from Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print
“It’s over — we’re officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far.”
That’s right he said royally fucked, the article is in Rolling Stone so they let him get away with a lot. This article really clearly, and passionately explains how and who was involved in a lot of the horrible transactions that led to taxpayers having to bailout the super rich. It is a call to arms. We should be pissed off and taking these guys down, taking their assets and locking them up. We shouldn’t be paying a dime for their money making schemes that made them even richer but bankrupted the economy.
Here is a video of the author talking about his article. I hope more people read and see this and we start doing more than paying for rich guys gambling.
Although they’re not so harsh, the Planet Money team does a good job of explaining the whats, why, whos and hows of this mess and how we got to this place.
All the info on the TARP funds omits the actual amounts of who these funds are going to. It’s insane.
And yeah, I do agree that the crooks out there (definitely not just Bernie Madoff) need to be prosecuted. Btw, there HAVE to have been people helping Madoff run his Ponzi scheme. They better get prosectured too.
The other night you were speaking of the Mayan predictions on the end of the world happening soon. I say the fall of these false business methods and legitimate insurance extortion game(i.e, being mandated by the government to have protection for something that has a small probability of ever happening, for example car accidents and home fires)—IS the end of this fake-ass world as we knew it. Those of us who live meagerly will survive, those living la vida loka will fall down—waaaaay down.
if you happen to have extra cash that needs stashing, credit unions are slightly less evil than banks, though probably more evil than your mattress (unless your’s is where the wild things are).
if you happen to be investing (pension, 401k, whatever), don’t let someone else (eg madoff) do it for you. with the internet and a couple hours of reading, you can figure it out. like doing taxes, it’s not as hard as it’s made out to be.
and if you’re flat broke, i’ll see you at the thrift store, but not st paul, as it’s been overrun by intentional ugliness that i’m too old to find ironic.
This American Life had some good explanations, too.
Right now, I’m working my way through a textbook about finance that covers this stuff, but it was written in 1998. It’s pretty funny, how enthusiastic they were about deregulation. Anyway, it’s by Mishkin, and was $2 at Goodwill. I totally recommend studying up with some random econ book – this book just maps out the institutions, how they borrow and lend money, and how much money, and different kinds of contracts. You learn the jargon.