act repeal for the house of cards to come crashing down.

    Glass Steagall has nothing to do with sub-prime loans.

    Actually only two years as the first down was Enron then WorldCom
    which should have alerted to these bad practices as these were precisely the sort of speculative packages sold as derivatives.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

    IOW's both the Great Depression AND the current massive recession had almost identical causes.

    Yes, too much government meddling.

    The Great Depression was caused by buying on margin and the current recession
    by speculation on derivative packages engaged in by large banking at up
    to 32 to 1 margin.

    Total bunk.

    Just as the current recession hit investment banking was gambling with derivative packages of dubious value at the margin of 30 - 1 actual dollars, banking dollars, like those kept in checking anbd savings accounts.

    Who was supposed to lose WRT government mandated sub-prime loans? Were the banks just supposed to eat their losses when the borrowers were unable to pay their loan payments? It was federal law, CRA again, that mandated banks give loans to people who had no real means to pay those loans so the federal government could "right a wrong" where there was none. Fannie, and then Freddie
    was set up to take on those toxic loans in an attempt to keep the banks from going bankrupt.

    It's rather easy to gamble with other peoples monies for short term huge personal
    financial gain.

    Do you even have a clue what a sub-prime loan is and why banks were selling them to Fannie and Freddie? It wasn't for "short term huge personal financial gain."

    The current "fix" proposed by Democrats is to reduce the magin from 32 - 1 to 10 to 1 and to limit the size to which large banks can grow.

    Oh yeah, limit freedom. That's always how Democrats think.

    This amounts to a reinstatement of a rather watered down version of the Glass
    Steagall Act that had been rather effective in preventing such enormous financial meltdowns since the 1930's.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

    The banks after the repeal of Glass Steagall rolled themselves into investment
    firms buying on margin just like individual investors in 1929 and just
    as in
    1929 this came back and bit the American economy in the a**.

    You parrot the propaganda well.

    Ed

    --
    "Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the
    entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world
    disagrees with it." --Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204)

    Blogs: http://edsramblings.wordpress.com | http://woodcaringnsuch.wordpress.com http://edsscrollsawbits.blogspot.com

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  • From Ross Cassell@1:123/456 to Ed Hulett on Sat Apr 24 16:40:11 2010
    Hello Ed!

    24 Apr 10 14:27, you wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE:

    They did? Where did you get that information?

    Checked and triple-checked on 45 and 1/3 blogs, cross-checked with the BBC and Al-Jazerra, the dialectical critical thinking is employed, followed by a cup of
    coffee?

    BTW, you might want to
    contact the SEC with that to help their case against GS.

    Do we want to have Wayne surfing for porn?

    ==
    Ross
    Fidonet Feeds Or Fidonet In Your Newsreader: http://www.easternstar.info E-mail: ross(at)cassell(dot)us | Other Places: http://links.cassell.us
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  • From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to ROSS CASSELL on Sat Apr 24 18:33:00 2010
    ROSS CASSELL wrote to ROSS SAUER <=-

    Hello Ross!

    23 Apr 10 23:46, you wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE:

    decl...err...the Dow has hit 11,000 now for the first time in 5 years.

    The DOW hit higher peaks during so and so's administration, which didnt impress your Democrats..

    Because that peak was caused by the merging of banks with investment groups and derivatives, AND under so and so's administration the economy CRASHED
    and BURNED due to the repeal of Glass Steagall introduced to Congress
    by a Republican Congressman from Texas.

    Derivatives were fraudulently represented as having value they did not have.

    Mind you Bill Clinton bears some responsibility for not vetoing the
    repeal of Glass Steagall due to bad advice from his finanacial advisors.

    Something Bill Clinton has admitted to BTW.

    Why would it impress you now, oops thats right, partisanship.

    I'm critical of *individuals* of either party.

    Blind partisanship is just that, BLIND.

    Something else I'm critical of Clinton?

    Deploying the Robust Earth Penetrater a nuke designed to burrow underground that was of dubious value also creates the very worst of fallout great many times that an air burst.

    Something critical of Obama?

    His proposal to put conventional warheads on on ICBM's, the so called "fast response"
    weapon.

    Now how is any nervous nuclear capable nation to know which sort of warhead is on
    that ICBM?

    You've anywhere from 10 to 50 minutes to respond while tracking that incoming ICBM so does the recipient just await its arrival to see what sort it is or counter attack with a nuclear tipped ICBM?

    The conventional wisdom is to respond BEFORE hit lest that destroy ones
    ability to respond.

