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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neil H who wrote (111615)	3/24/2012 12:17:02 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

That is where guys like you and I that have worked hard all of our life, managed to squirrel away enough to retire on, will get screwed and our retirement put in jeopardy. And why we are so vocal about the current economic mismanagement. We all have worked hard and built our nest egg as you have done. The reasons on why some are vocal while others are concerned may be different. For me, I believe that our society in addition to our wealth is our nest egg and that we just cannot look at ourselves and our wealth in isolation. You may have the best house in the neighborhood, but if the neighborhood is bad, then that fact "of it being the best house" may no longer hold true. Additionally, I also think about my kids and grand kids and their future besides just my nest egg.

To: Neil H who wrote (111615)	3/26/2012 8:19:43 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

yes, just so. Here's the problem in a nutshell. Obama and Bernanke have institutionalize the policy of "sweep the problems under the rug" rather than confront them and truly resolve the root causes. How do I know this? Well, we know that the financial fraud in mortgages combined with a housing bubble created by rates that were held too low by Greenspan and then Bernanke, are what caused the financial crisis. But what made the implosion so large and uncontainable was the magnifying effect of derivatives. Derivatives were what made the implosion so large that it took out major companies like Bear Stearns, Lehman, and AIG, among others. So did Congress, Bernanke, and Obama tackle this root cause? Well, to answer that question, we'd have to ask two questions: 1) Are the too big too fail banks all gone and can any bank fail without systemic risk to the entire financial system? We know the answer is an emphatic "NO". 2) Did the amount of outstanding weapons of mass financial destruction decrease since the crisis or did they increase? And if they increased, are they at least disbursed widely enough that it won't take one or more of the TBTF banks down if there is another crisis? The answer is an emphatic "NO" and "NO" to both questions. To whit, the top 5 TBTF banks own 96% of all outstanding derivatives. That's so amazing it takes your breath away when you think of the truly colossal ignorance, negligence and stupidity of our leaders.