Last night on the table the response on the above ‘regrettable system’ was made adequately by an investment banker as sour grapes ‘this crisis has been a god send to the underprivileged they don’t want things to get better, all they want is things to be miserable for everyone… ask them negative GDP next year and no bonus for the bankers, or everything back to normal… they will vote the former all day… what do they know about the joys of fusion cuisine, star bucks, foreign cars, working in a hedge fund overlooking Hyde park and ostrich skin wallets…

Everyone sympathises with the poor of the world, I think it is the war between ‘Monday morning quarter backers’ and those who are in the front line. Mike Milken Junk bonds kind of investment banks securitisation that is behind this meltdown help create market capitalisation all over the world that has led to a new structures for professionals all around, the benefits of what these bankers do and the kind of work they do to create capital help build HIV drug plants in Uganda, cancer hospitals all over, take these securitisations out and you would have had a lower consumer base where have and have not’s would be disproportionate. In last 20 years 1.5 billion people have moved on from lowest wrung of poverty to middle classes all over that is what this last Bull Run in banking had achieved. Capital formation help build houses and help build lives, sometime in course of human history great delusions help form a bubble but you cannot take the beneficial and valuable aspects of what Adam Smith called the invisible hand of greed from the equation.

There is definitely a perverse pleasure as investment business the way the world knew it has dismantled, this tug of war is going on at different echelon, this is a war between those who could not make it within investment banking and those who still are clinging on, the sort of viciousness being displayed is incredible, the one who had sent the email to which the response was written was also an ex investment banker now finding all faults in the system.

People take great pride in where they work and one should definitely do that, in education they receive and the quality of life they yearn to live, in my opinion it is within those circles where a super class and yet to be or ‘wannabees’ super class exist that these kind of debates go on.

Carter’s focus on sweaters, thermostats, and our malise, while the economy tanked, sounds way too much like tire pressures, bathroom remodels and CEO’s transportation.

Obama’s judgement has always been questionable. From his days as a “community organizer”, his friendships and personal associations, his choice of a church and pastor (whom Obama allowed to baptize his children), …. The list is endless; his entire life has been characterized by questionable judgement.

Something has gone seriously askew with the US financial system. Major remedies are needed. The remedies are and will be disruptive to business as usual. The point is not to devise remedies, e.g. a resurrection of Smoot-Hawley, that do more harm than good. Unfortunately, harmful remedies are likely to appeal to Congress.

For example:

29 January – The US House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture has published a draft bill seeking to limit the holding of credit default swap (CDS) contracts to market participants owning the bonds of the reference entity in question.

So the corrupt, meddling, grandstanding buffoons who brought us ethanol subsidies are now trying to dictate to the entire financial system. (I haven’t thought through whether there are merits to the proposal. Even a stopped clock…)

A sense that adults are in charge is indispensable to restoration of confidence. Restoring confidence is not sufficient to fix the economy, but it is necessary.

Hopefully Obama will quickly veto some pet Congressional projects while Rahm Emanuel knocks heads together. Enabling the Republican Congress to run amok was one of Bush’s very biggest blunders.

The stakes are rising for February’s “State of the Union” speech.

Funny you should mention that, on the heels of a report from NT state estimating a tax revenue loss of $1B due to smaller Wall Street bonuses.