Feb

7

We seem to have forgotten how our economy went into meltdown. It has a now become a political scuffle and the bankers are on the sidelines laughing their asses off.

Banks lent money to consumers in the form of credit debt. They also put people into mortgages they could not afford and then further lent them money on the paper gains on their house. They wrote consumers loans as adjustable rates to make them initially affordable. They created loans that deferred interest.

Essentially they duped a percentage of the American public to literally mortgaging their future to live in the moment. Are the people that allowed themselves to get into financial trouble culpable? Of course they are. But this is not the point. The point is that lending institutions acted irresponsibly, and they knew exactly what they were doing. 

If this was not enough they let Wall Street investment banks package up these toxic loans and sell them as securities to investors to “spread the risk.”

If that was not enough, some of these investment banks took hedges against these investements and when they collapsed made billions of dollars in profit.

When everything came crashing down what did we do? We had the Federal Reserve step in with a guarantee of 700 billion dollars to bail big business out. How did they respond. By laying off employees. And…

Miraculously in less than one year through further gambling in the stock market these folks helped to crash they manage to made enough money, not lending money, but speculating on securities to pay back the government. The big bonuses begin to flow and it is business as usual.

The Democrats who have a majority create legislation but the other party is blocking it. When it does not pass the Democrats will blame the Republicans. When the Repulicans run they will spin things and have you believe that the problem is the Democrats.

Am I missing anything here? Actually I am missing a whole lot more. You have been watching all this mess just as I have.

The cold hard reality is that both parties are in the pocket of big business and banking. They get richer and the rest of us conservatives and liberals alike get the shaft. We all get sidetracked by a media that is also owned by big business.

CBS is eveing airing a show where the CEO comes and works with the common man to get a dose of reality. Sorry, we are not buying it!

Big business, the Democrats, the Republicans, all think “we the people” are collectively stupid. If we continue to support either party we are. Obama ran on reform and has not done a damn thing yet that is close to reform. I am still hopeful, but only slightly.

America, we have been through so many scandals and meltdowns since the late 80’s alone.

- S&L Scandal of the 80’s/90’s - Over 450 S&L’s go under largely due to reckless, speculative real estate lending (hmmm, where have we heard that one?)

- Enron, Tyco, Adelphia.

- Accounting scandals at KPMG and Arthur Anderson

- Freddie Mac and Fannie May

Nothing seems to change much except we keep voting in people that keep putting us deeper in debt, do not do what they promise.

I am not sure if our elected officials realize how frustrated we all are. I am not aligned with the Tea Party. I am not aligned with Glenn Beck. I do not like or agree with a lot of their ideas or agenda. I am in agreement with them on one thing. I am tired of being screwed by all of you in Washington D.C. and by big business. I am tired of all the reckless corporate behavior without accountability. I am tired of promises from political leaders that are not fulfilled.

It is time for real reform. It may very well be time to ditch both parties and put some people in office that can make the changes we need.  

 


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