Comments about ‘Wall Street needs 12-step program’

Interesting "my view.

Bush was right, but it would have been better had he told the whole truth, which is ---
Uncle Sam was the bar tender, Barney Frank was the bar maid, and Wall Street got drunk.

Actually we should take away all the alcohol so there is none available, in otherwords Wall Street should not be allowed to do this kind of business. Banks should lend on houses and cars and foot the risk and Wall Street should help fund business risks and never the twain should meet. I think it's called Glass Stegall. Denying cheap money will only hurt main street. Wall Street will always be in front of any fiscal reform.

During most of the "drunk" period, the Fed was run by Allan Greenspan who thought the banks could police themselves and did not need any outside supervision. Even he concedes that he was wrong now.

The Federal Reserve was the supplier for this party. They continued to bring in money at almost no cost, giving everyone the impression they could spend without consequence. Investors took the cheap money and invested it in sectors that couldn't be sustained, such as housing. When people discovered they actually do have credit limits, and they actually do have to pay off their debt, they were stuck. The Fed is still trying to get the banks to push money through, but the banks are now resisting. The risk is too great, so they're investing in stocks, bonds and commodities. That's why the market has been going up. It's just another bubble. So if you want to avoid the next drunken party, you have to do something about the supplier. No one has the willpower to resist free money.

Is this the Change Obama was talking about.
PS OBAMA Don't send our troops to the Grave.

Implied guarantees at Fannie and Freddie and Goldman Sachs knowing they'd be bailed out were behind this one.
It is called 'control fraud', and it is agnostic of banking governance. A similar ploy could have succeeded even had we been on a gold standard with no Fed.

@Progressive:

Interest rates should be set by market forces, just as with all other prices. Price controls only skew the market, and cause problems, such as shortages. This also applies to money. Interest rates should reflect the real savings rate in the economy, not artificially created credit. Borrowing needs to be severely curtailed by EVERYONE, both "Main Street" and Wall Street. That's why interest rates, if allowed to reflect true market conditions, would be much higher than they are now. Higher rates would also provide incentives to invest and save, something that is sorely lacking right now.

@Progressive, cheap money hurts main street more than ANYONE and especially more than the big bankers, who guess what, got rich off the free money and continue to get rich off the subsequent bailouts. Stop the inflation tax!

Individual Americans are just as guilty. We complain about uncontrolled pork barrel spending by our various governments - Federal, State, and Local - and then re elect our own politicians based on their ability to bring money to our district. It is only when we refuse to re elect politicians in our own district for spending money that we will begin to end the madness.