If we never get an investigation into Wall Street, how can we prevent another meltdown?
By John Amato Friday Jun 26, 2009 11:00amJust a reminder.
I know we've asked for a Truth Commission on torture over and over again, but what about the financial catastrophe the world just experienced? When will hearings be held to uncover the facts that led us and the world to financial ruin? I know we have many basic facts of what happened, but when will an actual hearing take place? If nothing is officially uncovered then how can we stop another one from taking place?
Being too big to fail should never happen again. If it's too big to fail,( Citi Group) then it shouldn't exist.
The S&L scandal wasn't a blip on the radar and more will come if nothing is exposed. How many times will a Senator like John McCain be given a new lease on life to remake himself after a financial scandal? It's just a matter of time. Greed by the CNBCers will always be too much for them to handle, but they will never have to pay for it. You know who covers the bill.
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and the world to financial ruin?" *
That's a rhetorical question, right?
*Never.
Has been subjected to questioning recently and so far we got zilch from him. The Fed refuses to answer any questions posed to them and refuse audits, you think the banks will allow that?
Let's not forget Obama's idiotic idea of giving the Fed more regulatory powers.
Rumor has it that Larry Summers will take over the Fed.
We might as well all just drink bleach...
Can I at least get some flavoring in mine?
Zema?
Oh you mean the economy..., I thought you meant 9/11...
The problem with Wall Street is that is a scam so an "investigation" won't really solve anything because everybody is in bed with each other and the general public can not handle the truth. Everything would collapse. So, at best, there will be token punishments and the scam will continue.
Nagahapun...
With torture, it's only blood and pain that would be revealed.
But woe betide those who look too deeply into the morass of lies, theft, and corpoRat malfeasance that is the financial crisis.
These are the OWNERS. Nobody investigates the OWNERS!
...However, it is time for us to remind them that they can not have a "black box" and also expect to gain the trust their system needs to work.
Clearly, the foxen need the chickens' trust... however, funny things happen when the chickens request the same level of transparency from the fox collective ;-)
911, Iraqi WMDs, Congressional complicity in torture and illegal wiretaps, Katrina malfeasance, bin Laden contacts in 1999 and 2000, Abu Ghraib, Defense Contractors (electrocuting servicemen, giving them tainted water, cost overuns, out right stealing, etc.), secret Cheney energy meetings, Plame, Bagram Air Base, Gitmo, Eastern Euro Black Sites, Pakistan funding, Israeli nukes, Kissinger and Indonesia, Kissinger and Pinochet, Kissinger, CIA drug ops from the mid 70s to today, and Wall Street money laundering to just name a few!
to say the exact same thing, you beat me to it. The major acts of treason will continue until this country is completely ruined. No one will ever take to the streets to stop it.
They will when their TVs go off. When they can't afford TV they will jump up. They could go without food, water, toilet paper, etc., but when it comes to TV, that's the deal breaker.
A new article I'm reading in "Harper's" by Luke Mitchell entitled, "We Still Torture".
Here are a few lines from the article:
"It is this very openness that suggests why this new age--let's call it the era of legitimized torture--is so perilous, not just to the men who are tortured by to liberal democracy. The moment is rapidly approaching when President Obama will cease to be the inheritor of a criminal regime and instead become its primary controlling authority, when the ongoing war crimes will attach themselves to his administration. And when they do attach themselves, Obama's administration will be forced to defend itself, as all administrations do. And it will defend itself by claiming that what we call crimes are not in fact crimes."
"This process has already begun. Rather than end illegal torture, we are now solidifying the steps that we have taken to make these activities legal."
We have entered very dark, very scary and extremely un-Constitutional waters. I dare say most of us at C&L believed Barack Obama would steer our ship of state back into calmer, saner, Constitutionally mandated waters.
Instead it appears he is forging ahead with nary a change in the plans.
..momentum's a bitch.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Sounds like an interesting article, Abby. Luke Mitchell is right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfV_ENR5IZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAjB276gcZQ&fe...
A 'truth commission' is only effective if followed by appropriate prosecutions, convictions, and jail terms.
