We "bailed out" large financial institutions that held billions in unrealized losses on their books due to the collapse of real estate value. Real estate has not increased in value since the bailout, and there are still more ARM reset cycles coming, resulting in additional foreclosures and putting a serious damper on real estate values rising any time soon. And although credit isn't completely frozen, it's no longer flowing freely the way it was pre-2008 when transients could buy a house and 0% credit card offers were mailed weekly to everyone in your household including the cat and dog. What happened to all the toxic waste on the books of the big financials? Was it swept under the rug so the bulls could break out of the gate and have a big party with bear pinatas? Does this toxic waste ever have to be realized or can it remain under the rug indefinitely?
You still don't get this? There was never a problem. They knew everything in advance and could have avoided if there was a real problem. But they don't make good profit in stable market so they create boom & bust. Guess who are THEY?
.................................. Japanization.....on steroids.... As long as bad debt is not destroyed....cannot advance.... ...................................... ie the Econ was 70/70... now its 40/70....largely due to securitization evaporation... and possibly never coming back..... Debt must be destroyed Govt. must downsize Tax structure must change to invite entrepreneurship ie 10/5 Ctax only An open direct access worldwide electronic exchange ....defragmented... and not tax in any way....favoring massive numbers of retail accounts Enact Glass Stegall Done... Otherwise...an increasingly larger govt. demanding more from a shrinking base makes it worse than Japan....
Yes there was a "problem". More like a few unmonitored, uncontrolled Cassandras: In some circles Meredith Whitney holds the honor of significantly aggravating the banking/credit collapse by exposing banking problems to the public. Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves. --Norm Franz
If anything, the problems have just become worse. Unproductive and toxic industries (ie: financing, trading, etc.) have not been purged. Collateral continues to weaken as the ability of the population to service such debt is shrinking. The size of, and cost of government is on an out-of-control spiral upwards, while the size of the private sector is on a continued spiral downwards. Foreign economies, including China, are rapidly approaching the point where they can't support the United States, the UK, etc. anymore (UK is in even worse shape than the USA, IMHO). I hope the collapse becomes sooner than later.
The problem was engineered by master planners (as usual). Nothing was accidental, unmonitored and uncontrolled. No one exposed anything, they did exactly what was needed for the play at the right time. Whitney, Roubini, you name it. They all are just an actor and the market is a setup. I feel bad for Lehman and Merrill. But guess there wasn't a better way to create panic that we just observed. Do you really think that NYSE and other exchanges exist to make money on bid-ask spread?
I completely DISAGREE. Whitney, Roubini, you name it, were not puppets. They were loose cannons, unmonitored and uncontrolled. These Cassandras threw a wrench into the master plan, they were not part of the plan. The masters got caught and forced to change the plan. The end result remains the same; the means to that end and the time frame were changed. Those that were not puppets were likely converted as well.
May be I'm wrong on that part but MASTER PLAN exists and they are either controlling or using your so called "loose cannons". Like you said, end result is same There was no change in plan, what you see was the plan. If people were really brilliant, they should raise their voices when problem was small. If someone is exposing the problem at it's peak, then it is really not exposing, it's called DRAMA. They are helping the MASTER PLAN.
Some raised their voices back in 2001(?) and since, but were dismissed as wackos. And remember what Ross Perot said about NAFTA, ca 1997?