Money is amazing. You can do anything with it. You can buy a news program and say what you want without having facts. Opinions are like assholes, Andy. Everyone has one. Yeah but this is the dirtiest asshole that has never been wiped or cleaned since it was born. Its like the parents have been feeding it Milk of Magnesia and sleeping pills and holding up the baby over the entire country… Guesstimated fact…a small percentage of people like that. Known fact…the GOP love it.
I would love it if their sponsors would hold them accountable for their actions and stop buying time on their network… I think I just threw up in my mouth. It was interesting when the credit bubble burst and all the consumers went to their independent bank, Indymac to withdraw their money. What happened? The bank went in the tank faster than you can say deregulation fucks us all because of greedy worthless pricks. Sure the bank was heading down but the people pushed it into the red like a [very disturbing statement which I had to censor myself] Why can’t we as a nation say enough! And demonstrate our power and take one of the oil giants out of the picture and say we’re not going to take it anymore. Do we not care?
Who knows. Maybe my rant will get my advertisers off my site and some subscribers to wipe me from their feed-readers. To that I say good night.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Blake // Sep 5, 2008 at 9:52 am
I do get tired of all the stuff they call news now. Be a damn shame if they actually were held accountable to report facts. Guess that’s too much to ask. People keep tuning in so I think the blame really falls on their feet. Until we do something to change it then it’ll just continue as is.
2 Marcus Hackler // Sep 5, 2008 at 9:59 am
Andy,
I appreciate your passion on this – we all recognize that the media has no accountability structure per se to inform the public about what is really going on. Enter the independent film and documentary maker.
I would like to say, regarding the part of the rant referring to bank insolvency, that deregulation is not to blame for the credit bubble and subsequent burst nor is it to blame for bank runs – the culprit is at the core of the financial system… fractional reserve banking, and monopoly control of the nations money supply and hence interest rates.
3 Andy Coon // Sep 5, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I might of got ahead of myself. You’re right deregulation has nothing to do with it but the Global Pool of Money and the greed of Mortgage Firms and banks… There are so many hands in the jar it is ridiculous.
It’s like a bunch of spoiled children doing what they want until they hurt someone that wants to spank them. It happened with Enron and it continues in Corporations all over the world.
4 Marcus Hackler // Sep 5, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I listened to that story a while ago and Ira and the producers did a really good job of explaining the complexity of the market’s response to the malinvestment that occured. But the question remains, why did malinvestment occur to begin with?
The answer is the fact that our system is a fractional reserve fiat money system that is controlled by the Federal Reserve. The Fed can set interest rates at will and because those interest rates are not aligned with the natural interest rate of the market, investors act on misinformation.
Thus in the late 90′s and early 2000′s the Fed set interest rates at historic lows. Investors treated these artificially low interest rates as a signal to flood the market with investment rather than saving. This was the first step in creating the bubble. Combine artificially low interest rates with fractional reserve banking and a fiat currency that is based on nothing but “full faith and credit in the United States Governement” and we have a recipe for disaster.
5 Rob // Sep 5, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Dear Andy,
I can tell you’re upset about something but the post is so incoherent and vitriolic I can’t really tell exactly what it is you’re complaining about.
You should know that the RSS feed does not contain the embedded video so it wasn’t until I came to your site that I had any clue.
I watched a bit of the video and saw John Stewart pointing out the hypocritical statements being made by political pundits.
Please know that I am not now nor have I ever been a Democrat. On the other hand I must admit I am no longer a Republican either. I did not vote for Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush.
In my opinion John Stewart makes the most sense of any news organization reporting today. He seems to play few favorites showing both sides to be the hypocrites they are.
I am deeply ashamed of my country right now for how it is treating its citizens and the rest of the world. I’m ashamed of the current administration which has systematically been expanding its power and dismantling our civil rights. I think this administration will go down in history as the very worst so far. Worse that Nixon and Watergate. Worse than Reagan and Iron-contra. Worse than Johnson lying about the attack in the Gulf of Tonkin (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761589806/gulf_of_tonkin_resolution.html).
I’m especially ashamed that I haven’t been more effective in promoting what I believe in.
May I suggest that if you have a point to make that you try to be a bit more coherent and leave the scatological references out. They don’t strengthen your case, whatever it is.
Peace,
Rob:-]
6 Andy Coon // Sep 5, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Thanks Rob,
I appreciate your honesty. I wrote this last night after a long day of frustration. Sometimes when I rant like that I look like an ass and yes it doesn’t help my cause. But at the same time I’m glad that you and others stop by and leave a bit of your knowledge.
I’m so glad you shared your feelings. That is all I ask in these posts.
7 Rob // Sep 5, 2008 at 3:46 pm
That’s cool. I’ll keep my subscription. Let’s talk about editing, okay?
Peace,
Rob:-]
8 Andy Coon // Sep 5, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I guess the tipping point was when I talked to a mortgage consolidation loan agent and he asked me what the value of my house was… It immediately took me back to that This American Life story about the credit crunch and how the mortgage banks just took the customers word on how much they made…with no W-2 verification.
It was probably a question that they have to ask, and I’m sure they would require documents. But I never made it that far.
I had to hang up because I felt nauseous.
9 Marcus Hackler // Sep 5, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I totally agree – there is no doubt that fraud exists in the market. Mortgage companies had a HUGE incentive to accept bad loans because they simply passed them on to investment banks who rolled them into pooled investment securities.
The issue for me (and I should qualify this by saying that even though I’m a producer by trade, my education is in economics, and the Austrian School at that…) is the source of incentives. Government can create perverse incentives by manipulating interest rates to spur investment. Investment booms – economy grows – politicians cite victory – next administration take the heat for the subsequent downturn. It all comes down to the foundation of the system.
If you are interested in my point of view, check out Muray Rothbard’s “What Has The Government Done To Our Money?” – it’s very concise in it’s presentation of the facts and one doesn’t have to be a trained economist to read it. A free .pdf can be found at this link:
http://mises.org/rothbard/rothmoney.pdf
10 Andy Coon // Sep 5, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Marcus, you are the man. Thanks… I’m downloading it now.
11 Marcus Hackler // Sep 5, 2008 at 5:46 pm
You got it. You know, I’ve long dreamed about creating documentaries that deal with these very topics. It’s conversations such as these that remind me that I need to keep those dreams in sight.
BTW, mises.org is a great resource for these topics. If you are interested in more reading I’d be happy to share my blogroll with you… just shoot me an email.
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