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Joined: Sep 2011
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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On rereading my last post, I don't want to create any impression that I didn't truly appreciate the link. I did. As I noted, I even agreed with his assessment of Trump. What I found nonplussing was that someone who could produce a cogent assessment of Trump (who really does have a personality disorder) could have such fantastic ideas about everything else. I was also impressed by a couple of the follow up posts, especially the one assessing "the art of the deal", a book that really could as easily have been written by Gordon Gekko or Pablo Escobar.
Trump, and his support, demonstrate how deep the damage of the wrong kind of capitalism has already wrought on the nation. Capitalism is like a high powered engine, it can do remarkable thing when properly constrained, but is deadly in the wrong hands. Lauding miscreants like Trump does damage to the psyche.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 27,583
Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 27,583 |
I read some of Donald Trump's tweets, and those of his daughter Ivanka-Both are stupid.
milk and Girl Scout cookies ;-)
Save your breath-You may need it to blow up your date.
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NWP said: Trump, and his support, demonstrate how deep the damage of the wrong kind of capitalism has already wrought on the nation. Capitalism is like a high powered engine, it can do remarkable thing when properly constrained, but is deadly in the wrong hands. Lauding miscreants like Trump does damage to the psyche. I liked what ex Senator Clinton said during the debate. She said something like ... the government has to step in every so often and save capitalism from itself. Apparently, when left to its own devices too long, the robber barons tend to float to the top again, to renew their reign pillaging and raping.
Just a Missouri school teacher ... stubborn as a mule and addicted to logic.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 27,583 |
NWP said: Trump, and his support, demonstrate how deep the damage of the wrong kind of capitalism has already wrought on the nation. Capitalism is like a high powered engine, it can do remarkable thing when properly constrained, but is deadly in the wrong hands. Lauding miscreants like Trump does damage to the psyche. I liked what ex Senator Clinton said during the debate. She said something like ... the government has to step in every so often and save capitalism from itself. Apparently, when left to its own devices too long, the robber barons tend to float to the top again, to renew their reign pillaging and raping. It didn't help when her husband(with Hillary's support) repealed Glass-Steagle. I much prefer Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's approach to our banking/financial system.
milk and Girl Scout cookies ;-)
Save your breath-You may need it to blow up your date.
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Posts: 6,388 |
It didn't help when her husband(with Hillary's support) repealed Glass-Steagle. I much prefer Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's approach to our banking/financial system. Bullseye! 
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 27,583 |
It didn't help when her husband(with Hillary's support) repealed Glass-Steagle. I much prefer Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's approach to our banking/financial system. Bullseye!  And I still don't think that she supports a reinstatement of GS!
milk and Girl Scout cookies ;-)
Save your breath-You may need it to blow up your date.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
It didn't help when her husband(with Hillary's support) repealed Glass-Steagle. I much prefer Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's approach to our banking/financial system. Bullseye!  And I still don't think that she supports a reinstatement of GS! Methinks if she did she would lose a lot of her GS (Wall Street) donor base. Sordid, is it not? 
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
I think it is important to understand what Glass-Steagall really is, and what it is not. The concept behind it - separating commercial bank activities from investor bank activities - is sound, but not a panacea. As one commentator put it, the crash was like the Titanic sinking, and Glass-Steagall was really about how many lifeboats were aboard. ( Repeal of Glass-Steagall: Not a cause, but a multiplier - WaPo.) I completely agree, and Dodd-Frank has really done a sound, if incomplete, job of restoring some of the stability that Glass-Steagall provided. More needs to be done. The Titanic still would have sunk, and doubling the number of lifeboats is good - but it still means a third of the passengers still drown. Glass-Steagall would mean the boat was smaller with fewer passengers, but would not have prevented it from sinking. Dodd-Frank comes closer to keeping it afloat.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
I think it is important to understand what Glass-Steagall really is, and what it is not. The concept behind it - separating commercial bank activities from investor bank activities - is sound, but not a panacea. As one commentator put it, the crash was like the Titanic sinking, and Glass-Steagall was really about how many lifeboats were aboard. ( Repeal of Glass-Steagall: Not a cause, but a multiplier - WaPo.) I completely agree, and Dodd-Frank has really done a sound, if incomplete, job of restoring some of the stability that Glass-Steagall provided. More needs to be done. The Titanic still would have sunk, and doubling the number of lifeboats is good - but it still means a third of the passengers still drown. Glass-Steagall would mean the boat was smaller with fewer passengers, but would not have prevented it from sinking. Dodd-Frank comes closer to keeping it afloat. Having worked in finance for over 30 years I have an idea of what GS and Dodd Frank are. But I don't think that is the point. The point is that Bill and Hillary were on the 90s ba(n)dwagon of reducing regulation when they should have been restructuring the whole shebang. They were playing politics. There will be crashes as long as the current financial system exists. That was not the idea behind the regulation - the idea was and is and should be: when they happen who is accountable? Who has prepared themselves for it and who has not? And what do the monetary authorities do when it happens? The Lehman Brothers debacle is a good example. Bernanke has admitted that they "misdirected" the public when they let us think that they could have but decided not to save it. Truth is: they couldn't save even if they wanted to, but they didn't want people to know that.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
Here's a better explanation than I can provide: What Hillary gets right about Glass-Steagall financial reform is an all-hands-on-deck affair. We need to bring the entire financial system — banks, nonbanks, shadow banks, all of them — under consistent regulatory scrutiny. We need to enforce transparency, ensure there are financial buffers, provide a way to unwind collapsing institutions safely, and protect everyday consumers from predation. The 2010 Dodd-Frank law, to its credit, got the ball rolling on all of this, though it doesn't go far enough in winding down the size of the biggest and most systemically dangerous companies. At the end of the day, the smaller the company is, the less of a threat its collapse would pose.
Clinton's proposals not only double down on Dodd-Frank's strengths, they also address its weaknesses: strengthening capital requirements for financial institutions, and imposing an escalating system of fees on players that pass a certain size.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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