Many of these advances were made with right-wing governments in power in this country as well. And the lesson from the current situation is that democratically elected goverments are better than the ‘masters of the universe’ at running things (indeed, they have fixed their mess for them).

The left needs to only advocate a consistant and high standard of representative democracy. That’s all. Nothing else.

BTW – if government regulators did not see this coming, how much faith should we have in government regulators and their regulations?

Re the comment that ‘there is no reason for anybody to hedge more than once. In short, the derivates market is at least 90% explicable by wanton speculation without any semblance of rational economic justification’, I don’t think this is fair. Say a farmer hedges his risk with a counterparty, whatever the form of the counterparty surely there is a massive economic waste if they are not allowed to sell on the contract to someone who wants it more than they do. We’ll never know what percentage of true hedging by corporates and how much is speculative money, but I can’t see how the former can exist without the latter, and the latter requires liquidity, the ability to trade in and out of positions.

McCain believes in enforce existing financial market regulations and not enacting new ones. The there is McCain’s record and involvement in the Keating five – the last big collapse of US financial institutions, that cost taxpayers over $200 billion (in today’s dollars.)

And what is the evidence that it is self correcting? And that is my point, if I don’t like your rating, I can pay someone whose rating I like. THE MBSs were never solid securities, im certain u can agree on that C+ if that.

“Keating used Senator McCain to lobby the Reagan administration successfully to appoint not only Lee Henkel (who then served as Keating’s “mole” on the FHLBB until I blew the whistle on him), but also another individual chosen by Keating. The FHLBB was run by three presidential appointees, so this would have given Keating majority control over the agency regulating S&Ls. The Reagan administration was set to make these recess appointments over the objections of the White House director of personnel, who opposed the appointments because when he called Arizona Republicans to vet the proposed appointments he learned that Keating “had a reputation for buying politicians.”

The only Fallacy of Composition I have observed is malignant McCain saying the fundamentals of our economy are strong yesterday in FL.

McCain promised to “replace the outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight.” During his 26-year career in Congress, McCain has supported proposals to cut, not increase, federal financial regulations.

In 1999, McCain voted in favor of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley banking deregulation act that let commercial banks and investment firms merge for the first time since the Great Depression. And, while he supported the Bush administration’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, McCain says he wants to sell the mortgage finance companies to private buyers.

And it is true, where did JP Morgan get the loot – US tax payers. Y do I say this? Because JPMorgan Chase and the federal governmentt teamed up on the bailout of Bear Stearns, a last-ditch move to save the investment bank. It calmed the market for a few – but such intervention aint SELF CORRECTING JONES.

The FEDS lent (is that a word) JPMorgan $29 billion as an enticement to buy the troubled Bear and its liabilities. As collateral, JPMorgan put u[p $30 billion worth of WORTHLESS mortgage-backed securities and other complex investments, which are basically the most problematic assets on Bear’s books. JPMorgan has to repay the Fed loan with interest at the “discount rate,” which is currently 2.5 percent.

The risk to the Fed—and to taxpayers—is IF these MBS turn out to b completely worthless, then the Fed would be out the whole $29 billion. Under the terms of the deal, JPMorgan would pony up the first $1 billion in losses.

And about Mr. Chairman Bernanke: He defended this shit, and in April this year folk said “Given the exceptional pressures on the global economy and financial system, the damage caused by a default by Bear Stearns could have been severe and extremely difficult to contain,” that is what he told the Senate Banking Committee.

I would go on and wont even touch Cox because he was being considered. Tell me if I am wrong jones?