a MUST read: Financial Meltdown Was ‘Avoidable,’ Inquiry Concludes

[BigBearJohn]

The government commission that investigated the financial crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors, and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.

“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done,” the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions. “If we accept this notion, it will happen again.”

While the panel, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, accuses several financial institutions of greed, ineptitude, or both, some of its most grave conclusions concern government failings, with embarrassing implications for both political parties.

Many of the findings have been widely described, but its synthesis of interviews, documents and testimony, along with its government imprimatur, give it a sweep and authority that the commission hopes will shape the public consciousness. The full report is expected to be released as a 576-page book on Thursday. When the bipartisan commission was set up in May of 2009, the intent of Congress and the president was to produce a comprehensive examination of the causes of the crisis.

READ HERE! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Financial-Meltdown-Was-nytimes-923562801.html?x=0

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[underpants]

2. .

marking for later read

[Catherina]

3. Color me shocked. Rec'd n/t

[Karmadillo]

4. Stop it! Stop it! We're supposed to look forward, not backwards.

nt

[leveymg]

5. 5th rec. When comes the reckoning?

[texastoast]

6. A big thanks to Phil Gramm

For fucking the little guy then getting out to lobby for UBS.

[PA Democrat]

10. His name was not mentioned in the article, and IMHO opinion he shoulders a

HUGE amount of blame. The Commodities Futures Modernization Act is Phil Gramm's baby, one that he stuck into an appropriations bill as an 400 plus page "amendment" just hours before the Senate was to begin its Christmas recess. The bill created the conditions that enabled both the Enron energy speculation as well as the mortgage meltdown. Gramm should be the most hated man in America.

http://www.texasobserver.org/archives/item/15370-2767-john-mccains-gramm-gamble-the-gop-presidential-nominee-is-relying-on-the-ex-senator-who-helped-bring-you-the-mortgage-crisis-and-rick-perry

[PA Democrat]

7. Republican members of the commission refused to sign off on the report.

What a shock. Facts be damned. They need to push their sorry lies for their corporate masters. They are children refusing to accept the fact that the Tooth Fairy (AKA the "Invisible Hand" of the free market) does not exist. Corporations will NOT regulate themselves.

[Atman]

8. Well, here's a story the media won't be talking about.

Exactly the opposite of what they've been spewing for the lazy two years.

[Major Hogwash]

9. "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." Remember that meme?

Even the douchebag Governor of Idaho ran around saying it.
Now, he's cutting the Education budget by 20%, medicaid payments by a third, and telling the poor to "tighten their belts".

[seabeyond]

11. what two adm? clinton bush? bush obama? bush bush? nt

[grahamhgreen]

12. Jail & repeal the financial 'reforms' of the 90's

[Kablooie]

13. Many years ago when house prices shot up to crazy levels we knew something was seriously wrong.

And also knew that it would someday collapse with disastrous consequences.

This was common knowledge a decade ago but no one considered doing anything about it.

[nashville_brook]

14. k and r

[slipslidingaway]

15. Big knr - too many of the same people are back in Obama's administration. n/t

[Poboy]

16. recommend

[steve2470]

17. k and r nt

[gratuitous]

18. So, indictments, trials, and criminals going to jail, right?

Oh wait; that was then. Now we're looking to unleash America's greatness and unshackle business from all the onerous regulation that got laid on the poor, beleaguered banksters.

[MrSlayer]

19. Of course it was. It was set up to happen.

And the result is exactly what they wanted. None of this was an accident, 9/11, the wars, the "collapse", the housing bubble. All of it by design and all of it nothing more than an elaborate theft. These people make the Mafia look like the Boy Scouts.

[Amonester]

20. Bingo. And they've got all their backs covered.

Way up to the top of the (supposedly) U.S. gov. (which should be renamed CORPS&WARS. gov ).

I bet nothing will ever be done about anything in this book.

It's a safe bet: trust me.

[underpants]

21. Milton Friedman

we have been living in his world for over 30 years and have had the predictable collapses that follow.