Words from the Wise?

I just got back from The Economist's "Buttonwood Gathering" in New York and thought I'd share a few of the more interesting (and, in some cases, quite enlightening) quotes (in no particular order) from the movers-and-shakers at the (well attended) conference:

Secretary Tim Geithner, United States Department of the Treasury:

"Generally, we did not do enough." (Referring to the failure to address growing concerns over excessive risk-taking in the period leading up to the financial crisis.) [Editor's note: understatement of the year?]

Stephen Roach, Chairman, Morgan Stanley Asia:

Those who are looking for a "V"-shaped recovery are in for "a rude awakening."

"The imbalances going into the crisis were large to begin with. Now, they are bigger than ever."

George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management:

"Bankers have too much power." (Referring to the hold that Wall Street has over Washington.)

The "globalization of financial markets is built on false premises: namely, that markets can be left to their own devices."

Sheila C. Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation:

"Insured deposits are being used in ways that I don't like to see."

Wilbur L. Ross Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, WL Ross & Co.:

People were focused on "risk-ignoring rates of return." (Describing one of the things that went helped bring about the financial crisis.)

If regulators had taken the time to visit a Countrywide Lending office, they would have seen something akin to "a Wall Street boiler room," rather than a bank branch. (Referring to regulator's unwillingness to go out into the field and see what was really going on during the housing boom.)

"Government is its own systemic risk in the mortgage market."

Lawrence H. Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, The White House:

The root of most financial errors is "when you try to do today what you wished you had done yesterday."

"I can assure you that on Main Street, it is a very different conversation." (Referring to the contrast between the optimism on Wall Street and the more pessimistic mood of those struggling to get by in other parts of the country.)

"It is not the administrations's view to bribe those who have been part of the problems we have experienced to do what is in the national interest." (Referring to the suggestion that banks and other financial institutions need financial incentives to support proposed regulatory changes.)

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University:

"It was grotesque." (Referring to fact that, despite its extraordinary size, the $62 trillion credit default swap market was essentially unregulated.)

"This was a crisis made in the U.S." (Referring to the suggestion that China's export policies played a key role in creating the credit bubble.)

Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School:

"We are living though a gradual shift away from a dollar-centric system."

"Is China the Germany of our time?" (Referring to the combination of economic dynamism and growing nationalism that stoked the aggressive ambitions of Nazi Germany.)

"The problem of being a declining empire doesn't have a solution." (Referring to the suggestion that a great many, if not all, of America's problems are fixable.)

Robert J. Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Yale University:

"Look up 'bubble' in an economic textbook and it's not there." (Referring to the shortcomings of the traditional economic curriculum.).

People "are living in a 'pretend-and-extend' environment, waiting  for the economy to recover." (Referring to the precarious state of the commercial real estate market and the wave of resets coming due between 2011 and 2013.)

Elizabeth Warren, Chair, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel:

"The reason banks lost confidence in each other is because they looked at their own books." (Referring to the loss of confidence that roiled markets during the darkest days of the crisis.)

Comments

[Astraea]

Outsourcing & ARMs caused the economic crisis

[A.C.]

It's kind of sad to admit but financial Armageddon is indeed at the door.

America is a craven, deeply sick and morally bankrupt nation with a culture that would make our grandparents shiver ... and now America is financially bankrupt.

If you think there is no linkabge between the two -- the moral/cultural and the financial -- think again.

America's armed forces and nuclear deterent will be in great danger when the real financial judgment day unfolds.

China's time is coming ...

[roger]

A lot of folks,if not all,blame deregulation,hog wash!
deregulation is no accident. In their greed and heist
for more profits deregulation was mandated by the rich
political Elite,it was no accident,no bad management,
no mistake. The rich Elite always manage to grab the
helm of the State,and will dismantle any laws in their way.
Any person who as studied political economy clearly understands
that.GE made Reagan the great deregulator,the rest is history.

[Bart Hunkle]

The GLI [Government Lying Index] has yet to be calibrated to the DOW JONES, NSDAC, NEKI or GOLD so that we may have a chance to stay ahead of the curve. Right now there is no way to hedge, buy short or go long with anything we hear, read or see that this government assures us about or on. Until the day that it collapses, we are stuck watching the storm passing over our heads as pesents in the dark ages fearing vengful gods of a bygone era.

