Official — Economic Crash Not Computers' Fault 386
itwbennett writes "A 2-year government investigation has found what we pretty much all knew to be true: High speed trading systems were not the cause of the 2008 economic crash. 'The crisis was the result of human action and inaction, not of Mother Nature or computer models gone haywire,' according to a leaked copy of the report's conclusions revealed in the New York Times."
Re:Economic Collapse due to Class War (Score:5, Informative)
Err, isn't that what OP was doing? Assuming simple greed?
Re:Economic Collapse due to Class War (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
Was this EVER a proposed cause of the global economic crisis put forth by any reputable source? At first I thought the article was talking about the flash crash last May. I was unaware anyone could look past the many obvious causes of the 2008 collapse and try to blame high speed trading.
Re:Economic Collapse due to Class War (Score:5, Informative)
The fact that the rich are still rich or richer and the poor are even poorer.
Poorer than what? Poorer than the poor a decade ago? Poorer than the richest king just two hundred years ago? A lot of the "poor" in the US today have cell phones, heat, food, television, access to computers, education, free libraries, some have their own transportation, and for those who don't, transportation costs are reasonably low for purchasing bus fare.
Of Course Not. (Score:4, Informative)
The "Crash of 2008" was the result of several simultaneous actions.
First, the overspending by the still relatively new Democratic Congress were not vetoed nearly enough by Mr. Bush.
Second, the real estate boom busted. Mr. Bush had warned of the coming collapse 4 years earlier, but Congress, both Republicans and Democrats were much too interested in claiming credit for the easy home loans to worry about something that was more than 3 months off.
Third, the relaxed accounting rules put in place during the Clinton Years had their final clash with reality. Reality won. Profits were nowhere near as high as investors were being told.
Fourth, the savings rate by Americans continued to decline, a trend that dated back to the Carter years, and is a result of tax policy. This resulted in under funded banks that relied mainly on loans to each other for collateral, as there were not enough depositors to provide the funds. Like paying one credit card with another, a point comes where you have to pay the piper. The long toll had gone on for years. Finally reaching a breaking point. Much of the banking system worldwide went down together. Full recovery still hasn't happened. Europe has several countries that are in deep financial trouble because of it. Several US States are hurting from this as well.
The US press of course blamed the President. That is after all a long time US tradition. Mr. Bush even got blamed for a hurricane or two. Stupid people believed it. New Orleans Mayor Levin for instance.
A coastal city that is 30 feet below sea level, with only a dirt levee between it and the ocean should expect storm flooding of epic proportions, say 30 feet or so. That is what happened. The Army Corps of Engineers had been warning of this since 1910. It happened. There was an interesting article in Scientific America about that in the late 1970's. It was not a question of if, only of when. The problem still isn't fixed, so it will happen again.
Now of course, Mr. Bush is no longer President, and Mr. Obama is getting blamed for the actions of others, including the weather. Well, he asked for the job. The blame comes with the territory.
So, it's all officially Obama's fault now. Really, it is lots of people's fault. Who benefited? Mr. Soros, and a few select others. Mr Buffet didn't do too badly either. Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Reid got a lot from it too. Mrs Pelosi has lost her throne as an aftereffect, but Mr. Reid managed to hang on, thanks to a hundred Million from Mr. Soros. The list goes on, but it is so much easier to just blame someone. It doesn't fix anything, but you might feel better for a while. That is really the take home lesson. We didn't fix anything, but we have blamed someone. They may or may not have had something to do with it.
Don't worry about Mr. Soros, he got 7 Billion of the Stimulus funds to develop an oil field in Brazil where the oil is contracted to go to China. Mr. Buffet made out well on the recent stock climb, so he's doing well too.
There are lots of interesting happenings on the other side of this political aisle too. Pick any famous Washington or Wall Street insider, and they are probably in it up to their necks. Some don;t even know they were partially at fault. After all, some very intelligent people are deliberately stupid. It's pride.
No matter what side you are on, you were probably betrayed. It is after all about money.