. Version77: Maybe SA was abused by his parents when he was a child. That could be part of his problem with America. America is like an authority figure to him, so he is mad as hell at America. He thinks he is being abused by the Americans. Especially the rich Republicans. Hence his love and desire for the poor party, the Democrats... ******** June 29, 2007 SouthAmerica: You canât grasp things even when it is spelled out for you to understand from A to Z. What makes America great it is not that you have 1 percent of zillionaries getting all the money as it has been the case for the last 30 years. What made America great it is its middle class - shrinking middle class. A healthy middle class save money, invest money, buys houses, cars, goes on vacations, and buys everything else that goes along with a good standard of living. A sick and shrinking middle class buys houses, cars, goes on vacation, and buys everything else that goes along with a good standard of living â but they do it on credit alone. The Republicans are wrecking this country in every way possible. They believe in free market until they need a government hand out to bail them out from their reckless ways for example: 1) The big credit card companies handed out millions of credit cards to people who should not have had all that credit line because they most likely would not be able to pay it. After all that credit went sour because of their reckless way of giving credit to people that they should not have extended credit â they asked the government to change the bankruptcy laws to bail them out from their stupidity. 2) Here we go again: The New York Times - Editorial âHousing and Hedge Fundsâ Published: June 28, 2007 There may be a silver lining in the recent hedge fund debacle at Bear Stearns. Until now, the deepest pain of the housing slump has been felt by hard-pressed borrowers, generally low-income homeowners stuck with unsuitable and even predatory subprime loans â adjustable-rate mortgages made to people with weak credit. As monthly payments have increased, the loans have become unaffordable, while falling housing prices and tougher credit terms have made them harder to refinance. Defaults and foreclosures have multiplied, but Congress has provided scant relief. But now the pain is being felt by Wall Street. The two big Bear Stearns hedge funds that neared collapse last week were full of tricky investments tied to subprime mortgages. To try to ensure that hundreds of billions of dollars worth of similar investments donât also plummet, endangering the financial system, Congress may finally have to do more to help lower-end borrowers. That, in turn, would prop up the investments based on their mortgages. Weâre all for helping distressed borrowers. And we accept governmentâs role, if necessary, to avert a financial collapse. But in the end, intervention on behalf of Wall Street would be an outrage, because Wall Street â abetted by lax federal regulation â is largely to blame for this fiasco. Wall Street firms encouraged the issuance of risky loans to troubled borrowers and then reaped a windfall by packaging them as investments for hedge fund clients. And yet, the possibility of economywide problems from further Bear Stearns-like debacles is real. The Bear Stearns funds, like many others, borrowed big to invest in subprime loans. Investing with borrowed money juices returns in hot markets and magnifies losses in down markets, making losers out of lenders as well as equity investors. One of the Bear Stearns funds borrowed some $6 billion, from Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and other powerhouses. For the other fund, Bear Stearns reportedly put up $3.2 billion to help liquidate holdings. Thatâs 32 cents on the dollar for assets once valued at $10 billion. In the past two years, Wall Street firms have issued investments similar to the Bear Stearns holdings, worth about $500 billion on paper. If those were to tank, the damage could be felt broadly. It would likely become harder, for instance, to get loans for everything from homebuying, which supported the economy for most of the decade, to leveraged buyouts, which have buoyed the stock market. It should not be permitted for lenders, banks and hedge funds to risk everyoneâs economic well-being in their attempts to enrich the few. The country needs vastly better regulation than it now has. Mortgage lenders must be restricted to recommending loans that are reasonably within the borrowersâ ability to repay over time. Federal bank regulation must be streamlined and toughened to avoid a repeat of the disjointed and ultimately lax response to the reckless lending of the housing boom. Hedge funds should be regulated if they accept pension money, because doing so exposes everyday Americans to outsized investment risks. Regulation should also cover hedge funds with large sums of borrowed money. And the United States must embrace global coordination of hedge fund regulation, just as banking regulation is increasingly global. In the coming year, interest rates on some $850 billion in mortgages are scheduled for their first increase. Over half of that is in subprime loans. That is the dangerous financial world we live in. It needs strong regulations. ******** If the Bush administration had at least a minimum of common sense they would protect the money invested in pension funds (which is secured by the US government) and would not allow the pension fund money to be invested in hedge funds, and private equity companies to chase the illusory high returns. (Just God knows what these firms are doing with the government insured pension money that they are using to gamble with). In my opinion, the US government should not rescue any of these people who invested on these high-risk investments. They should pay the price of being wrong on their judgment regarding these investments. The Republicans believe in welfare for the rich and US government bailouts for their stupidities and major mistakes and they do that over and over again. Republicans are always looking for a free lunch. By the way, we have very wealthy people in the United States who also have common sense such as George Soros, and Warren Buffet just to mention a few. (They have one thing in common - they are both Democrats). .
