The financial crisis has had zero people go to jail.
Seriously, FBI, I know you can read this, get people to investigate that. There is ZERO chance that the banks didn't commit crime. In fact, I can point out that they committed theft and fraud with ease.
You can't crash the economies of Western Europe and North America and not do something illegal in the process.
Well, while you can point most of the blame to President Clinton for signing that 1999 law that repealed Glass-Steagle, you also have to point to the banks, which no longer had the regulations they did before, so they could engage in pure free markets (just with the government bailing them out if they failed) by merging their savings departments with investment banking and... What was the 3rd one? Bah! Can't recall it.
And then you have to realize that people from previous generations (Gen X and Baby Boomers) took advantage of the fact that banks were allowing tons of loans and went out and bought houses (or more houses and whatnot). So when the later Generation (Gen Y) graduated college starting in 2005 (provided a 4 year college and they graduated from high school in 1998-1999) and got out into the world, they had jobs and were able to get a house and have kids... In 2005-2006... And we know what happened in 2008.
Well, the problem is, the whole bad loan deal, again, was being pushed by government policies set up by Bill Clinton to allow banks to freely loan money out (Byron Dorgon warned in 1999 that this was a bad thing, Ron Paul in 2003 said that the housing bubble would collapse) without having as much capital to back it up.
On TOP of that, every state in the U.S., except North Dakota, was sending the state treasury money to Wall Street, where the big banks were located, which then turned around and made risky investments, sold bad loans as AAA+ loans and some of the investments that they made were to other countries.
So, everyone was loaning money everywhere and no one was paying back.
Eventually, one bank HAD to start getting money back, so they started calling in loans. Thing is, they called in too many too fast and not everyone could keep up, thus the whole stack of cards started to fall apart.
The only state, the ONLY state in all of the U.S. that was unaffected by the collapse was North Dakota, simply by virtue of owning their own bank and keeping the state treasury money in the state.
That's why, even with a population of less than 640,000 people, there was a 1 billion dollar budget surplus in 2008. Granted, a good chunk of that surplus had to do with Oil Money, but the economy still would have been fine in North Dakota even without the oil money simply because of the State-owned bank.
Why, yes, I've done some research into the 2008 crash.
All that being said, Bush could have stopped the crash had he pushed policies to mitigate the damage, as he was warned by a few members of Congress that it was going to happen, but he didn't, so he takes the blame for allowing it to happen, but I blame Clinton for starting it.
I voted for Ron Paul to run as the R candidate and then I voted for Gary Johnson. He wasn't as good as I would have liked, but he wasn't as bad as the others.
On the post: Judge In No Fly List Trial Won't Let Plaintiff Or Her Lawyers See The Evidence
Re: Re:
I need a recap here.
On the post: Insane Clown Posse Sues FBI For Calling The Juggalos A Gang
I'm not sure WHAT to think about this...
On the post: Liberals And Conservatives Switch Positions On NSA Surveillance Depending On If 'Their Guy' Is In Power
Re:
On the post: Liberals And Conservatives Switch Positions On NSA Surveillance Depending On If 'Their Guy' Is In Power
Re: Re: Not Me
On the post: FBI Admits It's Not Really About Law Enforcement Any More; Ignores Lots Of Crimes To Focus On Creating Fake Terror Plots
Re: Re: So that's why...
On the post: Fearmonger Extraordinaire Rep. Peter King Accuses Sen. Rand Paul Of 'Fearmongering,' Says He Doesn't Deserve To Be A Senator
Too bad he's not a real animal...
On the post: Sen. Schumer Is Completely Wrong; Snowden Would Be Barred From Arguing His Case At Trial
Re: Amerika's Kangaroo Court
On the post: FBI Admits It's Not Really About Law Enforcement Any More; Ignores Lots Of Crimes To Focus On Creating Fake Terror Plots
So that's why...
Seriously, FBI, I know you can read this, get people to investigate that. There is ZERO chance that the banks didn't commit crime. In fact, I can point out that they committed theft and fraud with ease.
You can't crash the economies of Western Europe and North America and not do something illegal in the process.
On the post: Leading VC: NSA's Activities Are 'Corroding Silicon Valley'
Obligatory
On the post: Techdirt 2013: The Numbers.
Re: 238 countries?
On the post: Techdirt 2013: The Numbers.
Re:
Still, this website is really good for finding info I didn't know of before.
On the post: FISA Court Rubberstamps Yet Another Renewal Of NSA's Collecting All Your Phone Data
Huh...
Sure doesn't seem that way.
On the post: After 20 Years, It's Clear NAFTA Has Failed To Deliver Promised Benefits; So Why Trust TPP, TTIP Will Be Better?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
If so, that's a very good point and it goes with my earlier point that Bush COULD have kept the crash from being as bad as it was, but didn't.
On the post: Terrorist Appeaser Peter King Blasts NY Times For Supporting 'Terrorist Appeaser' And 'Traitor' Ed Snowden
Re:
On the post: After 20 Years, It's Clear NAFTA Has Failed To Deliver Promised Benefits; So Why Trust TPP, TTIP Will Be Better?
Re: Re: Re:
And then you have to realize that people from previous generations (Gen X and Baby Boomers) took advantage of the fact that banks were allowing tons of loans and went out and bought houses (or more houses and whatnot). So when the later Generation (Gen Y) graduated college starting in 2005 (provided a 4 year college and they graduated from high school in 1998-1999) and got out into the world, they had jobs and were able to get a house and have kids... In 2005-2006... And we know what happened in 2008.
Well, the problem is, the whole bad loan deal, again, was being pushed by government policies set up by Bill Clinton to allow banks to freely loan money out (Byron Dorgon warned in 1999 that this was a bad thing, Ron Paul in 2003 said that the housing bubble would collapse) without having as much capital to back it up.
On TOP of that, every state in the U.S., except North Dakota, was sending the state treasury money to Wall Street, where the big banks were located, which then turned around and made risky investments, sold bad loans as AAA+ loans and some of the investments that they made were to other countries.
So, everyone was loaning money everywhere and no one was paying back.
Eventually, one bank HAD to start getting money back, so they started calling in loans. Thing is, they called in too many too fast and not everyone could keep up, thus the whole stack of cards started to fall apart.
The only state, the ONLY state in all of the U.S. that was unaffected by the collapse was North Dakota, simply by virtue of owning their own bank and keeping the state treasury money in the state.
That's why, even with a population of less than 640,000 people, there was a 1 billion dollar budget surplus in 2008. Granted, a good chunk of that surplus had to do with Oil Money, but the economy still would have been fine in North Dakota even without the oil money simply because of the State-owned bank.
Why, yes, I've done some research into the 2008 crash.
All that being said, Bush could have stopped the crash had he pushed policies to mitigate the damage, as he was warned by a few members of Congress that it was going to happen, but he didn't, so he takes the blame for allowing it to happen, but I blame Clinton for starting it.
On the post: Oh Look, Hollywood Had Yet Another Record Year At The Box Office
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Oh Look, Hollywood Had Yet Another Record Year At The Box Office
I'd rather miss out on culture than give these jackoffs any money.
On the post: The Grinch Who Stole The Public Domain
Re: Rights in Property
If someone steals my car, my car is lost.
On the post: Obama Chastises Keith Alexander For Trying To Befuddle Him With Tech Jargon
Re:
On the post: Cost-Benefit Analysis On Why We Should Just Do Away With The TSA Completely
You mean...
Seriously, TSA agents must be lonely, horny people if they have to grope that many people.
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