Rajan pooped in Greenspan's punch bowl

I agree that there is too much vulgarity out there, but, if used sparingly, it can be an effective way to get a point across. (The problem is that too few people understand the concept of "sparingly".)

I'm reminded of an article I read once on slate.com, in which the writer was suggesting -- seriously -- that the two greatest contributions of the British Empire to global civilization were the game of soccer (or "football, if you prefer), and the word "f*ck".

Great article. There were others that warned about the need to regulate credit default swaps (CDS). In the mid to late 90s, Ms Born, Chairman, CFTC wanted to regulate CDSs, but Summers, Rubin, and Greenspan ruined her reputation with harsh attacks.

Law Professor Michael Greenberger, former CFTC Director has been quoted in a large number of articles about the need to regulate. An interesting statement, "Do we want the US economy based on gambling or producing something of value." He predicted the bank failures since at least last spring. He also told Congress that the price of gas would go dowm about $40 to $60 a gallon if the speculators were controlled. He under estimated the amount gas would go down.

Greenspan told Congress he was wrong. I would like to hear Summers say the same.

steve
Part of the issue was lack of proper regulation and way too much risk ( I see this crisis as being multifactorial). Part of the problem was also the lack of enforcement of existing standards and laws. Suppose Moody's and the other ratings agencies had done their job properly. Would we still be here?

What are you talking about, 'do their job properly'?

They were paid to rate bonds, in exchange for money. They did so, they got paid, case closed.

I always get confused when people imply that other people, who got paid for their work, didn't do their job properly. I'm pretty certain that what those people considered their job was 'produce something, doesn't matter what, as long as they can get paid for it'. As they did get paid for it, obviously they are, in fact, doing their job, by definition.

This is what happens when employment is not actually based on results.

Of course, the actual solution to this is some very quick and very hard lawsuits, like the ones the Teamsters have going. I'd actually like to see the corporate death penalty for said companies.