Monday, Mar 17, 2008
How Wall Street Fleeced The Sheeple
Guardian: America was conned - who will pay?
"... a way had to be found to persuade households to do their patriotic duty. The method chosen was simple. Whip up a colossal housing bubble, convince consumers that it makes sense to borrow money against the rising value of their homes to supplement their meagre real wage growth and watch the profits roll in."
Posted by quiet guy @ 09:18 AM (548 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
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1. renting2 said...
Good job the same thing hasn't happened over here ........ !
2. yorkshireman said...
Who will pay ? The people who have lost their houses and jobs and those who are about to.
3. Landedgentry said...
Maybe, but who told them to remortgage their property to buy cars, superbowl tickets etc.
4. stillthinking said...
Ignores a common factor to all the people who have been 'conned', they were all in it because they thought they would be getting money for nothing from somebody else. Which is a typical way of conning somebody, get them to believe that they are suckering somebody else, in this case anybody who wants to live somewhere.
They need to pay, is my opinion. Moral hazard also applies to BTL etc. who played their part equally.
5. shipbuilder said...
Good to see articles like this in the mainstream media – if our media organizations are of any worth whatsoever, they should be taking the lead to expose the perpetrators of what will be seen as the biggest financial scam of our time. It’s just a pity that this is in the Guardian and will therefore be dismissed as ‘lefty anti-capitalist nonsense’ by many.
In reality we are all responsible, yet it’s funny how the ‘personal responsibility’ mantra of the right only ever applies up the food chain – responsibility to pay debts, earn money and ‘borrow responsibly’ lies with the common man, yet apparently none lies with the corporate or financial sector, because all profits are good for the economy (except that they’re not particularly, as the majority ends up in the bank accounts of the few).
As for ‘rioting in the streets’ or the people demanding ‘more than a slap on the wrist’ for Wall street, dream on – as I’ve said before, we live in the most apathetic, cowed and subservient society in history – capitalism will be bailed out and then fashioned as the great saviour for the problems it created (problems that will be swept under the carpet as a ‘one-off’, so the system can be protected).
But surely the people can make their democratic voice heard? The mainstream political parties either in the US or here will NEVER have reformation of the monetary system on their agenda, no matter how serious the situation gets – each will blame the other, all the while pretending there is anything more than a gnat’s ar*e difference between their policies.
I suspect the best we can hope for is a ‘we hate the Fed’ group on Facebook….
6. Orwell said...
Whereas of course all at HPC have been talking about comparisons with the South Sea Bubble for about 2-3 years, the mainstream have only just woken up.
But look when it comes down to it, there has been fraud on the consumer on a colossal scale. I am not so sure that it is just they who should be responsible or suffer alone (although they can and should make a contribution). However who is going to be brave enough to take the money back (or whatever that money now represents)?