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When lawmakers reacted to the emergency they thus listened only to the people who created the disaster - they were the only people they could see who understood

When lawmakers reacted to the emergency they thus listened only to the people who created the disaster - they were the only people they could see who understood what was going on. It's a little better now with people like Elizabeth Warren. The left still needs to understand finance better though or we'll all get totally screwed again come the next crisis.

JackFr 7y ago
Elizabeth Warren certainly has some good ideas, but the fiasco the CFPB has become is largely on her. She created a bureaucracy that was to be immune to political pressure by design, under the shortsighted assumption that she (or at least someone amenable to her) would run it. People warned her and she should have known better. The way to avoid the next crisis is to stop bailing out the players. The role of the Fed should be ensure that the payment system remains robust and that solvent banks have access to liquidity. Lehman Brothers should be a model for the future. Barclays and Nomura bought productive the assets of Lehman and put them to work. The investors in Lehman's poor management were punished. On the other hand, AIG/Goldman bailout earned Warren Buffet alone about $5 billion dollars. He literally was buying Goldman preferred stock while advising the Treasury to bailout AIG (whose biggest counterparty was GS).
- anon1m0us 7y ago
  The problem with "stop bailing out the players" is that the players hold the people for ransom. The players didn't lose their money -- they lost people's personal savings that they used to pay for food and rent. If people get hungry, they revolt. The banks said to government, "If you don't bail us out, there will be a revolt. You don't want war in the streets do you?"
  - JackFr 7y ago
    But they don't. They want you to think they are holding the people for ransom, but they're not. Solvent banks need liquidity, the payment system has to stay robust and functional, and existing deposit insurance (which is fully funded) needs to be honored. But don't bail them out.

JackFr 7y ago

Elizabeth Warren certainly has some good ideas, but the fiasco the CFPB has become is largely on her. She created a bureaucracy that was to be immune to political pressure by design, under the shortsighted assumption that she (or at least someone amenable to her) would run it. People warned her and she should have known better. The way to avoid the next crisis is to stop bailing out the players. The role of the Fed should be ensure that the payment system remains robust and that solvent banks have access to liquidity. Lehman Brothers should be a model for the future. Barclays and Nomura bought productive the assets of Lehman and put them to work. The investors in Lehman's poor management were punished. On the other hand, AIG/Goldman bailout earned Warren Buffet alone about $5 billion dollars. He literally was buying Goldman preferred stock while advising the Treasury to bailout AIG (whose biggest counterparty was GS).

anon1m0us 7y ago
The problem with "stop bailing out the players" is that the players hold the people for ransom. The players didn't lose their money -- they lost people's personal savings that they used to pay for food and rent. If people get hungry, they revolt. The banks said to government, "If you don't bail us out, there will be a revolt. You don't want war in the streets do you?"
- JackFr 7y ago
  But they don't. They want you to think they are holding the people for ransom, but they're not. Solvent banks need liquidity, the payment system has to stay robust and functional, and existing deposit insurance (which is fully funded) needs to be honored. But don't bail them out.