The whole situation derives from a basic flaw introduced into the system by McBush's economic advisor Phil "Shaddap ya whiners" Gramm and exacerbated by the Worst President Ever.

The economic system used to have safeguards keeping banks from pulling the kind of shenanigans they have for the past decade.  Those safeguards and watchdogs were deliberately pulled out to allow the crooks to run rampant.

But that's OK, as nobody really is getting hurt by the whole thing, if you define "nobody" as "nobody in the top five percent of income level."  Which is all that really matters to the Republicans.

RF..It's so cool when you are so far off base. It's not the president who is responsible for keeping such matters in control, it''s the job of the senate and congress. If you have some proof of this presidentail finance law, please present it. I'd also like to see the "flaw" introduced by Gramm as I haven't heard about it, not that I always hear about everything, and also I defy you to show one shred of proof that Bush took out or bypassed any safeguards. Your wasted hatred continues to amaze me. Who are you going to blame for the messes the new kids have left? The worst congress ever, but I never hear you bashing them.

I guess you didn't read the whole post(imagine that) or you just took what you wanted to get pissed about(imagine that), but I clearly stated that this will hurt everyone and that's why everyone should be pissed, not just one side or the other. Unlike you and so many liberals, I care what happens to ALL Americans, not just those who agree with me.

I am so sick of people equating republicans with wealth. Are there no wealthy democrats, independents or libertarians? Aren't the Clinton's and Michael Mooore doing OK? How about HOw about Michael Eisner, Ross Perot and Ralph Nader? Most of the people I know are republicans and none of them even approach being wealthy. I personally know no one who makes over 250,000(the level that is considered "wealthy") a year. Are there any republicans on this site who make that much or know any republicans who do?

PLEASE IGNORE RF, HE IS A RED DIAPER DOPER BABY WHO LOST HIS MIND MNAY YEARS AGO

It is the President who called off the watchdogs.  It is Gramm who introduced the legislation making the bad loans profitable.

What Gramm did is repeal Glass-Steagall, allowing banks to get involved in packaging bad mortgages into worse investments.  This made the income source no longer homebuyers who paid off their loans on time, but instead investors who bought those loans bundled into what one economist/blogger colorfully calls "Big [edit]pile."

He also allowed speculators into the crude-oil market--prior to that, you had to be prepared to actually *BUY* the oil you were bidding on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

As for Shrub,  details here:

http://www.washingtonpost.c...

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

(And yes, it's the same Spitzer.  In fact, it's quite likely he ticked off Shrub enough that it triggered the banking inquiries which led to his resignation.  Vindictive bastard, our President.)

 PLEASE IGNORE RF, HE IS A RED DIAPER DOPER BABY WHO LOST HIS MIND MNAY YEARS AGO

NCG, isn't it time you got a *BIG-BOY* keyboard that has lower-case characters too?  You can still play Sonic the Hedgehog with it, I promise.

Another prime example of moving away from personal accountability.  The problem in my opinion is the fault of the people that took out these redicuous loans and the financial institution that went along for the greed.  Now they want the rest of us to pick up the tab.  Look, the simple fact is that the government does not generate cash flow other than through raising taxes - they will never cut back on expenses to offset stuff like this.  So, you have Obama that is willing to play the game and McCain that will have to play the game if he get's elected.  The difference between those two is that one has made it his campaign promise (rob from the rich to give to the welfare) while the other is promising what he won't be able to deliver.  We the people need to understand that nothing good can come out when the government promisis stuff - health care, tax cut for 95% and any other government funded social programs. 

I agree, Mark.  I almost threw up when I found out  that the gov't was taking over Fannie and Freddie.  They SAY it was inevitable and there was nothing they could do about it.  The only companies in this country that get bailouts are the big ones.  The smaller businesses have to sink or swim.

Catherine, please note that socialism is only for those at the top.

It's now time to get the petro industry off drugs, prostitutes and booze.

Nationalize them.

NEXT

Obey the laws.

Obey the regulators. (taxpayer)

Or pay the price.