    The EMP from a nuke detonated in the atmosphere alone is enough to
    disable much of any sort of response.

    This is gambling of the most deadly kind with worldwide consequences
    should such a launch of a conventional weapon atop a ICBM be taken for
    a nuclear tipped ICBM.

    Expensive too, why not just send twenty conventionally tipped cruise missles instead flying under the radar from either submarines or surface vessel ships we've positioned the world over?

    We've already DONE that and without retaliation in kind.

    BTW Rumsfeld first proposed this however after discussing it with Russians
    they reversed themselves and so and so's administration did NOT impliment it.

    You might also investigate Congressionally passed "supplimental funding" something on the order of 750 billion passed by the so and so administration
    as these aren't even recorded on the books as regards to calculating the national
    deficit.

    The Dow at 14,000 was the result of accounting fraud on a massive scale.

    What happpened under so and so?
    Early on Enron and WorldCom then the collapse of Wall Street and the TARP bailout
    legislation.

    While now under the Barack Hussein Obama administration the Dow at 11,000
    more accurately reflects the true status of the American economy rather
    than the cooked books we saw in the previous administration.

    Even that improvement is tenuous and subject to reversal should
    the financial reform of Wall Street and combination large bank - investment firms not be addressed properly and implimented.

    Just reimplimenting Glass Steagall would be a huge buffer against the abuses that took place under so and so just as it had worked from the 1930's
    until 1999 when it was repealed under legislation introduced by a Republican Congressman from Texas.

    Glass Steagall WORKED for near 70 years.
    After its repeal Enron and WorldCom failed in two years with the rest of the economy
    following 5 years later in 2007.


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  • From Ross Cassell@1:123/456 to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE on Sat Apr 24 19:14:37 2010
    Hello WAYNE!

    24 Apr 10 18:33, you wrote to me:

    The DOW hit higher peaks during so and so's administration, which
    didnt impress your Democrats..

    Because that peak was caused by the merging of banks with investment groups and derivatives, AND under so and so's administration the
    economy CRASHED and BURNED due to the repeal of Glass Steagall
    introduced to Congress by a Republican Congressman from Texas.

    These peaks were achieved well before the meltdowns and the poopoo'ing being done about those peaks were done only for partisan reasons..

    Same exact scenarios under a Gore or Kerry, and they would have been singing, look at this prosperity.

    ==
    Ross
    Fidonet Feeds Or Fidonet In Your Newsreader: http://www.easternstar.info E-mail: ross(at)cassell(dot)us | Other Places: http://links.cassell.us
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  • From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to ED HULETT on Sat Apr 24 20:36:00 2010
    ED HULETT wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 04/24/2010 02:50 AM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ED HULETT wrote:
    ED HULETT wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 04/23/2010 06:27 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL wrote:
    Well well, it seems General Motors has paid back ALL
    it's TARP funds with interest and 5 years early at that
    so the U.S. taxpayer no longer owns GM as was
    recently maintained here.

    Another bit of good news.

    Only a year ago the TARP bailouts were project to cost
    500 Billion, now the projected figure is 87 billion
    with most of that accounted for by Freddie and Fannie.

    Ahem, GM used the TARP money that was put in an escrow account to "pay
    back" the smaller amount that was called a loan. So, basically, all
    they did was take taxpayer money to pay back taxpayer money. Plus, the
    US government is still 60% owner of GM with the Canadian government
    being a 12% owner. GM says they plan to fix that by issuing an IPO and
    go public... again... as if 72% government ownership isn't already
    public.

    Fannie and Freddie are the quasi government agencies that were at the
    center of the housing bubble collapse.

    Nope, that's the propaganda now being sold.

    Sold by whom?

    Freddie and Fannie were the result of bad derivative packages sold to investors.

    Look up derivatives. You will find that you are arguing semantics.

    Fannie and Freddie were thus a result of Wall Streets misbehavior and irresponsibility
    as in the Abacus Investments derivative packages now in the news sold by various investment
    firms such as Goldman Sachs.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

    What a convincing rebuttal.

    Just keep on believing that.

    Then Goldman Sachs and other investment firms shorted the very Abacus Investment
    accounts they'd promoted to their clients betting against the very investments
    they had promoted.

    They did? Where did you get that information? BTW, you might want to contact the SEC with that to help their case against GS.

    Uh they've enough problems to contend with dealing with their people downloading porn rather than keeping an eye on the economic sector on
    Wall Street.

