On Oct 19, 11:23*pm, BobR wrote:
On Oct 18, 10:01*pm, wrote:





On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:23:21 -0400, "Robert Green"

wrote:
wrote in message
.. .
stuff snipped

The economy was not as much "looted" as it was artificially inflated
with easy money and subsequently that bubble popped.
The "trillions" that disappeared from the economy never really existed
in the first place. There were 20 years of bad political decisions
that led up to that. There is plenty of blame to spread around. Wall
Street was just doing what the government told them to do.

I respectfully submit that may be backwards. *I think it was the government
that was doing what Wall St. told it to do. *The system was set up so that
Wall St. made money even when a house was sold to someone who probably
couldn't make the payments. *They got fees, commissions and more fees.
Sadly, the states made loads of money in real estate transfer fees, real
estate taxes, etc.

They were trying to stimulate the economy and what is forgotten here
is the guy who sold the land made money, the builder made money, all
of the contractors made money, everyone in the building supply chain
made money, the real estate broker made money and the mortgage broker
made money. That is a lot of money moving around. It wasn't just Wall
Street. All Wall Street did was create the money in the first place.

Wall Street didn't create any money, they simply provided a vehicle
for exchange.

The losers were the last person to own the house and the people who
held the loans when the music stopped. The derivative holders were
made whole by TARP and everyone involved in the house before the crash
took their money and ran.

For the most part there were no innocent bystanders. *Many many years
ago I learned a very valuable lesson about gambling. *Got into a
blackjack game on base while in the Air Force. *It was a weekend game
with a set time to start and end. *When it ended, you settled up and
took your winnings or your loss and went home. *I knew what the rules
were when I started playing but like so many others I believed I could
beat the odds and so I started writing IOU's. *The game was scheduled
to end at 6AM on Sunday morning. *At 4am Sunday morning I was down
several hundred dollars that I didn't have and based on my pay l would
never be able to get. *My gut felt like it was being ripped out but I
continued to play knowing that if I tried to leave I would have to
settle before I could leave. *The stars were out for me that morning
or my prayers were answered because by 6am I had recovered my debts
and walked away with about $5.

I learned more from that experience than to not play blackjack. *I
learned that everything is a calculated gamble and that if you put up
more than you can afford to lose the odds are going to be against you
in the long run. *People bought houses that were well beyond their
needs and their means. *The lure was that if anything went wrong, they
could simply sell the house in an ever expanding market, take the
money and continue on. *I didn't buy into that line back in the 70's
and I sure didn't buy into it in the 00's. *This bust was driven by
every segment of our population from the young couple trying to fill a
house they didn't need with funiture bought on the credit card to the
CEO's of the largest companies who shuffled money like it was never
going to end.

I don't place the total blame on the Government, Wall Street,
Corporations, or Joe the Plumber but all of them in total. *The
problem for all of them was the same as it was for me in that poker
game, I essentially printed money I didn't have in the form of IOU's
which had they come due would have ended up breaking me (arm, leg,
etc.) *Who knew that a lesson learned over 40 years ago would still be
protecting me today?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Exactly so.