Now that Lehman Brothers is going down the tubes, it is interesting to see what the administration will do about that mess.   I think that the "secret" of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout is this:   Foreign Central Banks, mainly the Chinese Central Bank, hold an enormous amount of bonds and notes issued by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.  HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars worth.  I think the Chinese simply made clear to the U S Government that if there was a default on these bonds, they would stop buying ANY U S securities - including treasury bonds - and they would start selling their holdings.  This would send the U S economy into a nose spin comparable to 1929.

gopher,

Exactly..

Everybody lost in the great depression. But in pure dollar measurements. It was those who were made of paper wealth that lost the most.

That's why Nationalization of Fannie and Freddy is Ok, because they are  to big to fail. (NOT)

The reality of the world is that for every business there is another that will take it's place.  Interests rates  will always adjust to what the public will pay. Nothing in this world is dependent on any one industry or any man.

The 1%ers are scared to death. They have everything to lose.

A huge part of our population has nothing to lose but it's debt. 

But think, to nationalize the petro industry so that we could reformulate the price of gasoline to realistic prices.

Is a no go. It's socialistic. It's un-American..

Random, I'm all for gov't intervention, but only as a PREVENTATIVE measure.  This whopper bailout is an attempt at a SOLUTION, and this whole thing could have been prevented. 

Phil Gramm was the architect of deregulating the banking industry. The repeal of Glass-Steagall protections allowed brokerage houses like Bear-Stearns, Lehman Brothers and so on to perform banking services that would have been prohibited ten years ago. PhiL Gramm, of course, left the Senate to run Wachovia for real money. I'm not sure how much longer he lasts at Wachovia, because that bank is also heavily burdened by the American banking collapse. All the lessons the nation learned and the protections adopted during the Great Depression have been overturned by Republican business interests during the past 28 years. 

We are looking at Washington Mutual on the brink. Here is a brief excerpt from Market Watch: 

Here is the latest news on the recent announcement for the new pay package for the CEO of Washington Mutual and what the guy who brought them of collapse received in compensation. This excerpt is from a report by Kristen Grind of The Puget Sound Business Journal.

Washington Mutual's new chief executive will receive a salary and incentive package worth more than $20 million through 2009 for taking the helm of the battered Seattle bank.

The pay package details were released by the bank in a regulatory filing at the close of business Thursday - a day that saw the company's stock dip below $2.

Shares of the company (NYSE: WM) closed at $2.83, up about 22 percent compared with Wednesday's close. It briefly traded as low as $1.75.

Alan Fishman, 62, who replaces ousted chief executive Kerry Killinger, will receive an annual base salary of $1 million, a sign-on bonus of $7.5 million and an annual bonus of 365 percent of his base salary, or of $3.65 million. WaMu declined to comment on the pay package.

If he stays for the full year, he'll receive a long-term incentive award of no less than $8 million, according to the Security and Exchange Commission filing.

Fishman also will receive options to purchase 5 million shares of the company and 612,500 restricted shares, which will vest at an annual rate of 33.3 percent over three years if he's still employed. The options will have a term of seven years and will vest based on his service and company performance, although a quarter of those shares, or 1.25 million, will vest after one year regardless of performance.

If Fishman is fired or resigns as a result of "constructive termination," he'll receive a golden parachute within 10 days, worth 2.5 times his current base salary and his annual bonus of the preceding year.

Killinger's annual pay has been estimated by various news sources at about $15 million.

With money floating around like that who cares if you succeed or fail? Leaders of corporations today really don't care if they succeed, they are just out for themselves at the average worker's expense. It is no surprise to find American companies with the most out of whack ratios when it comes to executive pay versus worker salary. At the time of Nixon, CEO pay was roughly from 29 times to 27 times the average employee wage. By Jimmy Carter it was at 35 times the average worker salary. When Reagan left office the difference had grown to 70 times more than the average worker salary. When the first Bush left office CEO compensation was 125 times what the average employee made. When Clinton left office the CEO was now earning 300 times what their average worker earned. 9/11 caused a major dip to occur and the compensation average went down to 143 times what the average worker earned, but within three years time at 2005 compensation at the top was back to 262 times what the average employee for these companies was making.  In forty years time CEOs have gone from earning 54 times more than a minimum wage employee to earning 821 times more than the minimum wage worker of today. You can find this information at www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_200 60627 .

