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1. 

   edmondd said, 4 months ago

   Give me half of it, a sizable army, and I’ll straighten things up in no time.

2. 

   nomad2112 said, 4 months ago

   I guess Ted Rall needs to shop around for a better financial institution.

3. 

   edmondd said, 4 months ago

   But seriously, why not run the economy ala Simcity,
   instead of leaving it up to chance?

   Innovation wouldn’t suffer if it were to be well rewarded.

   Borrowing money from other countries doesn’t make sense either. It still is just printed paper money isn’t it?

4. 

   Cpt. Jay said, 4 months ago

   Very glib.

5. 

   NotVeryTalented said, 4 months ago

   Thank god we bailed out the banks. I mean, if we hadn’t, the bankers wouldn’t be rich. Just think!

6. 

   sraines902 said, 4 months ago

   Well, I want the t-shirt. Where you sellin’ em, Ted?

7. 

   bromonation said, 4 months ago

   10/10

8. 

   mattro53 said, 4 months ago

   After Goldman-Sachs posted a record quarterly profit and announced plans to set aside an obscene amount of money for year-end bonuses, and Citicorp announced a quarterly profit over $4 billion, it should be obvious once again that this is government of the rich and powerful etc. How can government nationalize the banks when they own the Senate, aka The Millionaires Club?

9. 

   Bill_Clay said, 4 months ago

   Here’s a question I hear every day - can someone give me a simple reason why we just didn’t use the trillions in stimulus funds to pay off everyone’s mortgages? I know there must be a flaw somewhere in that plan, but it seems that the foreclosure crisis and the ‘toxic assets’ problem that was killing the banks would have all been cleared up for less money than we’re spending for bailouts.

10. 

    believecommonsense said, 4 months ago

    ^ because sub-prime mortgage defaults were but a small piece of the metldown. The larger part was the mortgage security derivatives that Wall. St. created to gamble with.

    For every $1 of bad mortgages, $30 worth of securities had been created that fell like a house of cards. TARP was a way to make sure the oligarchy in this country (and others) never had to confront their gambling debts.

11. 

    edmondd said, 4 months ago

    Still, believecommonsense, paying those mortgages would have meant that those ‘mortagage security derivatives’ would not collapse on their own weight, no matter how toxic the assets.

    Government didn’t pay those debts because it’s a debt based economy. Debt is the motor, instead of labor and the basic production of services and manufacture–and also unhealthy on an individual basis.

    Moreover, stress ultimately drives health costs up without question.

    Government should come up with a Public Bank option as well. We need more, not less, governance.

12. 

    believecommonsense said, 4 months ago

    edmondd, actually, you’re right, it’s a good question …. what would have happened if the bad mortgages had been purchased and held as public-owned property, loans modified and payments continued to be paid