    They couldn't even be bothered to look into charges about Bernard Madoff despite YEARS of being told it was a ponsie scheme, during the last administration BTW.

    Since those deriviative investment packages largely consisted of sub-prime loans of course when their lack of any value it impacted Fannie and
    Freddie

    Uh, it was federal law which mandated that investment banks take on sub-prime loans with Fannie and Freddie being formed by the federal government to buy those loans as part of that law to help investment
    banks stay solvent.

    Nope it was the LACK of federal law and the LACK of banking oversight
    produced by the Republican Congressman from Texas introducing the repeal
    of Glass Steagall.

    Had Glass Steagall NOT been repealed in 1999 investment banking would have remained forbidden to the banking industry and banking and investment firms would have remained separate entities with derivatives limited
    to investors willing to take on risks equivalent to the commodities
    market where where you can go broke rahter quickly even after POURING
    money into it.

    That's for speculators, not people relying on their 401k's or
    hedge funds and mutual fund accounts.

    Or it WAS until the repeal of Glass Steagal, now it's
    akin to paramutual bettings only with much greater risk.

    With Glass Steagall in place.
    The banks being unable to gamble with banking clients
    accounts, 401k's and hedge funds these derivatives would
    never have been able to initiate the banking meltdown as they'd have
    to have made FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE mortage loans rather then to be so eager to bundle sub-prime mortgages into derivatives on 32 - 1 margins
    in anticipation of huge profit at equally huge risk.

    All this on account of the repeal of Glass Steagall.

    Large banking institutions engaged in speculation with investors monies
    in derivatives is the cause.

    It was federal law that forced them into that practice. The "Community Reinvestment Act" to be precise.

    Bill Clinton is partially to blame while the Republican Congressman from Texas who first proposed the repeal of the Glass Steagall act is dead center
    to blame.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

    You parrot left-wing talking points well.

    Actually these are FACTS it appears you cannot be bothered to verify.

    Bill Clinton could have vetoed the repeal of Glass Steagall but his financial
    advisors
    advised him they would be good for the economy, he's recently come out and admitted
    his mistake.

    Poor Slick, he was a victim of the bad old Republicans and poor advice.

    I didn't say that, his finanacial advisors were members of his own cabinet.

    The Republican Congressman from Texas didn't advise Bill Clinton,
    rather he was persuaded NOT to veto the bill after Republicans pushed the legislation through Congress.
    It was his own cabinet advisors that led Clinton astray
    and he's admitted to the error.

    Don't go building strawmen then claim points for refuting that
    which I never said, that's dishonest and deceitful.

    Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

    Another of your profound rebuttals?

    BTW The Glass Steagall Act was first enacted after the Great Depression to prevent
    PRECISELY this sort of irresponsible lending by banking institutions.

    Do you even know what Glass Steagall is about?

    YES, do you?

    I can explain it to you if you like.

    It took a mere eight years after the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act
    for the house of cards to come crashing down.

    Glass Steagall has nothing to do with sub-prime loans.

    No it does not, it separates speculative investment firms from the banking industry.

    That is NOT to say it's REPEAL had nothing to do with sub-prime mortgages as sub-prime mortgages gave investment banking the funds on 30 - 1 margin
    to engage in the practice of selling worthless derivatives, than shorting them. Thus the financial collapse.

    Sub-prime loans were the SOURCE of the funds along with mutual funds and 401k the banks would not have been able to otherwise engage in investing in woorthless derivatives had not Glass Steagal been repealed.


    Rather more complicated than can be rebutted by your extended ha ha's
    and numerous exclamation points.


    Actually only two years as the first down was Enron then WorldCom
    which should have alerted to these bad practices as these were precisely the sort of speculative packages sold as derivatives.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

    So you'd no idea that Enron spun off worthless assets to
    subsidiaries in order to cook the books resulting in its collapse?

    You appear to find all of this rather amusing from your
    lack of rebuttal with any more depth than "hahahahahaha..." with bunches
    of exclaimation points

    IOW's both the Great Depression AND the current massive recession had almost identical causes.

    Yes, too much government meddling.

    To Little, Glass Steagall "meddling" as you call it by enforcing the separation of investment firms from banking firms held up for near seventy years
    until repealed.

    After that not eight years passed before the house of cards fell apart.

    It's kind of like my taking monies from your savings account and 401K
    and going off to the dog track and playing a few 6 dollar box
    trifectas in hopes of hitting a big one.

    The Great Depression was caused by buying on margin and the current recession
    by speculation on derivative packages engaged in by large banking at up
    to 32 to 1 margin.

