On the AIG Thing

We need a messianic form of Capitalism that cares more about people than profits!Unfettered “CORPORATIST” GREED & INCOMPETENCE has brought us to our current CRISIS.The CORPORATISTS must go & be replaced by people that work for & serve “We the People”!

How we do that, exactly? I’m all ears…

No, we just need to get back to the regulations that were removed. We had how many years of economic growth under the regulations put in place during the depression and we had 0 economic collapses. These types of failures started when Reagan’s deregulate everything was started and continued culminating in the current total collapse.50 Years of growth all thrown out the window with deregulation.

I agree, Bob. But I also think we are being a bit naive about this. Regulations that should have been in the TARP bill weren’t, and regulations that WERE in the Stimulus bill were taken out.Senator Dodd has received more money from AIG in the last twenty years than any other elected official. Maybe that has nothing to do with what happened here. But, Bob, it LOOKS like it had EVERYTHING to do with it. The man in charge of the Senate Banking Committee rewrote the amendment that disallowed the bonuses? How is that SUPPOSED to look?When our elected officials are allowed to accept money from the very people they are supposed to regulate, regulations will not work. It looks bad, because it IS bad. Be they a Democrat or a Republican, the money our officials receive makes any regulation they impose TAINTED. (I thought you’d get a kick out my dusting that word off)Corporations, as you agree, will do pretty much whatever you allow them to. This never happens without the aid of a few well-placed politicians. We can, and of course will, scream for more regulation. The first place we should start is in campaign finance, and political party finance. I don’t know if you’d like that, but it needs to happen.Americans are seeing what they are shown, and what we are being shown LOOKS like massive corruption on both sides of the aisle. If the two parties do not change it, they’ll hang themselves with their own rope. I know that’s not something you want, Bob. But it WILL happen if this continues.

Tim,Apparently you don’t remember the 70′s

PPP -The prinary problem in the 70s was inflation coupled with economic stagnation. This is not the current problem.The economic problems of the 70s were caused by two major things: The sudden stopping of huge amounts of federal spending that had stimulated the economy for 10 years namely the war in Vietnam and the space program, and the OPEC cartel’s oil embargo.Nixon’s response to this was to institute a highly communist policy of wage and price controls were all wage and price increases had to be approved by the beltway bureaucrats. This did not work out so well and had a democrat attempted such a stunt he would have been impeached.Boneheaded partisan (republican) decisions in the 70s coupled with unexpected external actions caused the stagflation of the 70s. How Reagan managed to blame this all on Carter is beyond me. The year that beef was unobtainium was long before Carter was even known nationally. Nixon took over a booming economy and turned into a stflation mess in less than 3 years. Ford took over a steaming pile and deserves credit for not making it worse (at least one could buy beef again). Carter was not allowed to fix anything either. Then the corporatists took over and it’s been downhill for the middle class ever since except for the Clinton years.No matter how you slice it, the Republican’s have zero credibility on the economy for nearly all of the 20th century. Certainly zero cred post World War One.

Git,A very partisan answer. I didn’t expect that from you. But you need to know that deregulation continued right on through the Clinton years. To blame this mess on just the Republicans is willful ignorance. I don’t recall anyone complaining when their portfolios kept climbing through the eighties and nineties. I also don’t recall anyone complaining that Reagan took eleven percent unemployment and turned it into less than six percent. He did that with a Democratic Congress, mind you.The fact is, NO ONE wanted to rock the boat, because the boat seemed to be sailing through smooth waters. It’s been twenty years since Reagan, and both parties have had their shot at regulation, and ignored it, nay, they have BOTH deregulated further.This is the problem with both Democrats and Republicans. Both sides are never to blame, and their opponents are guilty of everything.Also, Carter wasn’t allowed to do anything? I think that has to be the nicest thing said about his Presidency ever.The Republicans are very busy with their revisionist history, and the Democrats had eight years to write their own. But some of us still remember the truth.

PPP -You got me. Guilty as charged. You were providing a balanced look at history and I interjected a comment that was partisan. Forgive me. I am watching the Republicans do just that every day and I agree with Bob that it is time to stop being reasonable to our own detriment.That said, I’m not willing to agree completely with everything you said even though you were in fact doing a good job of being nonpartisan. I mostly agree with what you said, so I will only add the following to supplement what you have already stated.Both parties were involved in the deregulation frenzy. I agree. Guilt is heavy on both parties. This is because the corporations bought both parties. If we don’t recognize that this fact is the major cause of our problems, then we are longterm doomed and nothing will ever be fixed. I put Campaign finance reform (second only to Economic Recovery) as a higher priority than Health care reform. That’s me.Carter proposed some legislation that I thought would have been good for the U.S. Things like higher education support for science, engineering, and medicine and a whole series of business tax incentives for Research and Development. Because Carter was a beltway outsider, none of his proposals were adapted none. Both parties fucked him but it was the Republicans that were bloodthirsty about it. They screamed and howled much like they are now. This is why I stated it the way I did. It’s how I remember it.

*adapted none. should be adopted, none.

Git,Yes, Campaign (what the fuck is a “g” doing in that word anyway?) finance reform, but also political party reform contribution reform, because as you stated, both parties are owned by special interest.

PPP -We do agree on many things.Thank you Sir.