Weaver95: banks: we don't need regulations - regulation is BAD! it's socialist.

tea party: 'YEAH! gotdamn commies!

banks [f*ck up and lose a few billion]. 'oops.'

OWS protesters: 'see, we told you that you were gonna f*ck up.'

tea party: 'shut up you gotdamn hippies! regulation is socialism! USA! USA! USA!'

banks: 'i'm going to quietly loot the remaining funds and retire somewhere tropical.'

congress: 'I like balsa wood. why don't the green jellybeans taste green?'

OWS protesters: 'you people are nuts. all of you.'

tea party: 'STFU hippy.'

Hah. I just watched Inside Job last night. Now that is an angry-making movie. It's amazing how the same bastards just spend their careers circulating from board to board to consulting group to lobbying group to regulatory agency and back to the board again, like one big rotten game of pass the shiat parcel.

Weaver95: banks: we don't need regulations - regulation is BAD! it's socialist.

tea party: 'YEAH! gotdamn commies!

banks [f*ck up and lose a few billion]. 'oops.'

OWS protesters: 'see, we told you that you were gonna f*ck up.'

tea party: 'shut up you gotdamn hippies! regulation is socialism! USA! USA! USA!'

banks: 'i'm going to quietly loot the remaining funds and retire somewhere tropical.'

congress: 'I like balsa wood. why don't the green jellybeans taste green?'

OWS protesters: 'you people are nuts. all of you.'

tea party: 'STFU hippy.'

You have summed up the policy discourse on the financial sector in this country perfectly.

Weaver95: Jacobin: You have summed up the policy discourse on the financial sector in this country perfectly.

there are times when I read the financial papers and reports and feel like i've accidentally stumbled into a lewis carol 'alice in wonderland' book.

*snort* - the part where the Oysters all get eaten alive, or the Lake of Tears?

Apparently the people who are actually hurting the "job creators"(R) the most are actually the other "job creators"(R).

God Is My Co-Pirate: Weaver95: banks: we don't need regulations - regulation is BAD! it's socialist.

tea party: 'YEAH! gotdamn commies!

banks [f*ck up and lose a few billion]. 'oops.'

OWS protesters: 'see, we told you that you were gonna f*ck up.'

tea party: 'shut up you gotdamn hippies! regulation is socialism! USA! USA! USA!'

banks: 'i'm going to quietly loot the remaining funds and retire somewhere tropical.'

congress: 'I like balsa wood. why don't the green jellybeans taste green?'

OWS protesters: 'you people are nuts. all of you.'

tea party: 'STFU hippy.'

Hah. I just watched Inside Job last night. Now that is an angry-making movie. It's amazing how the same bastards just spend their careers circulating from board to board to consulting group to lobbying group to regulatory agency and back to the board again, like one big rotten game of pass the shiat parcel.

Yeah I get angry at Mr. Potter in "it's a wonderful life", too.

That f'er stole Uncle Billy's deposit money and he was going to let George go to jail over it!

Want to hear something scary? These guys were primary dealers.



If a company as incompetent as this can become a primary dealer, what other terrible decisions are we just waiting on to blow up?

namatad: so you got screwed because MF wasnt regulated?
GOOD

either regulate this shiat or continue to get screwed.

AIG? madoff? enron? worldcon?

I am SO glad that the GOP will fix everything by reducing regulation and oversight.

The sad part is that we really have 3 options available to us here in the US.

1: Deregulate. In this case we get farked over by the companies

2: Pass regulations written by people who have no knowledge of how things works. These end up being ineffective, and we still get farked over.

3: Pass regulations written by people who have knowledge of how things work. Unfortunately, in this country, this means letting the companies write their own rules. This also does not solve anything, as they leave themselves huge holes so that they don't really need to change their behavior. We still get farked over.

The more/fewer regulations debate is irrelevant unless we can either change human nature or fundamentally change the way laws and regulations in this country are created.

So basically, we are pretty much farked no matter what.

caveat emptor

Frustrated by a lack of legal options to reclaim frozen funds and dead-end inquiries to call centers and hotlines since MF Global's Oct. 31 bankruptcy, many are not able to trade and say they've lost faith in retail brokerages and the regulatory system.

"Small Government! Lower Taxes! Protect us from criminals like us!"

Privatize the reward, socialize the loss.

Sounds like it's more of a problem with the bankruptcy courts/system in winding down insolvent operations. In Canada (new window) they've already transferred the accounts.

I don't see the problem. It looks like Job Creators doing what Job Creators do.... Creating jobs for forensic accountants.

dj_bigbird: SIPC is a private, government-sponsored company

This is a fundamental contradiction in terms.

It's like the FDIC, or the NCUA (for credit unions), or a state insurance guaranty association. Basically, the government makes the companies each pay a little bit for every account into a third party entity who provides insurance for those accounts if the company implodes. You only really hear of most of the entities if you happen to need their services.

There's another type of government-sponsored companies as well. When you hear "privatization" being spoken about, generally it involves setting up some public-private entity to oversee or manage the services being outsourced. Here in Indiana, government-sponsored companies are used to assume debt that the state can't because of the balanced budget part of the state constitution. Instead, we have hundreds of these entities that lease infrastructure back to the government to pay off the debt associated with the infrastructure. For example, I knew a guy who did the books for White River State Park in Indianapolis, which is one of those public-private enterprises. The entity that owns and manages the state park at the time handled the bookkeeping for a lot of others around the state-- including those that "owned" interstate exits.

