Wall Street's gigantic Ponzi scheme

I was on Digg watching this video when I had a thought and quickly wrote out the following comment.



My Comment

People around the world invested in the US stock market because there was a fundamental belief that you could trust US companies. In the sense that there are supposed to be accounting rules in place and sufficient transparency that US corporations could not dupe their investors. As opposed to China where the rap was that there was no transparency and therefore you couldn't tell what you were investing in.

Well Wall St. cooked the goose that laid the golden egg by hugely inflating their assets and profits through phony accounting schemes. Now everyone around the world realizes that they were duped by the world's largest ever Ponzi scheme. This bailout will not restore that confidence. In fact it is more of the same.

And why would Congress give more power and money to the Bush Administration who's goal is to create a Unitary Executive? Any "oversight" that may be granted in this bill is just laughable. What is Congress going to do, subpoena administration officials if they don't like what they are doing with the $700 Billion? Secretary Paulson will just claim Executive Privilege and refuse to testify. He's like an annoying relative that only calls when he wants money. At least he was brutally honest about demanding immunity from any Court of Law. But then what would you expect from a Dictatorship?

When will Congress learn that Bush considers himself above the Law? Instead of wasting time on another "emergency" measure they should get to work IMPEACHING BUSH!

Ponzi Scheme

For those that don't know what a Ponzi scheme is and are too lazy to follow the Wiki link, here is a quote from the Wiki page.

A Ponzi scheme usually offers abnormally high short-term returns in order to entice new investors. The high returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises (and pays) require an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going.

The system is doomed to collapse because there are little or no underlying earnings from the money received by the promoter. However, the scheme is often interrupted by legal authorities before it collapses, because a Ponzi scheme is suspected and/or because the promoter is selling unregistered securities. As more investors become involved, the likelihood of the scheme coming to the attention of authorities increases.

The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, who became notorious for using the technique after emigrating from Italy to the United States in 1903. Ponzi was not the first to invent such a scheme, but his operation took in so much money that it was the first to become known throughout the United States. Ponzi's original scheme was in theory based on arbitraging international reply coupons for postage stamps, but soon diverted later investors' money to support payments to earlier investors and Ponzi's personal wealth. Today's schemes are often considerably more sophisticated than Ponzi's, although the underlying formula is quite similar and the principle behind every Ponzi scheme is to exploit investor naïveté.

So now that you know what a Ponzi scheme is, doesn't this perfectly describe the con game that Wall St. was playing? And now it should be clear that the Paulson Plan is in fact just a scheme to keep the Ponzi scheme going a little longer. But in the end it must collapse because there is little of value underlying this scheme. America needs to rebuild its manufacturing base if it expects to compete in the world.

America's addiction to Debt

As another article I came across on Digg states, "America's No. 1 Export: Debt". It used to be AAA rated debt, but all that could change.

Japan and Germany make cars. Saudi Arabia pumps oil. China supplies the world with socks and toys and flat-screen TVs. What does the United States produce? Lots of stuff, but in recent years this country's No. 1 export--by far--has been debt.

For now, we can still reassure buyers around the world by slapping that GUARANTEED label on our debt. But as financial crisis and economic slowdown cause government debts to burgeon, and as commitments to Social Security and Medicare loom closer as baby boomers retire, that confidence could easily fade.

So Wall St. and the US Treasury have been exporting this giant Ponzi scheme. The next thing you hear will be a "giant sucking sound", and it won't be our jobs going to Mexico as Ross Perot used to warn. No as it turned out our jobs went to China. And the new "giant sucking sound" will be all our US companies being bought up by the same Chinese.

Do you remember the story about how the early settlers bought Manhattan from the Indians for some shiny trinkets? Well we have been in the process of re-selling Manhattan and all of America to China for some shiny trinkets in the form of iPods and big screen TVs.

It's not too late to STOP THE BAILOUT and stop the sellout of America. Keep calling your Congressperson. Yes the House voted against the bailout once, but they must totally reject it or it will be the end of the United States of America as we know it.

Either that or convince your State to secede and become part of Canada. Really. Have you got a better plan?