but that does not mitigate how close we were to disaster.

I mean, three cheers for stopping a dam break, but a patch doesn't fix the basic problem. It just sets up another failure later on unless it's shored up in more fundamental ways. Or, more to the point, restore the bracing that had been removed as a quaint, outdated overkill that was allegedly no longer needed.

but yes, he seems to take a wee bit of credit...altho I am not persuaded that he did anything that unusual...if that is what he is saying, he didn't convince me that he was any kind of hero...more that he was watching the bonfire of the vanities and had some suggestions...at that point, I don't think anybody had complete control at the switch...and that is pretty scary if you think about it...

If they were all going to collapse, and lose everything, the government should have simply bought them out at some incredibly deep discount that would at least have left shareholders with something, without simply propping them up for the benefit of the already-wealthy. Keep running the banks, but with the American public as the shareholders, not just the people who get to prop them up anytime they suck at capitalism.

These huge "crises" appear out of the blue, that took years to build up, which no one seemed to notice.

For the debate value anyway. He might even be a good VP.

brought about by people who wanted to fix the system for themselves and f*ck everybody else. But the American people weren't paying attention (some were) when Paul Krugman warned us this was coming...de-regulation to prop up rich people...and then walk away with lives, jobs, security lost by so many...this is ruthless, barbaric capitalism at its rawest...anybody living in the USA today should get used to this as our own version of a "market economy," never mind that many western european nations have market economies and do very well by their investors and their citizens...it's up to us in this country to change our brand of capitalism and get some decent regulation in this country...

hey, I'm just the messenger...

...these "Bankers" thought that by being the biggest assholes and dicks they could be and working against each other....in the end all would benefit. Typical monetarist view.....and what's scary.....you still have way too many people who think this still works.

Even before deregulation in 1999 you had the dot com bubble, S&L Crisis, etc. which would argue that you needed more regulation or enhanced and reformed regulation.

In a way, you almost needed financial Armageddon to get people to realize, deregulation is not a good thing. But, therein lies another problem...innocent bystanders.

That cretin knew exactly what the bankers were doing and was in on it from the first and no doubt getting rich off of it as well. The ONLY thing those shitstains were concerned about was losing their ill gotten gains and going to jail INCLUDING Geithner.

and until ordinary citizens insist upon it. We keep being told that capitalism is good for us, as if it were some kind of benign system that spreads the wealth around to include everyone. Why people in this country don't understand that this is bullshit, I do not know...and it's not enough to not be "in the market." We are all at risk by that "market." It affects all of us, whether we are investors in stocks or not...

at our architecture firm. We had a front row seat of this collapse. Not to mention how construction was one of the first industries to fold. To this day I don't know how I've managed to remain employed. I guess specializing in interiors helped. It also helps mentally not to be designing for "Satan" any longer.

he blames the bankers themselves but doesn't talk about his role as head of the NY Fed. He's kind of in a "reactor" mode...odd, isn't it?

That was before Disaster George and his plan to destroy the US in two terms.

I went to the Internet and looked him and Lehman up and saw him give testimony before Waxman's committee...Central Casting couldn't do better...Fuld is arrogant and super ugly, walks around with his nose in the air...I heartily enjoyed to news clips showing people following him out of the committee hearing room and down the street to his car, carrying signs and screaming at him "You're a criminal!" and "Why aren't you in jail?" You woldn't believe how evil this guy was/is...I wish he had been locked up and the key thrown away...

Gotta love ya some Henry Waxman! Can you imagine if HE ran for POTUS!? One of the few that I still have a tremendous amount of respect for!

If we cannot get justice, then we can at least mock and ridicule publicly these slime artists!

It is kinda funny, after Enron I naively thought we would see come kind of regulation of financial institutions...little did we know it kicked off the Wild West on Wall Street.

Did he write about banks playing fast and loose with limited regulatory oversight from a bath-tub sized government? Did he talk about how they didn't have to have documented proof of ownership of various "exotic financial instruments?"

The banks damned near took us all down with them after their little rigged, casino went belly-up.

When's the next crisis scheduled?

but he does admit this was the making of the bankers themselves...

I might have to check out the book. Based on your OP, I guess I'd better unpack my books about personal investing so I can remember the various definitions.

The full review is here. An excerpt: