Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report available online

That should be an interesting read. I can't help but notice, however, that not one of the 10 members of the commission was among those warning in 2007 that the shit was about to hit the fan. I could be wrong on that, of course, but none of the names strike a bell, and I was paying pretty close attention back then.

I also note that other than a hat-tip to "monetary policy," none of the core issues that raised the concerns of those warning of the crisis before it actually happened were included in the 22 items set for them to investigate.

From the bit of conclusion quoted above, I get the impression that they've once again confused symptoms with the disease.

Of course, that's just me and a few thousand contrarians. What the hell do we know?

Stop it. I can't read that fast.

The only versions mentioned on the site are dead-tree and PDF. If anybody runs across a version in any other e-book format, would they be so kind as to post a link here? Thanks.

Tell me what format you want, and I'll provide it.

It's perfectly legal.

(No Don, I'm not sending it printed on the outside of kegs of your favorite tipple. But HTML, epub, mobi books, etc. etc.? No sweat. )

MacAllister said:

Don, I'm slowly slugging my way through the book, too (true to my own contrarian nature, I read the dissenting opinions first)...

They did interview a number of people who attempted to sound the alarm as far back as the Clinton administration. My own sense, so far, is "Yeah, but when are you going to tell us something we haven't already figured out for ourselves? 11 Trillion dollars got appropriated from the small businesses, retirement accounts, savings cds, and pensions of the working classes to make sure Goldman-Sachs and BofA's top-level management gets to keep their multi-million dollar bonuses. 11 trillion dollars got pulled out of the real economy to keep Wall Street and high-finance players in poker chips."

I took a helluva hit, my parents (who worked and saved their whole lives and don't believe in buying on credit) took a helluva hit, pretty much all the post-retirement age people I know watched their retirements and investments vanish -- and that REALLY pisses me off.

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That's the kind of shit that gets kings guillotined.

Mac, I just came back to say that I'll give them credit for Chapter 1: Before Our Very Eyes. They did a pretty good job of documenting the fraud in the institutions and the myopia of the regulators. It will be interesting to see how it goes from here.

OTOH, I agree that "Captain Obvious is obvious" is the order of the game when it comes to the backstory. It's hard to fudge history when it's that recently written, so the scoop is pretty accurate... as far as it goes.

I did note that they covered the Fed's easy money policies and the pressure from politicians to get everyone into their own home very lightly compared to the fraud and oversight problems. The interviews, for example, were all with people who saw the fraud and oversight problems, and none with those who were pointing out the problems with the Fed and things like the CRA and the promises from politicians that Fannie and Freddie were in robust health.

Of course, that's no big surprise when you consider how the commission came about.

I agree that the people who got the shaft the worst were those who were doing all the right things as far as their personal finances were concerned. The whole mess punished the frugal at the expense of the profligate.

And Medi, I've got Calibre, so I can handle pretty much whatever you've got; about the only thing it does a consistently poor job with is PDF. If I can't have it on beer kegs, MOBI seems to be the best diet for my Kindle. Thanks for the offer.

My mom, who's worked since she was 16, and my deceased father, who worked since he was 12 (and they both have social security statements that document their work histories) got screwed.

My mom can't quite afford her prescription drugs.

So she manages--by controlling her grocery budget, using the skills she developed as a depression era baby. She's almost 90. She shouldn't have to agonize over whether or not she can afford orange juice. She shouldn't be ecstatic because my brother visits, and buys her real milk--not powdered.

MacAllister said:

I took a helluva hit, my parents (who worked and saved their whole lives and don't believe in buying on credit) took a helluva hit, pretty much all the post-retirement age people I know watched their retirements and investments vanish -- and that REALLY pisses me off.

Click to expand...

If I was brave enough to add it all up, we probably have lost $500,000 or more in the past 3-4 years. The thing that saved us is that we have no mortgage.

MM

Zoombie said:

That's the kind of shit that gets kings guillotined.

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It's also the kind of shit that demonstrates how far we are willing to be bent over a barrel.

Don said:

I did note that they covered the Fed's easy money policies and the pressure from politicians to get everyone into their own home very lightly compared to the fraud and oversight problems. The interviews, for example, were all with people who saw the fraud and oversight problems, and none with those who were pointing out the problems with the Fed and things like the CRA and the promises from politicians that Fannie and Freddie were in robust health.

Click to expand...

Well, I was wondering how the analysis would compare to Sowell's and Norberg's (kinda the Heritage and Cato versions of events). Looks like I now know.

MacAllister said:

And here's some commentary from the about-to-be-defunded-if-Republicans-have-their-way NPR story about the FCIC report.

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Well, after reading this bit of snark in the opening of the NPR story, I think the Republicans may definately have a damned good case.

The report from the Democratic majority — over 500 pages long. Number of footnotes: 6,711.

The main minority report, from three dissenting Republicans — just 26 pages long. Number of footnotes: Nine

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Gee, them stupid dissenters. Only 5 percent as long? And a measly footnote count? They probably had to leave off on the footnotes, because they'da had to take off their shoes to count higher.

WTF did NPR lead off with that bit of snark, given it's a dissent and likely to only report on differences? Well, it's worse than that. NPR also totally ignored these two sentences on the very first page.

Due to a length limitation recently imposed upon us by six members of the Commission[SUP]1[/SUP], this report focuses only on the causes essential to explaining the crisis. We regret that the limitation means that several important topics that deserve a much fuller discussion get only a brief mention here.

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And maybe it would have been worth their while to wade through that huge volume of footnotes. Here's the very first one, for example:

[SUP]1.[/SUP] A vote of the Commission on December 6, 2010, limited dissenters to nine pages each in the approximately 550-page commercially published book. No limits apply to the official version submitted to the President and the Congress.

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After that little stunt, I'd vote for pulling their funding myself.

The more I think about this, the madder I get. NPR is dead to me. It should at least be renamed National Propaganda Reporting so people realize what they're getting.



ETA: And the first person who accuses me of being a Republican or a Conservative because of this post gets one POW! right in the kisser! -- in the spirit of Valentine's Day merged with the police state.