60 Minutes Story On Credit Default Swaps

[FCP Bob 1,312]

Last night 60 Minutes showed what I think is a very good story on Credit Default Swaps and explained the massive part that they have played in the financial crisis.The interesting part to me is the fact that nobody can really say how many of these are out there.Greenspan sure comes out looking like a large villian in all of this and I hope nobody does the big partisan act on this as everybody from Clinton to the entire US Senate was involved in the legislation that allowed them to be unregulated.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I started a thread about these things earlier, Bob, you may have missed it.. check out this link, it's the This American Life podcast, which was very informative, and a little meatier than the 60 minutes piece...http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Epis...aspx?sched=1263

[HollywoodAFD 0]

Last night 60 Minutes showed what I think is a very good story on Credit Default Swaps and explained the massive part that they have played in the financial crisis.The interesting part to me is the fact that nobody can really say how many of these are out there.Greenspan sure comes out looking like a large villian in all of this and I hope nobody does the big partisan act on this as everybody from Clinton to the entire US Senate was involved in the legislation that allowed them to be unregulated.

Thanks for the link.... who knows how many there are.

[AmScray 355]

Remember when Greenspan was the lionized hero? The grand genius who presided over "better times" of the Clinton era? The public is fucking stupid. They're too goddamned dumb to realize that economic cycles don't correlate precisely to sitting presidents, Fed chairmen, etc. It's simple and easy for their weak little 'god complex' prone minds to believe that one man sits atop an ivory tower, pulling the economic levers and flipping the fiscal switches in real time, and everything that happens- pro or con- is of his doing in that immediate moment. For a long, long time now, certain people have been SCREAMING that his (Greenspans) economic policies would have a drastic consequence, but since the stock market was "going up" and people generally have absolutely no foresight whatsoever, those wise folks were howled down by the purely quantitative minds that are unable to see two inches in front of their own damn noses. They're having the last laugh now, but it's an awfully expensive and painful laugh to be having... and here's another hint. The exorbitant amounts of paper that good old 'Helicopter Ben' is presently foisting into the economy will have an equally grave consequence, but it won't happen 'right away' either.

[FCP Bob 1,312]

I started a thread about these things earlier, Bob, you may have missed it.. check out this link, it's the This American Life podcast, which was very informative, and a little meatier than the 60 minutes piece...http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Epis...aspx?sched=1263

I just listened to that podcast and it's excellent.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I just listened to that podcast and it's excellent.

And infuriating.

[FCP Bob 1,312]

And infuriating.

And scary

[Balloon guy 158]

And scary

And silicous.