    Total bunk.

    You don't watch a lot of PBS do you?
    Nor hit multiple and varied sources of information on the internet?

    I hit BOTH Republican AND Democratic web sites and employ dialectic reasoning to arrive at my conclusions.

    Just as the current recession hit investment banking was gambling with derivative packages of dubious value at the margin of 30 - 1 actual dollars, banking dollars, like those kept in checking anbd savings accounts.

    Who was supposed to lose WRT government mandated sub-prime loans? Were
    the banks just supposed to eat their losses when the borrowers were
    unable to pay their loan payments? It was federal law, CRA again, that mandated banks give loans to people who had no real means to pay those loans so the federal government could "right a wrong" where there was none. Fannie, and then Freddie was set up to take on those toxic loans
    in an attempt to keep the banks from going bankrupt.

    It's rather easy to gamble with other peoples monies for short term huge personal
    financial gain.

    Do you even have a clue what a sub-prime loan is and why banks were selling them to Fannie and Freddie? It wasn't for "short term huge personal financial gain."

    The current "fix" proposed by Democrats is to reduce the magin from 32 - 1 to 10 to 1 and to limit the size to which large banks can grow.

    Oh yeah, limit freedom. That's always how Democrats think.

    Limit irresponsible collusion between questionable investment firm derivatives and the nations banking customers assets in savings. checking and 401k's.

    That's how critcal thinking people think regardless of party affiliation.

    You've something against the retirees wiped out in the derivatives
    fueled economic crash?

    The crash FUELED by sub-prime mortgages bundled into derivatives
    then shorted by the banking - investment firms that passed them off
    to customers as sound investments?

    This amounts to a reinstatement of a rather watered down version of the Glass
    Steagall Act that had been rather effective in preventing such enormous financial meltdowns since the 1930's.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

    Another _convincing_ rebuttal.

    The banks after the repeal of Glass Steagall rolled themselves into investment
    firms buying on margin just like individual investors in 1929 and just
    as in
    1929 this came back and bit the American economy in the a**.

    You parrot the propaganda well.

    Why don't you do a little research rather than just parroting Republican
    taking points, Rush and Glenn Beck?

    I'm citing verifiable facts and history, your lack of comprehension of these facts
    and history in no way indicates I've been the least bit influenced by propaganda, that's your your shtick.

    And yes I do indeed read The Wall Street Journal among a great many other sources.
    http://online.wsj.com/home-page

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  • From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to ROSS CASSELL on Sat Apr 24 20:58:00 2010
    ROSS CASSELL wrote to ED HULETT <=-

    Hello Ed!

    24 Apr 10 14:27, you wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE:

    They did? Where did you get that information?

    Checked and triple-checked on 45 and 1/3 blogs, cross-checked with the
    BBC and Al-Jazerra, the dialectical critical thinking is employed, followed by a cup of coffee?

    BTW, you might want to
    contact the SEC with that to help their case against GS.

    Do we want to have Wayne surfing for porn?

    Uh Ross, lets have no more unfounded and incorrect speculations OK?

    Among a great many sources I employ is the rather conservative
    Wall Street Journal
    http://online.wsj.com/home-page


    I do NOT go to either Fox or Al Jazeera for financial news
    and in fact rarely visit either Fox or Al Jazeera as I consider
    both approximately equally inaccurate though the latter convinced me
    that Islam is NOT a religion of peace.

    Both Fox News and Al Jazeera engage in propaganda, just of different sorts.

    ... So easy, a child could do it. Child sold separately.
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  • From Ross Cassell@1:123/456 to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE on Sat Apr 24 21:26:18 2010
    Hello WAYNE!

    24 Apr 10 20:58, you wrote to me:

    They did? Where did you get that information?

    Checked and triple-checked on 45 and 1/3 blogs, cross-checked
    with the BBC and Al-Jazerra, the dialectical critical thinking is
    employed, followed by a cup of coffee?

    BTW, you might want to
    contact the SEC with that to help their case against GS.

    Do we want to have Wayne surfing for porn?

    Uh Ross, lets have no more unfounded and incorrect speculations OK?

    Humor Wayne, humor...

    Certainly you can find it ironic that the SEC launches its assault on Goldman Sachs around the same time it is revealed that some among their number were found to be downloading porn on govt computers?? Of course you could take the liberal slant that they werent hurting anybody, what is the big deal?

