American Roulette

Dr. Chris Martenson, at Financial Sense University -The Federal Reserve Plays A Dangerous Game

At this point, I’ll share a belief of mine with you: I believe the stock market is being propped up by the Fed and/or US government (PPT), who are desperately afraid of allowing the stock market to signal the true state of affairs. In some ways I can understand this; I think that the authorities who are stabilizing the markets right now are quite justifiably worried about what would happen if the stock market were “allowed” to send a correct signal to a wider audience. Because I believe that the stock market is being propped, I do not trust that it’s telegraphing useful or meaningful price signals and so I will take very different actions than someone who holds the opposite view. I might be wrong, or the person holding the opposite view might be wrong, but one of us is making a colossal mistake.

And here’s a second belief: The market is bigger than the authorities, and they will ultimately fail in their attempts to prop the stock market because they are merely masking symptoms, not treating causes. If it were possible for an elevated stock market alone to cure what ails our economy, I might think differently, but those efforts are surely misdirected.

In addition, this podcast is a must listen for those of you who want to know more about Greenspan's follies and the stupefying way our Government works concerning the market and the fed.

Financial Sense Newshour: Ask the Experts: William Fleckenstein

Today's Headline in the Wall Street Journal: His Legacy Tarnished

"The scrutiny of Mr. Greenspan's record has taken on urgency now that the Bush administration and congressional Democrats are skirmishing over how to overhaul U.S. financial regulation. If Mr. Greenspan's critics prevail, then financial companies will likely face tighter oversight and less freedom in the products they offer. If Mr. Greenspan's views carry the day, the trend toward self-policing will continue."

"Self-Policing" Yes, and let's have gangbangers design our new gun laws. How about policing some of this criminal mismanagement? How about Oversight, Accountability, Criminal penalties, and seizure of CEO and company funds when those entities have been discovered to have robbed their shareholders as a matter of policy?

"On at least one occasion, Mr. Greenspan did resist colleagues who urged further oversight. In 2000, then-Fed governor Edward Gramlich, who was in charge of the Fed's consumer affairs, proposed to Mr. Greenspan that the Fed's staff examiners look for abusive lending practices in banks' lightly regulated mortgage affiliates.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last June, three months before his death, Mr. Gramlich said that at the time, he generally considered subprime loans a good thing. He didn't then know the extent to which the loans would become a problem, but he wanted the "Fed to be a leader" in cracking down on predatory lending.
Mr. Greenspan recalls that he demurred, saying that the Fed shouldn't have oversight of these lenders."

We've got to let go of the Self-policing myth that the Republican party has sold America. The corrupt will NEVER police themselves. These men cannot continue to be given a get out of jail free card forever by a Republican party that is in the back pocket of corporate interests. The Super-rich get richer while the rest of America rots beneath.

Greenspan's 'Legacy', hell. Let's call it what it is : A Curse. And the curse continues, under the systematic incompetence of our current government.