PBS Frontline show--gotta watch: "The Warning"

[Jenne]

http://video.pbs.org/video/1302794657

Program: FRONTLINE Episode: The Warning.  Long before the economic meltdown, one woman tried to warn about the threat to the financial system...

Y'all gotta watch this, as I am now.  Good shit.

[Halfbaked1]

Like I told people for some time now, the crisis has been brewing for years.  Reagan got the ball rolling and no one has done anything to stop it.  The one person who did was beaten into obscurity.  Bailouts don't work in the long run, the government forced the banks to bail out LTCM and then they forced the taxpayers to bail out the banks.  I am glad to see Greenspan looking crushed, I want to see him, Reubens, Geihtner (sp), and all of that bunch hung out to dry.  They weren't the only ones, but they would be a good start for helping to create a situation that brought us to this point.  The fact that Obama is listening to Somers and Geihtner, that the financial lobby is still holding the ears of lawmakers after being proven to be so wrong.  Honestly, the country deserves to fail.  Let it fail and maybe something better will rise from the ashes, I doubt it, but there is always a chance.

[Jenne]

I really really don't think even some of the very INSIDERS knew 1) what was going on and 2) what they were doing.  The woman they showcased this documentary on FOUND the information and started trying to turn things around, so Greenspan et al went to Congress and had her and her whole department gelded.

Meanwhile, Greenspan was heralded in the media as the Midas of all fiduciary legislation--The Fed was at his feet and Congress rimjobbing him all the way.

Sickens me no end to hear about this shit, what's in this documentary, hearing how this one person could have "saved" the economy/housing market (Iraq aside, of course)...and yet, it's better we know.  The cynic in me says, "Well now that you KNOW, NOW WHAT?!"

Anyway...I got pissed as hell just hearing about this shit in the car when NPR was doing a spot for this special.  They replayed some of the interviews on NPR that were shown in the Frontline episode and I started having spontaneous touretts again.

[Halfbaked1]

I watched it here at work and my co-workers found out what its like to work with someone from a military family.  I don't think I have strung that many cuss words together since I was engaged to this gal in the Navy.

But yeah, i am glad to finally know, and I want to post that link on every forum I belong to so that people will get to at least see that there was a chance to stop some of the hell that has come down.  That there was a turning point, and our leaders ignored it.  Please note that most of those leaders are still in charge.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

I watched it last night.  I did not know that Greenspan believed that the government should not regulate fraud because monkeys can be trusted to act with rational self-interest, therefore the market will always root out fraud.

The cynic in me says, "Well now that you KNOW, NOW WHAT?!"

Become an investment banker and ride the next bubble, that's what.  The government is never going to do anything significant to fix the problem.  The lobbyists will get any reforms delayed until they are no longer seen as urgent, and then gut any reform bills until they are meaningless.

[Requia ☣]

Isn't the idea that free market will fix fraud contrary even to libertarian principles?  Its been a while since I read any Rand, but I remember it being Military, Courts and Cops as the things the government is supposed to be involved in (for some reason roads are good ideas), cops and courts cover fraud so... yeah.

[the other anonymous]

Isn't the idea that free market will fix fraud contrary even to libertarian principles?  Its been a while since I read any Rand, but I remember it being Military, Courts and Cops as the things the government is supposed to be involved in (for some reason roads are good ideas), cops and courts cover fraud so... yeah.

Yea, *waves at all the pot holes* roads would be a good idea!

[Requia ☣]

that should be aren't, not 'are' 

[Halfbaked1]

Roads cost money, they don't make money...well except for the companies that give the politicians kickbacks and never seem to get around to fixing the roads the earmarks are supposed to have them fixing.

[Requia ☣]

I never said the libertarians made *sense*.  The saner ones aren't quite that bad (more evidence for my theory that Ayn Rand was into really subtle satire) and will acknowledge shit like roads and bridges should come from the government.

[Cain]

I'm pretty sure the cops in Randtopia exist to enforce contracts and property rights.  Fraud would only exist in the technical sense of violating a contract.  Pump and dump schemes in the securities business, for example, would not strictly speaking be fraud.

[Requia ☣]

Ah, that makes a bit more sense then.

[LMNO]

Dammit, where's that thread that mentioned Adam Smith agreeing that some things (like healthcare) should not be subject to market forces?

My PD.com search-fu is weaksauce.

[Cain]

I dunno if Adam Smith said exactly that....however, he did say the free market can only exist in certain bounded conditions, such as equality of information.

[LMNO]

Hmm.  Ok.  It's just I seem to recall a thread around here where we carefully laid out the reasoning that the purpose of healthcare (spending money helping people) ran counter to capitalistic principles (making money any way possible).


Maybe I dreamed it.  TWEET ME BACK.