There has to be something in the water.

[stoll]

Source: New York Times

"The nine biggest participants in the derivatives market — including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America — created a lobbying organization, the CDS Dealers Consortium, on Nov. 13, a month after five of its members accepted federal bailout money."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/business/01lobby.html?em

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This banking crisis is, as if it has not been already, leaping into the territory of the absurd. The banks that plunged headlong into all of those complex derivatives and blew up their own balance sheets, are now putting OUR money to work lobbying, in a effort to thwart a regulation overhaul of the derivatives market. Are you freaking kidding me! As the story points out, the banks are worried because of the immense profits the reaped from all those financial instruments. Did they forget that those same instruments lead to their (and unfortunately not their total) near demise? Take credit default swaps for instance. They could serve a valuable function in a regulated market. But, unregulated CDS are nothing more then a giant Ponzi scheme. How can the banks sell these instruments with no capital to fund them in the case of pay out? The obvious answer is, they can't. Unless of course the American tax payers are put on the hook, as in the case of AIG. This kind of shit just pisses me off.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Foolish to think Wall St. is trying to manipulate things.

:dunce:

[troubledamerican]

5. Conspiracy theory.

They have our best interests in mind. They always have.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Jessie James, Bonnie & Clyde, John Dillinger don't have shit on these guys.

These banker/gamblers aka; banksters even give corruption a bad name as if that were possible, because they meld it with total arrogance and disregard for the public/national implications of their short sighted, greed addicted actions.

Thanks for the thread, stoll.

[DCKit]

9. It's the difference between robbing a bank with a gun...

or robbing it with a pen (today, a PC). As long as you're on the inside, the personal risk is, apparently, negligible. In a just society, they'd be awaiting trial. Instead, we're paying them the same outrageous salaries and bonus money to fix what they broke (as if anyone could).

Between the outright theft of hundreds of billions and the money that was never even really there (but our government is still pretending was), we are screwn.

[bemildred]

3. Might as well let them finish the job at this point.

If they want a revolution, I say we let them go for it.

[wroberts189]

4. knr

[AdHocSolver]

6. The real mystery is why our government (Congress) so readily gives them whatever they ask for...

without question.

[dgibby]

8. Not a mystery at all. Just follow the money.

[Daveparts]

7. You Cannot Tame a Tiger

By petting it. You cannot tame it by feeding it all that it wants. You cannot tame it by giving ground every time it growls. You cannot tame it by trying to be its friend. You must let in know who is boss, you must take control and never let go. You must prove to it that the only way forward is by following the rules that you make because then it will try to appease you instead of you it.