As I understand what happened, and I don’t understand much really, the ‘risk’ on these Securities was assessed by the same guys that were making a profit on their sale.

Yep… the good o’le tried and true soak -em -’till-every-last-$$-is-gone Enron model.

“If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s
good enough for us.”

– Miriam Amanda “Ma” Ferguson (1875-1961),
Governor of Texas (1925-1927, 1933-1935)

From speech arguing against foreign language teaching

On the other hand, maybe all the Iraqi Insurgents will break out of Iraq and go over to Iran. Well, maybe.

If I were Europe, I would have considered the Sub-prime Securitization Fraud a real Trust breaker.

As I understand what happened, and I don’t understand much really, the ‘risk’ on these Securities was assessed by the same guys that were making a profit on their sale.

The ‘in house’ risk assessors seemingly had every incentive to assess the risk ‘lower’ than it was, because once the tranches went out, the unrecognized risk-liability was laundered out with them – everyone on the front end of the deal pocketed their profits and walked away, while the tranche-buyers (a lot of them in Europe) got left holding the bag.

The value of the dollar – under Bush – as the world standard reserve currency, in my humble opinion, has suffered as badly as our International Reputation as Peacebrokers.

We invaded Iraq on Lies. We sold dollar-backed securities with unacknowledged time-bomb liabilities.

Bush’s Character Failing is destroying everything about America that depends on Integrity for its Value.

Personally, I think the Europeans gave Bush, and the Israelis, too, some Pay-Back for the Sub-prime Securitization Fraud.

I don’t think w. European’s “pay back” for Bush in any way limited to “sub prime” mess. On thing about ‘em re: Palestine: they are much better informed than we (US) are, and not just Palestinian situation. Actually, I think they’re more concerned w/“rougue” (cough) SG trader’s $7b “oops” right now than sub-prime stuff.

I’ve been paying close attention to euro $$ journals for some time (I moved a lot of $$ >> Euros a few years ago), and most of it completely unreported here. But they’ve been bracing for this for some time now… and not just subprime bonds: any # of events, plausible but not inevitable, which could pull US economy into “D” territory. That’s been my view for a while…

Talking about sub-prime, I stumbled across this quote from Bernanke in a 10/05 WP article:

Ben S. Bernanke does not think the national housing boom is a bubble that is about to burst, he indicated to Congress last week, just a few days before President Bush nominated him to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.
(…)
“House prices are unlikely to continue rising at current rates,” said Bernanke, who served on the Fed board from 2002 until June. However, he added, “a moderate cooling in the housing market, should one occur, would not be inconsistent with the economy continuing to grow at or near its potential next year.”

Well, good to know he’s gotten right on top of things…

Personally, I think the Europeans gave Bush, and the Israelis, too, some Pay-Back for the Sub-prime Securitization Fraud.

Now, millions and millions of Muslims from around the world will conduct Pilgrimages every year from the Ports via The Gaza Road to the Holy City.

The Age Old advice to Kings who wish to Decrease Violence in their Kingdoms has always been: “Give the People Jobs and Opportunity.”