Anyone else watch 60 minutes tonight? Hot damn..talk about the nail head and the hammer.

the question was raised..."why did Wall Street not see that the sub prime loan structure was sure to blow up?"

The basic answer was "they were incentivized to have it faol".

If anyone wants to know the inside scoop, look up tonight's 60 minutes broadcast.

It's too funny that today there are still people that think that we operate under a free enterprise sustem. We don't...and we haven't....for a long, long time.


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4502673n

Tell us how you really feel Footie. lol

Good 60 Minutes piece.

I'm a fiscal and social conservative and still FIRMLY believe that capitalism/free enterprise has done far more to improve the overall quality of life for millions of people than socialism ever hopes to achieve.

However, I'll also be the first to admit that capitalism is far from being perfect. This 60 Minutes piece demonstrates that Wall Street greed, incompetence and corruption is no better than the political greed, incompetence and corruption infecting the Beltway.

Let's just say Big Government and Big Business both need a collective enema.

believer wrote: Let's just say Big Government and Big Business both need a collective enema.

Agreed, Believer.

The trouble is, most people would rather see big business (employers) get routed than they would big government (employers's competition).

I thought 85 percent of the piece was good.

The guy interviewed basically said toward the end this is too difficult for anyone but Wall Street to follow. I think anyone with half a brain on the subprime issues knows lending standards going to basically nothing was a big reason behind it.

He also said Wall Street was stupid and didn't know what they were really doing several times. When companies are buying loads of credit default swaps to bet against some of their investments and the housing economy in general, I think some people knew what was going on and wanted to get rich off of it because the government would bail folks out.

Another example is Goldman Sachs, who I consider a criminal entity, giving Greece financial advise while buying lots of credit default swaps betting Greece will go down. It seems there was a conflict of interest at the very least.

I'd argue that capitalism has been replaced by corporatism.

believer wrote: Tell us how you really feel Footie. lol

Good 60 Minutes piece.

I'm a fiscal and social conservative and still FIRMLY believe that capitalism/free enterprise has done far more to improve the overall quality of life for millions of people than socialism ever hopes to achieve.

However, I'll also be the first to admit that capitalism is far from being perfect. This 60 Minutes piece demonstrates that Wall Street greed, incompetence and corruption is no better than the political greed, incompetence and corruption infecting the Beltway.

Let's just say Big Government and Big Business both need a collective enema.

How I really feel? I simply stated that we no longer have a free enterprise system. And we don't. The free enterprise system as Smith wrote, would never allow these types of things. I know we're talking somantics here, but capitalism does not equate to a free market system. The terms are not in the least bit intertwined.

Perhaps I should clarify the difference?

I'm a strong believer in a meriticracy. It fuels the human spirit. But on a very simplistic level, there is no meritocracy in place when big execs feel entitled to millions of dollars in compensation, whenever they based their bonus earnings on "deals", as opposed to sound business practice "deals".

Sorry if I inflected an opinion that I don't really hold.

^^^Ummmmm.....huh? Not sure you went off on me like that because my first sentence was meant in jest. The balance of my post was my own humble opinion. Holy crap dude.

believer wrote: ^^^Ummmmm.....huh? Not sure you went off on me like that because my first sentence was meant in jest. The balance of my post was my own humble opinion. Holy crap dude.

I didn't go off on anybody, Believer. I just responded to what you said. What exactly did I say that eluded a "holy crap dude"?

Waterboard the bankers! Who's with me!?!?!?!?!?!

fish82 wrote: Waterboard the bankers! Who's with me!?!?!?!?!?!

Like George Carlin put it...."it's a big club....and you ain't in it."

Footwedge wrote: It's too funny that today there are still people that think that we operate under a free enterprise sustem. We don't...and we haven't....for a long, long time.

This, except for the typo. I didn't watch the episode, but anyone who thinks we have been a capitalist country for the past 80 years knows nothing about what has been going on.