The commission’s report finds fault with two Fed chairmen: Alan Greenspan, right, a skeptic of regulation who led the central bank as the housing bubble expanded, and his successor, Ben S. Bernanke, who did not foresee the crisis but then played a crucial role in the response to it.
Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds
WASHINGTON — The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.
The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.
“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done,” the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions, which were read by The New York Times. “If we accept this notion, it will happen again.”
While the panel, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, accuses several financial institutions of greed, ineptitude or both, some of its gravest conclusions concern government failings, with embarrassing implications for both parties. But the panel was itself divided along partisan lines, which could blunt the impact of its findings.
Many of the conclusions have been widely described, but the synthesis of interviews, documents and testimony, along with its government imprimatur, give the report — to be released on Thursday as a 576-page book — a conclusive sweep and authority.
Continue reading here…
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Best left to one of the founders — Thomas Jefferson: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation …will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their father’s conquered.”
From the NY Times coverage
“Like Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Bush’s Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., predicted in 2007 — wrongly, it turned out — that the subprime collapse would be contained, the report notes.”
That sums it up in one short sentence. Social engineering gone array…
In the photo above of Bernie and Greenie…is that a hanky in Greenies hand to wipe his tears or is it evidence crinkled up to destroy?
And there stands Bernie looking ‘ mummy-fied ‘ frozen in thought.
No marilyn, its just cocktail hour in America for the selected few!
The New York Times is largely a degenerative mouthpiece for power in this country. Gretchen Morgensen, a hack who has cut and past some insightful reporting on the whole mortgage affair, will only go so far, like the rest of the paper, to crticize the financial terrorists.
Just as I thought…this whole mess started during Clinton’s last year in office. My…that reminds me of his last year or so…he must have had ‘ something ‘ on his mind. And both his thoughts came true……..???
Sooo, after reading the article, I look forward to Thursday’s final report. But reading that the committee panel was devided along partisan lines which could blunt the impact of the findings. Party should not have been an issue. All were on that panel to investigate the issue of the crisis, the whole greedy mess caused by all involved in the financial industry and the government. We the people know this. Now… why be on a panel to give an opinion if you judge by what party you hang out with. If that is the case…how is one to judge their opinion or findings to be honest or swayed? Could they have not left their party outside the door before entering to sit at the panel table? Geeeeeze.
I know more names will be given in the final report….such as regulators who got paid a very high salary/with full bebefits.. and never did their job. And the banksters who filled their deep pockets and laughed about what they pulled on everybody in America and around the world. And the government plugging their ears when the citizens were screaming for help. Oh ya, let’s read what the panel has to say…..what they found. We found alot of wrong doing’s, see if they can beat that. If so..we may see some action……
The Masters of the Universe. Great picture. The Ben Bernank’s suit, depending on the pixelation of the picture, looks to a sharskin blend of 95% wool and 5% silk. The fabric is truly breathtaking. Custom made, that suit is about 2 to 3 thousand bucks perhaps.
Of course they have to leave extra room in the crotch area for the massive set of gonads that The Ben Bernank must carry around.