Free Republic

In his New York Times bestseller The Dollar Meltdown, Charles Goyette showed how increasing government debt is destroying the dollar and the wealth of the American people. But the problem goes much deeper: the country is heading for financial ruin because our leaders are ideologically bankrupt. The time has come for a dramatic solution. We need look no further than the Obama White House to find the culprits of America’s crippled prospects for recovery. They’ve forced the adoption of bailouts and unnecessary spending programs that do little but destroy wealth and drown the government in more debt and ever increasing...

The federal government seems to be on track in recouping the $414 billion in taxpayer money spent under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, with $120.7 billion now outstanding. But it turns out that over 130 bailed-out institutions paid back their TARP money simply by taking out loans from yet another government program, suggesting that the government--and taxpayers--actually haven’t gotten paid back yet. A new report from the Government Accountability Office, flagged by the Roosevelt Institute’s Matt Stoeller, shows that 40 percent of the 341 institutions that have exited TARP’s biggest single initiative--the $205 billion Capital Purchase Program--simply refinanced their loans...

While talking about capitalism last week, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore got it right. Sort of… On Thursday, he said this about the United States’ economic structure: “While we believe that capitalism is fundamentally superior to any other system for organizing economic activity, it is also clear that some of the ways in which it is now practiced do not incorporate sufficient regard for its impact on people, society and the planet.” Taken by itself, that statement is completely true: Capitalism is the best economic system available, and the version America has been practicing for years is badly flawed....

To pay for the two-month payroll tax cut, a small fee will be levied for a decade on all mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That also makes it harder to overhaul the housing finance system.

The man who headed up the US government's investigation into the causes of the 2008 financial crisis says that we haven't learned our lesson and that conditions are ripe for another crisis to hit financial markets. Reuters columnist David Cay Johnston: _________________ The U.S. politician-businessman that Congress put in charge of determining the reasons for the 2008 financial crisis has a sobering message for us: "It's going to happen again." Phil Angelides, the real estate developer and former California state treasurer who chaired the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, said on Friday that "all across the marketplace the warning signs were...

From the Despair of the Present, a Great Society will Arise By Ari Bussel I often recount the story of where I used to bank. At one point they considered us the fastest growing company in their portfolio, and we were treated like royalty. All the fake elements were there, including fascination, envy, need to extol and become close. None real or long lasting, they would all change in a heartbeat. We were customers of that bank for many years, and I expected to be treated no differently than in years past or future. Little did I know that the...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in trouble again. Still reading? If you are, you must be a Goldman employee, regulator, class-action lawyer, financial journalist or trolling the Internet for news about Steve Jobs. (See how I dropped the name to make this column more Google-friendly?) No one seems to care much about Goldman's latest troubles, and many Americans seem numb to more allegations of wrongdoing related to the financial crisis. Yet they keep coming, especially at Goldman. One of the biggest was last week's disclosure that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's staff has "orally advised" the company that it "intends...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve released documents Wednesday showing that its efforts to help stabilize the markets at the height of the financial crisis reached far beyond Wall Street and deep into the economy. The crisis in the market for commercial paper, for example, the lifeblood of daily business, was more extensive and lasted longer than was previously known. Even bedrock corporations like Caterpillar, General Electric, Harley Davidson, McDonald’s, Verizon and Toyota relied on a Fed program that supported the market for commercial paper — the short-term i.o.u.’s that corporations rely upon to make payroll and pay their suppliers. During...

Video 3:30 UKIP Leader Nigel Farage warns President Herman van Rompuy that untold millions of people will suffer as the EU political class pursues its dream.

We have entered what I call the Age of Turmoil, a time that is marked by rapid change and fluctuating crises. The old system of debt and consumption that gave us great salaries, generous benefits, stock market and housing appreciation, and a high standard of living is gone forever. What’s happening right now is a major sea change: the game is being reset, and the rules are being rewritten. I’m not being pessimistic, and this is not a cause for fear. We shouldn’t be afraid of the Age of Turmoil, but rather prepare for it by becoming more self-reliant. Those...

Three governmental investigative bodies have now pored (sic)through the AIG wreckage and turned up disturbing facts—the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which will make its report at year’s end; and the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), which issued its report on AIG in June. The five-member COP, chaired by Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, has produced the most devastating and comprehensive account so far. Unanimously adopted by its bipartisan members, it provides alarming insights that should be fodder for the larger debate many citizens long to hear—why Washington rushed to forgive the very interests that produced...

The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their...

The financial-services industry has reportedly flooded the Capitol with more than 2,000 paid lobbyists; even veteran members are stunned by the intensity of the blitz. The companies with the most at stake are particularly well-connected. The lobbying campaign for Goldman Sachs, for instance, is being headed up by a former top staffer for Rep. Barney Frank, Michael Paese, who is coordinating some 14 different lobbying firms to fight on Goldman's behalf. The bank is also represented by Capitol Hill heavyweights like former House majority leader Dick Gephardt and former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein. All told, there are at...

As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to bleed revenue, they are now seeking additional bailout funds. This would be on top of their previous bailout of $145 billion. Yet, the new financial regulatory reform package going through Congress – which is designed to reduce risk – completely ignores Fannie and Freddie. The government-owned entities have been linked to the cause of the financial crisis, which ultimately led to the push for regulatory reform. Any further losses the mortgage giants incur will be piled on the back of taxpayers – Fannie and Freddie are still major players in the housing...

You can write an insurance policy for someone who has an insurable interest, provided you comply with state laws on capitalization and other metrics. But you can't write naked swaps (including to create synthetic CDOs!) and you can't trade these things without formal capital support and proof that you hold capital sufficient to pay your bets. Don't expect this any time soon, by the way. Destabilizing the global economy and placing bets with no capital behind them is how the banksters rip us all off. I don't see it ending until governments get tired enough of it to define what...

While Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan heard warnings about the potential existence of a real estate bubble, but was against airing these concerns to the public. As the Huffington Post reports, Greenspan argued at a March 2004 meeting, "We run the risk, by laying out the pros and cons of a particular argument, of inducing people to join in on the debate, and in this regard it is possible to lose control of a process that only we fully understand." At the same meeting, a Federal Reserve bank president from Atlanta, Jack Guynn, relayed worries from Florida about...

Republican leaders have proven the Democrats right: The GOP's teeth gnashing about "permanent bailouts" was cynical populist showmanship -- and Republicans can't pull off that act as well as President Obama. By proposing a financial reform bill that is mostly identical to the one proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Republicans have passed up an opportunity to simultaneously appeal to their base, by returning to their alleged principles of limited government, and appeal to much of the middle, by waging a populist battle against Wall Street's corporate-welfare queens who panhandle on Capitol Hill. Republicans favoring limited government over a "pro-Wall...

Financial reform? Not exactly. The bill before Congress does nothing to address the fundamental background causes of the crash of 2008. Wall Street may have been the instrument of the crash. But the crash was made elsewhere: in Washington's failed policies for middle-class families -- and in China's distorted rush for economic growth. The story is not a simple one. But I hope you will pay attention to the details. If you don't, you may find that the pocket that has been picked is your own. As you've heard, the crash begins with the huge excess load of debt built...

The FHA is no longer the modest agency that helped make homes more affordable to generations of Americans. It has issued hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgages in the last two years. It’s support for the housing market is expected to redouble once again, growing to $1.5 trillion over the next five years. Along the way to becoming a behemoth, the FHA has radically transformed its business. Very few people seem to understand how thorough going this transformation has been. In many ways, the FHA is being run like a Ponzi scheme. And like all such schemes, it is...

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