If Free Markets are the supposed Engine of Growth,
Why do they always seem to lead to a "money grab",
a greedy "land rush", with the Tax payer ALWAYS picking up the Bill?
Why do the Rich, always manage to get richer?
While those who "play by the rules", just manage to get "pink slips" and foreclosure notices?
And an endless pile of Bills?
I guess, what Free Markets really mean, is Buyer Beware!
Because, without Regulation, without Transparency, Free Markets are more a Free-for-all, than a Growth Opportunity.
In the current Economic-Housing Crisis, the only thing "growing" is the lack of confidence, and the Ultimate Price Tab.
In the "wild west" atmosphere of Free Market purists,
(One World Order, Reaganomics, Top-down, Flat-Earthers, Ownership Society)
The one thing that is ALWAYS in Short Supply --
is ACCOUNTABILITY!
(And the one thing always being exploited,
is "Quick Profits" -- damn the consequences!)
Lack of ACCOUNTABILITY is rampant in the current Big Bank Bailout Plan:
Despite rules and vows, oversight lax on bailout
By Amit R. Paley - Washington Post - 11-13-2008
... the Bush administration has committed $290 billion of the $700 billion rescue package.
Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste. Nor has the first monitoring report required by lawmakers been completed, though the initial deadline has passed.
"It's a mess," said Eric Thorson, the Treasury Department's inspector general, who has been trying to oversee the bailout until the newly created position of special inspector general is filled. "I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing."
In approving the rescue package, lawmakers trumpeted provisions in the legislation that established layers of independent scrutiny, including a special inspector general to be nominated by the White House and a congressional oversight panel to be named by lawmakers.
Let me see $290,000,000,000.00 has been given away so far, and quote "It's a Mess"
and No one know how to oversee it !?
TONS of Free Money to the Big Banks --
yet there's apparently NO ACCOUNTABILITY on how it's spent?
Democrats Fed Up With Bailed-Out Banks
Leaders Threaten to Use Legislation to Prod Financial Institutions to Lend Again
By Mike Lillis 11/13/08
Bring on the finance regulations.
That’s the message this week from a growing number of Democratic leaders, who are increasingly irritated by the reluctance of the financial industry to put capital it received from the Bush administration’s $700-billion bailout to work.
Lenders not lending. Executives keeping large pay packages. Banks distributing dividends to shareholders. The reports have been numerous. This is not, according to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, the way the program was supposed to work.
"Let me say as clearly as I can: hoarding capital and acquiring healthy banks are not — I repeat, are not — reasons why Congress authorized $700 billion in emergency funding," Dodd told finance industry representatives during a Thursday hearing on bailout oversight.
...
The debate is at least partly ideological. The administration and many congressional Republicans oppose more industry regulations, arguing that free markets work best when governments stay out of the way. But in the middle of an economic whirlwind caused largely by poor investment decisions by banks and other financial firms, that argument has lost some steam.
"What we’ve learned over the last number of months is that consumer protection and economic growth go hand-in-hand," the Connecticut senator said. "In fact, when you fail to do the first, you end up doing severe damage to the latter."
Thank you, Senator Dodd!
Please, put some watchdogs on the newly minted printing presses!
The U.S. Economy should NOT be the sole playground of the Super Rich, with all the rules, bent in their favor!
The consumer matters too!
All the millions of "Worker Bees" have a stake in how the Economic Game is played. Most workers play by the Rules -- We go to work. We pay our Taxes. We pay attention, we Vote!
Workers expect our pensions, our 401k's, our home equity, to be there when we need them some day!
So why do Investment Bankers and Hedge Funds get to avoid serious consequences, and are "held harmless" for the damage they wreak on the entire "Colony"?
In short,
Why do Bankers get Bailouts, and Worker Bees get Bumpkis?
Democrats Fed Up With Bailed-Out Banks
Originally, the [Bailout] plan called for the Treasury to buy up toxic mortgage-backed securities and residential loans on the books of banks and other financial institutions. Treasury Sec. Henry M. Paulson Jr., however, switched gears. The government used $250 billion to recapitalize the firms in exchange for equity stakes in them. Another $40 billion went to prop up insurer American International Group.
The strategy changed again yesterday, when Paulson announced that the remainder of the bailout funds would be used to bolster consumer credit markets. But the administration must first get congressional approval, and that gives Democratic congressional leaders some leverage to alter the program, though they would have to pass new legislation to do so.
