I've always wondered what 1 TRILLION Dollars looks like..

[Brique]

Did you ever see "Enron the smartest guy in the room"

That was pretty good.

Just to be clear your saying corporations like Enron are the good guys?

I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of politicians. They get in front of the microphone and slobber about how they need tougher and tougher laws to keep corporations honest with their accounting while exempting themselves from those same rules, when what they're doing is an order of magnitude worse than what even Enron and worldcom did.

No, I'm not saying Enron was the good guys, I'm saying that congress is doing the same criminal thing, but since they write the laws, they don't have to hold themselves to the same standard.

I'll save the whole "evil corporations" discussion for another thread.

 

[OrdnanceMarine]

Isn't that what we should expect people to do when their god is their belly? While they can act as a curb, more rules won't serve to fix the deceitful hearts of men.

"In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." -Judges 21:25

 

[LittleCaesar]

[MENTION=69868]LittleCaesar[/MENTION]

Speaking of Rockefeller ... I recently watched "the men who built America" on Amazon prime / history channel. It was surprisingly well done and covered all those barrons in a not so negative light. They changed the world and in many ways for the better.

And to take your idea further down the road Brian, those men such as Rockefeller and Carnegie took their wealth and invested their money back into America, which ultimately made not only them wealthier but also the people who visited those libraries, music halls, etc. Today, that kind of investment in America's social infrastructure by the very wealthy does not happen as much IMHO, except possibly at colleges and universities. And that money often has heavy strings attached to it.

I think the best quote from that series has to belong to Greenspan, who said the Fed couldn't have predicted the Great Recession beginning in 2008. :der: Maybe, for all future Fed board members, a history lesson in American economic disasters should be made mandatory for them to enroll in and pass.:thumb:

 

[grey_ghost]

Here's another interesting one: if the federal government had to do accounting the way publicly traded companies are required to, the national debt would be closer to $60 trillion. That's right, kids! Congress gets to cook the books Enron-style, then they go out in front of the cameras to piss and moan about how they need to keep an eye on those mean old corporations.

Another great irony: Politicians have established what is now the highest corporate tax rate in the world... then they whine about corporations hunting for more tax loopholes, or worse; fleeing the country altogether (google Medtronic). -can you blame them?

I think the best quote from that series has to belong to Greenspan, who said the Fed couldn't have predicted the Great Recession beginning in 2008. :der: Maybe, for all future Fed board members, a history lesson in American economic disasters should be made mandatory for them to enroll in and pass.:thumb:

an oldie but good: "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history" -George Hegel, German philosopher said this around the year 1800, Hegel might be amazed how accurate he was...

 

[Brique]

Except that plenty of people did predict it, including Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute when Fannie Mae started lowering standards back in 1999 under pressure from the Clinton (yes, Clinton) administration.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us...If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''


http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html

 

[BrianSD_42]

Greenspan, who said the Fed couldn't have predicted the Great Recession beginning in 2008. Maybe

I've heard it both ways. In the book "The Big Short" the author and those he interveiwed give off the impression that Greenspan was asleep at the wheel or just plain incompetent.

It was under Greenspan's watch where for years the fed backed free loans to private banks who were authorizing crappy mortgage loans to people who could never afford to pay the loans back.