Congressional Leaders Stunned By Severity Of Financial Crisis

It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first.

Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill, and they were gathered around a conference table in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Krikkit]

I've been warning about this for years. Saw it coming a long time ago. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you keep pumping all your money into risky investments, eventually the boom will fall. Any idiot should know that.

Why didn't we learn something from the dirty deals of the S&L scandals? Because the people who make money off of shady deals always get bailed out, so they make money no matter what. And the republicans keep touting the lassez-faire market philosopy that says get out of business's way (i.e. remove all the rules and restrictions that protect people) and the market will take care of itself and you. Well, anyone who has studied even a little bit of history knows that is precisely what led to the Great Depression.

A wise person said it is a sign that someone is mentally ill if they keep doing the same thing over again and expect a different result. I propose to you that these people look for precisely the SAME result because the disasterous market corrections don't affect their profits. On the contrary, with these bailouts, they take their profits with them as they look for more markets to rape.

Enough already!

[CassandraPriam]

What about the big picture:

A culture of greed on many levels.

[oregonrain]

I'm hoping , all americans will quietly revolt at the polls this year . Vote out all the incumbents .

[CassandraPriam]

I am just an ordinary working mother, but I was thinking I should try and get on the ballet
for some office. Just to get all the fat cats and lazy incumbents the h*LL out of office.
At least I know how to balance a budget, know right from wrong, and know BS when I hear it.

[heal57]

They should have let everything go. This bailing out is BS. Nobody's bailing out taxpayers and homeowners.

[oregonrain]

I agree ! Do we really want to give this administration , and the one to follow , anymore power ? I think NOT!

[Krikkit]

The problem for us and the beauty for them is we can't just let the businesses tumble without hurting ourselves even more than we are now. That's why they keep getting the profits no matter what. They have us over a barrel.

The only protection we have is regulations. Rules put in place to prevent this kind of corrupt dealing, like we had before the Greedy Old Perverts (GOP tm) hoodwinked everyone into buying their trickle down voodoo economic theories. Bush's tax cuts and the massive GOP deregulation that's gone on since Reagan took office have led to this, where the wealthy don't feel the crunch at all, but we're being crushed.

As Douglas Adams so precisely put it (tongue in cheek) in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Times were Good and no one was poor -- at least no one that mattered."

[Giordano Bruno]

Stunning information really. Sounds as if we are temporizing, mostly. Lots of finger pointing going on. No regulation, over reliance on recycled Laissez-faire economics, diminishing value of the dollar, and worst of all, clueless leadership, at all levels.

It looks to me like we are going to print a bunch of money, so we don't have to repeat the Savings and Loan Bailout (remember thant one folks?!). Only this time with a much leakier bucket and way more to bail. I thought we wouldn't rebound from the last one, and we did. This one, by sheer magnitude is going to lead to unforseen consequences.

I suspect printing more money will do what it usually does, fuel inflation. I see double digit interest rates on the horizon. Am I all wet?

Girody

[Krikkit]

Stagflation and a declining dollar on the international market. Rising costs on imports even more than on domestic spending. Means the price of oil is going to go up again even before we got a chance to take a breather from THAT speculative buggery. I think you've pegged it, except if everyone has lost their jobs, that will keep the prices down, and I'm sure some Republican analyst will point to the lower than expected inflation numbers as a "successful outocome of the conservative approach."

[humblediplomat]

This is another recipe for massive corruption. the Treasury can buy financial instruments for any price from anyone it chooses and later sell them for any price to anyone it chooses with no oversight.

Just like Haliburton got all the good rebuilding contracts, who do you think will get all the best deals when the treasury secretary goes shopping?

another example of the shock doctrine where under a crisis, a huge law( like the Patriot Act and this one), is written and approved in record time without any real studies of its impact.

[oregonrain]

I hardly think our leaders in congress were "stunned ". I think they might have been surprised that they couldnt keep this meltdown a secret until after the elections. What a giant sham being played on the american citizens . Very sad .

[biglith]

It's not working for McCain/Palin. This site has been averaging all the pollsters. Obama has climbed one tenth of point a day for over a week and never once fell back. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

[twb]

If what you are saying is that they vote along party lines...of course this is so....and you obviously missed my point.

[AkronBob]

It is indeed shocking that congressional leaders are "stunned" by this crisis.

Have they been out of the country?

Bush stopped tracking the M3 money supply back in 2006 because it supposedly wasn't relevant any more.

Since then he has the Treasury print monopoly money for "feel good" tax cuts and all sorts of "necessary" bail-outs.

Americans have been oblivious to this fact, but the rest of the world hasn't.

[larry278]

Remember, politicians aren't noted for being truthful. The melt down started on 9/15/08; we, the USA, are in the center of the melt down. Chuck Schumer shouldn't have been stunned by the news from Bernacke(sp?), et al since every had to swim through lakes left by the melt down to get to the meeting.

[renatam]

http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/Blog/?p=366

The early indices of Roman decline were not military but economic. In particular, as Rome"s moneyed elites succeeded in monopolizing wealth and credit, the Roman middle class was gradually squeezed out of existence. Rome"s merchants and independent farmers were turned into landless serfs on the latifundia, the vast land monopolies that Rome"s oligarchy accumulated. Personal debt soared, prompting Rome"s poor to sell themselves into slavery to escape their obligations. Higher taxes and the debasement of the currency followed, leading to inflation " all of this long before the first Goths and Vandals laid low the Western Empire.

While Zakaria rightfully points to American technological progress and innovative vitality as reasons for hope, he brushes aside America"s financial decline and gradual descent into economic oligarchy. Huge numbers of Americans are bankrupt or nearly so, and levels of personal savings have fallen to unexampled lows. More ominously, the American government is in debt to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars (including "off-budget" obligations like Social Security and Medicare).

[totaldisbelief]

Screw paying my taxes anymore...I'm tell my wife to generate 9 more dependents this weekend so Monday I can amend my W-4 and get my entire check in my hot little hands.
That'll be the first raise I've had in 4 years.

[totaldisbelief]

Headline: " Capitalism Consumes Itself "

[totaldisbelief]

The last act of a corrupt regime is to loot the treasury.

[totaldisbelief]

stage left:...enter the Amero

[CassandraPriam]

What is the "Amero" that everyone keeps talking about?