Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discussthe winter of our discontent as neoliberal policies and relentless fraud by banks results in never-ending Baltimores. In the second half, Max interviews Satyajit Das, author of Extreme Money, about how this debt addicted world could go the way of the Mayans.
The liberals wanted a strengthening of the Community Reinvestment Act, which "encouraged" the banks to dole out sub-prime loans to minorities. The Republicans wanted to nix the Glass-Steagall Act, which was put into place after the great depression (to prevent another) and replace it with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allowed the banks and investment houses to combine forces to fund a multi-trillion dollar explosion in derivatives (credit default swaps). The combination of "encouraging" banks to loan to sub-prime borrowers and creating a new investment vehicle (betting on the failure of repayment of the mortgage by the sub-prime borrowers - aka credit default swaps) created a stock, employment and housing market bubble, that when burst, brought about the biggest meltdown of the employment, housing and stock markets since the great depression. It all started with a "grand bargain", bi-partisan, widely touted (by both Republican and Democrats) removal of the protections put in place after the great depression (Glass Steagall Act). The greed and hubris of the federal government destroyed tens upon tens of millions of people's lives - in the US alone. Who were the winners? Like every ponzi scheme, the winners were those that invested early and then got out quick.
Previous generations (the Baby Boomers) are using things like the above to strip mine future generations and to place all of their debt on the shoulders of their children, grandchildren and great grand children. Xers and Millennials were too late to the party BUT will nevertheless be left with their parent's and grandparent's bill. This is how wealth transfer works. You take from the producers and give to (1) the political elite, (2) their wealthy designees and (3) the meager scraps that remain are fought over by the useless idiots; hence the affordable care act. The affordable care act was put in place to make sure the Baby Boomers have cheap health insurance in retirement, funded by the misery and toil of their healthy, young children and grand children.
It's all about money, power and control - and redistribution of wealth.
Here's the real, uncomfortable truth:
ReplyDeleteThe liberals wanted a strengthening of the Community Reinvestment Act, which "encouraged" the banks to dole out sub-prime loans to minorities. The Republicans wanted to nix the Glass-Steagall Act, which was put into place after the great depression (to prevent another) and replace it with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allowed the banks and investment houses to combine forces to fund a multi-trillion dollar explosion in derivatives (credit default swaps). The combination of "encouraging" banks to loan to sub-prime borrowers and creating a new investment vehicle (betting on the failure of repayment of the mortgage by the sub-prime borrowers - aka credit default swaps) created a stock, employment and housing market bubble, that when burst, brought about the biggest meltdown of the employment, housing and stock markets since the great depression. It all started with a "grand bargain", bi-partisan, widely touted (by both Republican and Democrats) removal of the protections put in place after the great depression (Glass Steagall Act). The greed and hubris of the federal government destroyed tens upon tens of millions of people's lives - in the US alone. Who were the winners? Like every ponzi scheme, the winners were those that invested early and then got out quick.
Previous generations (the Baby Boomers) are using things like the above to strip mine future generations and to place all of their debt on the shoulders of their children, grandchildren and great grand children. Xers and Millennials were too late to the party BUT will nevertheless be left with their parent's and grandparent's bill. This is how wealth transfer works. You take from the producers and give to (1) the political elite, (2) their wealthy designees and (3) the meager scraps that remain are fought over by the useless idiots; hence the affordable care act. The affordable care act was put in place to make sure the Baby Boomers have cheap health insurance in retirement, funded by the misery and toil of their healthy, young children and grand children.
It's all about money, power and control - and redistribution of wealth.