That is wack, man! And that is the biggest problem in our economy today. All the rest are just the boils on the carcass.

tkozy (and other petro bashers),

 It's now time to get the petro industry off drugs, prostitutes and booze.

Nationalize them.

If you really think the petro industry is corrupt and gouging the public, what happend in '98 when the Kern River crude dropped to $8/bbl?  Did they just fall asleep?  When will you all hold up your own responsibilities and stop blaming others?  Gas is a commodity.  It is produced and sold to highest bidder.  The only difference with this comddity is that they're maximum production is less than what the entire world demands.  The petro companies are owened by shareholders (anyone can own a piece of this - including all of us).  Petro company, just like any other successful companies in America, attempts to meet Wall Street's expectation with measly 12% ROI.  There is no colusion, no price fixing, no public gouging, no holding back on production and no any other BS the dem and the liberal media attempts to brain wash with you. 

As a consumer, we all are guilty of the high prices.  We buy hummers and big SUV.  We live great distances away from our jobs.  We don't like to share so we don't carpool.  We demand our automakers to build bigger cars (don't blame the big three).  We are our own enemies.  Not the oil companies.  Stop beliveing the media lies and curve your appetite for this limited resources.  And, STOP BLAMING OTHERS!

By the way, if you really think the big oil is making 'excessive' profit, buy their stock and ride their coat tail.  But, stop these lies.  Nationalizing will cost us more in the end.  What has our government ever done anything right except for the military?  Rail, mail, retirement, ???

The Republican party has begun believing that the government can nationalize religion and create moral values.

They have taken a "village to raise your child" and turned it into "the Fed can raise your children and ensure their morality and spirituality."

 90,

First, refiners are not processing 150.00 oil. They hedge crude just like the speculators. In fact today. They could be buying contracts for 50 bucks/barrel in 2015.  

The CEO from Valerro just this summer on CNBC, when asked why,  with the small margin, why would anyone buy their stock. The CEO started to tell in great detail how Vallero has millions of barrels in contracts that they purchased for less than 50 bucks. Just about as he was going to reveal even greater company secretes. Somebody walked up and slapped him on the back of the head. (not literally)

The cast of 3 CNBC reporters were amazed that the CEO had made such a blunder.

The price dropped now. Only because the heat is on those speculators that will never take delivery. And the actual users of crude stopped taking contract months ago. 

T Boone knew this last winter, when he shorted, but ended up taking a bath because the speculators kept running up the price.

After he lost over 10 million bucks shorting crude. He switched sides to join with the speculators. Riding the wave up and now stuck long on 130 dollar crude and 12 dollar natural Gas... 

If things are as  you say.  No collusion, no price fixing no Drugs, booze and prostitutes. Then crude went to eight dollars because that is what it is worth. In capitalism the consumer sets the price. Not the producer.  If the petro industry doesn't like 8 dollars a barrel. Let them put their assets up for nationalization. The public or another capitalist will take them off their hands. And make money.  The petro industry is not GOD's salvation for mankind. They can be easily replaced.

Prices are falling and they will continue to fall. Ike will have a small up turn impact.  But every  effort will be made to get things back in production.

The petro industry wants to open up off shore drilling.

If they allow Ike or any other factor to shut down production and refining in the Gulf, for any extended  period, causing prices to spike.

Congress is going to balk at opening up off shore drilling. If it is unreliable. We need to look somewhere else.

The federal Govt's Energy information agency says there is 500 billion barrels of crude in the Bakken formation of North Dakota. And no hurricanes. No earthquakes. No tornadoes in the area of the Bakken. 

Off shore of US total? Only 70 billion barrels.

Anwar a messily 10 billion barrels.

North Dakotan and Small drillers are begging for pipeline capacity and more refineries. But the Majors aren't interested. Why?

Shell oils CEO said it would not be in their best interest to open up in the Bakken. 

 Because most of it is on private land.

These are down to the earth people. They want cash. Not Drugs, Booze and prostitutes.

 Thanks but no thanks, If we need prostitutes. We'll get our own prostitutes.

