dutchman's Comments (202)

“Really? What was the final score on January 19, 2009?”

“If only people put the energy wasted in keeping others from enjoying equal rights they themselves take for granted into something productive. The world would be a much better place.”

“Agreed. I watched. And I bet Arianna did, too.

Even though the outcome was banal, it was enough of a news story while it was unfolding to pretty much capture the attention of anyone watching TV anywhere in the world.”

“The term is "captured". It's happened to many an executive before Obama.”

“I'm not arguing for self regulation. I completely agree we need it. And properly implemented (not done under Bush - surprise!!!)”

“You don't know me. If you're lumping me with the others as "greedy", I'll give you a chance to clarify yourself.”

“He did. I personally think Clinton let his guard down on this issue in his zeal to "triangulate".

But there is something more basic going on: people of all stripes naturally become less risk averse after several good years in the market. Sadly, we seem to be hard wired this way. Behaviorists have long known about how investors are most optimistic at the top of market cycles and most pessimistic at the bottom, when logically, they should be the exact opposite.

And thus the need to be extra vigilant when times are good, and not bow to supposed "reforms" that take away the protections put in place after previous market "corrections".

The hardest time of my entire career as an economist was during the Clinton boom, mainly because so many people had convinced themselves that the internet economy had somehow changed the rules of booms followed by busts. Of course, we now know better.

It wasn't just Clinton, sadly.”

“Read up on bank runs. They caused most of the hardship of the Great Depression.”

“My job for many years was to perform due diligence on investment managers being considered by various types of institutional investors. For the record, I am pretty good at this, and none of my clients ever went near any Madoff-type scams.

But my notes from this time are all the proof you could ever want to see that there are indeed huge systemic risks resulting from how many were operating throughout this time.

Pretty much everyone's "risk control" involved de-leveraging exposure - something that only works if you're the only one trying to do it. I will forever be amazed that I could see this, but the SEC could not (or at least did not). They failed completely in their oversight responsibilities, and allowed these systematic pressures to build without any effort to intervene.

That has to change. And that's why we need trust busting to return. Not by letting banks fail, mind you, but breaking them into smaller pieces. Trust busting is not the same as letting banks fail. Few things will do more damage to an economy than a failed bank.

As for Greenspan being the same thing as Wall Street, it would help the conversation if you realized that Wall Street is not some monolithic bloc. Believe it or not, there are good people working in this industry. Those that do right by their clients and have the proper alignment of interests. You are correct that a lot of us are victims in this, too.”

“Thanks, RC. I often wished for a "fav counter" when reading your posts.”

“Thanks ACP - did I read in one of your posts that we share a similar cultural ancestry?”

“I cannot defend the acts of BoA, Citi and others in jacking up fees and generally being bad at what they do.

But bank runs are as bad as anything that can happen to an economy, and especially for depositors who cannot easily get their money out.”

“See above. Trust busting and letting banks fail in the midst of a credit freeze are not the same thing.”

“We should most clearly be engaging in trust busting, as did TR and for the exact same reasons.

But letting banks fail when we were staring a global banking collapse in the face is not the same thing as calmly passing laws and enforcing regulations that will restore some of the protections offered by Glass Steagall.

Those wishing that banks would fail outright should talk to the Brits, who are still cleaning up the mess left by Northern Rock. Or Icelanders, whose recessions is far worse than America's.

I think Obama is to be credited with keeping things from getting worse than they did. You are correct that Obama has a lot more work to do still, and he does need to restore regulatory constraints to pools of money large enough to do damage to the wider economy.

But let's be careful when we say we hope for bank failures. Bank runs are the worst thing that can happen to an economy - and depositors.”

“As a long time "Wall Street" type......

1) For all those criticizing Obama's bailouts: don't act like we had a choice. I don't think most Americans realize how close the world's banking sector came to completely collapsing. For all the problems we do have today, they would be vastly worse if any of the "too big to fail" banks actually failed.

2) Wall Street's biggest customers - pension funds, endowments, foundations and other institutional investors - are demanding changes. If nothing else, portfolios have become less opaque - not so much because regulations demand it as the fact that a lot of people got burned last year - and are determined not to let it happen again. I'm not saying all is well. But that losing trillions of dollars by trusting insiders whose interests are not properly aligned has made many investors appropriately skeptical again, at least for now.

3) As culpable as bankers were in inflating the real estate bubble - it is Alan Greenspan that deserves the greatest blame. By pumping trillions of dollars in extra liquidity into the markets pre-Y2K and then again post 9/11, the tech bubble and the subsequent housing bubble were assured. Bubbles by their very nature are massively destructive. Fueling the two largest bubbles in history is negligent at best, criminally so at worst.

4) While bubbles are impossible to regulate away, the world (not just America) needs to engage in some serious trust busting. Banks can never be too large to fail.”

“Republicanism = Choreographed Ignorance”

“"The Kid Whisperer"

Ahahahahahahahaha! Very good.”

“The only morale you are concerned with is the morale of other Republicans.”

“Conservatism isn't just a political view, it is a mental state.”

“Fanned and faved.”

“The answer is to abolish private insurance outright and switch to the French model.

Overnight the US will save about 5% of its GDP that's currently wasted on private insurance overhead and an ROI that's been much higher than the rest of the S&P 500 for the past decade.

And you will live longer, too. France's system is so much better than America's. Longer lives. Less money.”

“What a perfect self parody.”

“Your post speaks volumes, poster child.

See, people travel to other countries. And they see how in many cases things are done better than they are in the US. As in more efficiently And effectively. And for less money.

But you Republicans don't want to hear about it. You don't want anything to challenge your belief in a world without government.

I understand that cognitive dissonance can be painful, but if you're on this site, learn to toughen up a bit.”

“Every time I hear stories like this, I can only ask myself "why". Why is the US the only advanced nation on earth that gladly pays for war and mercenaries too miserly to care for its own citizens? Why do monied interests so control America's heath care legislation that hundreds of billions are wasted i the name of "free markets" while America's people expire at a younger age than those in 40 other nations? And why do so many of America's people not only tolerate but defend this horrible system?

It boggles the mind.

I am so sorry to hear of you and your husband's difficulties. May you find health and happiness and security like those who run health care insurers get.”

“He's also a Schwarznegger supporter.

What's your point again?”