Posted on 09/21/2008 4:57:31 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
BamBam is playing at being President again. What a jerk.
As of last quarters report, they have a 150B in cash!
82B in sales after a 50% haircut on normal sales.....
I think someone is looking at the unregulated investment division, and that's just a portion of it.
I understand what you’re saying- and I don’t necessarily disagree, but it goes against every instinct I have.
I tend to see life as cyclical- and through my own experience and observation have come to believe that interference in normal cycles is ultimately destructive as a rule.
I don’t desire to watch my country go through a time of hunger, want and poverty. But I’m beginning to think that might be the legacy we’re leaving to our children and their’s..
How many times have we bemoned the fact that we’re a nation grown soft, spolied, demanding and that sooner or later it will be our downfall? Well- if we figure a way out of our downfall- what will we have really learned as a country and what are we teaching?
Tough questions and I don’t like any of them. I’d much rather be focusing on how we have a better energy plan than the Dems- or what new crazy thing Obama or Biden have said.
Still drinkin' that '60s wine (whine?), eh?
It wasn't all that great a vintage then, and it surely hasn't aged well, what with the Reagan effect and all...
Corporations are just entities like any other, and only do what the people running them do.
If those people are crooks and slimewads, you get a crooked corporation.
OTOH, who's going to save you?
Government people like Eliot Spitzer?
the difference is that the republicans will create an RTC and it will have a limited life.
The democrats will create a new oversight agency that will never dissapear.
Read the Wall Street Journal: I can pick out what his topic of the day is going to be from the hottest topics on the editorial pages.
True! Very true....But there are exceptions, and yes, I agree with you on just how ignorant and lazy the populace as become.
lessons learned would be a good thing, but I don't think we want to dive into the tank without a snorkel.
Hunger is something you never forget, nor wish on someone else. Survival is something we have forgotten how to do, and political unrest of a kind that we have never experienced is just around this corner we are speaking of, so I fear not for myself, but for my kids and their kids.
I know what hunger and fear is like, but they don't.
Bush would have to suspend Posse Comitatus(murdered the spelling) and mobilize the guard as well as recall the Armed forces to protect the country. I have not even begun yet to explore all the ramifications of this if it were to come to pass.
Best that we avoid it if we can.
You need to hear what Ron Paul said this morning on Late Edition for another (once considered the "conservative") view on the banking fiasco and the administration's proposal to fix it.
Ron Paul, Bailouts are a mistake; Late Edition (09/21/08)
Don't expect the major media to report even one word of it, though, as that would cause panic or, heaven forbid, angry phone calls to Republican "conservatives" in Congress demanding they adhere to the Constitution.
Thank you! Finally! An alternative:) I don’t know as it’s any better- or if it would work- but at least it’s not in lock-step with the MOAB (Mother Of All Bailouts)
Ron Paul is right less often then a broken clock, as I Hagel and all the rest of the frauds. you can add McCain to the list as well IMO, but he is closer to the clock.
Thanks for listening. (Courtesy of G. W. Bush)
You’re just a glutton for accolades. ROFLOL
“Bush would have to suspend Posse Comitatus(murdered the spelling) and mobilize the guard as well as recall the Armed forces to protect the country.”
Might have to mobilize the Guard, but recall the active troops?
There’s still one or two of us old warmonger farts hanging around to lend a hand. All that time spent with the kids and grandkids on the range ain’t going to hurt, either.
Anybody wants to call me a “Vigilante” for that should consider that I’ve been called far worse for no reason at all and never considered acting out the part.
Play time’s over when you tell me you’re going to wreck my country.
If I remember correctly, Thomas Jefferson was a staunch States Rights advocate. Yet, he acquired and bought into the Louisiana Purchase.
The point is, both sides should have a burp in beliefs under certain circumstances. I don’t fault Jefferson and I applaud McCain for changing when necessary.
Obama, on the other hand, cannot go against his radical base without severe consequences.
The author mentions a couple proposal that read as if the entire problem is due to bank mismanagement and low liquidity that can somehow be fixed by the fed injection.
That's already been done! The problem is that the poisoned assets, or securitized mortgage debt obligations are clogged in the system and no amount of injection of capital will bring value to this paper so that it can move and therefore allow the billions and trillions of related assets to move.
700B is simply a estimate of the value of the UNDERLYING assets, and not representative of the total or anywhere near it.
It's a well placed shot at the root of the problem and it takes these base assets out of the system thereby freeing capital for the banks and most importantof all, allowing the related trillion dollar derivative mess to begin to clear at a loss and a big one!
Nobody wins in this but the American economy as whole, and many banks will still fail as a result of the losses, as will investment firms of all sizes. And....the investors.
I totally agree with this. The SEC is incompetent. Totally, and Cox should be fired. They allow completely bogus assets to be reported on 10-Ks and 10-Qs. Cramer is dead wrong on this. They continue to permit blatant Reg FD violations, which are widespread. They instituted option expensing, which is an idiotic accounting notion, under political pressure.
Last Thursday on his show, Rush played a soundbite of Hank (Maurice R.) Greenberg, he man who built AIG (incidentally, Greenberg has a Bronze Star from WWII, and his unit liberated Dachau Concentration Camp). Basically, Greenberg said that you can have regulations out the kazoo, but they don't mean a thing if incompetent or dishonest "regulatora" abuse the regs and cheat, etc. Transcript follows: GREENBERG: What is regulation? You can't replace management with regulation. Management is still responsible in the final analysis. If you do the right risk management and you have the right controls, then regulation is not going to make a difference there. If you have poor management, you can have all the regulation in the world and that's not going to change anything. And so, you know, my guess is that the problems that have come about have been management problems more than regulatory.
Source: Greenberg quote
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