Money goes in and it never comes out again. One=>>way wealth transfer.

/It's all in the game, yo.

Weaver95: GaryPDX: Are you really saying it's all the Republicans fault those Democrats stole a shiat ton of money? Really? If people have some farking ethics, there wouldn't be a need for strangling regulations.

no, I'm saying that the Democrats and Republicans alike were paid to look the other way. its just that the GOP is really going out of their way to earn that bribe money.

we're in a completely f*cked up situation - banks and companies are looting shareholder value and working capital while the tea baggers and GOP politicians refuse to listen to reason. the OWS folks show up and start asking quesitons and they get yelled at, tear gassed and arrested. Meanwhile bankers, CEOs and lawyers quietly move their stolen money around between various accounts and (ab)use their government contacts to avoid prosecution.

we shouldn't be yelling about OWS or letting people distract us from ideology. this isn't a 'left wing' or 'right wing' issue. this is very very simple - a bunch of clever con men stole a lot of money from people who should have know better. it's theft. Every time someone yells 'socialism' at you, stop and remind yourself that this is a fraud case, not an election year issue. And what do we do when we catch thieves?

It isn't stealing if you get your man in congress to push through a law that makes it legal. Sure, certainly morally corrupt, but not necessarily illegal. The loopholes plugged in specifically to keep this group out of jail.

The constant push to deregulate after deregulation has already destroyed whole chunks of any accountability is exactly the problem. Any expectation that the actors would use ethics when making decisions is incredibly naive, especially that we have our entire history to prove that in almost every instance and whenever possible, ethics are tossed and these people will wipe out our entire economic system if it will make them a ten cent profit.

Cubansaltyballs: I don't see the problem. It looks like Job Creators doing what Job Creators do.... Creating jobs for forensic accountants.

GaryPDX: namatad: so you got screwed because MF wasnt regulated?
GOOD

either regulate this shiat or continue to get screwed.

AIG? madoff? enron? worldcon?

I am SO glad that the GOP will fix everything by reducing regulation and oversight.

You know what's kinda funny about your comment? Madoff, Corzine, Ken Lay and Ebbers are all democrats.

So Republicans fighting regulation is bi-partisanship?

Arkanaut: GaryPDX: namatad: so you got screwed because MF wasnt regulated?
GOOD

either regulate this shiat or continue to get screwed.

AIG? madoff? enron? worldcon?

I am SO glad that the GOP will fix everything by reducing regulation and oversight.

You know what's kinda funny about your comment? Madoff, Corzine, Ken Lay and Ebbers are all democrats.

So Republicans fighting regulation is bi-partisanship?

Yes. If you were willing to compromise at all and not just ram down 85% of what they want down their throats, you would finally understand the meaning of real compromise. Why don't the Democrats understand that 100% of what the Republicans want is compromise?

Weaver95: GaryPDX: You know what's kinda funny about your comment? Madoff, Corzine, Ken Lay and Ebbers are all democrats.

I don't think so. Party affilation to these folks is not much different than deciding what color shirt to wear that day. Republican, Democrat, left wing, right wing...they're whatever they need to be in order to achieve their goals. If they have to donate to the Republicans in order to achieve a legislative goal, then write the check and don't look back. Democrats need you to wave a gay rights flag for a couple/few weeks? meh. they'll have someone from HR dig through the company records and find some dumb sonofabiatch who won't mind being their token gay guy for the company pride parade.

wall street head honchos want to make money. they don't care HOW they make their money...but at the end of the day, they want to go home richer than when they walked in the door that morning.

People need to realize that America is not divided into "Republicans" and "Democrats" but into Rich People and Poor People. The Rich People, who realize that a lot of American's aren't that bright, work very hard to play the poor folk against each other so they can continue business as normal regardless of who wins an election.

What do Gun Rights, Gay Marriage, Abortion, DADT, Creationism, "Immigration" and Abstinence Only all have in common? They are all wedge social issues that the lower 99% can bicker over that have NOTHING to do with economics.

Isn't this article about rich people swindled by even richer people?

Those MFers F'd you in the A



Everybody sing!

Not obscure.

HotIgneous Intruder: Money goes in and it never comes out again. One=>>way wealth transfer.

/It's all in the game, yo.

Many must die in order for few to be immortal.

david1963: Isn't this article about rich people swindled by even richer people?

No honor among thieves.

HotIgneous Intruder: Money goes in and it never comes out again.

YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN THAT!

JasonOfOrillia: Sounds like it's more of a problem with the bankruptcy courts/system in winding down insolvent operations. In Canada (new window) they've already transferred the accounts.

The problem here is that MF dipped into customers accounts, which were supposed to be segregated. Like renting a physical safety deposit box at a bank. It would be great if they could just withdraw their money, but unlike physical boxes that are opened up and raided, it's not clear which accounts MF dipped into. So they're now being treated as any other creditor, which is the part that could probably be handled better. But the underlying problem is that MF was even capable of using client money as if it was their own. This is the kind of thing you'd expect to be caught in 5 seconds straight by stringent accounting controls.