    The big joke making its trip in the blogosphere is why didnt the SEC catch on to them sooner and the punchline is that they had other things on their mind.. <snrk>

    This does not mean *I* think Goldman Sachs is innocent of anything..

    What will be lost here is that we will have filthy hands prosecuting another set of filthy hands..

    ==
    Ross
    Fidonet Feeds Or Fidonet In Your Newsreader: http://www.easternstar.info E-mail: ross(at)cassell(dot)us | Other Places: http://links.cassell.us
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  • From WAYNE CHIRNSIDE@1:123/140 to ROSS CASSELL on Sat Apr 24 22:21:00 2010
    ROSS CASSELL wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    Hello WAYNE!

    24 Apr 10 18:33, you wrote to me:

    The DOW hit higher peaks during so and so's administration, which
    didnt impress your Democrats..

    Because that peak was caused by the merging of banks with investment groups and derivatives, AND under so and so's administration the
    economy CRASHED and BURNED due to the repeal of Glass Steagall
    introduced to Congress by a Republican Congressman from Texas.

    These peaks were achieved well before the meltdowns and the poopoo'ing being done about those peaks were done only for partisan reasons..

    There were peaks before The Great Depression as well, large ones.

    Same exact scenarios under a Gore or Kerry, and they would have been singing, look at this prosperity.

    Why is it nothing in your reply containing MY points with only your points substituted?

    Sure there were peaks during the Bush administration, largely due to fraudulent

    book keeping
    practices and irresponsible behavior of the banking industry once merged
    with the investment firms.

    Enron and WorldCom failed at the very beginning of the Bush administration
    and were a clue of things to come.

    This within two years of the repeal of Glass Steagall.

    Especially Enron.

    Without the Republican Congressman from Texas intruducing the repeal of
    Glass Steagall and Republicans pushing it through little of the
    irresponsible investing could have taken place as investment firms
    and banks could not have merged nor would they have
    access to bank customers accounts in the form of 401k, mutual funds
    and other investment portfolios.

    THAT'S what fueled the sub-prime mortgage lending, access to the
    banks clients sub-prime mortages which were only lent in the first place because they wanted immmediate access to funds to invest in questionable high risk investments for high initial profit.

    Then when it became apparent the sub-prime loans were a liability rather
    than an asset they were bundled into derivative packages and sold to investment banking customers as a valuble investment while all the time knowing
    that's where they'd passed along their risk.

    Face it, Glass Steagall was enormously successful for just under 70 years between the Great Depression and the collapse of 2007.

    I quite simply do not understand how an Office Depot employee fails
    to understand what happened nor why he would side with investment bankers ripping off the middle class while enriching the top 2 percent and Goldman Sacks
    having been bailed out by YOUR tax dollars making record profits AND
    giving 5 BILLION in executive bonuses after being a large portion of the
    cause of the financial collapse of the U.S. financial sector.

    I can only assume you believe in an oligarchy where only the wealthy elite few have all the rights, privileges and advantages of having the tax burden shifted to the working class.

    Here's a clue Ross, you're supporting those that are exploiting yourself
    and the rest of the working class.

    Sure the top twenty percent pay 1/2 the taxes but in that 20 percent is the top part
    of the working class before you reach the elite 5 percent who through various loopholes and a legislation geared to shifting the tax burden to the working class
    pay less proportionally of their income than you do as a working man.

    You've been SNOWED.

    Warren Buffet himself quite plainly expained he didn't think it fair
    his secretary paid a third more in taxes than he did when in fact
    Warren Buffett takes advantage of no tax loopholes for the wealthy.

    He as a BILLIONAIRE simply is taxed at a lower rate because your party has passed legislation making it so.

    You're apparently happy Warren Buffett and other billionaires
    and multimillionaires actually pay far less of their income proportionally than you do
    in taxes.

    You in effect are subsidising Warren Buffett and Bill Gates lower taxes
    while paying more proportionately of your own income than they do.

    So you are arguing the elite wealthy should be supported
    and subsidized by yourself and the rest of the working class.

    You absolutely ASTOUND me.

    Somehow I don't believe you'll ever work your way to
    the top of the top of the oligarchy working at Office Depot
    but you seem to ascribe to the idea rich people are intrinsically better than you and deserve to pay proportionally less in taxes than you do.

    I'll NEVER as long as I live understand that mind set.





