The Economic Crisis (Part II)

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[HamletsMill]

This new thread is an extension of the thread I started called Bailing Out Mortgages On Real Estate vs Bailing Out Derivatives.

http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,1439.new.html#new

At 12 pages The first thread has become too big so we will continue on here. These issues are going to be with us for a very long time to come so we will keep the discussion going here.

Like it or not we are all in this situation together.

Everyone keep researching and posting!

- HamletsMill

[HamletsMill]

This comment space at the top of the thread is reserved for a list of all the video and audio links we all assembled on the original thread over the last three months of research on these issues. This will be a "one stop shopping" list for new people coming onto this thread who want to get up to speed as fast as possible by viewing or listening to the links we have discovered.

I will start assembling the list a little bit at a time and I will continue to organize them in this index as we go along as to topic group. Anyone can post a link to any video or audio information on the normal thread at any time. I will then add it here if others may find it useful too.

Here are the BASIC BIG FIVE LINKS ON CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS

Joe Credit Default Swaps - YouTube - October 1st, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEesozWp3I

The Wall Street Shadow Market - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wFFCtx7UhI

The Wall Street Shadow Market - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT76vCHKzGM

60 Minutes - Credit Default Swaps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHXuUx0vT0Q

If you only have 4 MINUTES of your life to watch something on this subject- WATCH THIS! "THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx3KMX6T8bo


Here is also a very useful Financial Definitions, Terms & Glossary link that K.R. found on the original thread. I am going to keep it here at the bottom of this comment box so everyone can use it to look up any terms they don't yet understand at any time as we go along. Thank you K.R. for this find that can help others as we all figure these things out!

Financial Definitions, Terms & Glossary
http://www.financial-dictionary.com/index.htm

[HamletsMill]

This comment space at the top of the thread is reserved for a future blurb from me about a companion thread we are going to have to this thread for the purpose of MOBILIZING POLITICAL ACTION ON ECONOMIC ISSUES called  Economic Questions For Our Representatives To Answer

[Deep Blue]

HamletsMill,

Thanks for all your terrific posts. You and others have provided so much important information. I'm trying to digest it all and make sense of it, and it's really helpful to have sources I trust to turn to.

Maybe one day I'll understand this topic enough to add to the discussion...

[HamletsMill]

Here is a link to my comment on the original thread where my analogies started to kick in. Many people seemed to find this presentation helpful! Hummm. Do you think my analogies would get me a lecturing position at Harvard...?

Edited by Deep Blue in VA to provide link to comment

Thanks Deep blue! Now I see how to do it! - HM

HM - I edited again to embed the link - for some reason I had trouble with that the first time. Deep Blue

[judi]

Heck I think you should be on the economic team for Obama

great analogy...one that even I could follow

oh but it sounds ever so scary!!!

[betzy]

Believe me all the economists, administration et al, and Greenspan knew several years ago just what they were creating - but were hoping to sidestep it by telling us this is a different economy and all will end differently than in the past. (Or, that they would no longer be on the scene when the inevitable pandemonium struck.  )
The only way they could not know would be to know no history, never read and not be aware of congressional action on bills impacting the economy and stock market.

Take note:

The Great Depression was a result of deregulation in the banking system and a glut of foreclosed homes.  Those foreclosures prompted regulations to prevent future disasters of this magnitude. Sound familiar? 

The "safe guards" put in place to prevent another Great Depression were removed: The Glass-Steagall Act enacted in 1933 was rescinded in 1999 and the bill to rescind it was produced by Graham (Gramm?sp? and Leach) who was McCain's economic adviser and said we had a "mental recession" and were a nation of "whiners." 

This repeal permitted the mixing of banking, investment, mortgages etc. into one institution.  Interesting,American Express was just designated as a bank on a weekend (waiving the 30 day waiting period) so they could take immediate advantage of the bank discount window for cash.

The uptick rule was rescinded July 2007 and then look at the Feds coming in to stop the shorting when the "free market" was in "free" fall. How much did the lack of the uptick rule contribute to the free fall of the financials and auto industry in the market this past year?  We will never know.

Sliding the regulatory rules out the window also caused the S&L debacle which the two Bush brothers with John McCain's help were responsible for, in great part.

