Only Poor People Can Be Allowed to Fail

[girl gone mad]

http://my.firedoglake.com/arthurfullerton/2011/07/19/only-poor-people-can-be-allowed-to-fail
">Only Poor People Can Be Allowed to Fail
By: Arthur Fullerton


Reading http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/324f9054-b0a7-11e0-a5a7-00144feab49a.html">Lawrence Summers in the Financial Times yesterday I came across this statement as his third principle of dealing with the Euro crisis:

“there must be a clear commitment that, whatever else happens, no big financial institution in any country will be allowed to fail.”

And so we have a clear unambiguous statement of the principle of socialism for the rich and powerful, and capitalism, red in tooth and claw, for the poor. Notice that too big to fail has now gone global. Over the past 24 hours this has been sitting out there with no push back or comment from the media. Is it simply an accepted fact that governments around the world — including our own — will now maintain a system where no large financial institution — no matter how corrupt or incompetent — will be allowed to fail?

This while the same financial and political elites demand that all social safety nets be sacrificed on the pagan altar of the Free Market?

Trying to create a world financial system where “no big financial institution in any country will be allowed to fail” is an unsustainable act of hubris and is itself doomed to failure. Doing so while simultaneously casting the poor adrift is shameful.

[ixion]

1. The top 1% are very clearly circling their wagons

and yet there are those who still think we're in some sort of recovery.


In this statement, Summers reveals their intent on invoking a Neo-Feudal Age.

Fortunately for us poor folk, there is a Great Equalizer floating around in the form of 240+ Trillion in toxic derivatives.

Mr. Summers: There is NO SUCH THING as "too big to fail". ANY system, no matter the scale, is capable of failure. Period.

[patrice]

5. Can I have a link on that $240 Trillion, please? I have been in need of good stuff

on that topic.

[ixion]

6. hi patrice... sure

Here's a site search using the phrase "toxic derivatives"

The big problem is that no one, literally, knows just what that number is. All we know is that it's big. Really big. I've heard estimates of anywhere from 24 trillion to 1.1 Quadrillion. I always hesitate to quote a specific number because at the end of the day it's speculation on what that real number might be, I generally try to err on the side of caution, which is why I don't quote the quadrillion number.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?q=toxic+derivatives&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&sa=Search&domains=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en

[patrice]

7. Yep! I know that's the problem, have been saying that around here for months

and months. Whatever else, anyone thinks or says about the President, the man DOES have an especially bad problem: this TERRIBLE TERRIBLE thing has happened, he's supposed to do, not just something, but the RIGHT thing about it AND ALMOST ALL, or at least the most USEFUL pieces, of the information about what has happened is PRIVATE information. So a bunch of people doing the most screaming are also those who would do even MORE damage if a President and his supporters could actually set aside the whole body of BUSINESS CONTRACT LAW, i.e. PRIVATE information, in order to do what would work best to fix the troubles that everyone is yelling about.

[patrice]

8. Ooooppss! Pardon my manners. Thanks for the link & the search clue!!

:hi:

[ixion]

9. You are quite welcome...

happy to help out! :hi:

[Yavin4]

11. Like You Said, The Number is Huge, and It's Difficult to Quantify

Derivates are investments that derive their value from an underlying asset, and depending on how that asset behaves determines the total liability of the derivate.

[ejpoeta]

2. "free" market. because we all know that is a lot of bs. if it was really a free market

then they would be allowed to succeed or fail based on their model and what happens happens and the darwinistic survival of the fittest would demand that the best system would win. but we don't. we give subsidies to ensure survival of some, and bail out some while letting others fail.... the system is rigged and is indeed not a 'free market' at all.

[bossy22]

3. i agree with summers

though there has to be conditions on such rescue of an institution. Said institution needs to be punished or placed under government control for a certain period of time. All board and executives should be fired.

The thing is that the loss of a big financial firm is bad FOR ALL OF US. the collapse of lehman indirectly lead to millions of americans losing their jobs.

That being said we can't just give them a blank check and walk way, any institution that requires a bailout should have to be "punished" though

[patrice]

4. Gotta be careful about those "guarantees of success" doncha know? nt

[golfguru]

10. Is'nt that an Oxymoron?

Poor people have already failed! That is why they are poor!!
Even non-proficient in English like Vietnamese immigrants do better than average born here Americans. And dark brown skinned Indian immigrants have the highest per capita income of any group in this country. There is no excuse for failure in United States except lethargy.