Stress Test Result: No Bank Bailout II

Six lines and we're supposed to take this seriously as a news story? Get a life, George...

Unemployment was at 4.6% in 2006 before the Democratic Congress took over.
And the media said that that was awful under Bush then.
Now, with Unemployment forecasted to hit 10% after almost three years of a Democratic Congress and under Obama, the media praises Obama becaause we "only" lost 601,000 jobs last month.
And Obama, despite this massive job loss, prattles about how his stupid stimulus bill which he rammed through "created or saved" 150,000 jobs.
But the media is not bothered in the slightest by this obvious lie on Obama's part.
The new Orwellian media definition of success is now "it's a success because we didn't lose as many jobs as we did last month".

Constant,
The thing that started this economic meltdown was deregulation of the mortgage industry under Bush and proposed by Phil Gramm, McCain's main economic advisor in his presidential run. In 2000/2001 they deregulated the credit default swaps market, which is basically insurance for risky loans. Used to be that for every swap offered you had to have the capital on hand to back it up. This made swaps rare and expensive insurance. However, starting in 2001 they were deregulated so that they no longer were restricted like this, or even regulated in any way. Thus more people started offering swaps at cheaper and cheaper prices. This encouraged more risky loans by banks as there was cheap insurance. Then some place, probably AIG, figured out that swaps were unregulated and started buying swaps on loans they didnt even own. They were basically betting that other people's loans were gonna fail, casino style. So one bad mortgage could cause a cascade of default swaps being called up. Combine that with adjustable rates increasing and a wave of foreclosures that calls many swaps in and boom...all that capital banks thoughty they had is not really there because no one has enough money to cover those swaps they offered. Regulations are needed for a reason.

The American People are sick and tired of every one of these 19 bailed-out financial institutions. The people I know are bailing out of these banks and putting their money someplace else.

george you are a joke

Yeah, the big banks either need to "get right financially on their own or need to fail" Like the Federal Reserve staff here in KC,MO say. NO MORE BAILOUTS, they need to quit having so much power over the govt and the people. They're legally robbing us anyway with outrageous interest rates....

brenda - I am with you and your friends. There is absolutely no way our family will ever do business with any of these government sponsored, irresponsible, cozy with Washington, fat cat, bailed-out banks. Spread the word.

The banks are just hiding the money from the tax-man pure and simple. This is why they can claim huge profits and still claim they need more captial. Meanwhile as Obama makes these miniscule cuts to appear popular and doing the right thing. He is dumping billions into Pakistan and the Afghan war. Not only that but GM is shutting down for 9 weeks and employees are 'suspended with pay' so they dont collect unemployment so he can claim 'the number of people filing new unemployment claims is down slightly' - what deception! If Obama he hadnt done this soon to be former GM employees would be flooding unemployment with new claims right now! What happens after 9 weeks is up?

Even this will not satisfy the republicans. I am so tired of their criticizing Obama that it makes me sick. They have a lot of explaining to do themselves with the expense of the war, the fact that they did not address the banking situation, the loss of jobs and the housing problems which were happening during their administration. How about the surplus they were handed when they took over....where did this go? The war? What did they do for education, for global energy, for women so that they would be paid equally, the health reform for children. If they can answer one of these questions, maybe I will listen to them. They lost because they did not listen to the people and now they are trying to blame everything else. Wake up...your party is failing...too much negativity and judgemental opinions on religion. If you do not do think their way, you will get nothing from them. When will they see this?

Ordermonger,
The "deregulation" you cite took place under Clinton and more Democrats voted for it than Republicans.
Plus, the derivatives were never regulated to begin with(so it was not an act of "deregulation"---taking something away that was there) nor it is clear if they had be that this would have made a difference(because most of the derivatives were rated AAA and this is what enticed many to buy them).
Further, what is clear is that if there were not so many underlying bad loans to begin with upon which these derivatives were based(bad loans pushed by Barack Obama and ACORN and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd), the derivatives wouldn't have been as much of a problem.
And the Democratic Congress and Obama resisted reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac consistently despite McCain's and Bush's calls for reforms to those institutions.

No Bank Bailout II, just a takeover of the banks through conversion of preferred to common stock.

The people of America have just been "served". I was interviewing for a financial planner position with Morgan Stanley nearly two months ago. It was shortly after the President famously answered a question and "signaled" a buy order to the big banks on Wall Street. The interviewer told me to watch what happens and to look for the S&P 500 to soar in the next two months as they 'create a market'. We are being gamed by the big boys like Morgan Stanley...again.

ConstantXI

....and signed by Bill Clinton.........both major Parties were complicit.......

The unemployment under Bush was a scam, we know that now. Along with not having the War Debt included in the budget, who knows when we will really know how many jobs would have been lost earlier if we would have had an adminstration that had a clue what was going on in the car industry and the bank/loan companies.
So yes, what Barack has done so far with the mess left by Bush and his incompetent croonies is a miracle.The Banks already are looking better,the car companies realize they have to change their over paying. And hopefully loan companies will think twice before giving a loan for a 200,000 home to someone that should only get a 100,000. Anyway , is that enough evidence for you Bush lovers,Grand old party is the gone old party.

Stress Tests, Swine Flu, Healthcare crisis, Economy crisis = Manufactured excuses for Gov't. Takeover. Wake up, America! Do your homework.
Fear makes you want to depend on Big Government to solve your problems. That's their tactic. History from the early 1900's is repeating itself. Don't get sucked in!

Find a full service local credit union to join. You'll get a much better deal. And they are SAFE.

Constant,
The thing that started this economic meltdown was deregulation of the mortgage industry under Bush and proposed by Phil Gramm, McCain's main economic advisor in his presidential run.
-------------------------------------
Ordermonger,

Go back and look at who was the Sec of Treasury when Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was signed into law by Bill Clinton!

Larry Summers - Who was a big supporter of that bill !

It was indeed a Republican Bill, but signed into law by a Democratic President. The same President that Obama and all you liberals claim created this incredible economy of the 90's!

Once again, liberals lying about the fact this problem was created by mistakes on BOTH sides of the political aisle.

I always find it interesting when liberals scream for all these invesitgations into the previous administration, yet the past history of their own seems to be irrelevant to things today. Things like tax problems or previous history in things like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

As far as the encouragement of those risky loans, you need to look no further than the offices of Barney Frank & his buddies.

BAILOUT PEOPLE...

The banks are using the bailout as profits, just accounting tricks. We are in deep DOO-DOO

I'm a liberal. This should be investigated; especially in light of CBS' story questioning whether the stress test was little more than a con.