To: JBTFD who wrote (119591 ) 12/11/2011 5:42:46 PM From: Jorj X Mckie 4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) | Respond to They would have if they knew they could bundle them into CDO's and sell them off at a profit, which is what they did. It is what they did, but again, it was part of the situation that the financial institutions were put into. Congress, through HUD was putting pressure on financial institutions to get low income families into homes. The Fair Lending Act wasn't a benign piece of paper. If banks are coerced into taking on bad loans, it is not surprising that they would hedge their positions. Think of the credit default swaps as selling calls or buying puts on a bad equity position that you were being forced to hold. That's not to say that the banks didn't leverage the hell out of themselves and certainly there was a fair bit of malfeasance, but the government was definitely an accessory to these crimes. And instead of the various politicians who are directly involved in setting this country up for economic failure being held accountable, they are out there pointing fingers at the private sector and continuing to line their own pockets. Along with the corporations that should have gone bankrupt, there are a couple of congresspeople who belong in jail.I think we have a lot of common ground in the understanding of the risks of concentration of power and corruption in the government. Where we may differ is in the understanding of the risks of concentration of power and corruption in the private sector. You can't blame the billions of dollars being gambled on derivatives on the government. They are not mandating that. It seems that libertarians always are pointing a finger at the government not realizing that 3 fingers are pointing back at the private sector. Again, I think that this is something that maybe libertarians haven't articulated well, but I have never met a libertarian who believes that corporate executives are saints or that the concentration of power in the private sector doesn't breed corruption. I think that is well understood. Libertarians believe that the competitive market will keep the power from getting too concentrated for too long. Again, we believe that it is when the government gets involved with the private sector that it enables the power to become concentrated and for the abuses and corruption to become systemic. The corporations are absolutely responsible for their actions. But if we want to stop further abuse and corruption, we need to dissolve the bonds between the government and the private sector. I also feel that we are so far beyond the hypotheticals of one idealism or another. In my opinion we are now at a juncture of an almost complete breakdown of the rule of law and also not too far from another financial breakdown. There seems to be an entitled class that can do whatever they please and get away with it, while at the same time for the masses more and more behavior is being criminalized. Now with the MF Global thing it appears that accounts at financial institutions are no longer safe.
