The Bush Administration and the Crisis in U.S. Financial Markets

"The cause of the current troubles dates back to 1980, when U.S.
President Ronald Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher came to power, Soros said. It was during this time that borrowing ballooned and regulation of banks and financial markets became less stringent."
--Billionaire George Soros on the present financial crisis, quoted from the Bloomberg News.

Today, the daddy is feeling the New York Time's report that Merrill Lynch just agreed to sell itself off to Bank of America for 50 billion and that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, after it failed to find a buyer. As if these humbling moves were not enough, American International Group (AIG), another proud entity, is on the financial ropes and the word is that they're talking bailout. In other words, What they are saying is, "America, now that we've helped to wreck the financial markets through predatory lending and backroom scheming, will you help us?"

Isn't it ironic how these failing financial institutions, which frowned on government regulations, which got Republican administrations to turn their heads and do little, if any, monitoring, now want the U.S. government to bail them out as if they are regulated banks?

It's estimated that the loss of Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers will mean the disappearance of up to 50,000 jobs in the industry that has already lost 100,000 jobs in the last year and a half. As to what this financial crisis means to the rest of us, Kit over at Keeping It Trill just did a brilliant post on the recent crisis in the financial markets. She states:

Black Monday is what they called that last pivotal day in 1929 when the stock market crashed so hard that it sent the economy into a downward spiral that lasted for years.

Alan Greenspan has already given this one a different, gentler name. He's calling it "A Once In A Century Event".

He said, "This is a once in a half century, probably once in a century type of event. We shouldn't try to protect every single institution. The ordinary cost of financial change has winners and losers."

Fuck you, Alan. You were warned years ago of the likely consequences of your decisions, a furthermore, a rose is still a rose by any other name, and so is a turd.

And here's the finger to all the incompetent, the greedy, the white collar criminals and predatory home lenders who ran our economy into the ground but will never see a day of jail time.

If I wasn't so damn financially vulnerable, I'd be laughing my azz off at how the Wall Street Sharks were running around this weekend, sweatin' bullets and trying not to scream like a bunch a lil' girls over how they fucked up.

The bodies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, dead only a week and not even warm, and now we have all these other cornerstones of comfy living going belly-up bankrupt or begging for multi-billion dollar welfare bailouts.

The more I think about it, Black Autumn may be more fitting description of the dawn of the new Great Depression."

Read the full story at Keeping it Trill. Also read "Soros see International Markets Declines After Reprieve" at Bloomberg News.