Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 1)

Short selling hedge funds lit the spark that led to the global economic meltdown. Now they want to help craft the laws Congress will pass to fix our broken regulatory system. That's insane.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wall street
• hedge funds
• lehman brothers
• bear stearns
• naked short selling
• economy
• fraud

[LamboSpyder99]

So, the problem is US government and SEC, more than the investment banks themselves.

[writerjudd]

@LamboSpyder99 Sort of. I think that left to their own devices, banks will tend toward excess. The SEC's job is to keep that tendency in check. In this case, the SEC failed to do its job, and indeed, became a tool of the hands of the banks. And here we are.

[VendettaVV]

where did u get the data of bear sterns delivery failure statistics?

[writerjudd]

@VendettaVV The SEC provides raw delivery failure data here: sec!gov/foia/docs/failsdata!ht­m (replace ! with .).

The period encompassing Bear Stearns' demise is in this file: sec!gov/foia/failsreports/cnsp­_sec_fails_2008q2!zip (again, replace ! with .). Because a trade is not considered failed until three days after execution, you need to move the fails number back three days to accurately see the effect they on the market.

[geehuckwow]

@willisapril if unemployment extensions get stopped, then hungry folk will go out and eliminate bankers (and their supporters) to get food to eat, be it in jail for life or out free. It's Extortion supporters (banks, military, politicians, etc) that eliminate decent people with their extortion/tax/fee/ policies and control.

[BlackCatSaloon]

Excellent video! But, if you folks haven’t figured it out yet, our country has become a Plutocracy. Remember the financial bailout that nearly every intelligent American was against? Well, when it passed, what you just witnessed is called a Financial Coup D’etat.

Wake up America…it’s not about Republican, it’s not about Democrats, it’s not about Liberal, nor is it about Conservative…it’s about POWER and MONEY. Our Democracy has been slowly eroded to a full-blown Plutocracy.

[alueshen]

I support teaching the economics in schools starting in 4th grade as a class right beside math, science and history.

People don't understand the complexities of the financial system, things like collateralized debt obligations, mortgage-backed securities, and credit default swaps to name a few....You just can't explain it to them at a 10th grade level in two sentences and hope they will understand.

Education is our best defense in a country that demands the freedom to make bad decisions.

[alueshen]

@writerjudd In all of the research I've done it would seem that LB did enough to hurt itself. The executives had begun lying to there own employees about the strength of their position in the market and with the government (bonds).

While I think what you've done here is entirely possible and in my mind even probable, your series appears to allege the LB was an innocent victim, when in reality their own business practices made them targets for the NSS that killed them.

[LamboSpyder99]

Ron Paul for president.

[BlackCatSaloon]

The fact of the matter: I’m not sure the American populace has the moxie to vote for someone who tells the truth. I think they want the ‘showman’ who spins the yarn, all the while the populace seemingly laps it up. Republicans and Democrats are engaged in the destruction of the middle class by printing trillions, which punishes savers, while rewarding those willing to go into debt. I’m not sure the American populace has the critical thinking skills to make thoughtful decisions.