There is some indication that they will press for more transparency on how the Treasury is using the bailout money.
...
Meanwhile, the economy continues to tank. In the first week of November, the number of first-time applicants for unemployment insurance jumped to 516,000 — a seven-year high — the Labor Dept. reported Thursday.
The dismal figures may have emboldened Democratic leaders to press the administration to accept economic-stimulus legislation this month aimed at boosting consumer spending.
It seems Secretary Paulson has created a new kind of Entitlement Society -- the "too big to fail" Society.
Senator Dodd, held an Oversight Committee Hearing Meeting this week, to review the Big Bank Bailout program:
11/13/2008
U.S. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs:
Title: Oversight of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act:
"Examining Financial Institution Use of Funding Under the Capital Purchase Program."
ie. the beginning Search for ACCOUNTABILITY
Here's the Video of the Committee Hearing
Here's are some of the Hearing Highlights:
-- Towards the end of the Hearing, most of the Panel of Experts agree on "the need for Regulatory Reform".
[who knew?]
-- "45000 people lose their homes and go into foreclosure per week"
Time Mark: 169:00, Mr. Martin Eakes Testimony, Chief Executive Officer, Self-Help Credit Union and the Center for Responsible Lending
"Yes, it is critical over the long run to restructure our Regulatory system ...
and I do want to here, agree with Mr Eakes again, the insufficient oversight and lack of reserving for CDS, issued by AIG, was a critical part of the problem, we are facing today.
But I want to make 2 other points. One point, this is a Global phenomena now. We are going to need Global Cooperation on Regulation. And ... it can't just be in one nation, because as we see capital flows are global.
Secondly, again FSA was not a cure-all. The U.K. had over the same period, not as much as we, an Erosion of Credit Standards. And FSA did not see that happening, or could not stop it. And at the same time as Erosion of Credit Standards, a Housing Assets Boom. This U.K crisis is similar to the Japan crisis, is similar to the Asian financial crisis.
So it's not just a better environment for regulation, a better structure, it is Better Regulation."
Time Mark: 182:00, Dr. Susan M. Wachter Testimony, Worley Professor of Financial Management, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
"Even with AIG, it's not really not widely reported, but what really brought that company to its knees, was the Credit Default Swaps that were traded, out of office in London. That office was able to get exempted from all of the European regulators because nominally, AIG's Holding Company was regulated by the OTS, because it owned a $2 Billion Thrift. So owning a $2 Billion Thrift, enabled this to be -- and the OTS was no way capable of looking at the Credit Default Swaps that AIG had all over the world. So I feel that that is the most critical case.
... you know, when the difference between Thrifts and Banks was established several decades ago, the Thrifts were providing 80 to 90% of Mortgage Loans. Now it's exactly the reverse -- 70 plus percent, 80% of all Mortgage Loans are made by Banks. So the two institutions have converged. And ... having a choice of Regulator, as Secretary Paulson and his staff has said, we should have Banks succeed based upon their Business choices, not based on which Regulator they happen to choose."
Time Mark: 177:30, Mr. Martin Eakes Testimony, Chief Executive Officer, Self-Help Credit Union and the Center for Responsible Lending
Click for Larger Image
Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are the "pyramid scheme" that exploited the Sub-prime Mortgage Market, making the CDS issuers very rich --
that is, at least, until the Housing Speculation Bubble burst!
Credit Default Swaps (CDS) ARE THE REASON, big Investment Banks MUST NOT be ALLOWED to FAIL now! (CDS are the root cause of the "unspoken" Financial Armageddon scenarios.)
(It seems the entire Global Economy is over-invested in this Unregulated Free Market, a market composed primary of virtual Derivative Paper)
Here's some background on Credit Default Swap Markets:
Hedging their bets -- about exactly WHO owns your Mortgage? by jamess
The naked truth about this house of cards by jamess
TheDeal Newsweekly
Soros: Credit default swaps are the next Damocles sword
TheDeal Newsweekly
The abyss
Forbes
The Great Derivatives Smackdown
The entire market [derivatives contracts], around the world, is estimated at over $100 trillion.
TOO bad, the wealth of the entire planet is only:
GWP (gross world product):
$65.61 Trillion
(2007 est.)
https://www.cia.gov/...
Who owns all that funny money, anyways?
(and more to the point, WHO holds YOUR Mortgage?
Chances are it's not who you think.)
