Ray,
Its been eighty years since the last great depression, initiated by rigged markets and derivatives gambling on Wall Street. It was the final chapter in "The Great Gatsby".
The problems were studied publically and rules and regulations were imposed on otherwise unpunished fraudsters.
Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner led another attack on regulations by fraudsters, shutting down Brookley Born's move to regulate derivatives trading, and leading to the Securities Modernization Act (Gramm-Leach) which rescinded Glass-Steagal at the end of Clinton's term.
Glass-Steagal separated hi-risk Investment Banks (full of private money), from FDIC insured Commercial Banks, (full of small depositor money). Strict rules were imposed on commercial lending in return for taxpayer backing. G-Sax & Morgan-Chase were flipped into FDIC insured commercial bank holding companies, given free taxpayer money by Bernanke & Paulson, after making bad bets.
So now you conclude 100 years of Government interference has brought us to this calamity?????
NO, Government malfeasance with lobbyists rewriting our laws for personal profit has fucked up everything. To which I would add an all out attack on labor, since WWII. The politicians are stooges for fraudsters that are determined to steal everyone's money and having great success.
Worst of all the same people who created this mess and are stuck on conservative free market bullshit are still in charge. They all report back to their bosses in the private sector. We know that Geithner talks to his Wall Street buddies every day and does their bidding, while Congress has to leave messages on his answering machine which he may or may not answer.
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate (FIRE) is running this country and ruining it. 2% of US Corporate profits in the fifties, 40% today. They have hi-jacked all profits from a once healthy economy.