Boy, doesn't that sound better than the 'Crooks and Liars Commission' we've grown accustomed too? ;-0
Do we really need investigations? The only investigations we get are always whitewashes. We pretty much know what has happened in all these acts of treason and who committed them. We just need enough people with the cajones to carry out the punishment of the all treason.
...in a dream world. This ain't a democracy ya know!
Having a representative democracy provides that all important layer of detachment from the voting public. Something about the minority (the wealthy) being persecuted by the majority (the serfs).
Interesting that you should mention Citigroup. IMHO, they stink to high heaven, all the way around.
Red Roof Inn Defaults
Hotel Chain Fails to Meet $367 Million Debt Obligations
"In 2007, Red Roof was acquired from Accor SA for $1.3 billion by a group led by Citigroup Inc.'s Global Special Situations Unit and including hotel manager Westmont Hospitality Group. The deal left Citigroup with a 79% stake in Red Roof. This month, Red Roof's owners missed scheduled payments on four mortgages with 131 Red Roof Inns pledged as collateral. All told, Red Roof's properties carry nearly $1.2 billion in debt, including mortgages, mezzanine loans and other notes."
(emphasis added)
I tend to agree with Thomas Jefferson regarding companies only conducting the business that they were originally chartered to conduct. I don't see a problem with corporations having an expiration date either.
and its benefits, if they continue to operate without any of the responsibilities associated with that legislative statue.
It seems now the past crisis was partially a massive manipulation by Goldman, they certainly were able to get rid of their arch-rivals Lehman Bros rather quickly. The psychotic nature of the top business elites (and that is not just an American thing BTW) truly frightens me. There has to be a better system than the current smoke and mirrors apparatus that is in place right now.
Corporations have charters, issued by states. Perhaps those charters could be revoked, or modified, or rewritten, or...
to the Roberts Supreme Court. And we all know how they view the "personhood" of corporations.
From the ReclaimDemocracy page:
The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these:
* Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws.
* Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose.
* Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose.
* Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm.
* Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job.
* Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.
Then it all went to hell with Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad.
in the pay of leland stanford...
It's not even part of the decision issued by the court. Stoopid!
... but not before giving us a university so that rich kids from the best West Coast families did not have to travel far, and the gift that has kept on giving: the California Republican Party where the festering wounds that were Nixon and Raygun got their early start.
I am a Cal alumni so I may be a tad biased ;-P
good points
yet, until santa clara county v southern pacific RR is overturned, the corporations will still have the same rights as individuals and will be protected by the bill of rights
simultaneously, in the OPUS DEI wing of the Court, there's not the SLIGHTEST, FAINTEST, LEAST SCINTILLA of a chance of it ever being overturned. Mebbe Thomas' wife will catch him with a coke-can full of pubes? Roberts' fallling disorder will drag him under a lake somewhere? Scalio will od on canneloni? Alito? Him too...
but true
how come they can contribute such large amounts of money to congress members? They have more rights than citizens.
and that is part of the outrage: they are granted the same rights and protections as individuals, yet their actual power/sway is orders of magnitude that of individual citizens.
again, santa clara county must be overturned.
How about re instituting the Glass-Steagall act for a starter. Then review all financial legislation over the last 30 years and repeal it. It seems these problems were addressed during the depression and legislation was introduced to prevent our current situation. Why do we need to reinvent the wheel?
There was a huge majority to toss it out, but nothing EVER goes back.
Obama/Geithner/Summers et al don't really want to regulate the people who are giving them milllion$$$$$ NOT to reregulate...
yet, the reasons for the great collapse are not as mysterious as some (see, the FIRE sector) would like us to think.
still, though, bring on a 21st cen pecora commission. i would like to see some people (or a lot)in govt and biz squirm under the harsh spotlight of public shame.
who wasn't compromised by the very people it would investigate...
Our President engages in cover ups so it will be up to another country like Great Britain inquiring on the Iraq lies.
if that were to happen, it would only get scant coverage at most in the American media.
...how can we prevent another meltdown?
No problem. If we guarantee the Wall Street Overlords infinitely large bonuses and absolutely no regulation, they will promise that it will never happen again. Now, how could anyone turn down that deal?
The we get medieval on their asses.