[Roxan]

These banksters should have been in jail with Madoff or just executed. The same applies for EVERY poltician who signed those bankster bailouts and allowed them to get away with what they did. Plus, the politicians probably never even bothered to read the bills, but apparently, there was an earmark for "wooden arrows" and other earmarks that got tacked on that nothing to do with the bailouts.

Glass-Steagall should also be reinstated and every person involved with repealing it also should be in jail, including Clinton.

[Roxan]

Oops, that shoule be (that "had" nothing to do with the bailouts).
Oh poppycock on linking America to being craven, etc. Yes, it is, but there are many decent people in this nation that have been trying to live their lives as decently as they can (including me) and we've been constantly writing/phoning these politicians to change their behavior and stop selling this nation down the river.

Instead of mostly watching TV, I've been on the internet getting the real news and constantly researching instead of having a good ol' time. I've also been trying to get the word out to other people about what is really going on....For example: Both parties are 2 legs on the same animal and that they serve the same masters. Most or all roads lead to the Rothschilds and/or the Rockefellers and that many politicians belong to the: CFR, the Trilateral Commission, the Skull/Bones Society, attend the Bilderberg meetings, etc etc and as such, that is why we keep having to hold our noses and voting for the lesser of 2 evils and that many FALSIMEDIA members also belong to the CFR.

I've also been trying to explain to people that the NAU is probably the reason our own borders aren't secured and that illegal aliens are still enticed to come here through jobs, FREE births, WIC etc benefits, FREE schooling for their kids and our polticians aside from allowing this to continue, they also keep rejecting E-VERIFY and revising the 14th Amendment to end the "automatic citizenship" to those born to illegal aliens.

I just didn't realize how hard it was to unbrainwash other people, but I'm still trying (at least until I'm possibly taken out to a FEMA camp) because I won't take the "FLYING PIG" vaccines and I sure remember very well what happened in the 1970s since I knew some military guinea pigs who were forced to take those Swine Flu Vaccines.

It also isn't comforting to have learned about the GEORGIA GUIDESTONES, in Elberton, Georgia, U.S.A. calling for a drastically reduced population and that there are people out there in academa (such as Erik Pianka) and Henry Kissinger (Useless Eaters), etc. who also share the same idea.

[Roxan]

Revision again: That should be (Poppycock on America being craven "and that's why we deserve this). No, we don't deserve this any more than other nations who got shafted by the banksters or IMF. Does anyone really think the Zimbabwe people deserved hyperinflation or the Argentinian people, etc etc?

[david w.]

The OBVIOUS has not been overlooked. This is the "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" (by Charles Mackay, 1841 / great read, easy to find used or via PDF). There is absolutely NO POINT in bothering to explain or attempt to solve — since the solution involves jail time for 10s of thousands of both "leaders" and perps, as well as the elimination of 10,000 laws, rules and systems. We all KNOW that is NOT going to happen. Adolts (adults that never learn) are too fixed. The wise can create one's own system, find one's own way or be caught up in the madness of crowds.

At this "juncture" one can only ditto of the obvious and ride out THE WAVE (pre-crash/crash/after).

[kkk]

Satanic Nazi bastards are destroying the world!!!

[Bob Dole]

To the people who moan about the bankers and recommend death/imprisonment... the truth is it's all your fault, u wasted ur time watching football while they dinned your "elected" leaders.

They planned while you "tuned out".

Now they hold ur cards and ur calling foul.

Either get of your ass and start planning, or shut up and put up with it.

[farang]

Lawrence H. Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, The White House:

The root of most financial errors is "when you try to do today what you wished you had done yesterday."

Now what could Mr. Lawrence "I fought regulating derivatives tooth and nail!!!" Summers be referring too??

Oh, maybe this:

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University:

"It was grotesque." (Referring to fact that, despite its extraordinary size, the $62 trillion credit default swap market was essentially unregulated.)

Indeed, and what wwere the "consequences" of Summer's intentional "blunder" of allowing his crony bankers the keys to the vault? Obama names him White House Economic Advisor...yeah.

And where in the world did this "China is the new boogieman" meme come from?? "Oh look, a COMMIE, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!"

Sheesh. What garbage. So China has built up it's export manufacturing economy, and accumulated trillions in US dollar reserves, just to throw it away and attack us?? Don't get out much, do ya?

How much do these "commies" spend on military compared to...oh, these brave "Freedom Fighters" of the US Pentagon?

Like less than 10%. How many countries across the world from China do they occupy??? How many do we??? Who's the threat?