I have decided to be nice to SA and leave the thread. It is a useless thread in the first place. Kind of like all of SA's threads here at ET. He can't help it. Too much brain damage... Hasta la vista!
After all that credit went sour because of their reckless way of giving credit to people that they should not have extended credit Bottom line, people are responsible for their credit. You probably never heard about something called "personal responsibility".
. Cesko: Bottom line, people are responsible for their credit. You probably never heard about something called "personal responsibility". ********** June 30, 2007 SouthAmerica: The credit card companies knew in advance that they were giving away millions of credit cards to a very high-risk number of borrowers. They knew that a large number of these people would not be able to repay the money that they had borrowed. The credit card companies got greedy and they extended credit to a group of people that a well-managed company would not have done it. .
. June 30, 2007 SouthAmerica: Today I bought the latest issue of âFast Companyâ magazine â the July/August issue â The cover story is about Al Gore. Quoting from the magazine article: âNot long ago, he was the butt of jokes â lockbox, earth tones, a postelection beard. Then he dusted off an old slide show and jumped with both feet into the private sector. The Untold story of how an epic loser engineered what may be the greatest brand makeover of our time. â¦.Financial disclosure documents released before the 2000 electin put the Gore familyâs net worth at $ 1 million to $ 2 million. But today â â¦Available data indicate a net worth well in excess of $ 100 million. The article goes on to explain how Al Gore has been making a ton of money. ****** The question is: Can Al Gore walk away from making a ton of money years after year to become president of the United States? He might be considering also the fact that he would inherit a wrecked country from the Bush administration - A real MESS. .
I spoke with my father last night who reads all sorts of magazines and papers. Even Brazilian -- (just kidding) He says there is a building belief that hillary can win it all. He hated to admit it. Might Gore be afraid of Hillary?
. July 2, 2007 SouthAmerica: Reply to jem You asked me: âMight Gore be afraid of Hillary?â I donât think so. Al Gore will receive a lot of coverage next weekend because of the Global Warming show. We should have at least one major hurricane such as Katrina in August or September of 2007. And when that happens Al Gore will receive a lot of coverage from the mainstream media. By the way, Al Gore is already receiving a lot coverage from the mainstream media â There is a good article about Al Gore in âThe Nationâ and today Al Gore had an article published by The New York Times about global warming. I realized that Al Gore was going to be the next US president during that week in 2005 when we all watched the Hurricane Katrina â Live directly from New Orleans. Katrina was the turning point for me â right there I realized the impact that Katrina would have in the US presidential election of 2008 and it became obvious to me why Al Gore would be elected US president in November of 2008. In due time the majority of the American people will start arriving to the same conclusion â even the talking heads on television. In October Al Gore should win the Nobel Peace Prize - and that would add even more prestige to his already distinguished resume. That would be the first time that a "Nobel Prize" winner would become president of the United States. And considering the massive mess that Al Gore is going to inherit regarding US foreign policy among many other things - a Nobel Peace Prize might come handy for Al Gore in the coming years. .
. August 8, 2007 SouthAmerica: I hope that Al Gore is taking the time right now to update all the information that he will need when he starts his campaign for the US presidential race of 2008. It will take more than a dust off on the old materials from the year 2000 campaign for him to be ready for the 2008 presidential race. Regarding universal healthcare coverage for everyone here in the United States â In my opinion, he should ask the economist and The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to help him design with input from other experts on that field, his new universal healthcare plan proposal. And when Al Gore starts his new presidential campaign in September or October of 2007, before anything else, he should keep in mind the following: avoid like the plague the subject of âGun Control.â I would suggest that Al Goreâs campaign pledge listed in order of priorities should be as follows: 1) Bring the troops home from Iraq. 2) Universal healthcare coverage for all Americans. 3) Regarding Energy - Give incentives to start a green revolution in the US, and penalize the people who want to do business as usual. 4) Repair and upgrade the entire US infrastructure. 5) Revise pension laws to protect American workers. 6) Then everything elseâ¦. By the way, right now Bill Richardson still is a good choice to be on the ticket as the vice president. Here is the Democratic Party ticket that can win the election in 2008. Al Gore / Bill Richardson for 2008 .
Al Gore needs a major hurricane, or a huge environmental disaster to happen. I'm dead serious. His entire campaign hinges on these end of the world circumstances. Without those events, he's just the guy who gave us Bush by blowing the 2000 election.
. August 8, 2007 SouthAmerica: Al Gore will jump in the presidential race after they announce that he won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007. That will help push Al Gore over the top. It will be the first time in US history that you have a Nobel Peace Prize being elected president of the United States. Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize but that was over 20 years after he had been US president. It would help a lot â mainly if you consider the mess that the Bush administration will leave behind around the world â It will be interesting to have a Nobel Peace Prize in charge of the US government. By the way, the Katrinas will arrive in the US in September and October of 2007. They are right on scheduleâ¦. .