You mean: as in we the serfs, and they the oligarchs.
In other words: as in neo-feudalism.
Because Americans are Sheople and don't care about truth... just like in the case of 911.
We're not half way through it still have the near long term fallout coming.
1. You have no power, you never had power, you never will have power.
2. Power protects itself.
All Hail Bush 44,uh...Obama!
The only solution is a ground up paradigm overhaul.
Going to jail is the only deterrent. Not one of the crooks is in the hoosegow. An investigation without that has little meaning.
Another meltdown is already on the drawing boards.
Why not, the last one was a huge success. They swindled enormous sums, the amounts they couldn't move off their balance sheets, we the peons made them whole on.
It was a fabulous success.
After 23 years as a corporate securities attorney–advising large corporations on securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions–I left my position as partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom because I was disturbed by the game.
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The provision in the law I am talking about is the one that says the purpose of the corporation is simply to make money for shareholders. Every jurisdiction where corporations operate has its own law of corporate governance. But remarkably, the corporate design contained in hundreds of corporate laws throughout the world is nearly identical.
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Section 716 of the business corporation act, which reads:
...the directors and officers of a corporation shall exercise their powers and discharge their duties with a view to the interests of the corporation and of the shareholders....
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This design has the unfortunate side effect of largely eliminating personal responsibility. Because corporate law generally regulates corporations but not executives, it leads executives to become inattentive to justice. They demand their subordinates “make the numbers,” and pay little attention to how they do so. Directors and officers know their jobs, salaries, bonuses, and stock options depend on delivering profits for shareholders.
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Many activists cast the fundamental issue as one of “corporate greed,” but that’s off the mark. Corporations are incapable of a human emotion like greed. They are artificial beings created by law. The real question is why corporations behave as if they are greedy. The answer is the design of corporate law.
Capitalism combined with Corporate law... The results are inevitable, depending on who you speak with and banks... forget about it!
[ http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0119-04.htm ]
The Hijacking of the Fourteenth Amendment, By Doug Hammerstrom
pdf ► [ http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/fo... ]
Amended:2nd UPDATE: Lawmakers Attack Fed For Being Too Secretive
[ http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/... ]
I don't know why you guys continue to believe that there can be such a thing as a company that is too big to fail. NO COMPANY is too big to fail- ever. If a company fails- that's perfectly healthy, someone else who knows how to run a business will simply take it over, the assets don't just dissapear into nothingness. This financial crisis was caused by the federal reserve and monetary policy, plain and simple. Instead of supporting an institution that has absolutely no transparency and has a monopoly on the money supply- look into it and you'll see why we have booms and busts.
There's plenty of facts of why it happened- Peter schiff talks about it over and over and over. But it seems like you don't want to listen for some reason Mr. Amato
..."I don't know why you guys continue to believe that there can be such a thing as a company that is too big to fail. NO COMPANY is too big to fail- ever. If a company fails- that's perfectly healthy, someone else who knows how to run a business will simply take it over, the assets don't just dissapear into nothingness."
Forward looking... with regards to your aformentioned remark, what do you surmise the reasonable outcome would prove? If, as you say... "If a company fails- that's perfectly healthy, someone else who knows how to run a business will simply take it over, the assets don't just dissapear into nothingness."
Where would that lead us and humanity?
It's an interesting point you make, will there always be someone to takeover their assets and human resources? It's a dilemma I find perplexing, though I'm in favor of the humanity slant, myself.
does Mr Amato suggest that any business is in actuality 'To Big To Fail'. But being TBTF is the excuse given for the purpose of separating us from trillions of otherwise useful tax dollars, and impoverishing future generations to puff up corporate coffers. It's disgusting and we deserve a 'truth commission' which seemed to be Mr Amato's point. If only we lived in a Democracy.
John, John, John; they will never investigate anything, because they are all in on it.
I was so hoping Obama would change things and give us a 2nd FDR type presidency. This hope lasted about 20 hours, at which time he hired the corporate toady Rahm Emmanuel, then pushed out the guy who brought the democrats back to life - Dr. Howard Dean!
Then he quickly followed up this sham by hiring Derivatives Summers and Wall Street Geithner - and I knew we were toast.
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