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Today's Nuze

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it."

Frederic Bastiat

WRECKLESS PART II

By
Neal Boortz
@ December 14, 2009 8:31 AM
Permalink | Comments (20) | TrackBacks (0)

With all of that government spending in mind ... Barack Obama is ramping up his wealth envy rhetoric - scolding Wall Street and urging financial regulatory reform. Our president used such words as "reckless" and "fat cat bankers" to refer to Wall Street and financial institutions. Obama wants Congress to pass financial reforms in order to "address the irresponsibility and recklessness" that led to an economic crisis. You see, according to Obama, more government could have prevented our financial meltdown. He says, "It was a disaster that could have been avoided if we'd had clearer rules of the road for Wall Street and actually enforced them." No mention of the government programs, like the Community Reinvestment Act, that played a major role in the crisis. But that doesn't jive with his wealth envy angle.

In fact, last night on "60 Minutes" Obama said he is concerned that banks are returning bailout money so that they can pay large bonuses "without restraint." Here's the quote:

"I think that in some cases, [to be able to pay bonuses] was the motivation," he said, "which I think tells me that the people on Wall Street still don't get it. ...They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, 20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year...in decades and you guys caused the problem."

I'm thinking that Obama is thinking that if he yells and screams about the evil rich bankers enough the people will simply accept his rantings on faith and will never make any effort to try to understand what brought us to this financial situation in the first place.

Let's see. Can I do this in one paragraph?

It becomes government policy that everyone should have the opportunity to own a home. The government cajoles private lending institutions into making irresponsible loans with promises to buy those loans and shield the financial institutions from liability. Financial institutions that don't go along with the lending frenzy are punished. There's a rush to buy homes as the government-guaranteed loans flood the landscape. High demand forces home prices up. People see increasing home values and are convinced they can still their loans when the interest rates increase by simply refinancing. The bubble starts to burst when some borrowers realize that they aren't going to be able to repay their loans and the refinancing isn't available. Home values crash. Lenders and homeowner find themselves upside down. Financial institutions once worth billions crash and burn. Here we are.

There's an argument to be made that none of this would have happened if the government hadn't encouraged, even forced banks to make irresponsible loans to people who had no way in hell of paying them back.

No ... really can't do it in one paragraph. We still haven't talked about the sensational news stories about mortgage lenders "red lining" and the government threats and pressure that came out of those racially charged studies.

Anyway .. here's Obama - our colossal mistake - going on another one of his rants against the private sector. In the mind of The Chosen One all which is evil has been brought to us by the private sector, and all that is good comes from government. Remember ... and I'll keep reminding you of this as long as I need to ... our illustrious president referred to the private sector as "the enemy" in his book. That's why he's engaged in a war to destroy it.



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What others are saying

  • Oh, the shame of it.....
    all.
  • Hold on ...
    Was it the gov'ts fault these institutions were lending money under what became know as NINJA loans (No Income No Job Approved) ...

    These banks lended money without any due diligence on whether the borrower could repay ... it has nothing to do with the Community Reinvestment Act ... Thats just a distraction ...
  • whaaa daaaaa................................
    damn it RANDY.....shut the mmmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmm hell up.......what am I gonna do wit' all deez bumper stickers your brother sold me........

    osamabama/pelosi 2012......mmmm mmmmm mmmmmm........
  • It's just like
    the good cop, bad cop scenario. They're both in it together to achieve the desired result. By both I refer to our government and those to big to fail. Yeah, we are stupid.
  • capitalism iis old hat
    Progressives, republicans, democrats and socialists still labor under the old Marxist definition of capitalism even though corporatism replaced capitalism at least a century and a half ago.

    Corporatism is the grotesque shotgun wedding between government and corporations, with the government holding the shotgun and the corporations delivering the dowry. Income from the corporations is interbred with tax money stolen from citizens at the point of the government's shotgun and circulated back and forth between the partners of this malignant marriage until there's no difference in any of it and both become both filthy and filthy rich.
  • Barack Hussein One-Termer
    Mmm
    Mmm
    Mmm
  • obama's showing his ignorance...
    yeah lets make it as hard as possible for any capitalist to make a buck then who will pay for all his socialist utopia entitlements when they "go galt" or even more likly just move overseas completely.Not even trying for the american market dollar if everyones broke.The ones that can afford to leave will and then who will they tax?(didn't the french revolution start this way?Madam Obama should practice her line.."LET THEN EAT CAKE!"
  • Puh-leeze, WAKE UP
    the Federal gov't and Wall St are as inseparable as siamese twins. It's a loop of empowerment... much like a business productivity loop.
    The public animosity is to placate the still ignorant taxpayers.
    Just follow the Campaign Money, Bailouts and Ccompromising Legislation.
  • @Mike
    You see, you have a salary you pay taxes on. It's not your vote they are trying to buy. It's the moochers votes they are buying through the higher taxes you will pay...
  • fat-cats
    A name-calling game is the last thing this president should want to start.
  • Don't buy Neal's line
    Wall street and Big Banking have always been in bed with the politicians. Particularly the party in charge. Obama and the Big Money Fatcats are talking everyday and he is not saying anything about them in public that they haven't already given him their permission. Heck, they helped him get elected.
  • Yeah
    Neal is right, government regulation of places like Freddie, Fannie, AIG, and Lehman Bros is just wrong. And conservatives hate wealthy people, so they were glad to see Madoff run away w/ hundreds of millions of dollars of wealthy taxpayers. Conservatives and theur wealth envy RULE!!!
  • wealth envy rhetoric
    it's about time you've used the wealth envy rhetoric. obama's not the only one who uses rhetoric around here. i'm talking about you, neal.

