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Originally Posted by flstf
First I'd like to vent a little. I am sick of hearing Forbes, Buffet, and other financial pundits on the news shows saying that the drop in real estate values is the reason behind this credit crunch. They act like this is some kind of unforeseen event as if we were hit by lightening or something when it was obvious to many of us that prices were way out of line. How in the hell could those in charge of these companies not know this? I guess the answer is that they did know and continued to make/buy shaky loans anyway for reasons that must have benefited them.
Then the pundits say that no one knows how long this will last because they don't know how much lower real estate will go. Is it so hard to figure out that prices will drop to the point where the average person can afford them?
As far as what to do now that we are in this mess, I guess the "Magical Dept Absorbtion Machine" is necessary to stop a short term free fall in the markets. Capitalism is supposed to reward those who make good decisions and punish those who make bad decisions. I know this probably doesn't jive with the "neoliberalism" view but I wish there was some way to at least make those responsible for these loans, tranches, derivatives etc.. take some losses like the rest of us.
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Sampling the Sunday morning talking heads infomercials I heard a couple things over and over- For the right- "it's not a complete loss, the tax payers will get something for their money." and for the left- "this is maintaining privatization of the gains while burdening the tax payers with the losses."
It seems, from what little attention I paid, both sides have their talking points down. I don't know who's being more truthful. To be honest I doubt they themselves have much of a clue. I fear the left is being more realistic. Yet hope the right is, well, right.
I know I'm tried of watching the CEO's of these failing financial giants leave with millions after running the companies into the ground. While the share holders (yes, I've taken a few hits, who hasn't?) are left holding a fraction of what they once had. It's also extremely hard to watch the worker bees collect their belongings in cardboard boxes and head for the subway while knowing many in upper management left via the helo pad on the roof.
Edit:
Found this at ABC news. I have to say if you're a conservative candidate for POTUS and you loose George Will you've got problems.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5849844