Where do you fools get your logic from, Crackerjack boxes???

[Meatwad]

As all are due to collapse, pyramid scams come and go. Those disillusioned into thinking a "gold" standard is the cure, how can there be unlimited growth based on a limited resource? Don't bother to answer, or you will only be exposing your further delusions.

[catkiller]

The new economy is already up and runnning,with 45 million users globally, but you need to pass a test to get a pair of keys:

NPV non-performing assets = salvage value

NPV ongoing concern gets you 6% without even thinking, on the front end. Talent investment gets you 20%, with a lot of work, on the back end.

Like the British Empire, and all the others, some residual portion of the American Empire is going to survive, as a warning to the next empire. Sell off your non-performing assets to someone who can employ them uesfully, immediately, and invest in developing your unique talent.

if you don't know where to start:

In the new economy, it's your talent that is going to put roof over your head. Currently, in the old economy, 2/3 of the domestic population is dependent on
interest, dividends, and transfer payments from 1/3 of the population, largely working for $10/hr, and many times that in foreign labor, making much less. Most of the former is nothing more than numbers in a computer.

Obviously, that is not going to work.

Everyone, even if they play the piano, is going to need basic education in certain subjects. Take a look at the list in your bookstore, flip through them, and buy one. Read a few pages a day. If you can learn just one thing a day, you will be better off than most:

(top level, big picture stuff)

Physics
Death By Blackhole

Human Development
Human Origins

Biology
Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Computer Science
Programming the Universe

Market Economies
Security Analysis (1951)
(this stuff doesn't change)

Electronics
Principles & Applications, Schuler 2002

Oil & physical property cannot serve as hubs in the new system.

The old markets now exist in three parts. One part is the casino, which is an extension of the lottery culture; one part is government backed securities, in which people are putting up principle for an unearned return that will be far less than the principle they lose. and the third part is the market makers who are making money enabling all sides of the deals.

(and a tiny number of individuals will make out nibbling at the edges.)

If you are expecting the government to solve this problem, you are expecting what has never happened in History.

Good luck.

[David]

I was leaving commentrs when no one else was to be found. Now that even the blind man can read the writting on the wall I wonder how many of them have prepared for what is coming.
Do they even know that while 8 million Americans starved to death during the Great Depression,this time around it will most likely be 50 million who starve to death.Do they understand at all the calamity about to unfold infront of them as the airline manufacturing industry prepares to move to Mexico taking 1 million jobs. Can they see tat the storm is only now gathering speed that the worse is indeed to come.

[Captain Obvious]

You live in a house, that has some holes for a mouse. You fix all the holes but one and say, I'll fix that hole another day. One day after it appears, a mouse has confirmed all your fears. You go out and get a cat, one big enough to kill a rat. You know that there's a hole but you, expect the cat to do what you wont do. Now one hole has become two, another cat will surely do.

[S.Wesley Riddle]

It is rather amusing to me that the most obvious reasons are never mentioned in this or any other article...NAFTA and GATT. How can you sustain a "service" economy when there is no one left to service? I think I'll go to Wal-Mart today and gladly pay on tuesday for what I get today!

[Marion Shaw]

It is obvious from the comments reported in this blog by Michael Panzer, that
the goddess of reason has striped to the rhythm of the dialectic. Her
humanists' high priests are flaunting their nakedness in the public marketplace
which has merely become a place to dance and wail lamentations while the
country they were entrusted to govern is fragmenting into desperation and
penury. They seem to have adopted the point of view of the late Andrew Mellon,
some would say the infamous Andrew Mellon, that it is actually good for an
economy to implode, leaving the wealthy at the top of the food chain, and the
ensuing chaos will root out the dead wood from the bottom up. When the moment
arrives, unfortunately, the dead wood will demand a strong man and the US
Constitution will be merely a scrap of paper left in a museum somewhere. The
only hope would be another patrician type FDR who had the guts and independence
(except from his controllng mother) to shut down the Republican greed machine
but unfortunately he was shot in Dallas.

