An unbridled financial system in the US seems like bringing the world to it's knees in a 1930's like depression.

Globalisation is not the god of good times.It has condensed wealth in too few hands and now the hard work of the masses seems wasted.

Fanny May and Freddy Mac have lost 5 times our annual GDP.This is one third of the USA GDP.Lehman Bros have lost $100 billion.The present debacle is far from being played out in full.

Real wealth exists in the minds of a motivated population who aspire to a better life,not one subjugated with the chains of debt, formulated by a lazy,despotic financial system.

GOD IS NOT MOCKED A man reaps what he sows......8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction;

the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

LEHMAN BROS.

"the firms had improperly associated analyst compensation with the firms' investment-banking revenues, and promised favorable, market-moving research coverage, in exchange for underwriting opportunities."

KEY WORDS. "favorable ...'market moving'.. research"

i.e.. in order to make more money for the people doing the trading... the financial advisors...brokers etc.. they would manipulate 'research' reports specifically to achieve greater personal wealth for their traders, rather than the customers/shareholders.

They were forced to do what they SHOULD have done in the first place:

"a complete separation of investment banking departments from research departments"

But now...they have paid the ultimate price.. and all I can say is "ner ner"

GREED...is 'good' until it gets discovered :) then it bites us in the bum rather severely.

If you want blame someone, blame your Gubbermint. It's about time someone starting knocking the heads off at the top.

How much of the price of fuel is tax?.

"Fanny May and Freddy Mac have lost 5 times our annual GDP.This is one third of the USA GDP.Lehman Bros have lost $100 billion."

The truth is that they've only lost this amount "on paper" as it's highly likely they've never really been worth this amount. The beauty of this financial collapse to quote Paul O'Neill, is that the "genius of capitalism" has forced a reciprocal discipline/pressure onto these organisations which has, in turn, caused them to implode when it became obvious their touted financial worth had no substance.

In Star Wars terms, this is the equivalent of the destruction of the Death Star. Hopefully this means all of us decent ordinary folk (Jedi, Wookies etc) will have the yoke of the financial system taken off our necks.

Arjay:
"Time for ordinary folk to fight back"?

I have been "fighting back" all my life and believe me when I say it is bloody lonely on this little island.

I do NOT believe in Credit! ...If you don`t have the money then you cannot afford it. ( the one exception to that rule is for the purchase of a home, which has now reached preposterous proportions! )

I DO have a Cash Card which is treated by the system as a Credit Card by incurring the same charge for it`s use by certain greedy businesses, however the beauty of a Cash Card is that one cannot financially abuse oneself by spending more than one has in deposited Credit.

I have been sensibly thrifty all my life (due to my education and upbringing) and own my home and land in a Rural area. I receive NO services whatsoever from the local Regional Council.
I resent having to pay Rates (annual rental) on my own Freehold property and decry a so-called Democratic system that encourages an annual "adjustment" of Unimproved Valuations ( this year a mere 100%) and increasing yearly due to the demand that has been created by Peter "Boofhead" Beattie and his invitation to the carpetbaggers from the South to migrate to warmer climes, forcing up rapidly the real cost of land and housing!

This system of "Unimproved Valuation" should morally only be applied when an owner decides to sell the property, thus the true Capital Gain could be realised, leaving the owner who is NOT wanting to sell, secure in the knowledge that he is NOT going to crucified by money grabbing "revenooers" and possibly forced financially off his own land!

Yes...Arjay! I am ready to fight back and one day I might find somebody else who will support me and has the intestinal fortitude to stand up and be counted to oppose the continuation of this WAP Democracy that knows nothing else but pay, pay, pay and take, take, take!....Where is our Democracy Mr.Orwell?

The rescue by the USA Federal government of Freddy Mac and Fanny May?

Is that an example of Socialist Capitalism or Capitalist Socialism? Soooo confusing. And oddly hilarious. Because Socialism has nothing to do with it – it is Capitalist Totalitarianism – when corporations and government combine to rule.

Consider another example of Capitalist/Government total control:

“Then, as now, hypocrisy and self-delusion were the final ingredients in this ideological brew. When it came to practical matters, neither the business elites of the first Gilded Age, nor our own "liquidators," "terminators," and merger and acquisition Machiavellians ever really believed in the free market or the enterprising individual. Then, as now, when push came to shove (and often way earlier), they relied on the government: for political favors, for contracts, for tax advantages, for franchises, for tariffs and subsidies, for public grants of land and natural resources, for financial bail-outs when times were tough (see Bear Stearns), and for muscular protection, including the use of armed force, against all those who might interfere with the rights of private property….
Crony capitalism, inequality, extravagance, Social Darwinian self-justification, blame-the-victim callousness, free-market hypocrisy: thus it was, thus it is again!”

http://littlurl.com/my4yh

and

“Cutting ties to Wal-Mart is a way of refusing to participate in a very damaging economic practice. Wal-Mart -- the largest company in the world -- operates in a way that increases government welfare spending, contributes to suburban sprawl, drives local companies out of business, decreases employment in both retail and manufacturing while lowering the wages in both sectors, and increases our tendency to consume natural resources that we do not need…”

http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/badbusiness.html

Time, indeed, for ordinary folk to fight back.