Comments on: Alien Greedspin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:36:29 +0000

Hirsch over at Newsweek has a column that tears into him for this entire mess. Greedspin was given the power to do something before the situation was on anybody’s radar and did absolutely nothing. Bernacki had to finally write the regulations after he took over.

Sorry, I can stand the stuff, caviar. I used to go to parties at an ex-pat Iranian’s estate [business only] and he had the best black Beluga, but to me it was salty Jello beads. I ate one serving and thanked him profusely. Actually I only went because of some of the other food that I don’t even know the names of, but they were wonderful. [I think he was Bahai which was why he left]

He is a certified Villager, and has no idea what is going on in the country.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:38:35 +0000

Yep, Greedspin is a no-accountant. For a good description of who he really is, locate a remaindered copy of Robert Reich’s Locked in the Cabinet and read about Reich’s conversation with Sir Alan while the latter… I am not making this up… sat eating caviar for lunch. Greedspin suffers a total disconnect from the lives of the people he so grievously harmed.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:11:28 +0000

I don’t trust any of the accounting I’ve seen by any corporation. They have been hiding liabilities for years and auditors and the SEC have been letting them get away with it.

The whole concept of a corporation is a swap – for limited liability the corporation has to accept regulation. When there is no regulation, there should be no limit on the liability. Corporations by their very existence distort the market. You can’t have a free market when corporations are involved, and you can’t have real capitalism.

The money everyone talks about being lost, never actually existed because it didn’t ever represent anything of worth, it represented a guess at what some people might be willing to pay for it, and the guess was wildly over-inflated as everyone on the inside knew. The problem was the curtain was pulled back to reveal to the “trick”, and no one was willing to buy it.

By: LadyMin

LadyMin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:32:53 +0000

I blame Greedspin for the majority of this mess. He didn’t let the free market work. Of course there was also an alarming lack of common sense everywhere. Not to mention the disappearance of good accounting practices. Why would anyone get an ARM or, yikes, a pay option ARM, when fixed rates were soooo cheap. Unless they couldn’t afford to own the home in the first place!

It’s going to get worse… for us regular folks anyway. It’s probably going to take another 4 years for housing to get even close to recovered.

And when the government does intervene, it’s always on the behalf of rich investors that made bad decisions. We can’t win.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:19:48 +0000

I don’t know, FM, they may have to let go some the undocumented “slaves” they hire so they can impress people that times are tough. The CEOs walk away with millions after destroying lives. People need to start going to prison, not into retirement.

By: Fallenmonk

Fallenmonk — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:15:08 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I watched at least 20% of my retirement savings evaporate yesterday while Greenspan pretends that he had absolutely nothing to do with the financial disaster we are now facing. All the big mansions I drove by last week in Westchester county NY last week are safe I am sure as well as all the private jets at the airport. The folks that made this mess are surely going to be just fine.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:12:50 +0000

It is like the media pundits – the only ones you see on the talk shows are those who are wrong. If you have been consistently correct they don’t want you to give your opinion.

Greenspan survived by emulating Chauncey Gardiner and mumbling meaningless drivel that every interpreted as suited them. He followed the conventional wisdom path to fame and fortune.

He should have stayed a jazz saxophone player, he was actually good at that.

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:53:31 +0000

I don’t want to be King Of The World, but it sure would be nice to live in a place where I could be the premier grey-bearded WhoSaid on whom society lavished attention, adulation, and riches beyond measure regardless of the number of times I have been so abjectly, horrifically wrong – repeatedly – in the past.

I can dream, I suppose…