You get what you pay for. That's why Asian manufactured products are for the most part, considered cheap crap. That's why when you speak with Rajiv pretending to be John, you get frustrated & accomplish very little.
The free market has been dead for a long time, we're just moving even further away from it now. I was actually pretty surprised (and pleased) to see the administration have a little bit of a back bone and tell GM that their proposal was not acceptable and that they may very well need to file for bankruptcy. It's still a total mess that has been mishandled since the first day, but at least we're finally attempting to do something other than just throw money at GM for eternity.
In President Obama's speech this morning...here's 2 quotes that stand out. 1. Only then can we ask American taxpayers who have already put up so much of their hard-earned money to once more invest in a revitalized auto industry. Didn't know I had a choice...were you asked? 2. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee. So now we're in the car warranty business?
gnome is such a hard right ideologue, it makes me sick. Unregulated over leveraged derivative markets and packaging F assets as AAA has nothing to do with affirmative action lending or the meltdown would have happened much earlier. Also, I could have sworn that conservatives wanted the US autos to fire management and file bankruptcy about 2 or 3 months ago? Now it is an assault on the free markets. There is a big time disconnect wth the approval ratings and the right wing loonisphere. Keep watching Glen Beck & Red Dawn until your eyes bleed.
I was in the mortgage biz. Believe me, affirmative action lending had little to do with it. The riskiest loans were used by ALL races and ALL income groups and had nothing to do with the Community Reinvestment Act, or getting more minorities into homes. The other problem was that FNMA and Freddie were overleveraged. As for subprime - it was supported mostly by the investment banks, not the GSEs. They WANTED risky loans. They needed a higher rate of return and risky loans were the way to accomplish that. Securitization ensured that they could dump those loans just as soon as they created them - and the cycle repeated. Altruism was seen as a way to make money. Reckless greed always triumphs over senseless altruism.
free markets went out the window when the interests of management diverged from that of the majority of shareholders. the balance of power shifted to the professional managers. management became greedy bloodsuckers and looters of the co's they worked for. they stopped caring about the long term interest of shareholders.
Soon, we'll be in the "everything" business... that "Full Commie" for those who don't bother to learn anything about world economic history...
the balance of power shifted to the professional managers. Management became greedy bloodsuckers and looters of the co's they worked for. they stopped caring about the long term interest of shareholders. ---------------------------------------------------- Now that's something that I can agree with but it sounds like two separate issues to me.
the connection to the free market is that the professional managers were able to take oversized risks suffer no consequences for their failed actions while bringing down the free market financial system.