Did You Notice After the Enron Collapse that Nobody Rushed In to Fill The Void?

[ThomWV]

There Enron was, collapsed, after raking in hundreds of millions of dollars because they were the only one to provide the cryptic services that they did. The service they performed, this mystic 'energy trading' which seemed so vital in our newly deregulated market disappeared at the moment they did. We never missed them or whatever it was they did a bit.

One wonders if the same might be true for the Sterns Rogers of this world. Just why on earth can't banks make loans and then hold them until maturity? Is it such an odd concept?

[magellan]

1. Because they wouldn't make as much money on them

And mother always told them to share.

[Drifter]

2. Fool me once ....

It is hard to make money scamming people after you have been found out.

Cheers
Drifter

[northzax]

3. because then there would be a lot fewer loans

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are wonderful things.

[EVDebs]

4. Taxpayers provided unemployment insurance, but that was at the state level

In the meantime, the Dept of Labor was busy outsourcing jobs.

[sce56]

5. Bear Stearns bought up energy contracts last summer from Williams Energy

Now we wonder if those will go south since some major energy providers are under contract to Bear Stearns!

[RainDog]

6. what happened this weekend was unprecedented

according to the financial talking heads I've heard. this was a commercial bank, afaik, so they lent to other banks... This bank run is also a result of a nation-wide housing financing crisis. Hard hit markets are in all diff. parts of the nation... CA, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, New York, - it's not just a building bust b/c of one industry in one place.

The U.S. is in a unstable place right now in the eyes of the world, imo. We didn't impeach the Bush junta, even tho Congress had two years and national support... even if they didn't get an impeachment, there would have been a trial, some accounting. And BushCo is still trying to get support to bomb Iran. And McCain is all for it. To others in other parts of the world, this country looks broken in many ways. In order to have confidence in an economy, people have to think that competent people are able to make sound decisions.

There is NO reason to think any sound decisions are possible with Bush in office.

Sadly, our own Congress was too lacking in leadership to demand accountability from the executive, even if it meant a constitutional crisis. hell, we've had a constitutional crisis for 7 years!

I don't know everyone everywhere, but people I do know who live in other places do not understand what has happened to this nation. Yes, we've always had our total nut cases, but they've never had a chance to totally control all branches, military careers... until now. And this moment is just one of the many ways the Bush administration has been incompetent beyond understanding.

[undergroundpanther]

7. profits

are the problem the root of it.I wish more people would realize the whole concept of profit is the excuse for this greed.Why is it ok that you get more for giving less? WTF. Technically none of us own ANYTHING,not even our own bodies,everything we use here is borrowed. When we die it's all gone.But I think that scares certain people to the point of panic not being able to admit life itself is never "secure",and can never be.

I favor the gift,economy.Fuck profits it's the enabler of greed and con men.There is no invisible hand in the market except the one trying to get something for nothing,the corporate hand of those few who have more than enough..the greedy hand of profit. Fairness, that's what we need,here. We need to understand the concept of a gift economy. Something this culture fears,because in a gift economy you cannot demand like a petulant child or control.Gifting is not a game of getting more for less as if the giver is entitled to ask for more and the taker should lump it and pay and pay,that is a bunch of crap!! Yet this scam runs this market of thieves who have more than enough.

I think the idea a person give and and another receive different things in a gift paradigm is the way. Gifting is the way to recover, and end poverty. But to do gifting profit must be damned ...Profits are NOT the basis for sane distribution of wealth.Fuck profits..Profits create poverty.The greedy create the needy.

Exchange is at odds with gift giving. The competition which is characteristic of Capitalism pushes the exchange way against the gift way. In fact two paradigms or world views are formed, one based on exchange and the other on gift giving.

t-economy.com/theory.html