    ... So easy, a child could do it. Child sold separately.
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  • From Ed Hulett@1:123/789 to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE on Sun Apr 25 01:36:16 2010
    On 04/24/2010 05:36 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ED HULETT wrote:
    ED HULETT wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 04/24/2010 02:50 AM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ED HULETT wrote:
    ED HULETT wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

    On 04/23/2010 06:27 PM, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE -> ALL wrote:
    Well well, it seems General Motors has paid back ALL
    it's TARP funds with interest and 5 years early at that
    so the U.S. taxpayer no longer owns GM as was
    recently maintained here.

    Another bit of good news.

    Only a year ago the TARP bailouts were project to cost
    500 Billion, now the projected figure is 87 billion
    with most of that accounted for by Freddie and Fannie.

    Ahem, GM used the TARP money that was put in an escrow account to "pay
    back" the smaller amount that was called a loan. So, basically, all
    they did was take taxpayer money to pay back taxpayer money. Plus, the
    US government is still 60% owner of GM with the Canadian government
    being a 12% owner. GM says they plan to fix that by issuing an IPO and
    go public... again... as if 72% government ownership isn't already
    public.

    Fannie and Freddie are the quasi government agencies that were at the
    center of the housing bubble collapse.

    Nope, that's the propaganda now being sold.

    Sold by whom?

    Freddie and Fannie were the result of bad derivative packages sold to
    investors.

    Look up derivatives. You will find that you are arguing semantics.

    Fannie and Freddie were thus a result of Wall Streets misbehavior and
    irresponsibility
    as in the Abacus Investments derivative packages now in the news
    sold by
    various investment
    firms such as Goldman Sachs.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

    What a convincing rebuttal.

    Your comment is so ridiculous it rebuts itself.

    Just keep on believing that.

    Then Goldman Sachs and other investment firms shorted the very Abacus
    Investment
    accounts they'd promoted to their clients betting against the very
    investments
    they had promoted.

    They did? Where did you get that information? BTW, you might want to
    contact the SEC with that to help their case against GS.

    Uh they've enough problems to contend with dealing with their people downloading porn rather than keeping an eye on the economic sector on
    Wall Street.

    So, they should drop their case against GS?

    They couldn't even be bothered to look into charges about Bernard Madoff despite YEARS of being told it was a ponsie scheme, during the last administration BTW.

    Madoff is in prison. Revising history must make you feel good.

    Since those deriviative investment packages largely consisted of
    sub-prime
    loans of course when their lack of any value it impacted Fannie and
    Freddie

    Uh, it was federal law which mandated that investment banks take on
    sub-prime loans with Fannie and Freddie being formed by the federal
    government to buy those loans as part of that law to help investment
    banks stay solvent.

    Nope it was the LACK of federal law and the LACK of banking oversight produced by the Republican Congressman from Texas introducing the repeal of Glass Steagall.

    Take a look at the Community Reinvestment Act and get back to me. Glass Steagall had little or nothing to do with the sub-prime loan bust.

    Had Glass Steagall NOT been repealed in 1999 investment banking would have remained forbidden to the banking industry and banking and investment
    firms
    would have remained separate entities with derivatives limited
    to investors willing to take on risks equivalent to the commodities
    market where where you can go broke rahter quickly even after POURING money into it.

    Total nonsense.

    That's for speculators, not people relying on their 401k's or
    hedge funds and mutual fund accounts.

    Huh?

    Or it WAS until the repeal of Glass Steagal, now it's
    akin to paramutual bettings only with much greater risk.

    You have no earthly clue about which you speak.

    With Glass Steagall in place.
    The banks being unable to gamble with banking clients
    accounts, 401k's and hedge funds these derivatives would
    never have been able to initiate the banking meltdown as they'd have
    to have made FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE mortage loans rather then to be so eager
    to bundle sub-prime mortgages into derivatives on 32 - 1 margins
    in anticipation of huge profit at equally huge risk.

    Fannie and Freddie were created to handle sub-primes and became overwhelmed when defaults outnumbered solvent loans. It was federal law (Community Reinvestment Act) that mandated banks give loans to people who had no collateral and could not repay them (sub-prime loans) in the first place. Even with Glass Seagall in place, there would still be a collapse in sub-prime loans, in fact it may have happened sooner.

    All this on account of the repeal of Glass Steagall.

    Total nonsense. All you are doing is parroting Democrat boilerplate.

    Large banking institutions engaged in speculation with investors monies
    in derivatives is the cause.

    It was federal law that forced them into that practice. The "Community
    Reinvestment Act" to be precise.

