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To: Return to Sender who wrote (3686)	9/29/2014 4:21:19 PM
From: The Ox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8288

Where we go from here is much more difficult to predict today than it was in 2007!! I will think about this a bit more and get back to you. My mind is more focused on this and while it will sound like one big conspiracy, I think it was more of many different actions from different places all coming together simultaneously. Even though I saw the setup for one of the large banks to fail, I had no idea the path that would take. I didn't realize, naively, that the manner in which the bank was taken out was probably more important than the fact it was taken down. The feeding frenzy that was created by the destruction of Lehman and that eventually led to Bear Sterns was unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime. As to who should have gone down and who should have been held responsible, it may be shallow of me but I leave that mostly to the writers of future, who'll have a much better perspective and tons more data than I have at my disposal. But here's my current view: This will be unpopular with many out there but, basically, I think when then President G. Bush said "You are with us or against us", he wasn't only referring to the "Axis of Evil" but he was also saying that to Wall Street. I think that this was a once in a lifetime fleecing of the entire world (not just the US). I'm NOT saying "the Republicans" did this, I'm saying those with REAL power at that point in time (on both sides of the political spectrum), plus GS, JP Morgan, etc.... decided to let the feeding frenzy begin. They knew that they wouldn't be held accountable for the wanton financial destruction they were about to heap on the world. I doubt the President even knew what was really going on behind the scenes until way too late but that could be very naïve of me. But I do believe that GS, et al, knew they would end this by picking up more assets with pennies on the dollar than at any other time in history. I also bet that there were times during the "blood in the water" phase that even they started to wonder if they weren't next!! The people with the deepest pockets in the world played a game of both musical chairs and chicken at the same time. Each time the music stopped, there were less people in the game. We had the SEC asleep at the wheel, we had a FED that more or less stood aside at the worst possible time (if not downright engineering this on one level or another) and we had another GS head running the Treasury who was "just fine" with letting Lehman tank, as they were the only Wall St. company who didn't partner with the rest of the large Wall St. banks during the Asian Contagion of the late 90s. I think Greenspan and Paulson deserve the most blame but that will never happen in this society. A significant portion of the setup for this was the inability of our "ruling elite" and our elected officials to get their collective heads out their asses. The very nature of our country's politicians inability to rule and compromise has a lead role in all of this. Wall St. setup a structure to get paid in advance for 30 year instruments, guessing what the profit might be but paying the commission up front. Nice work if you can get it!! Just be sure to retire and slink into the night before the lights come on and people want to know what the hell happened!! Book your hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses for the nice new derivatives you just created and pawned off on the rest of world's financial establishment that doesn't know how you just manufactured the worlds strongest, most dangers "Weapons of Financial Destruction"!! In reality, I prefer just sitting in my bunker singing "Kum ba yah". (grin)