Nixon took the gold standard away so the money supply could grow without the restraint of needing to be backed by gold.  Yes, our money is just a piece of paper, period.

Greenspan could have averted the chaos and recession in 2002 by changing the margin requirements at the stock market.  Why should traders be able to gamble on making thousands by spending pennies on the dollar?  When the margin calls came, because the market tanked, the brokers left their buildings because they could not keep up with the phone calls, and they had no buyers in the panic selling environment.  Greenspan said it was not his place to tell stock traders how to deal. Hello-o-o-o!  Weren't you the FOMC chair creating regulatory policy and defending your position in doing so?

The Bush Administration quit releasing the M3 numbers (the method of tracking the printing of money) about 2 years ago.  I knew at that moment their plan had to be to start printing money fast in the near future.  Guess what?  We have no easy tracking method for the public to monitor the printing because the figures are no longer available to us.  And we are not supposed to think they knew at that time that a great disaster loomed in our very near future?

Bush's buddies changed the accounting methods (content?) for both the CPI and PPI in March of 2006.  We waited THREE months for the numbers that quarter as they just kept saying they were changing their system.  I think the numbers were so bad they were unwilling to release them.  Now we really cannot compare the last 2 years numbers with previous years and have an accurate picture.

The unemployment numbers for September 2008 were revised to add over 100,000 more unemployed than the first figures released.  Since the total job losses were 284,000 how come they are so inaccurate?  Can't count, or the numbers just don't look good enough to release until a month later when a revision that is a month old will not jolt the market down at that late date?  Go figure.

Check the DOW numbers we are given daily, but remember the thirty stocks represented are not the same ones as in 2000.  If you plug in the ones that were included then, you will find the DOW would not have shown recovering numbers this past 6 years.

If I can come up with these few notable items that hugely effect our economic dynamics it would be almost impossible for anyone to convince me that those idiots running our economic industry over the past few years had no idea they were creating the horrendous climate that we are caught up in now.

I followed GW while he was in Texas as governor (all those governor records, archives, notations, and information are no longer available.)  My comment when he was appointed in 2000 was that he would take us to war and destroy the economy.  I never, ever thought it would be this bad.

[Steve]

Believe me all the economists, administration et al, and Greenspan knew several years ago just what they were creating - but were hoping to sidestep it by telling us this is a different economy and all will end differently than in the past. (Or, that they would no longer be on the scene when the inevitable pandemonium struck.) The only way they could not know would be to know no history, never read and not be aware of congressional action on bills impacting the economy and stock market.

I think you underestimate the role of old-fashioned stupidity and ideological blindness. They didn't want what we have now - they believed in magic.

[HamletsMill]

How Much Does the Bailout Really Cost?

This is an interesting chart. Some dispute the accuracy as a percentage of GDP as noted in the comments section with it, but, still, it looks like AT LEAST one Louisiana Purchase, one New Deal, one WWII, one Korean War, one Vietnam War, and one Invasion of Iraq COMBINED just in the last THREE PANICED MONTHS of running the printing presses AROUND THE CLOCK (actually just Federal Reserve debit/credit book entries to various "banking entities" as the "Lender of Last Resort" in the banking system) but the same effect. All that liquidity in the system just for starters in a mere three months to cover the worldwide CDS bets in the Wall Street Casino Economy!

We are through the rabbit hole people! Forget the normal ruling financial class's mantra of "other people's lives" and "other people's money". It is now "other people's countries". In screenplays in the movie business it is called "expansion of the fractal". No one has EVER seen ANYTHING like this in the ENTIRE history of the world!

All thanks to rabid "free market" ideologues under no regulation whatsoever for ten years!

THAT WAS THEN - THIS IS NOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx3KMX6T8bo

This chart shows utter panic by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve since the crisis fully erupted in September! But, of course, it was ALREADY steadily erupting last January while we were all occupied with the Presidential Election, but GWB did absolutely nothing because that would call attention to the looming disaster in an election year. THAT might cost the GOP some votes! And THAT was not in Karl Rove's bend over political play book. But, guess what, it did! But the absolutely godless delay in action has now put us in this horrible position. It was essentially another Katrina when no timely help came! We had to get up to our necks in surging water before they did anything. Bear Stearns was the first deluge in March. The rest is now history. The passage of time has made for less options. How much more could the GWB Administration get utterly wrong again? I very seriously wonder if we can make it to 1/20/09! GM may go under this month of December 2008! We have come to the moment, people. One hundred years of the industrial heart of the United States at the brink. Everything completely run into the ground by idiots. OMG!