    Bill Clinton is partially to blame while the Republican Congressman
    from
    Texas who first proposed the repeal of the Glass Steagall act is dead
    center
    to blame.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

    You parrot left-wing talking points well.

    Actually these are FACTS it appears you cannot be bothered to verify.

    Verify by reading left-wing blogs like you do?

    Bill Clinton could have vetoed the repeal of Glass Steagall but his
    financial
    advisors
    advised him they would be good for the economy, he's recently come
    out and
    admitted
    his mistake.

    Poor Slick, he was a victim of the bad old Republicans and poor advice.

    I didn't say that, his finanacial advisors were members of his own
    cabinet.

    What cabinet department were they members of?

    The Republican Congressman from Texas didn't advise Bill Clinton,
    rather he was persuaded NOT to veto the bill after Republicans pushed the legislation through Congress.
    It was his own cabinet advisors that led Clinton astray
    and he's admitted to the error.

    Sure, It's all the Republicans' fault. It is a GOVERNMENT problem! Not a party problem.

    Don't go building strawmen then claim points for refuting that
    which I never said, that's dishonest and deceitful.

    Huh? You're the one building Republican strawmen.

    Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

    Another of your profound rebuttals?

    I'm laughing at the idiocy of your claims.

    BTW The Glass Steagall Act was first enacted after the Great
    Depression to
    prevent
    PRECISELY this sort of irresponsible lending by banking institutions.

    Do you even know what Glass Steagall is about?

    YES, do you?

    Yes. Actually there are two Glass-Steagall Acts, one in 1932 that gave the Fed the ability to offer rediscounts. The second, in 1933 is the one you are referring to and it WASN'T repealed entirely. It set up the FDIC (still there),
    separated commercial and investment banks and gave the Fed the power to set interest rates on savings accounts. In 1980, the Fed's power to set interest rates on savings accounts was repealed and in 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed the part that separated commercial and investment banking.

    The Graham-Leach-Bliley Act had nothing to do with the default of Fannie and Freddie which set the house of cards on its cascade.

    Of the 100+ bank failures since, few or none of them have been because of the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act.

    I can explain it to you if you like.

    Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

    It took a mere eight years after the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act
    for the house of cards to come crashing down.

    Glass Steagall has nothing to do with sub-prime loans.

    No it does not, it separates speculative investment firms from the banking industry.

    Which had nothing to do with banks being saddled with sub-prime loans by government fiat. The banks had to do something to keep from defaulting from the
    sub-prime load they were expected to bear. Fannie and Freddie were set up to ensure sub-prime loans, but they couldn't handle the load even though they were
    quasi government entities. When Fannie and Freddie fell, it was only a matter of time before banks fell and it started with the "too big to fail" banks and has not abated. All of this can be placed at the feet of the federal government
    and their misguided meddling.

    That is NOT to say it's REPEAL had nothing to do with sub-prime
    mortgages as
    sub-prime mortgages gave investment banking the funds on 30 - 1 margin
    to engage in the practice of selling worthless derivatives, than
    shorting them.
    Thus the financial collapse.

    If not for government intervention and mandating that banks loan money to people who had no collateral or way of paying back those loans, there would not
    have been a sub-prime loan crisis.

    Sub-prime loans were the SOURCE of the funds along with mutual funds and 401k
    the banks would not have been able to otherwise engage in investing in woorthless derivatives had not Glass Steagal been repealed.

    Glass-Steagal was NOT repealed, only some provisions of it were. Had they not been repealed, the sub-prime collapse would have happened much earlier.

    Rather more complicated than can be rebutted by your extended ha ha's
    and numerous exclamation points.

    All you are doing is parroting the Democrat talking points. All you can do is point fingers at Republicans. When you stop trying to make this a partisan talking point, you might see less "haha's" and exclamation points.


    Actually only two years as the first down was Enron then WorldCom
    which should have alerted to these bad practices as these were
    precisely
    the sort of speculative packages sold as derivatives.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

    So you'd no idea that Enron spun off worthless assets to
    subsidiaries in order to cook the books resulting in its collapse?

    Your attempt to sound British is amusing. Ask Paul Krugmann what Enron did, he was their financial adviser.

    You appear to find all of this rather amusing from your
    lack of rebuttal with any more depth than "hahahahahaha..." with bunches of exclaimation points

    No, I find your trying to blame it all on Republicans amusing.

    IOW's both the Great Depression AND the current massive recession had
    almost identical causes.

    Yes, too much government meddling.

    To Little, Glass Steagall "meddling" as you call it by enforcing the separation
    of investment firms from banking firms held up for near seventy years until repealed.

