At the heart of this is the sub-prime mortgage mess… nearly 1 trillion dollars worth of debt that all of the greedy execs of these failing firms used to cookup their numbers and profits in the past. They sold the bad debt as securities to investors. Some fancy name for a pie in the sky.
The worst has yet to come. Proverbial Sh*t will hit the fan once foreign investors who in the past were glad to buy even the garbage in US… look for alternatives. The consequences will directly impact US consumers and will have a dire impact on US economy.
So once the going gets tough the largest free market, laissez-faire mantra goes out the window.
Nationalisation of AIG preceded by pumping state money in Bear & Stearns, Fannie M and Freddie M (ever heard of such dumb names?).
Merill Lynch forced takeover to avoid it going under, ...
So this is the wake I clicked "forgotten log-in details" to attend? I am ashamed of you mere watan ke nine-jawaanoh. Where are the nigh-heralding cries, the stamping on the graves of western capitalism?
The bankers (in case some of you forgot) were marched out in hoards, redundancies given in the bottom of their wait-rose pick'n'mix salads and yet nobody has anything to say about the deflating of super-normal financial institutions other than "welcome"??