huffingtonpost.com— Mitch McConnell has rounded up the necessary votes to block Democrats from bringing Wall Street reform to the Senate floor, a spokesman for the Senate Minority Leader said on Friday afternoon.
Apr 16, 2010View in Crawl 4
1) Yes. Yes you do. Goldman-Sachs has been charged with fraud by knowingly pushing investors into vehicles that they knew were going down. Why? Money managers get paid a percentage of each deal, regardless of how it turns out. That means there is no incentive to produce long-term health - these guys were safe and sound in their paid-for Hamptons mansions, free from ANY repercussions, before those deals went bad. As long as a corporation is a corporation, and nobody at the corporation is responsible for losses incurred, then there is no real risk to them. It's proven; it's observable. As long as you get your millions up front, there is no reason not to be risky. You seem to think that there is a real disincentive to risky behavior built into the market - there simply isn't. Regulation is the only thing that can keep corporations from engaging in risky behavior, and this current crisis proves it: the derivatives market that brought down Lehman Brothers and AIG was a "dark market" - it was not touchable by any regulatory body. Derivatives were TOTALLY and COMPLETELY unregulated. How can you argue against regulation when we have a perfect example of exactly what happens in an unregulated market? Do you want MORE trillion dollar crashes that take down economies outside of the financial industry? Why?And using Madoff as an example proves my point: What would stop a million Bernie Madoffs from happening again if you completely gut regulations? Chris Cox's SEC may have failed to catch him, but when a cop loses a suspect, you don't suggest getting rid of the police force, do you? Having less regulation would only open up more Madoff's - your logic that claims the contrary is not rooted in any reality.2) I've worked for some huge silicon valley VC firms, and they are doing just fine. You cite a lower number of IPO's in 2008, but you gloss right over the obvious reason: The economy f**king crashed. Of course there aren't a lot of IPO's when the stock market is diving by a few hundred points a day, credit is drying up, and people are pulling their money out of risky investments.And you should be in love with Sarbanes-Oxley - it puts responsibility for crooked accounting onto those that are in charge of accounting. Surely you don't suggest that total and complete immunity for all corporate officers, even in criminal conduct, is a good way of making people responsible for their actions? If nobody is accountable, then poor decisions are made. You should be smart enough to know that. Unregulated industry completely fails to value anything beyond immediate profits. Having a great deal of power concentrated in corporations that can not be held responsible for their actions, and who only see profit and loss and nothing more, is a recipe for disaster. You can put on your free-market-uber-alles blinders if you want, but the rest of us choose to see all the facts.
@magus_melchior I seperate conservative with neoconservative because I consider myself Fiscally Conservative, while Socially Liberal. Things like our foreign policy I am very conservative on, though that is the exact opposite of what the current Republican Neocons do. I am very for a non-interventionist policy.
It's a crying shame that this has become a political issue. The Democratic Party is pushing for it against politically driven push back from the Republicans. Just like with health care, the Republican argument is not that the idea is wrong, but rather that the details are off, and off by far. This is exactly the kind of political nonsense America is growing tired of, and one Greek-American as well; but it is a fault of human nature and selfishness more than of any particular party.<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/political_opinion/Wall_Street_Reform" rel="nofollow">http://digg.com/political_opinion/Wall_Street_Refo ...</a>Wall Street Greek
publiclurkerApr 17, 2010
If that's the best lie that the right wing whores can come up with then they're screwed.
darkciti2Apr 18, 2010
Be careful of what you wish for.
mikesobaApr 18, 2010
And your explanation of why regulation is socialism is very lucid and compelling. Tebagging, Tax-Dodging Sheep.
photojustinApr 18, 2010
1) Yes. Yes you do. Goldman-Sachs has been charged with fraud by knowingly pushing investors into vehicles that they knew were going down. Why? Money managers get paid a percentage of each deal, regardless of how it turns out. That means there is no incentive to produce long-term health - these guys were safe and sound in their paid-for Hamptons mansions, free from ANY repercussions, before those deals went bad. As long as a corporation is a corporation, and nobody at the corporation is responsible for losses incurred, then there is no real risk to them. It's proven; it's observable. As long as you get your millions up front, there is no reason not to be risky. You seem to think that there is a real disincentive to risky behavior built into the market - there simply isn't. Regulation is the only thing that can keep corporations from engaging in risky behavior, and this current crisis proves it: the derivatives market that brought down Lehman Brothers and AIG was a "dark market" - it was not touchable by any regulatory body. Derivatives were TOTALLY and COMPLETELY unregulated. How can you argue against regulation when we have a perfect example of exactly what happens in an unregulated market? Do you want MORE trillion dollar crashes that take down economies outside of the financial industry? Why?And using Madoff as an example proves my point: What would stop a million Bernie Madoffs from happening again if you completely gut regulations? Chris Cox's SEC may have failed to catch him, but when a cop loses a suspect, you don't suggest getting rid of the police force, do you? Having less regulation would only open up more Madoff's - your logic that claims the contrary is not rooted in any reality.2) I've worked for some huge silicon valley VC firms, and they are doing just fine. You cite a lower number of IPO's in 2008, but you gloss right over the obvious reason: The economy f**king crashed. Of course there aren't a lot of IPO's when the stock market is diving by a few hundred points a day, credit is drying up, and people are pulling their money out of risky investments.And you should be in love with Sarbanes-Oxley - it puts responsibility for crooked accounting onto those that are in charge of accounting. Surely you don't suggest that total and complete immunity for all corporate officers, even in criminal conduct, is a good way of making people responsible for their actions? If nobody is accountable, then poor decisions are made. You should be smart enough to know that. Unregulated industry completely fails to value anything beyond immediate profits. Having a great deal of power concentrated in corporations that can not be held responsible for their actions, and who only see profit and loss and nothing more, is a recipe for disaster. You can put on your free-market-uber-alles blinders if you want, but the rest of us choose to see all the facts.
phillaholicApr 19, 2010
@magus_melchior I seperate conservative with neoconservative because I consider myself Fiscally Conservative, while Socially Liberal. Things like our foreign policy I am very conservative on, though that is the exact opposite of what the current Republican Neocons do. I am very for a non-interventionist policy.
stromprommerApr 20, 2010
go go gop
wallstreetgreekApr 22, 2010
It's a crying shame that this has become a political issue. The Democratic Party is pushing for it against politically driven push back from the Republicans. Just like with health care, the Republican argument is not that the idea is wrong, but rather that the details are off, and off by far. This is exactly the kind of political nonsense America is growing tired of, and one Greek-American as well; but it is a fault of human nature and selfishness more than of any particular party.<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/political_opinion/Wall_Street_Reform" rel="nofollow">http://digg.com/political_opinion/Wall_Street_Refo ...</a>Wall Street Greek