And as I have said from the very beginning, all this liquidity is ALL to cover the bets in the Casino on the Credit Default Swaps and NOTHING ELSE. It is all a ruse and both the Congress and Senate were taken to the cleaners too. And if a pay out goes to a foreign banking system like China (and it will!) that money completely leaves our economy as a CDS counterparty contract is paid out to the Chinese. They are exposed to the Fannie and Freddie mortgage CDO's (Collateralized Debt Obligations) to the tune of $500 Billion. That is why water is frantically being poured to keep the bathtub full in my analogy! It is for the Chinese banks NOT to leave our investment markets financially shredded by a nuclear CDS default. If they do we are utter toast! Is anyone here getting the sheer magnitude of this? And, of course, the MSM is explaining NONE of these linkages to anyone. You have to figure it out for yourself. They want all of us down in steerage on the Titanic to not get any ideas on rushing the stairs to A Deck and get to the lifeboats before the black top hat financiers take all the lifeboats.

I believe President Obama will somehow tell us the truth after he takes office. I would frame it in some kind of plan to neutralize the Credit Default Swaps financial WMD'S in some kind of phased out time scale from 12 to 18 months in world markets.

Supposedly one of the original schemes in the initial September panic was for the government to try to buy them up and shred them. I think that would be cheaper than throwing buckets of printed water into the bathtub from my analogy in the above comment link on the original thread. (Comment # 83)

Look at this below chart link in stunned disbelief and realize the utter white hot terror that came upon Paulson in September. To me the real meaning of this chart shows the magnitude of the fear out there on the nuclear CDS ticking time bombs. These financial nuclear weapons must be neutralized worldwide.

Remember Joe Credit Default Swaps YouTube Presentation on October 1st, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEesozWp3I

Note my post in the comments thread to this chart as "DiracMan" on declaring CDS's illegal. I only had one answer. I will keep asking this question on many financial sites to see what anyone says.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/108434-how-much-does-the-bailout-really-cost?

[HamletsMill]

And now for a BBC take on it from two months ago. Stay with part 1 for threel minutes. It gets better when they go to Malibu. The ocean makes me feel peaceful!

"CDS - Buying insurance on SOMEONE ELSE'S HOUSE that is on an Earthquake fault..."

Credit Default Swaps - the next crisis?p1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuBN9KJRs8

Credit Default Swaps - the next crisis?pt2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJI8hbZbLdk

[HamletsMill]

Fixing the Enron Economy

Although a handful of directors got jail time, the hundreds of energy traders and financial wizards (who shamelessly engineered 38 major black-outs in the recently deregulated Californian electricity market to boost profits), were scattered across hedge funds and investment banks, carrying with them a contagious virus of aggressive amorality that have defined financial markets in recent years. Wall Street has always been happy to sell the latest brand of snake-oil to gullible investors, but the scale and utter cynicism of activity in the securitized mortgage market is truly unprecedented.

Enron, like the mortgage crisis, was a conjunction of reckless political deregulation, investor delusion, management corruption and stunningly short-sighted greed by all concerned.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/109357-fixing-the-enron-economy?

"THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx3KMX6T8bo

[HamletsMill]

Loking Back Three Months Now

Now that you know what a Credit Default Swap IS and the sheer mind bending magnitude of the financial WMD out there ($63 Trillion in bets) can you see the code words in Paulson's sheer terror back in September?

If you are new to this thread, watch this video:

Joe Credit Default Swaps - YouTube - October 1st, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEesozWp3I

And read my Comment#83 on the original thread to get the picture:
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,1439.msg18099.html#msg18099

Can you now see what "frozen credit markets" (ie. it is fear of the completely unknown CDS financial AIDS exposure of other banks because the market was completely unregulated and no one knows the true exposure of any bank) and "clogging the system" (ie. it is fear of the CDS implosion bets on bad mortgages taking an institution down - NOT the bad mortgages themselves!) mean now? He was talking all around the truth like the American people were dummies. Maybe we were then, but we certainly aren't now. We now know and can understand the truth of the situation. It is all about the CDS financial WMD's hidden in markets all around the world.

