Since when do taxpayers have a say in how the government is run?

see forum "Popular Media on the Credit Crisis" for the rest of the
iceberg

cut me off also. MEMMO TO IT GUYS. YOUR FIRED! YOU'VE HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME
TO FIX THIS FREAKEN MESS OF A SITE. YEAH I KNOW I CAN COPY AND PASTE BUT I STILL
CAN'T USE THE "AND" SIGN YOU MORONS. MY ANS. TO FOLLOW AFTER I GO FIND
BONGHITBOB. mike

they cut me off. what i meant to continue saying was the S and L crisis (for
whatever reason we cant use the and symbol on here) gave us the warning when the
junk bond market blew up in their face. and instead of saying commercial banking
cant be brought back together with the investment side--for this very reason--we
screamed free markets. so we let them wed these two things that never work in a
crisis. then we let companies like countrywide go without the regulations the
banks had, people warned, we screamed--free markets. now we're stuck with god
knows how many banks involved in structured finance (half dont even know what it
is, just that they have it), and mortgages under pressure because we wanted no
government involvment. I'm not saying the govt. should be in control of it all,
that taxpayers should be the only ones to take the hits, but what happens if we
dont--as tax payers--take the hit? do we pay for it with banks not able to lend
and thus millions being laid off? mortgage rates that people cant afford?

anything in the name of "free markets"

zack - you and i know politics wont allow it any other way. even if politicians
got it, and wanted to stop this, they'd be thrown out of office for someone on
the sidelines who says they wouldve done this (from both sides of the isle).

i dont think that is really an exaggeration of what some of these larger banks
could stand to lose, they all have these structured products off balance sheet,
at the very least CDS's if not SIV's, CDO squared and so on.

but ultimately i dont blame the banks as much as i blame the rest of us, we let
it happen. we were all around when Greenspan and the banks tore apart
Glass-Steagall and let them marry commercial banks with investment banks--by
proxy structure products (otherwise known as "financial ingenuity").
the S

so lets see: we tell bac to pound sand and the market really tanks. say it goes
to 11000. do you really want to see if it can find the bottom starting at 11000?
mike

That is a clear exaggeration of what Bank of America could stand to lose. There
obviously does need to be some government help that will keep people from
defaulting and not actually cost the government and taxpayers an overwhelming
amount of money. Just remember what could happen if a real lot of people lose
their homes and we just let the free market play out. Have you ever heard of
Hoover and the Great Depression? Worked out really well, right?