Economy

[outsider]

I have previously posted in regards to our economic system being designed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

In regards to the mortgage situation and Countrywide, their executives have had multi-million dollar payoffs due to their performance for the company. The same executives that directed their underlings to write mortgages that people couldn't afford at the time of the signing and en masse. So, we have executives getting richer, people who weren't really poor in many situations being made poorer, stock-holders losing tons of money and our economy as well as many other countries' economies running full-speed into a recession devaluing our dollar, the euro, yen and a number more. Yes the people who signed the mortgages are to blame as well for this but isn't credit screening supposed to weed these people out?

Further the Fed is bailing out investment companies that have no reason being bailed out. They made a dumb mistake, they failed they have to go out of business, declare bankruptcy etc. Except our economic system is such that they don't have to. Instead when they fail we, the American taxpayers are drafted to cover their expenses without any expectation of return on investments and profits.

The poor and middle-class are being pushed down to make the rich richer, to protect the richer's profits and to help the richer become richer yet.

This is fucking insane.

[MsThang]

I can agree with you on the Countrywide thing, but completely disagree with you about Bear Stearns. The fed didn't help out the executives at Bear Stearns as much as they helped out the employees and the economy. Had they not done the bail out, the assets of all of its investors would have been frozen and people who have their retirement funds...etc in Bear Stearns would have had to wait until they went through Bankruptcy courts to get the assets unfrozen. IMO, it was ultimately the right thing to do. They went down to what? $2 a share, it isn't like the execs got a ton of money for the transaction.

[outsider]

That is the risk of buying stock and being an employee however. Bear Stearns is a big part of why our economy is tanking. They were being reckless. And they screwed up. Their business was not my profit yet their screw up has become my expense. It further punishes those that are associated with less reckless investment firms.

In American capitalism only the less well off can fail? Corporate bail-outs are bullshit unless they start sending stock certificates to every one of us. What is the point of investing if when your stock fails you just get a handout? There is an inherent risk in investing and it's a very possible, or it was, that your stocks will fail. It sucks that many people would be screwed over but it sucks worse than millions and millions more are now being screwed by it.

Even still it isn't even us really bailing them out exactly but guaranteeing with our tax dollars a return on JP Morgan's investment. Bear Stearns enabled companies like Countrywide and New Century to do what they were doing.

Will the Fed buy me a house? No? Than it shouldn't buy a billionaire a business.

[MsThang]

Well many people who invest in company sponsored 401K's don't have a choice in which investment firm their corporation uses and unfortunately, to get it matched they have to use the investment firm that their company uses.

[TheZenMan]

Are you absolutely certain that it's the economic system that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer?

[HaloGuardian]

Yes it is. Corporations in collusion with the government and the federal reserve makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. The poor get raked over in taxes directly or indirectly (like inflation when the fed bails out Bear Stearns) while the government takes our tax dollars and bails out/hands out our money to those in power. And by rich I don't mean people that make ($50k-multi-millions). I mean the heads of the corporate/government duo (the multi-billionaires)... Also welfare (personal or corporate) rewards people/corporations who fail.

[TheZenMan]

Meh, I don't care.

[HaloGuardian]

don't care, not my shift.

While I think you will care when you hear. I think there's been a rape up there!

[iaacp]

Hmm. I don't feel myself getting poorer.


...


Wait, yes I do. I need a job.

[outsider]

You don't feel yourself getting poorer yet you are poorer. Your money doesn't go near a far today as it did a year ago. Gas prices are going up, wheat and grains are going up in price. they're worth the same as they were a short while ago but your money is worth less so prices go up.

[outsider]

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/120658650589950.xml&coll=7&loc=interstitialskip

A newly surfaced memo from banking giant JPMorgan Chase provides a rare glimpse into the mentality that fueled the mortgage crisis.
The memo's title says it all: "Zippy Cheats & Tricks."
It is a primer on how to get risky mortgage loans approved by Zippy, Chase's in-house automated loan underwriting system. The secret to approval? Inflate the borrowers' income or otherwise falsify their loan application.



Yeah. Fuck them.