[TruthSeeker]

The Real Collapse is now in the CountDown Phase - coming very soon, unless the measures recommended by Lyndon LaRouche, and being discussed widely in the background internationally, are employed. (Yes, I know we've been Brainwashed to think he is a lunatic - He's NOT!! That's how the Ultra-Rich RULING ELITE keep people away from GOOD IDEAS). Putting the entire world monetary system into Bankruptpcy Conservatorship, cutting loose the phony derivative debt, returning to a Credit based system as per Hamilton, F.D.R., etc. with Glass-Steagall back in place, "Clawing" back the Money stolen in the bailout, tracing it, recovering what is recoverable, determining Criminality and Prosecuting..,,DISENGAGING entirely from the private interest creditor Federal Reserve System, which is nothing more than the IMPERIAL monetary system,,,a vampire on our backs...and insuring that this all will be followed by agreement with the most important nation states of RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, and BRAZIL.... England is to be left out of this ENTIRELY<,,, The London Corporation (the BRUTISH empire) is the Poison in the Water...Germany and the other countries of Europe will follow suit,,,with these Four in the lead. Short of doing this, the world will soon find itself in a NEW DARK AGE! This is NO JOKE. Complete breakdown,,,no food on the grocery store shelves, people STARVING,,,and a loss of population down to ONE BILLION or LESS in the next generation..(down from almost SEVEN BILLION). Please NOTE that this is what PRINCE PHILLIP WANTS!!! This whole business has been ENGINEERED!!! They WANT starvation and death on an UNIMAGINABLE SCALE...Larouche has the answers, Obama is a Puppet for the British Empire...DePopulation is the PLAN!!! If he doesn't get with a program disengaged from WALL STREET British Backed CRIMINALS he must be IMPEACHED...We're talking about Life and Death - SURVIVAL here and Nothing Less!!! Wake Up Everybody...They're about to drag us into another CRIMINAL WAR based on Lies just like Iraq. They won't stop unless WE STOP THEM! Stand up, organize, talk with everyone, and JUST SAY NO - to PHONY VACCINES, PHONY WARS, PHONY HEALTHCARE, and PHONY RECOVERY.....

[CabotAR]

Revolution is coming to America.

The coming depression will not have the same Americans, who tolerated criminal bankers/politicians, they will take a stand & rightly so.

Just read a new book (A Time To Stand by Oliver) that parallels modern day Americans to colonial Americans who fought govt. tyranny. It’s based, in part, on real people/events in a small, American town that revolts against federal tyranny. It’s fast pace & intense. It was so compelling I couldn’t put it down. It’s insightful….it’s a must read thriller.

http://www.booksbyoliver.com

[TruthSeeker]

Meant to say USA in the FOUR for this plan...not Brazil,,,but not to exlude them either...

[Captain Obvious]

I cannot get over how here on the web, so many intellectuals with all the answers dedicate a lot of time typing paragraph after paragraph about who did what, why they did it and who is wrong and why the author of the article is wrong and bla bla bla. We ALL know who did this, why they did it and how to correct it. The problem is that all these keyboard activists do the easiest thing to do, and that is waste time and words posting comments to a place that gets nothing done at all. People, the time for thinking things over is past, now it is time to get off your asses and get out there and make your voices heard. If a few did, I think it would coax a few more, and so forth. I am guilty of it myself to an extent. We can figure this shit out online the rest of our lives which may not be long if these meaningless words are converted into serious leg work. Bullshit all day and you are n othing. Take to the streets and at least you tried. Lets do it NOW! ::putting on boots::

[Currently across the sea]

Dear Mr. Captain Obvious, I was just about to write how a friend in rural Europe lost a chunk of money to Madoff, via a regional bank, via another European bank.
Sorry, but whenever I try to raise the issues with any acquaintances of mine, they get glassy eyes and yawn.
Yesterday I read Taibbi in Rolling Stone, how Geithner and Paulson lied to Congress, on occasion of Bear Stearns. If the upper echelon gets away with anything...What can I do? Please let me know.

[Patrick Sullivan]

The central bankers who own and operate the war crimes cartel figured out long ago that eventually you all would catch up with them, and put them out of business.

So they built tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and comfortable underground shelters to hide in, and pulled the nuclear trigger on us.

Now we are the Living dead, that is, repeatedly the central bankers have pulled the nuclear trigger on us, and yet we remain alive.

It will only require one nuclear weapons burst in a hostile manner, and a domino effect will follow leading to the desired end; the total extermination of the mass of the human race, except for them selves who plan to sit it all out in the comfort zone of the underground.

Tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, many sitting on a hair trigger only awaiting a accident or mistake and we are all gone.

Did our central banker war crimes cartel owners really build these weapons of genocide to do us good?

