NCrissieB in Morning Feature: Where Is the Bottom? writes that President Obama and his administration are being careful in addressing the financial crisis because they are uncertain of the full extent of the problem, and want to avoid damage to pension funds and people’s retirements.
Where is the bottom?
YOU are the bottom.
NCrissieB's whole argument sounds exactly like what some CEO from Wall Street or the futures markets in Chicago would say in Congressional testimony. The damage to pension funds and people’s retirements has already been done. But what’s shaping up are solutions that do not repair this damage, but will begin to damage social security, the chances of getting national health care, and much, much more.
So it does not help to promote this crap.
It’s really very simple: There are $30 trillion (actually, the figure is more than double, I believe) in credit default swaps. Tens of trillions more in other financial derivatives. The amount required to service those contracts is now, and has been, eating up the resources needed to construct a future alternative to collapse.
Either we are going to honor the financial contracts, or we are going to honor human life. We’re at point we have to make the "pound of flesh" decision.
Right now, all signs are that it’s going to be a pound of flesh from you and me.
Yes, President Obama and his administration are going slow. They – and we –are going to regret it, and in only a few months, too, I suspect.
It’s America versus Wall Street and the City of London. It’s really that simple. There are recced diaries right now that detail the massive fraud involved in the financial system, most particularly the sub-prime mortgages.
Our Economy: MASSIVE FRAUD By Mortgage Industry.
FBI Kills RUSH's "Blame the Borrower Meme" and Geithner's Stress Test
It is a well established point of law that government should not and cannot enforce contracts based on fraud.
But right now, the banksters are re-writing the rules:
Banking Industry Asks for Leniency on 'Minor Violations' of Truth in Lending Act
By Elana Schor - February 24, 2009, 3:30PM
The House is on the verge of taking up a mortgage aid proposal that would, for the first time, allow judges to modify the terms of primary mortgages for individuals facing bankruptcy -- a reform known as the "cram-down."
The bankruptcy law change is backed by the Obama administration as well as Citigroup (which is increasingly looking like a ward of the Obama administration). But the American Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and other K Street players are no fans of the cram-downs plan.
In a letter sent today to every House member, a group of financial lobbying giants urges Congress to reject the cram-downs bill. Lobbyists are especially concerned about language in the bill "provid[ing] that even minor violations of the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) could result in a home equity loan or even a mortgage being disallowed in bankruptcy."
You read that right: K Street is asking Congress to permit lenders to get away with minor violations of the TILA, a 40-year-old law that was passed to protect consumers from banks that hide punitive terms in the fine print of loans.
Group of Rich Americans Sues UBS to Keep Names Secret in Tax Case
Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals
Health Care, Agribusiness, Mining and Defense Groups Raise War Chests to Sway Legislators and the Public
All we need is justice. Apply justice to the financial crisis, and most of the problems, and the people that caused it, go away. For a very long time.