Who's been minding the CDS Store? And why do we believe "Free Markets can do no wrong", again?
AIG makes for a unique Case Study in the Lack or Regulation, and the consequences of the watchdogs "looking the other way" ... just check out this AIG Timeline from a year ago ...
propublica.org -- journalism in the public interest
AIG’s Spiral Downward: A Timeline
by Paul Kiel, ProPublica - November 14, 2008
...
Late October, 2007: Goldman asks AIG to post another $3 billion in collateral. AIG privately agrees to post $1.5 billion.
November 7, 2007: In an SEC filing, AIG reports $352 million in unrealized losses from its credit-default swap portfolio, but says it’s "highly unlikely" AIG would really lose any money on the deals.
The company also discloses that there have been disagreements with some of its counterparties (the banks in the U.S., Canada and Europe that had purchased the swaps) about the "collateral required." The report does not disclose how much collateral AIG has been forced to post, however.
November 29, 2007: An auditor from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, AIG’s outside auditor, privately warns AIG CEO Martin Sullivan that AIG could have a "material weakness" in its risk management of the swaps.
...
propublica.org - journalism in the public interest
Was AIG Watchdog Not Up To The Job?
by Jeff Gerth - November 10, 2008
U.S. regulators responsible for supervising American International Group (AIG) now acknowledge that they failed to grasp the impact of provisions in the complex derivative contracts that pushed the world's largest insurance company to the brink of collapse.
Terms of the insurance-like contracts, called credit-default swaps, required AIG to post billions of dollars in collateral in the event of a market slide or credit downgrade.
"We missed the impact" of the collateral triggers, said C.K. Lee, who ran a little-known team in the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, or OTS, which oversaw AIG's finance unit. He said the swaps were viewed as "fairly benign products" until they overwhelmed the trillion-dollar company.
The government announced this morning that it had restructured and expanded its aid package for AIG, bringing the total to $150 billion in loans and investments.
...
Instead, examiners mostly concurred with the company's repeated assurances that any risk in the swaps portfolio was manageable.
...
A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year said the OTS lacked the needed expertise.
...
Despite such signals, the OTS never took formal enforcement action.
...
The OTS already has been targeted by critics who say its inaction, along with that of other regulators, contributed to the failures of Washington Mutual and IndyMac, both federal banks. Earlier this year, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed abolishing the agency, with a $250 million budget and 1,000 employees, as part of a broad overhaul of financial oversight. Democrats in Congress have said reforming financial regulation will be a priority next year.
An earlier financial crisis gave birth to the OTS.
...
In 1999, Congress passed legislation allowing banks, insurance companies and securities firms to compete with each other. The new law allowed for a range of possible regulators, from the Federal Reserve to the Securities and Exchange Commission, depending on the mix of financial services a company chose to offer. Holding companies that owned one or more thrifts had the possibility of being regulated by the OTS.
"There was a stampede by commercial and financial firms to get a thrift charter," said Bart Dzivi, a former counsel to the Senate Banking Committee and now a financial-institutions lawyer in Northern California, "so that OTS could be their consolidated supervisor."
...
The OTS focused on its traditional mission of helping thrifts make home loans. But by then, the global financial landscape was changing.
When you let Bankers CHOOSE their own Regulators, (by setting up as a Thrift Bank), how is such Deregulation, suppose stop a Greed Stampede?
It seems, in the case of AIG, as with so many other "investment" Banks, the 1999 Deregulation Act, just opened the gates to the Sub-Prime "Land Rush" of the last Decade.
Those Banker and Hedge Funds (and their clients), made out like bandits, while the Consumer is left "holding the bag".
Exactly HOW does a "wild west" Free Market hold GREED Accountable? (Especially, when the "forces of capitalism" simply "fire up" the Presses again, whenever their need, arises.)
How does unfettered Competition weed out the "Bad Apples", when their "transactions" occur on a "playing field" that no one ever sees?
... on a "playing field" where the Refs simply "look the other way"?
The evidence seems clear, that the "top down", "trickle down" Free Markets of Reaganomics, HAS FAILED!
And At what cost?
To who's pension, 401k, or Mortgage?
The Accounting of that Cost to the Consumer, still waits to be tallied ..
One thing for sure, in the Economics, that favors the Wealthy,
the one thing that is ALWAYS in Short Supply in their Free Markets --
is their ultimate ACCOUNTABILITY!
There's no time for that, when there's "Quick Profits" to be made ...