Here is an e-mail I sent out to friends and family and thought it might be worthwhile for others to read. Thanks for the place to set my soapbox and all the insight from all who frequent this site.


Hey All,

Excellent video explaining how this New Great Depression happened after regulations (the Glass Steagall act) had been put into place after the 1st Great Depression. (2 minute video) This is what has awakened me to the deceptions being promoted throughout the Main Stream Media and public education system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynjXot73Qgk

I would add that Goldman Sachs "used to be" only an investment bank prior to 2008. But Bush allowed it to be considered a lending institution so that it could qualify for "bailout" aka TARP money. Goldman Sachs was the biggest pusher of the derivatives or bundled bad mortgages.

Here's what happened: Glass Steagall was removed thus deregulating banking industry. Banks were allowed to enter into the "risky" betting of derivatives. Now the banks had legal impunity to take the money being deposited by its clients (i.e. you and me) to "bet" on riskier "financial instruments" as they have been called to make a profit for their shareholders. (This is why the American Taxpayer is being told we must "bailout" these banks...because they made risky bets with their depositors' money and lost it all after the real estate market bubble popped.)
Again, derivatives were the "bundled" bad mortgage loans (ARM loans) being promoted by the banks and mortgage companies that were sold to oversea's investors. These overseas investors were told that even if the individuals who had taken out the risky home loans defaulted that they (overseas investors) would still own the real estate (which happened to be at an inflated price). So in essence the major lending institutions created a "market" for this bad debt that encouraged even more risky loans to be loaned out which in turn elevated the prices of real estate. (made a real estate bubble). When people began defaulting on their loans, the banks stopped lending as much, which, in turn, popped the bubble of the real estate market. So these overseas investors were out the capital they had used to buy up these derivatives (bundled bad mortgages) and on top of that, the value for the property that they owned plummeted substantially. This is why the whole world has been affected by this, because all nations have had their hands in the cookie jar.

The major players were: Goldman Sachs (Sec of Treasury during 2008 was Henry Paulson who before being Sec of Treasury was CEO of Goldman Sachs), JP Morgan/Chase Manhattan (merged after Morgan bought Chase w/ taxpayer money), Bank of America (which bought Countrywide mortgage co, and Morgan Stanley who received bailout money too as did B of A), Deutsche Bank. AIG (received over 1 trillion $1,000,000,000,000 because this was the major insurance company that had created insurance for these "derivatives" which they could not in all reality insure) and FANNIE Mae and Freddie Mac which were mortgage lenders. AIG, Fannie, Freddie have all been nationalized (i.e. fascism/ being owned by the federal government) and have an unlimited purse backed by the federal govt and the U.S. taxpayer.

Wouldn't you think that this problem would have been fixed by now so that the taxpayer did not have to continue paying for greedy people's mistakes? Well it hasn't. Glass steagall has not been reinstated and the American taxpayer is continuing to pay for the mistakes promoted by AIG, Goldman Sachs and their likes. Oh by the way, they are still doing all of this, this is why they can have ridiculous "bonuses" being paid out because they are paying the CEO's for being risky and making their shareholders bigger profits at the expense of the entire United States and the world for that matter!

Shouldn't we care? Especially considering this burden is being placed not only on us but our children and grandchildren? Understanding the problem is the first step. Next would be talking to others about it and learning more about the solutions available.

Sorry for how long this is. I started out only trying to talk about Glass Steagall but felt it was necessary to give a bit of history to help underline the importance of the times we live in.

Peace,

P.P.