That’s Trillion with a “T”
- Most people agree that we can’t correct the problems that are still unfolding unless we admit the severity of the problem. The current estimates of a maximum of $450 billion damage are absolute lies designed to give reassurance to people who could and probably should cut and run. As long as we deny what is really happening, the real solutions will not emerge. The current group of proposals can be be all logged in under one word : patchwork.
- The real solution is comprehensive political action together with regulatory reform that goes in an entirely different direction than allowing money to be controlled more by political force of individuals in power with their own private agendas.
- Here is a one page summary of the measurements of the actual damages caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis, coupled with the effect of the sub-prime mortgage crisis on all mortgages and housing, coupled with the effect on inflation and private losses rippling out from the collapse of liquidity, credit, jobs, and social services. Some fo this information was taken from the BBC News Website.
- Mortgage Meltdown: The real measurements and statistics
Filed under: bubble, CDO, community banks, CORRUPTION, credit unions, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, foreign relations, GTC | Honor, inflation, interest rates, Investor, Mortgage, Obama, politics, securities fraud | Tagged: credit, inflation, liquidity, measurement, Paulson, regulation |
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposal to consoldiate various financial regulatory agencies is uninspired and likely will prove useless. This proposal rests on the unquestioned assumption that bad economic results should never occur, and, if they do on a large enough scale, should be bailed out. If they should be bailed out by the federal government, then the federal government rightly acquires some interest in preventing them. But consolidation alone won’t do the trick, even if these flawed assumptions about economic regulation are accepted.
Without new rules and expanded authority–which Paulson has renounced–it’s unlikely any consolidation of the SEC, CFTC, OCC, and other regulatory agencies can yield better results than today. This is the same logic behind joining various agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, which can accomplish little more than these agencies could in the past without broader authority, racial profiling, and increased border infrastructure. The case for consolidation is even less compelling in the case of finanical regulators, as poor inter-agency communication is widely reputed to be one factor in the unsuccessful prevention of the 9/11 attacks. By contrast, no one thinks that the current mortgage crisis is the result of some regulatory gaps or bad communication between the agencies. Rather, investment banks, hedge funds, and other unregulated organizations now control huge amounts of the lending going on today.