    You have no idea about which you speak.

    After that not eight years passed before the house of cards fell apart.

    The house of cards falling had EVERYTHING to do with the Community Reinvestment
    Act that set up Fanny Mae and later Freddie Mac and little to do with the repeal of one provision of Glass-Steagall.

    It's kind of like my taking monies from your savings account and 401K
    and going off to the dog track and playing a few 6 dollar box
    trifectas in hopes of hitting a big one.

    Again, you haven't a clue.

    The Great Depression was caused by buying on margin and the current
    recession
    by speculation on derivative packages engaged in by large banking at up
    to 32 to 1 margin.

    Total bunk.

    You don't watch a lot of PBS do you?

    No, I don't watch left-wing propaganda.

    Nor hit multiple and varied sources of information on the internet?

    I get hundreds of Google alerts on several issues on a daily basis and get several news feeds both on my computers and my Blackberry.

    I hit BOTH Republican AND Democratic web sites and employ dialectic reasoning
    to arrive at my conclusions.

    Sure you do. Your willingness to blame Republicans for everything and excuse Democrats of all things is evidence that "dialectic reasoning" is foreign to you.

    Just as the current recession hit investment banking was gambling with
    derivative packages of dubious value at the margin of 30 - 1 actual
    dollars, banking dollars, like those kept in checking anbd savings
    accounts.

    Who was supposed to lose WRT government mandated sub-prime loans? Were
    the banks just supposed to eat their losses when the borrowers were
    unable to pay their loan payments? It was federal law, CRA again, that
    mandated banks give loans to people who had no real means to pay those
    loans so the federal government could "right a wrong" where there was
    none. Fannie, and then Freddie was set up to take on those toxic loans
    in an attempt to keep the banks from going bankrupt.

    It's rather easy to gamble with other peoples monies for short term
    huge
    personal
    financial gain.

    Do you even have a clue what a sub-prime loan is and why banks were
    selling them to Fannie and Freddie? It wasn't for "short term huge
    personal financial gain."

    The current "fix" proposed by Democrats is to reduce the magin from
    32 - 1
    to 10 to 1 and to limit the size to which large banks can grow.

    Oh yeah, limit freedom. That's always how Democrats think.

    Limit irresponsible collusion between questionable investment firm derivatives
    and the nations banking customers assets in savings. checking and 401k's.

    Uh huh... "irresponsible" by who's definition?

    That's how critcal thinking people think regardless of party affiliation.

    Something you haven't done.

    You've something against the retirees wiped out in the derivatives
    fueled economic crash?

    Huh? Have you stopped beating your wife?

    The crash FUELED by sub-prime mortgages bundled into derivatives
    then shorted by the banking - investment firms that passed them off
    to customers as sound investments?

    Those "customers" were other banks and investment firms. How would you propose the banks save themselves from default once all those sub-primes started tanking? Again, do you know what a sub-prime loan is? A sub-prime is a loan given to someone who has no means to pay it back and no collateral beyond the house they bought with it. Those loans were mandated by the Community Reinvestment Act. Instead of giving incentives for people to better themselves,
    government usually saddles the rest of society with the burden to pay for those
    who cannot pay for themselves.

    This amounts to a reinstatement of a rather watered down version of the
    Glass
    Steagall Act that had been rather effective in preventing such enormous
    financial meltdowns since the 1930's.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

    Another _convincing_ rebuttal.

    Again, I wasn't rebutting anything, I was laughing at your partisan rant.

    The banks after the repeal of Glass Steagall rolled themselves into
    investment
    firms buying on margin just like individual investors in 1929 and just
    as in
    1929 this came back and bit the American economy in the a**.

    You parrot the propaganda well.

    Why don't you do a little research rather than just parroting Republican taking points, Rush and Glenn Beck?

    I'm not a Republican. I don't parrot any talking points.

    What about Rush and Glenn Beck? Have you listened to either of them? Do you know what they talk about?

    I'm citing verifiable facts and history, your lack of comprehension of these
    facts
    and history in no way indicates I've been the least bit influenced by propaganda, that's your your shtick.

    All you have done is parrot the left. Until you stop pointing at Republicans and blaming them for all our ills, you aren't worth reading.

    And yes I do indeed read The Wall Street Journal among a great many other sources.
    http://online.wsj.com/home-page

    Woo hoo! Good for you. You have yet to show that you do.

    Ed

    --
    "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is
    to fill the world with fools." --Herbert Spencer

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