Stein: Obama Is So Right on Bank Reform

(CBS)  CBS Sunday Morning Contributor Ben Stein on why the financial reform President Obama is pushing is the right course of action ...


For many years, the public image that Wall Street has tried to portray of itself is this: A group of careful, gray-haired, well-coiffed, experienced, thoughtful older men and women who care for your money and help you get that yacht you deserve when you retire.

That's a pretty image, but it has not been entirely true for a long time now, if ever. There are still plenty of thoughtful, conscientious people in finance, and I know many of them and I like them.

But in recent decades, you might do better to think of the people of Wall Street as a bunch of wild, out of control fraternity boys, drunk on money and power, making stupendous, unimaginably big bets with your money on events you have only a dim idea about.

When these bets pay off for the frat boys they have staggering paychecks. If things go bad, you - Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer - might wind up picking up the tab.

Sometimes, the frat boys try to fraudulently rig the game, too, apparently, as the SEC recently alleged against Goldman Sachs, the huge financial house.

Sometimes the bets and the alleged rigging go so wrong that they bring the whole financial system to its knees.

Imagine a group of drunken frat boys playing with nuclear missiles, as Warren Buffett suggested in an analogy, and you have the general idea. You don't even have to imagine it! This is what led to the current recession.

It wasn't overly ambitious homeowners in Modesto or Miami; it was wild men on Wall Street.

Now, President Obama is trying to get Congress to do some modest reforms that will rein in the frat boys and keep us from coming as close to financial Armageddon as we did in 2007 and 2008. The legislation is not perfect, but it is a big step in the right direction.

The Wild West, "anything goes," casino mentality of modern Wall Street is an insult to the decency of the ordinary American taxpayer.

I rarely carry water for President Obama. But he is so right on this one it's not even close.

Time for the grown-ups to step in and take the weapons of financial mass destruction away from the party-hearty crowd. Time to keep the specter of another Great Depression far from our American door.

Good night, boys! Take your Ferraris and go home! Vroom Vroom!

[tsigili]

Yeah, well......he won't get it right, anyway.

The reform we really need, is political reform, to prevent the corruption of the 2 political machines. Add judicial reform to that, to get rid of corruption of the judicial system.

Then we can talk.

[steeepe]

Where's the Tea Party ranting against the GOP trying to dilute consumer protection and bank reform? Why are they silent? Easy -- they are a bunch of PHONIES!!!!!

[soundloud]

Ben is absolutely right. I was digusted when I was watching those young executives from Goldman sacs, during the senate hearings. They were young and they only had one aim in life, screw the system, and make best of the bad bargain. You can see the arrogance in those young executives, and they were like "Screw them all, and come back alone with lots of money".
They used financial market as their playground, violated all rules, and played all kinds of exotic games that destroyed our economy under the watchful eyes of the big boys. If you look at wall street, most of them youngsters with greedy eyes, and holding top responsible position who talks faster than your your brain can comprehend, and no rules are obeyed.
When I design products, I always think of safety, and try to see and anticipate the bad side of it, while satisfying the codes. But I wonder, what kind of standards or codes are followed, when they design or innovate the financial derivative products like CDO and CDS. If a product, I designed hurt somebody, me and my company will be held liable, but when this financial products hurt or damaged the economy, the same companies that screwed us were saved and with bonuses.....with our tax dollars. What is the difference here, I will get fired as a designer, but in wall street, they will be given bonus for failure, and the company will be bailed out for screwing the economy....DOUBLE STANDARDS....
Now wall street is fighting to block the reforms or the introduction of codes by which you need to design your financial products. Funny

[ToolMangler1]

Got a question for you, Since GM has fudged the books again, shall we kick them over the cliffs edge? Also while we are at it, do the same to Chrysler and Ford. Lets add Freddy Mac and Fanny to the list.

The only ones making money are Microsoft and Apple.
Goldman & Sachs, and other wallstreet types are doing fine, not to mention all the Insurance Companys. It seems that we should just close down America (most of it is in China, anyway.) that way we can stop Obama from ever making good on his promises. (That 'is' what all of the hoorah is about, isn't it? Destroy Obama and the Dems at all cost.
There is no other reason for normally sane republicans to be acting the way they are these days.


"Let it be not forgot, that once there was a spot, that was known as Camelot (America)"

[stychokiller]

[quote]But in recent decades, you might do better to think of the people of Wall Street as a bunch of wild, out of control fraternity boys, drunk on money and power, making stupendous, unimaginably big bets with your money on events you have only a dim idea about.

When these bets pay off for the frat boys they have staggering paychecks. If things go bad, you - Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer - might wind up picking up the tab.[/quote]

Sorry Ben, but when the US Govt. is the Liquor store supplying the booze to these "Frat Boys",
having the Govt. writing the Reform is ignoring Govt. complicity in the debacle!

Also, if we're picking up the tab, who's brilliant idea was it? The Federal Govt. again meddles in the market and escapes with no approbation.

Excerpted from:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/2008/09/29/psst-that-700-billion-is-a-contrived-wild-guess-media-mostly-ignores/

[quote]
Sep 29, 2008:
As I write this on Monday afternoon, the People's House has rejected "the
$700 billion bailout."

You won?t believe, unless you're a very experienced cynic, where that
$700 billion figure came from.

The answer appears to be "out of nowhere."

With no basis.

I?m not kidding.

Here's the evidence, carried six whole days ago at Forbes (HT LAT?s Top
of the Ticket Blog via BizzyBlog commenter Dan Scott):

...The committee's top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says
he's concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion
figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman
told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

My guess is that the person just quoted, if discovered, might be better
known today as a "former Treasury spokesman."

It doesn't seem like a wild stretch to suggest that there is a whiff of
blackmail in the figure Treasury decided to use (i.e. "How big does it
have to be to get them to do what we want?").[/quote]

Ben, you need to quit drinking the Koolaid from BOTH the Decepticrats AND Republicons!

[cleantheDCcesspool]

Why are the MSM not following the story that GM repaid the TARP loans, which story Obamao and Biden trotted out to prove how wonderful they were, with OTHER LOANS FROM TARP?

[stychokiller]

Perhaps because GM only paid around 7Billion back and the Govt. still is looking for the other 43Billion or so.

[010sonny]

Mr Buffet and MR. Stein ...Heroses of the day....

[renonv5]

tmittelstaed

They have you believing exactly what they want you to believe, don't you get it? This financial meltdown had NOTHING to do with Ma & Pa Kettle.

[010sonny]

Sure it did.Wall street wanted their monies..They took all of that and their home,dog,health..and gave them Iraq...

[noloyalisti]

In a twisted sort of way I am glad this financial meltdown occurred. Unfortunately it is the only thing people seem to understand is money. It might actually take another one, even worse, before many, many people unite against the real enemy, the big moneyed corporations.

[stychokiller]

@noloyalisti:
I submit to you that the Federal Govt. is more to blame in this instance:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123414310280561945.html

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=726

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0

Sorry to disillusion ya, but it looks like your "Big Brother" started the ball rolling over the cliff (AGAIN!)

[noloyalisti]

Obama knows that this meltdown is just going to happen again (and soon) unless we do something to take down the fascist big bankster corporations.