Comments on: Banks, crumbling ethics and a shrinking middle class

By: AlkalineState

AlkalineState — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:41:36 +0000

Make campaign donations akin to bribing a judge. Criminal offense. Oh yeah. The people who would have to pass these new laws…. are the ones receiving the money. Yep, broken system. Time for revolution. Roll the guns and the heads.

By: GMavros

GMavros — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:50:53 +0000

At least some of us can laugh at this, our present catastrophic predicament.

Democracy, Democratic Republic, Democratic Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, etc are meaningless.
Here is what’s at the bottom of it all.

The very first democratic president Pericles, in 500 BCE Athens, refused to run for a second term because too many of his friends & others were privately pressing him for favors that would profit their personal interests & business. (He eventually ran again because no one else would).

Also at this time the famous & very poor old man walking the streets of Athens in broad daylight holding a lit lamp “… looking to find one honest man.”

Nothing has changed & nothing will, unless…..

By: AlkalineState

AlkalineState — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:14:47 +0000

This reminds me of the old Steve Martin line:

“It’s not hard to get rich. For example, if you gave me a million dollars….. I’d be rich. We’re done.”

That’s about how much foresight banks are putting into their depositors’ money. Steal the money, hide it offshore, get bailed out…. by taxing those same depositors.

Once the line was allowed to be blurred again on investment banking, commercial banking, personal banking, insurance, hedge funds…… you’ve basically legalized fraud and theft. The crash was no coincidence. We literally have an arrangement now where banks and investment houses are in competition with their own depositors. They make more money shorting you than growing you. Anyone still investing into this racket gets what they deserve I suppose. Buy land. Or start a small business. Do anything. But control your own money. Tell JP Morgan and Charles Schwab to bite it. Wall Street is poison.

By: muse9657

muse9657 — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:49:27 +0000

Just from average citizen point view i don’t understand how what happens in London affects my rate of interest on my home or credit cards. I thought the federal reserve set that right? And right now rates are as low as they possibly could be. How is this an issue, i dont really get it.

By: Benny27

Benny27 — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 17:37:06 +0000

@ mulholland
Libraries, the news, and the internet (scoff) are certainly NOT equal to an education. Perhaps that is why you think the things you do. Without an experienced teacher/professor/mentor you won’t know the BS from the truth, and you will spend time on blogs posting nonsense like the above. Give me a break, how blind can you be to think that all our political system needs is “more personal responsibility?!” We have a political system to make up for the known fact that individuals cannot ever have enough personal responsibility to deal with all the myriad complex problems of a modern society. Unless you want to move back on to the farm… sheesh where do these people hide the rest of the time… yeah just vote Romney, I am sure he will solve your problems, because he is one of the guys… ffs

By: mulholland

mulholland — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:28:19 +0000

@allsolutions
Government is trying to substitute for individual responsibility. Government should not be expected to do so. We need less government, and more individual responsibility. Responsibility begins with respect for the law. Respect for the law begins with harsh penalties and a just legal system. Next responsibility comes with self education by taking advantage of educational opportunities such as libraries, news, and internet,

By: mulholland

mulholland — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:07:47 +0000

The word “Greed” is slung about as a substitute for ambition, endeavor, accomplishment, devotion to education and work ethic. Jealous have nots use the word “Greed” because they are too lazy to invest the effort to better themselves.

By: niblick3

niblick3 — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:38:07 +0000

Democracy in the article, democracy in the comments, Democracy, democracy, democracy didn’t everyone pass third grade social science.

We live in a republic.

By: urownexperience

urownexperience — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:36:24 +0000

Everyone is getting squeezed by de-leveraging. It will get worse. There will be violence once the middle class really gets pissed, hopefully in the form of legislative violence where the financiers get booted out. We don’t need them.

By: SDRBOB

SDRBOB — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 03:47:51 +0000

I have been an apartment owner for over 40 years. When LIBOR was first introduced, I refused to take a loan based on a ‘made up’ rate. I insisted on th 11th district treasury bond rate. Through the years I have always avoided LIBOR loans, but sometimes that was all that was offered. There are some of us out here who think for ourselves. We questioned why were our loans sold to other institutions, why were banks loaning with only 3-5% down. Have you noticed that apartment industry loans didn’t have any trouble in this recession. Is that because we have always had to put 50% down on a building? There are still some of us small business people out here who can think and analyze what has been happening. Please vote for Romney!