I was watching Inside Job again last night and was struck by Brooksley Born - the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Clinton's 2nd term. She was interviewed by Frontline in 2009 and I was impressed with how seriously she took her job as a public servant. This is quite unlike the other more famous characters who opposed her desire to regulate derivatives as far back as 1996. Larry Summers, Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin all opposed her foresight. I couldn't believe this glowing Newsweek piece on Summers. It mentions his dismissal of Born almost as a positive! Given Newsweek published that in March 2009 (after the 2008 meltdown), is it no wonder they're going broke when they put out junk like that?
Today, S&P downgraded the outlook on US debt. Given that S&P rated sub-prime mortgage derivatives as AAA in collusion with the likes of Lehman, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs, who cares what they say even if it's actually more accurate now?
It is so sad that the Wall Street crooks got billions in bailouts and now the average citizen is paying for their astronomical greed.
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