[Jesus Crips]

Before I hop in to my new lexus to pick up my viagra prescription and a case of Coor's Light with the cold activated cans can some one tell me what time the Giants play?

Oh BTW don't you people ever watch the news? The economic recovery is here.

What do you people like sit online all day and preach your opinion to the choir in a vain attempt to avoid your impotence in the face of the international banksters? HaHaHa how lame. China is showing you the way........ It's called losing faith in the banksters fiat money. There power lies in your faith... dopey.

[MK]

You need to cover the 60 Minutes Show that aired in late August 2009. It reveals how DERIVATIVES which were illegal following the last time that they destroyed the stock market (in the 1930s) WERE MADE OSTENSIBLY LEGAL BY EXECUTIVE ORDER OF THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER, HIS FATHER THE MOST CRIMINAL PRESIDENT AND THEIR BUDDY, Sr. CIA President (Bill Clinton).

Here are the facts:

One, Banksters are the problem. They want a lot of things that will permit THEM to become wealthier than anyone else EVEN THOUGH CONCENTRATED WEALTH IS NOT GOOD FOR AN ECONOMY...if you want to know why, ask me to write a column sometime

Two, their wish list--delivered by possibly the most brain dead person ever to illegally hold office in the US and definitely, the dumbest person to ever receive an MBA from Harvard--had items in it that could not function together..at all.

Three, it is obvious to me that while a lot of people, particularly men, are enthralled with the math of economics, they don't get the real essentials and how they interact with each other.

Four, THE CRUX OF THE CURRENT MONETARY PROBLEMS IS ACTUALLY FAIRLY EASY TO SUMMARIZE:

a) Globalization, electronic banking, fractional reserve banking and fiat currency cannot work together. Each one of these items exacerbates any problems in the other ones and makes stable growth impossible. WHY YOU ASK? It is easy. Globalization makes all the countries too dependent upon each other AND adds so many complicating factors that it ensures that it will create more problems than it solves (i.e. it ensures that repairs will take too long, inventory is too far away from customers and guarratees that any system built this way will have to have periodic catastrophic failures). Globalization creates too many suppliers and not enough customers. Globalization destroys the ability of countries to hold companies accountable for environmental and economic damage and thereby sews the seeds of market destruction. Globalization destroys wages and the middle class thereby ensuring that wealth will be overconcentrated and introduces worse up and down cycling within individual economies.

All of the problems of globalization are magnified by electronic banking. Electronic banking destroys the ability of countries to control their economic bases, their capital and therefore their economies. Electronic banking takes the FLOAT out of the currency system and therefore, impairs the ability of banks to estimate their cash needs. The inability to estimate cash needs properly ensures that FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING CAN'T WORK.

To put this in a way that WONKS will love---the main reason that all of these wish lists of banksters and globalistic hegemons are so doomed is because adopting all of these conditions simultaneously is analogous to taking all of the standard values out of an equation and substituting nothing but variables. Without having some BASIC HARD AND FAST DATA IN AN EQUATION, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ARRIVE AT CORRECT ANSWERS TO ASSUMPTIONS.

When fiat currency is added to this situation, there is absolutely no possible way of creating economic stability. Currency exchange rates, banking float, money pegged to some realistically valued assets and national self-interest are the things that kept the economic systems of the past running along in a relatively stable fashion. Take any one of the elements out and the effects are predictable. A huge pile up of bogus money in too few hands followed by an extraordinary crash and no money in the hands of the vast majority which leads to no spending, bankruptcies, devaluation and total meltdown.

It bothers me that these things are so obvious, yet so unobserved.

[John Cardwell]

I keep hoping to hear about the elite banksters and their families being rounded up and executed in a public forum. Maybe America could be free again if that happened???

[TS]

There is no other way of spelling the word GREED. I agree with MK because it would set an immediate example to others to keep their dirty hands off of what is Constitutionally sound money .. period !

[Sal]

Usury/Interest and the debasing of currency (remember the Scriptures?) will take its' toll.

[TraderMark]

Quite a diverse group of people - strange to see them all in 1 spot

[Chance the Gardner]

"Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice...I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge and discretion."

The wicked enemy of wisdom, Mystery Babylon, stands naked before the world, yet the world does not see her.

"If he foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

[Chance the Gardner]

correction:

"If 'the' foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

[s.tristero]

"If 'the' foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

close the Book once & for all and begin to write another one...