http://counterpunch.com/whitney10232007.htmlThe Big Squeeze
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What everyone at the meetings really wanted to know was why the United States destabilized the global economic system by selling hundreds of billions of dollars of worthless mortgage-backed securities to banks and pension funds around the world? Aren't there any regulators in the US anymore?
And how Paulson going to make amends to the institutions and investors who lost their shirts in this massive mortgage-scheme?
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No one is interested in another scam like the new $100 billion "Bankers Bankruptcy Fund". All that does is provide the over-extended and under-capitalized investment banks another chance to dump their poisonous Mortgage-backed slop on the gullible public. Forget about it. That plan needs to be tossed in the circular receptacle. If Paulson really wants to know what people think about his new Mega-fund he should listen to Nick Parsons, the head of markets strategy at National Australia Bank. Parsons summed up the fund's goals saying:
``By insulating the junk from the sellers of junk, the holders of junk should be spared the problems of junk. The one flaw in this cunning plan, however, would be if investors took fright at being reminded just how much junk is still in the system.''
Parsons is right. Junk bonds are still junk whether they're logged on an SIV's debit-sheet or wrapped in Treasury Dept red-ribbon. What difference does it make? It's still garbage. Write down the losses and get on with it.
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The system is blinking red. These problems cannot be ignored or swept under the rug any longer.
Leadership is critical in times of economic crisis. This isn't the time for prevarication, obfuscation or public relations gimmicks. We need leaders who will tell the truth, make remedial policy recommendations, and forestall the growing probability of social disorder.
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The System Is Blinking Red
add to the system the fires/refugrees/losses in Calif. and the waterless condition of Atlanta and surroundings about to come to a climax.