    rhetoric –noun : the art of influencing the thought and conduct of an audience.

    you are a Wall Street myrmidon who uses your rhetoric to negate bad feelings about Wall Street. the "private sector" language is genius.

    just how are they the "private sector" when they've gotten, for example Goldman Sachs, days away from big trouble, the taxpayers gave the company $10 billion in TARP funds, $12.9 billion in a credit default swap settlement, and $52 billion in low-interest financing?

    which one of us got on the list to receive TARP payments? no one. that's because we ARE private sector, not the banking cartels.

    Goldman has set aside $16.7 billion so far this year for bonuses – a figure forecast to rise to $22.7 billion in bonuses by year’s end,

    and they keep trading in derivatives, one of the things that got us all in the mess were in. the mess the private sector is in, because we didn't get bailout with our own money.

    the bill is worthless, because lobbyists have made their underlings write amendments to it with language that runs counter to the reforms.

    but you realized that, didn't you, neal? but you figured that we didn't read too much about it. it was a good excuse to say your favorite thing, "wealth envy", to get your myrmidons are worked up.

    http://baselinescenario.com/2009/12/09/how-to-kill-otc-derivatives-reform-in-two-sentences/
  • Hope and Change
    I wish/hope/pray that these bankers have enough gumption to explain to Obama exactly government's role in the financial crisis.

    I do suspect that this is another of Obama's little show meetings where he holds a conference for a day with a cross section of "experts" then puts their reports into the circular file and does whatever it was he was already planning to do. The "whatever" is some scheme to increase the power of the government. Said schemes at best don't really address the problem; at worst they lead to more government interference and will make the problem worse.
  • Salaries
    I don't think Obozo is going to make any greater wave of resentment when the average gubmint worker make nearly TWICE as much as the average private sector worker, plus they have the Cadillac HealthCare package. The general public won't stand for the duplicity from the filthy liar.
  • To President Obama
    People in glass houses.......

    DC if full of people who are "irresponsible and reckless" who by their actions have created our financial meltdown.

    The economic events of 2008 will pale in comparison to the impact our ballooning national debt will have in the future.

    But hypocrisy was never a problem for a politician
  • How much makes a "fat-cat"?
    Since the President has now put a range on bonuses he feels are too big, I'd like for him to be a little more specific about bonuses and income:

    1) What is the limit that he feels bonuses in any industry should be?

    2) Is one's status as a "fat-cat" determined by income or by assets? Above what level of either is one considered a "fat-cat"?

    3) Does he feel the government should have the right to limit salaries, bonuses, commissions, etc. of private company employees?

    While I'm pretty sure his answer to #3 would be "yes", I'd rather have him stand up and confirm this. At least with some definitive answers, he could put some specific dollar figures on where he stands.
  • Goverment = Mr. Potter
    I watched "It's A Wonderful Life" for the umpteenth time over the weekend.

    I was thinking how the administration vilifies the bankers much like the movie did.

    Then I realized. Mr. Potter was not the banker at the start of the movie. The bank was independent. As was "Bailey Brothers Savings and Loan".

    However Mr. Potter was always trying to get control of the bank and the savings and loan. And he did when the market crashed. He took over the bank and forced his way onto the board of the savings and loan.

    Sound familiar?

    The Government = Mr. Potter. And soon we will all be living in 'Pottersville'.
  • Vote buying
    Since I will not benefit from any of this spending and will pay more taxes on my houses and from my salary, how is this going to get my vote when inflation finally hits and the jobs are not there, etc. I am not the only one in this situation.
  • Equally as wreckless
    The CRA, tax credits for home buyers, and other vote buying schemes are just failed attempts at economic or societal engineering by the government. But it is equallly as bad to bailout failure as we did last year with TARP.
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