There is no class warfare being waged on the poor by the rich, for Christ's sake.
The lower middle class paid, and will pay, nothing for the bailout, they don't pay taxes. (46% of wage earners in America pay zero taxes.) They do, however, feel the effects in the economic downturn.
Greed and unregulated corporate excess led to the debacle. Those who sounded the alarm were hushed up or brutalized in public, then ignored.
Some in govt who could have done something were getting benefits from some of the key players, like Fannie Mae and Countrywide, and did NOTHING.
Some who spoke up were shouted down and called; racists (what else?).
Inside Job is a superficial look at an historical event in our country. It focuses on the trivial and only minimally covers the root causes which are unrestrained capitalism (which should surprise nobody)and a complicit political class.
The setup for the debacle was constructed during the Clinton Administration. And Greenspan and Bob Rubin and Larry Summers obstructed the one person who was concerned about one of the key issues, OTC derivatives. Brooksley Born at the CFTC saw the problem, predicted trouble, was proved right when LTCM failed, and then pushed aside, denied the legal right to investigate the OTC derivative market and ultimately resigned in frustration.
The Bush Administration did, basically, nothing. They just let the situation build and build. And the few pathetic attempts to look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were rebuffed.
Franklin Raines did at Fannie Mae what Ken Lay did at Enron.
reply
share
NewYorkRipper
14 years ago
There is no class warfare being waged on the poor by the rich, for Christ's sake.
Maybe there is not in the US, but there certainly is in the UK through this debacle.
and The Borrowers were the final piece of the puzzle, without them all this couldn't have happened. Well, at least not in the particular way it did anyway. Though I'm sure the bankers would have found something else to over-inflate the prices of and cause a crash.
reply
share
sd45-1
14 years ago
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 opened up the commodities futures markets to rank speculation games played by the wealthy elites. The futures markets became a haven for rich people to gamble in. A casino of its own, if you will.
The migration of investment money into the futures markets was largely responsible for both bouts of $4 gasoline since 2000 when the CFMA became law. Read: The curious case of the supply defying rally in oil
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/03/the-curious-case-of-the-supply-defying-rally-in-oil/
EVERY TIME the poor and middle class fills up their gas tank, their wealth is BEING RE-DISTRIBUTED to the wealthy who are playing their gambling games.
The CFMA of 2000 is nothing but a prime example of CLASS WARFARE waged by the rich against the poor. The poor end up paying more for groceries because ALL commodities prices are unnaturally inflated (oil, wheat, coffee, cocoa, etc), and the rich take home their gambling winnings.
With every box of cereal purchased, every pound of coffee brewed, and every gallon of gas pumped, its nothing more than wealth re-distribution from the poor to the rich.
reply
share
deeveed
14 years ago
Not in the US, but there certainly is in the UK through this debacle.
How can it be.."not in the US?" I saw a stat about net worth which showed that Hispanics had a decline of 66% in net worth from 2005 to 2009 while black households' wealth declined 53 percent and whites saw a 16 percent decrease.
I think that's an incredible stat which shows how race and class are getting more and more stratified in the US. Class/race disparity is getting larger and larger. Not a good sign.
reply
share