This is about the biggest "limited hangout" piece of trash commentary a person could write. Of course its coming from Bloomberg, one of the mouth pieces of the wall street crew, so what else would you expect it to be?
As Joe Public, when I read this, it is obvious that I am supposed to walk away with a few key points stuck in my head. These points don't address the crime at all. These points don't solve the equation in any manner. It steers us away from looking at the thieves in the banking and government sectors, and steers us into these few points, which are about as valuable as garbage rotting in the sunshine...
1. Garbage dump number one:
Don't cry for investors who lost money on the companies' stocks either. If they didn't do any research or didn't understand what they owned, the people they should blame are themselves.
The reality is that investors should withhold their faith in the government officials who regulate our financial markets. That's not cynicism. In the parlance of securities law, it's a risk-factor disclosure.
Read as: If the bankers and government officials you trust not to break the law, and steal and rob you blind, break the laws in the process, and violate every covenant of human decency in the process...well just look the other way because they are "supposed" to do that. Didn't you know that you dumb dumb? No matter what we do to you, when we lie to you, and steal you blind, it will still be your own damn fault. Never forget it. Us stealing from you, and ruining your life, is always your fault...
(But you, you schmuck, you better pay every nickel of your damn taxes, and what you owe to the bank, cause if ya don't, that thin air we loaned ya and called money, that you must pay back with hard cash, or lose all your hard assets, will vanish like smoke my friend, into our pockets...one more time. Which is what separates us from you...we know you'll take this bit of mind programming, you always do, and we are always pleased, but amazed by it....(crooked grin)
2. Garbage dump number two:
When the history is written on the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it will go down in the annals of corporate scandals as one of the greatest accounting scams committed in broad daylight.
Ya don't say? So this is just an accounting scam huh? Well i'll be jiggered. I was under the impression one of the biggest "crimes" in history is being committed as we speak. But now you tell me "its over" and it was just a company, who "somehow" got into trouble, and didn't want to admit it yet. That was neat and tidy. End of story...into the memory hole the truth will go...
Its amazing how they continually redefine the terms of our world so that we don't recognize what we see. Now the definition of of making millions homeless, broke, starved, financially ruined for life, psychologically broken, spiritually broken, lifetimes work ruined beyond repair, suicidal, in some cases probably literally dead as a result, by fraud, deception, rackateering, outright theft, coercion....is reduced to "accounting scam". Nice and neat isn't it?
3. Garbage dump number three:
All anyone had to do to know the government-guaranteed mortgage financiers were insolvent was read their financial statements. You didn't need a trained professional eye to discern this open secret, only a skeptical one.
Oh really? Another affirmation and hypnotic lesson on how its all our own fault. Really driving that point home aren't ya doc? Well next you're gonna tell us the books were cooked anyway, so which is it?
You're one of people that doesn't have to live behind the veil, so easy for you to say.
"See Joe Public, once again, you and your stupidity, led you over the cliff and you fell into the abyss. Do not attempt to blame the thieves, this is all your fault, just like always, never forget that when we lie to you, and then rob you blind. Repeat after me: "it will always be my own fault".....
Just last month, Fannie and Freddie said their regulatory capital was $47 billion and $37.1 billion, respectively, as of June 30. The Treasury Department now says it may have to inject as much as $200 billion of capital into the two companies. Nothing much changed at the companies in that span. They just couldn't get the government to keep up the ruse any longer.
Sounds like you are saying you knew it all along. I'd like to see the transaction records of your personal portfolio ok? I bet you did ok didn't ya bud?
4. Garbage dump number four:
Gatekeepers Doze
There were lots of gatekeepers who could have stopped this sooner and chose not to. Freddie and Fannie had boards with outside directors and audit committees, though the evidence that they did their jobs is scant.
Freddie's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, could have stopped it, and didn't. The same is true of Fannie's auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's chairman, Christopher Cox, had other priorities. He was too busy this summer trying to prop up the companies' stock prices by chasing short sellers away from their shares.
James Lockhart, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, kept telling the public this summer that Fannie and Freddie were adequately capitalized. He must have known this was a joke, assuming he had bothered to read their quarterly reports.
All the while, Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve and Hank Paulson at Treasury offered the same warm assurances about the companies' capital. They surely knew better, too.
What we should infer: While most of the people that should have been looking out for your best interest were being lazy, inept, playing golf, stupid, fooled, or whatever, a few hard working public servants obviously noticed a crisis could be looming and were working to shore up the dams to protect you while they desperately sought a solution. They kept quiet so as not to start a panic while they desperately looked for a solution. But since these sorts of things "just happen somehow" and obviously nobody knew this was coming, they were caught off guard and by the time they noticed it, it was just too late for them to save your ass, but they tried....
The truth: This was purposely engineered years ago with a known outcome. While the theives were stuffing their armored vans with as much cash as possible, they lied their asses off to stall for time. When they had stolen every available nickel, they knew it was time to get out from under the awning before it came crashing down on them, so it could fall onto your head.
Numbers will head in the same damn direction every time, just like water will, if you arrange the landscape and parameters in a certain way. Due to a few variables it might meander a bit on its way, but the basic contours will steer it in a known direction. Since 2 + 2 always equals 4, the outcome was predictable and certain. These people deal in, and fight over, fractions of a percent everyday because its the difference in millions and billions of dollars in profit. But they somehow by golly, for the life of them, just had no idea where this would go??? Amazing selective foresight isn't it?
If 2 + 2 sometimes equaled -36, we might be able to believe nobody saw this coming, but it doesn't work that way. What was certain was that this was a rigged pyramid scheme, the thieves knew it would collapse, they knew the people on the bottom would go broke, while the profits flow to the top of the "narrow" part of the pyramid. There at the top they waited with open pockets. Along with the fact that our money is being stolen not only once in the scam itself, but twice from taxpayers to "bailout" the country, which in reality is incorporated into the scheme from the beginning, because its an integral part of how the thievery works.
Without knowing a bailout was going to be used, the scheme would have been potentially useless to rig up in the first place, because some of "them" might have actually been open to risk themselves.....and for people that play on this level, risking their marbles to steal yours isn't something they like to do unless they have to.
They would rather risk your marbles, to take your marbles, and take your marbles again when you pay for the damage done, from the marbles already taken from you in the first place...
So Johnathan, great piece of work (trash) there bud...because you didn't tell wall street readers anything. They know this is all garbage, and you certainly didn't do anything but lead the public astray with this garbage.....just how big is that vacation home, and the yacht parked in front of it again???
Long live vigilant! Live long!