Sunday, April 29, 2012

2000-2008
WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR ECONOMY AND WHY

Outsourced jobs, loss of investment value in the stock market, rapid increases in gasoline and food prices, loss of equity in homes, foreclosures, inflation, steep decline in the value of the Dollar. Dramatic national debt.

· Stock market bubble in 2000 burst (irrational exuberance!)
· Mortgage bubble, led by sub-primes, burst
· Oil price bubble
· Food commodity price bubble

A bubble is a result of unregulated speculation and possible manipulation in financial markets.

Why not regulate bubble speculation? We did … from the time of the Stock Market crash of 1929 until 1999, when a Republican Congress’ repeal (signed by Bill Clinton) of the Glass Steagall Act (that regulated financial markets and kept banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, and investment bank separate form each other) allowed financial services to merge and removed regulations on speculation.

But the repeal didn’t happen overnight. From the days of Reaganomics, free market advocates … led by Alan Greenspan…, typically Republicans, “lobbied” Congress morning , noon and night to deregulate markets… make them free markets. (“Free market” thinking asserts that free markets are best for economic growth.)

What is Congress’ record on deregulation? Congress has deregulated energy (can you say Enron?), financial services (do you still have a home?), airlines (the skies are not very friendly lately), and telecommunications (can you hear me???)


So let’s take a break for a story. I attended an executive management program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The professor explained that ultimate power (which I define as the ability to do what you want when you want to and get what you want when you want it) is the ability to change the rules!

So now it should come as no surprise to you that what has been described as deregulation is actually re-regulation…. changing the regulations by those who were supposed to be regulated to be more favorable to them. Believe it or doncha, they actually wrote the legislation and paid (they call it contributions and such) senators and House representatives to vote it into law. And now you know the rrrrest of the story.


Glass Steagall Act and Repeal
The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and included banking reforms, Other provisions which prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. [1]
On November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One of the effects of the repeal was to allow commercial and investment banks to consolidate. Several economists and analysts have criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. [6] [7]

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.Please improve this article if you can. (April 2008)
Losses at financial firms from the mortgage collapse may eventually triple to $600 billion as defaults on home loans grow, says Zurich-based UBS AG. One reason banks are losing money is the repeal nine years ago of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking after excessive risk- taking contributed to the Great Depression, Eveillard said.
The repeal enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities.
Citigroup, which has fallen 36 percent since reporting in January the biggest quarterly loss in its 196-year history, may have writedowns of $15 billion this quarter, according to New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. That would add to the $22 billion that Citigroup already lost because of the housing slump.
Citigroup played a major part in the repeal. Then called Citicorp, the company merged with Travelers Insurance company the year before utilizing loopholes in Glass-Steagall the allowed for temporary exemptions. With lobbying led by Roger Levy, the "finance, insurance and real estate industries together are regularly the largest campaign contributors and biggest spenders on lobbying of all business sectors [in 1999]. They laid out more than $200 million for lobbying in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics..." These industries succeeded in their two decades long effort to repeal the act. Also, "The newly formed Citigroup announced only days after the deal that it had hired recently departed Treasurey Secretary Robert Rubin as a member of its three-person office of the chairman."
[8]
``Glass-Steagall protected bankers against themselves, Eveillard said. ``Bankers are sheep. They don't mind going over the cliff if everyone else goes over the cliff.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

HELP THE EUNUCHS

At Passover, when families, whose members may represent a variety of viewpoints on the future of Israel and our children and grandchildren, meet to celebrate our ancestors' escape from slavery, this article ...
( http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/04/liberal-jewish-eunuch.html )
.... reminds us that the Debate is not linear, but three dimensional like a Rubik's Cube, with many three dimensional issues (sub-cubes) within the big one ... "Do Jews have a right to live in peace anywhere in the world?"Once we answer that question, then we can get to "Does Israel have the right to exist as a Jewish State ?" and others.

Greenfield has his share of critics, but I sure wish I had his talent for writing. The way he weaves the eunuch metaphor to make the case that some Jews are not only undermining Israeli Jews, but they are also jeopardizing American Jews as well by perpetuating false myths and libels from those who openly state that they intend, not just want, to kill all Jews.

Should you encounter one of these eunuchs at your Seder table (don't worry, they can't wait to make themselves known), don't politely change the subject. Take the time to turn the appropriate sub-cube around to the other sides. You owe it to all Jews who have been, or may someday be, persecuted, humiliated, robbed, forced to wander, and exterminated just for the crime of "walkin' Jewish".

I strongly urge you to read Greenfield's blog http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/04/liberal-jewish-eunuch.html to prepare for the attack of the eunuchs.

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