Comments on: Isakson should join with John Lewis

By: napeolon hill

napeolon hill — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:39:41 +0000

CT, Great job on NPR this afternoon!

By: Lewis

Lewis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:29:56 +0000

Touche CT!!

By: ctucker

ctucker — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:55:35 +0000

Carter is a Fool wrote: Cynthia Tucker should join forces with Cynthia McKinney. They both see a racist at every turn.

I’m guessing you were not a reader of my columns when McKinney was in office. I was one of her fiercest critics. The only thing she and I have in common is a first name and skin color, something you focus on much more than I do.

By: deborahinathens

deborahinathens — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:31:36 +0000

Yes, Clinton signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, but it was Phil Graham (spelling?) a Republican that introduced the bill late at night,no one read it, and it was rubber stamped by a Congress that was made up of mostly Republicans. Clinton knew that if he vetoed the bill there was enough Republican votes to override his veto. Why don’t you tell the whole sorry story? The Republicans have consistently gotten rid of the regulations that have hampered the unbound greed and corruption on Wall Street. They have made it their clarion call! Reduce taxes and reduce regulations. It has destroyed the trust that people have to have in the financial system for it to work. The fact that all the members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, are sucking money from the lobbyists from the financial industry that are fighting tooth and nail every hint of regulation makes it certain that nothing will ever get done. The traders at Goldman Sachs that were responsible for Golman’s profit the last two quarters were essentially doing what brought down the house of cards last year. And they will get handsome bonuses for it. At least, now with Paulson, the ex-CEO of Goldman that Dubya chose as his Treasury Secretary, out of the picture, we might get some chance at rooting out the rot at the heart of the system. But you Repugs keep moaning and groaning about it–and keep voting the %#@holes into office.

By: jt

jt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:06:19 +0000

“Isakson should join with John Lewis”

They do join each other, behind closed doors,
and dance and laugh,
each time they fleece the American tax-payer.

By: Kamchak

Kamchak — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:50:04 +0000

I daresay banking and lending regulations were in place prior to the meltdown. They were just not enforced.

Hahahahahaha–you’re kidding, right?

Can you say Glass-Steagall? It was two pieces of legislation enacted in 1933 in response to the banking crisis.

Provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act were directed at these abuses:

(1) Banks were investing their own assets in securities with consequent risk to commercial and savings deposits. The concern of Congress to block this evil is clearly stated in the report of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee on an immediate forerunner of the Glass-Steagall Act.

(2) Unsound loans were made in order to shore up the price of securities or the financial position of companies in which a bank had invested its own assets.

(3) A commercial bank’s financial interest in the ownership, price, or distribution of securities inevitably tempted bank officials to press their banking customers into investing in securities which the bank itself was under pressure to sell because of its own pecuniary stake in the transaction.

Do any of these provisions sound relevant to the crisis of today? Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999–and yes,Clinton signed it.

By: Carter is a Fool

Carter is a Fool — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:17:11 +0000

Cynthia Tucker should join forces with Cynthia McKinney. They both see a racist at every turn.

By: Joan

Joan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:52:48 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys. The government, presumably Congress and cohorts, are people I wouldn’t trust to walk into my home without strict oversight. Most of Congress are having their pockets lined by lobbyists. They make laws, which sound good on their face, but they don’t enforce their own laws. I daresay banking and lending regulations were in place prior to the meltdown. They were just not enforced. The opportunity for fraud–I will say it again–is ample. And sure some businesses do dirty tricks, but I daresay a stockholder has more leverage over a corporation, than a taxpayer does over our government.

By: maybe

maybe — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:53:20 +0000

Can a position be taken and stood upon. Two days ago the repubs wouldn’t work with the dems now they wnat to which is it?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:03:01 +0000

Joan

I’d offer the financial institutions were pretty much running themselves before the meltdown.

And if we know what’s coming, all the more reason for strong controls and oversight, yes?