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| Monetary Policy and Financial Crisis as Theater |
"It was incredible. It was distressing to me how simple and outrageous it was. It wasn't so complicated that you said, 'Wow, at least they're smart in the way they're doing it.' It was simple. It was brazen. The evidence of it was overwhelming. It's just that it hadn't been revealed to the public, and that's why could get away with it...
One of the things that is eminently clear from our investigation is that all the compliance departments, all the self-regulation is nothing. They watched it, but they did nothing. So we've got to think this through, and it's not only the financial community. There are a lot of sectors where we have said self-regulation is the answer. We've got to think about it."
Eliot Spitzer, The Wall Street Fix, March 16, 2003
"And in some ways, it creates this false illusion that there are people out there looking out for the interest of taxpayers, the checks and balances that are built into the system are operational, when in fact they're not. And what you're going to see and what we are seeing is it'll be a breakdown of those governmental institutions. And you'll see governments that continue to have policies that feed the interests of -- and I don't want to get clichéd, but the one percent or the .1 percent -- to the detriment of everyone else. "
Neil Barofsky, 2012 interview with Bill Moyers
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right."
John Kenneth Galbraith
"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful."
Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation
Stocks dove again today in the morning, but were saved back into the green in the afternoon.
There will be the monthly stock option expiration tomorrow.
Gold and silver were off a bit.
The Dollar rallied into the middle of the 93 handle.
Have a pleasant evening.
