Comments on: Wall Street's Stranglehold on the Economy Is Choking Americans

By: Adebiyi Adedapo

Adebiyi Adedapo — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:17:37 +0000

Ooooh!! my God never belived our banks can get so corrupt. Big Banks as we all know are killing the society by bringing about ghostly figures whicw are not in existence.

* Finding a way to mop out truants who try finding shortcuts in the finacial service industries.
* Leaving on credit as plunged us into recession(Meltdown).

In Nigeria things we had experiece is not because it was meant to happen, but it was due to our overdependance on OIL SALES. Hence, i would say let us practice governance the way it should be and effective focus on diversification. LETS ALL GIVE A DAME ABOUT OUR COUNTRIES.

By: J.T.

J.T. — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:16:56 +0000

Looking in from the outside, it seems to me that USA is a country where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. It is a country that is dysfunctional at every level. A time bomb that if not dismantled will implode and explode to the detriment of many.

By: james

james — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:02:07 +0000

The debt;and nothing but the debt.You are not supposed to pay down ANY debt;you arec supposed to SERVICE the debt.The principal never really goes down much .Dump credit,quit shopping at the company store;or they will surely own your soul.Better to live in a trailer and be free than in a mansionwhere you are enslaved to a master who attaches the chains to you;while pulling them when it's time to kneel.WELCOME TO THE RETURN OF MONARCHY;MAN'S OLDEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

By: Loyst Streeter

Loyst Streeter — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:17:04 +0000

Only when all federal and state elections are paid for by a public election fund, will this Nation be able to have fair elections, and politicians who are not the shills of corporations.

Unfortunately, trying to get Congress to pass this type of legislation, is like finding a publisher who will publish an expose' on the publishing industry.

By: rman1900

rman1900 — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:08:55 +0000

It's too bad that the basic innate / intrinsic human characteristic is at play.
Some call it greed. But that has an almost premeditated or conspiratorial
connotation. I prefer to call it gluttony. It is it just simple human behaviour
that we will over indulge ourselves – it is a trait that almost all children has.
Give any child too much candy and they will stuff themselves until they vomit.
We are all like this – bankers being no different. However, over time as we
mature, we try to condition ourselves to control this behavior. Sadly,
bankers have not figured this one out yet.

By: Robert Gifford

Robert Gifford — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:08:22 +0000

Didn't Rosevelt tell the big bank's after the depression, that if they didn't start loaning
money out he would print new money and theirs would not be worth anything.
It's the same old story now, the Banks are sitting their waiting for some other bank
to go under so they can step in and pick it up for twenty cent's on the doller.
Not one of them give a damn about this country as long as they can make more money.

By: Hans svensson

Hans svensson — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:00:47 +0000

"Wall Street`s stranglehold…" .
This is the most interesting statement I have noticed from the US for decades.

But you have to dig much deeper into US Megalomania, US Arrogance, US incombrehensible GREED,US asocial behavior.
You have to dig into your blunted definitions of personal succes,which means the readyness of walking over all others dead bodies.

I am not a young left-teenager. I am a 65 year old lawyer who has changed from admiring USA into a feeling of disgust.

By: jimbo

jimbo — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:25:31 +0000

All of us that are aware should send out a concerted message as to what the heart of all this crap is, The Private Central Bank of the USA, the Federal Reserve. It is Federal in name only.? The US government borrows money from these thugs and pays interest on it. What a racket, sit back print money and collect interest. The government used to print its own money. The income tax for the most part was enacted to pay this interest. Perhaps the sheeple will understand this since it is so simple.

By: Ann "Rockerchic" Minch (The Debtors Revolt lady)

Ann "Rockerchic" Minch (The Debtors Revolt lady) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:03:57 +0000

This was an EXCELLENT essay! Well laid out, easy to understand and the truth – whole and unvarnished… Bravo!!!

By: CS

CS — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:44:19 +0000

At least one comment included overbuilding, thankfully. But the role of homebuilders in this crash is almost always neglected or understated, and I'd like to point out more about how they were involved. First, overbuilding as somneone said, was part of it. The demand was artificially created by the builders and others in the housing and finanance industries, and uninformed home buyers rushed like lemmings to shoddily built, overly price inflated houses in areas that were ridiculously far from centers of employment, shopping, etc. The houses were typically also oversized energy hogs with high property taxes. And, builders opened up their own mortgage co's, something even many educated buyers are still unaware of despite numerous cases of predatory and illegal lending that went along with the "convenience" of using the builder's lender. It is no surprise, then, that many of the new homes went into default rather quickly. When builders began to shut down for lack of lemmings to sell to anymore, some developments were not finished, with their amenities and even streets going unfinished, too. The value was never real, and prices quickly dropped, leaving many owners upside down in their already toxic loans. So whether voluntary or forced, many defaulted. Now many are voluntarily walking away simply because they see it as foolish to keep making big payments on a junky house that isn't worth what they owe on it. Builders are a big part of what happened and it's obscene that this industry paints itself as a victim. Some small potatoes players have been tried for mortgage fraud but the big ones just pay a fine and go on. Google builder mortgage fraud. Look at the latest FBI mortgage fraud reports. Builders figure heavily in this, and mainstream media has glossed over it or ignored it altogether. Washington is giving them corporate welfare. Many in this industry should be going to jail not getting rewarded.