Justin,

It's simple.

In Capitalism no business is to big to fail. In fact failure is a tenet/fact of capitalism.

Capitalism makes no hero of man.

Capitalism trusts that government will insure the stability of society through regulation.

That without the regulators. Criminality/greed will prevail.

And in the midst of criminality Capitalism will fail.

Outside of society. Capitalism can not exist.

If you do not wish to mingle in society.

Go to the mountain top and count your wealth in pecans.

Before you go. Pay cash for a mirror.

You may wish to pretend you have a friend.

Random is absolutely right. This Congress has only been controlled by the the dems for 1/8th of this admin's tenure. And Georgy is real handy with the veto stamp. True, the Dems should have went for the throat, and they didn't, so shame on them too.

For these alleged conservatives, (and just how do you call this admin conservative), welfare is bad, unless it's corporate welfare. First they make it easy for corps to make record profits, then when deregulation makes for bad business, they bail them out. I'm betting the Board members at Fannie Mae aren't having any personal finance issues. In fact, after they run a business into the ground whilst giving themselves fat raises, they then get millions in a golden parachute deal as reward for losing all the stockholder's money. Detroit will be next in line.

I mean really, are there even any republicans that believe that the Bush administration is conservative? The guy who has the biggest government structure in history and turned a record surplus into record debt. The guy who complained about Clinton's 'bad management' of the price of oil, then let the price of oil more than quadruple. The guy who let these corps pull Crisp and Coles across the nation? Seriously my conservative friends, no disrespect, but you have to be borderline retarded to think Bush has been a good president. He has sabatoged the term conservative and turned it into something ugly. If I'm a Republican, my hatred would be even more pronounced just because of his betrayal of conservative values. I don't think McCain will make a good president either, but I'll at least give him the chance to prove himself. Bush has proven to me he is an incompetent twit whose only goal is to cater to his buddies. Good riddance.

Anti,

McCain agrees with 95% of Bush's policies.

What do you expect him to change.

Why should he be given a chance to redo what Bush failed at?

Well, I'm voting for Obama, but ANY candidate is going to say what he believes will get him elected. Then they just go ahead and do what their lobbies tell them to do. Even if McCain truly is 95% Bush doctrine, we'll have a 5% better Prez. LOL

But I think after the debates and the whole Hot VP thang wears down, Obama will carry the electoral votes. But if he pisses me off, I'll piss all over him too.

Dems, (Obama), needs 61 Senators.

Imagine anti and RF agreeing!  I knew when I wrote this that the point would be lost in political name dropping and big oil. The gist of the whole thing is that, no matter who you believe is to blame, you should be pissed. Nationalizing these entiteis is NOT the answer. Businesses failing is not always a bad thing. It weeds out the weak and poorly run businesses and creates opportunity for those properly motivated to make due.  De-regulation is still not a bad thing as long as people are paying attention, but what these honchos count on, and always get right, is the short attention span of the average American. As long as everybody can get what they want and feel good about themselves the past is forgotten. Nobody was bitching about deregulation when they were buying homes they couldn't afford or their 401k's were making money hand over fist, but now that the s*it has hit the fan they're crying the same old blues tune.."It's all the governments fault".

BOO-HOO....I payed attention to what I was doing and where things were going over the last few years. I listened to the real news and watched what was really happening and didn't buy into the "un-burstable bubble" theory that convinced so many people to make such poor decisions and I came out doing fairly well. I am no genius nor am I a real estate whiz, I simply know that when things seem to good to be true, they are.

I watched real news, too and listened to the experts say how the economy was only going to get better and how the values of real estate was only going to go up. I listened to Larry Kudlow espouse the "the glory of Capitlism". I even worked for a financial planner/stock broker and heard how great thing were going to be for the next 20 years. At some point you just have to use common sense and realize that the average American can't afford to buy the hype. Honestly, I would love for nothing more than these financial institutions to bottom out. I will be able to recover easier from a down economy since I only have "thousands" to lose compared to the big corporations' billions. Maybe when we fix this mess and rebuild the economy, we will look at the nation as a community and not a society of individualist.