Wall Street Collapse: I Told You So

Nope.  I am not a big enough person to avoid saying "I told you so."  So I am saying it.

The Dow was down 678 today (with Fox lying again taht this is biggest loss in history, which is false).  "I told you so" on at least the following:

1.  The SEC lifted the ban on short selling at midnight last night.  Both Jim Cramer and I (see blog entries this morning) told you that was insane, in this atmosphere.  We were right.  The SEC chairman needs to go.

2.  After the mainstream media, leftist Deocrats, and establishment Republicans (Bush, etc.) unleashed fear as a means of selling that Wall Street bailout, they are wondering today why there is so much fear out there.  Hint:  You people created it.  Yes, on Fox that same info babe (who lied about today being worst loss in history) quoted FDR:  "All we have to fear is fear itself".  Well, in entries over the past few weeks, I have told you that people quote FDR, but don't mean it, or understand what the words actually mean.  Leftist Democrats, and the mainstream media, have been trying spread economic fear for years.  They were finally joined by Bernanke, Paulson, and establishment Republicans in connectiion with that Wall Street bailout bill.  There were no voices of reason (beyond mine and other conservatives).  There was oonly fear and panic.  That fear and panic has led directly to what happened in the past two weeks on Wall Street.  Don't get me wrong.  Much of it might have happened anwyway, but the only chance to stop it from happening was not to spread fear.  Yes, I am saying that if you want to blame someone for this, blame the fear mongers.  That starts with the mainstream media, who have been a destructive, far mongering force in Ameircan for at least the last 5 years--without warning about anything constructive, like the housing "bubble" (while house prices were going up) and the actions of Democrats, and organizations like ACORN, in promoting outrageous loans--not to mentioin protecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Second, after the mainstream media, you can blame leftist Democrats for that central planning idea that every American should be able to afford a house.  It is only in third place that you can blame establishment Repuboicans, who jumped late on the "fear" bandwagon.  Finally, and theycome last, you can blame the greedy bastards on Wall Street.  You can't expect Wall Street not to try to overdue the seemingly easy money there in mortgages, and they did.  But Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not creatures of Wall Street.  They were turned into cratures of the Clinton Administratioin, Democrats like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and radicals like those in ACORN, who used Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to push an agenda of mortgages for people who could not afford them.  It was predictable that this easy money woould attact the greed of Wall Street, and it did.  It also lined the pockets of Democrats placed in cahrge of Fannie Mae (some now connected with Obama), and gave Democrats a lot of caompaign contributions.  I put Wall Street last in the line of greed, because the gree their was predictable.  But these are supposed to be "smart guys" on Wall Street, and they aren't (housing "bubble" was obvious before it burst), and so I put those people first in stupidity. But once the "bubble" burst, the fear mongering that was already being used politically by the mainstream media and leftist Demcrats, went hyperbolic and spread to establishment Republicans and Wall Street itself.  I told you, correctly, that we needed leadership and reassurance instead of fear.  I was right.  These fear monters who used fear to sell that Wall Street bailout bill were wrong.

3.  Yes, I was right long ago about there being a housing "bble".  I said so before the bubble burst.  The bubble actually bean to burst as long as 2 years ago, at about the time Bernanke and Paulson came into there oiffces (Fed Chairman and Treasury Secretary respectively).

4.  I am right that Bernanke (where I agree with Cramer again) and Paulson should be fired, along with Cox at SEC.  What would happen if a baseball manager or football coach had as bad a record as these people?  Not only did they fail to recognize the danger of teh housing "bubble" soon enough, but they failed to take effective action once that danger became pretty clear.  Then they compounded the problem by panic when AIG got in trouble, along with Lehman Brothers, and credit seemed to be drying up.  That is exactly the time to "spread" calm and perspective.  These people spread fear, and we are seeeing the results of that.  These people should go.  Joe Torre would have to go if his team did this badly. So should these peple.  There is all of this talk about holding people on Wall Street accountable, but no talk about holding peple like Bernanke and Paulson accountable.

5.  Yes, the final "I told you so" is that basically every politician in Congress should be "fired" (not elected again).  How else do you hold those people accountable.  As I have said, Democrats protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, incuding Obama (who as also involved with ACRON, which had a real role in creating the subprime mess).  While McCain warned aobut Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he joined in the fear mongering over this Wall Street bailout. The only way to hold thees people accountable is not to elect them to anything ever again, including the local school board.  Unfortunaely, that will not happen.  It should, and you (the voters) deserve what happens when it does not happen (voting them all out)  But how can you vote againt both McCain and Obama?  Well, you can do what I am going to do (vote for Bob Barr).  Or you can choose the lesser evil (McCain, although not much of a lesser evil, on the grounds that a vote for Barr is a vote for Obama).  It is still an "I told you so" that these fear monger politicians should be voted out of office--especially since they are more than complicit in creating the eoncomic mess in the first place, which they then made so much worse with fear mongering.