Note his promise about helping with the mortgages! Kind of quaint now! Well I guess that was then and this is now. That idea went by the boards real fast when it came to choosing to get every dollar he can find or printed pre-positioned into the system as liquidity against a CDS falling dominoes nuclear chain reaction starting.

Henry Paulson on ABC in September Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHmY-awltgM

Henry Paulson on ABC in September Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7TmKXLZw_0

BBC Credit Default Swaps explained clearly in five minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVnEBw93EA

[judi]

I dont know how to make a new post...but I was thinking that perhaps we should also be talking about how all of this is really affecting us...the common folk

my brother who works in Kane Pa...told me today that NO store there can sell hunting licenses...as they have been able to do so in the past ... all have gone out of business!

He is a reporter there and told me that he was to write a story about manufacturing...but he cant because there is no longer any manufacturers in the area...

anyway, I continue to read and sooo appreciate what you have written, all of you, to better understand what is going on...I love the links...they help people like me that really do not understand what is going on....but I also think that somewhere we should be talking also of the real situations that are starting to happen to reg folk across our country...the world?

where would be the best place to discuss this?

again I so thank all of you, I am starting to understand, but that understanding is scary.....

[the problem child]

Judi, I completely agree. A place like this forum is a great place to do that because of the anonymity (and the great sense of community). I've noticed in "real life" people are afraid to talk about their troubles because they are afraid of judgment and dismissal as "not working hard enough" or "just complaining."

If you want to make a new post (or topic thread), just go into the forum above and click the subject area to open it up (probably the Economy and other issues) and click on the button that says "New topic". It's pink and easy to see at the top. Then name the topic, put in your thoughts about what you want the thread to be in the body, and post it! Easy as anything.

[judi]

Thanks Problem Child, Icy had sent me email telling me how to do it...I am just so computer limited...

I just posted a new topic How is the Economy In Your Area...

It is so true that on posts like this we can share our thoughts...Just saw Andrianna Huffington talk about her new book and this is what she was saying...how blogs are changing things..how we can communicate our thoughts with others

Didnt want to be a bummer (oh do people still use that word?)...but thought it might be helpful to share what it really is like for us real people in this economy

[Alex]

John Nichols at the Nation is reporting that Bank of America (which received $25 billion in financial bailout money from Hank Paulson) cut off credit to Republic Windows and Doors.

This led the company to lay off 300 workers and deny them the vacation pay and severance they had earned.

This in turn led the workers to occupy the company's factory (with signs saying "You got bailed out, we got sold out") and recently caused President-elect Obama to side with the workers and call on companies to honor their commitments (story here).

This was money put "directly into the banking system" to insure that credit was not frozen.  Hank Paulson and BofA have not explained what the money actually went to or why BofA chose to freeze credit anyway.

This goes way beyond outrageous.

At the very least, this is a concrete example of why it's a mistake to dole out billions of dollars with no oversight and no strict requirements for how the money will be used.

[HamletsMill]

Merrill Lynch Chief Fighting For Bigger 2008 Bonus

Merrill Lynch & Co. chief John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered securities firm's compensation committee is resisting his request, according to people familiar with the situation.

The committee and full board are scheduled to meet Monday to hear Mr. Thain's formal bonus recommendations for himself and other senior executives of the New York company. No decision has been reached, and it isn't known what Mr. Thain will recommend, but the compensation committee is leaning toward denying the executives bonuses for this year, these people said.

Though Thain's company was sold to Bank of America after losing a net $11.67 billion this year, Thain argued that it could have been worse.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/08/merrill-lynch-chief-fight_n_149276.html

Should Thain get his $10 Million dollar bonus? I don't think so.

The money Merrill Lynch was given in the Wall Street Bailout is NOT for his personal use. It is about trying to prevent the Credit Default Swaps WMD's from taking down the entire world. Paulson has only been pre-positioning liquidity into the system to face that situation. It is NOT about helping ANY American citizen on the ground AT ALL and NEVER WAS including him.

