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POPS25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis
Rebubbacans and Ayn Rand disciples abound. Kathleen Corbet Corbet ran the largest agency, Standard & Poor's, during much of this decade, though the other two major players, Moody's and Fitch, played by similar rules. By slapping AAA seals of approval on large portions of even the riskiest pools of loans, rating agencies helped lure investors into loading on collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that are now unsellable. Dick Fuld steered Lehman deep into the business of subprime mortgages Lehman even made its own subprime loans. The firm took all those loans, whipped them into bonds and passed on to investors billions of dollars of what is now toxic debt. Marion and Herb Sandler In the early 1980s, became the first to sell a tricky home loan called the option ARM. And they pushed the mortgage, which offered several ways to back-load your loan and thereby reduce your early payments, over the next two decades. pocketed $2.3 billion when they sold their bank to Wac
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POPSSummer of Rage Ironies this is a very unfair crisis. The epicentre is the United States, but the rest of the world, and particularly America's trading partners, will get hit harder than the U.S.
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POPS Econ 101 ~ ~ ~ ~ Economic Mess for Dummies ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What is a CDO or CDS? Imagine taking paper debt like mortgages, subprime mortgages, car loans, credit cards loans, and pretty much anything you can imagine. Now combine and mix the paper in a blender, spiking it with worthless rhetorical hyperbole that derivatives are the new paradigm of investments. Then pour the mixture in a pyramid of champagne glasses, to represent the varying levels of return (and risk), with the higher the glass, the lower the risk return and risk. That represents the CDOs. Now as you sell the mess, insure against the risk of the CDOs decreasing in value with CDSs. Presto, $1 trillion of bad loans is transmuted into $62 trillion in faux wealth. An alchemist would be proud. http://nobullbert.blogspot.com/2009/02/economic-mess-for-dummies.html
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POPSAtlas Shrugged (Apdated for the current financial crisis) Their eyes locked with an intensity she was only beginning to understand. Yes, Hank ... claim me ... If we're to win the battle against the leeches, we must get it on ... right now ... Don't let them torture us for our happiness ... or our billions. He tore his eyes away. "I can't. Sex is base and vile!" "No, it's an expression of our highest values and our admiration for each other's minds." "Your mind gives me the biggest boner, Dagny Taggart." He fell upon her like a savage, wielding his mouth like a machete, and in the pleasure she took from him her body became an extension of her quarterly earnings report—proof of her worthiness as a lover. His hard-on was sanction enough. "Scream your secret passions, Hank Rearden!" "Derivatives!" "Yes!" "Credit-default swaps!" "Oh, yes! Yes!" "Collateralized debt obligation." "YES! YES! YES!"
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POPS Sen. Reid Cries 'Bankruptcy' In Front Of Reporters The SEC has been issuing subpoenas for an investigation into rumor-driven market manipulation. Of course, Harry Reid stood up in broad daylight to talk about a troubled insurer "with a name that everyone knows," so his contribution was merely obtuse. And predictably destructive. The steep drop in the share prices of insurance companies Thursday destroyed wealth for uncounted middle-class investors holding onto stock in companies still considered healthy. It calls to mind *Senator Chuck Schumer's public suggestion in July that troubled IndyMac Bank "could face collapse." It did, after a deposit run. Senator Schumer said criticizing his action was akin to blaming "the fire on the guy who called 911." The nation's shareholders would sleep better at night if some Members of Congress enrolled in Arsonists Anonymous. The $4 Billion Senator* http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121607771017452513.html?mod=article-outset-box
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POPSThe September Financial Terrorism Attack Puts some perspective on who is to blame. Very sobering. Americans have far more to fear from those within American government and business than outside of it. Corruption rules and brought the financial house down. Those involved should not be immune from prosecution, penalty, and financial accountability.
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POPSCDOs Rise From The Dead These reinvented CDOs are supposed to be less risky...we'll see. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
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POPSCNBC's Erin Burnett In Action The Washington Post discovers that one of the most prominent anchors on a cable news channel covering business and financial news actually has a brain. Golly, who'd have thunk... - Louis Hau
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POPSCredit Crunch If it's getting harder for KKR's Henry Kravis to borrow money on his own terms, imagine what the subprime mortgage meltdown is doing to the rest of us. -- Liz Moyer
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