As I have shown you it is about trying to prevent any big investment bank that was selling these things to "insure debt" worldwide in a huge Ponzi scheme from going under that might start the worldwide financial nuclear chain reaction.

If GM and Ford default on their corporate debt someone, somewhere has a CDS bet on that debt and that could start the worldwide financial nuclear chain reaction too! All it takes is someone big to go under and start it with huge CDS players on their corporate debt. That is what the code words "too big to fail" really means. This is why they will be bailed out and keep being bailed out as long as the Federal Reserve can keep the People's Republic of Wall Street's printing presses going!

This is really what is going on. But the MSM won't publicly link any of Paulson's actions with the CDS WMD's out there. But as you can clearly see, this knowledge can be found all over the Internet.

We are all still being completely duped by the Masters of Wall Street!

Remember to read my Comment#83 on the original thread to get the picture with my analogies!
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,1439.msg18099.html#msg18099

It ain't happening people!

Remember that four inch thick small print Credit Default Swaps (CDS) document in that 60 Minutes piece? No one knows exactly what they say in every situation because each one out their is unique between the counterparties and no one knows who actually has them. And there are hundreds of thousands of them out there across the world in thousands of banks!

The U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve can start plying everyone with gin, put scented candles out in every bank, play Barry White on the speakers and in the elevators around the clock...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXvHRnGe940

...and nobody is going to start removing any clothing AT ALL. Zero. Nada. Zippo. It is one big "not tonight darling because I have a MASSIVE HEADACHE THIS DECADE! The entire banking system is still frozen in the big deals because nobody wants to get financial AIDS and lose a billion dollars when a CDS WMD goes off. So everyone out across the land with this free Federally injected money would rather do a crossword puzzle, work on their stamp collection, or be on the Internet writing posts 24/7 then get involved in any other...banking...activities.

So spread these below links far and wide to family and friends. People must begin to understand the true picture of what is REALLY going on. What is being done to us as taxpayers is raw, naked, and utterly savage. How long will people just accept this?

Here's the New Big Eight True Reality Links to Send to Your Family and Friends to Explain What Is Really Going On:

Joe Credit Default Swaps - YouTube - October 1st, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEesozWp3I

The Wall Street Shadow Market - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wFFCtx7UhI

The Wall Street Shadow Market - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT76vCHKzGM

60 Minutes - Credit Default Swaps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHXuUx0vT0Q

If you only have 4 MINUTES of your life to watch something on this subject- WATCH THIS!
"THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx3KMX6T8bo

Credit Default Swaps - the next crisis?p1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuBN9KJRs8

Credit Default Swaps - the next crisis?pt2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJI8hbZbLdk

BBC Credit Default Swaps explained clearly in five minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVnEBw93EA

[HamletsMill]

John Nichols at the Nation is reporting that Bank of America (which received $25 billion in financial bailout money from Hank Paulson) cut off credit to Republic Windows and Doors.

This led the company to lay off 300 workers and deny them the vacation pay and severance they had earned.

This in turn led the workers to occupy the company's factory (with signs saying "You got bailed out, we got sold out") and recently caused President-elect Obama to side with the workers and call on companies to honor their commitments (story here).

This was money put "directly into the banking system" to insure that credit was not frozen.  Hank Paulson and BofA have not explained what the money actually went to or why BofA chose to freeze credit anyway.

This goes way beyond outrageous.

At the very least, this is a concrete example of why it's a mistake to dole out billions of dollars with no oversight and no strict requirements for how the money will be used.

Follow the "NOT using the money" trail and you will find the smoking gun. It is the dog that didn't bark. They are NOT interested in using ANY of this money AT ALL for the supposed "purpose" for which the Congress and Senate granted it.  We are all dupes! There are going to be more and more smoking guns like this. More and more. They will let the people hang. No paychecks for the workers on overnight notice. Anywhere! Just watch.

Damn. If this keeps up it really is going to Pairs 1792. Holy S**t!

[texasbrian]

Fixing the Enron Economy

Although a handful of directors got jail time, the hundreds of energy traders and financial wizards (who shamelessly engineered 38 major black-outs in the recently deregulated Californian electricity market to boost profits), were scattered across hedge funds and investment banks, carrying with them a contagious virus of aggressive amorality that have defined financial markets in recent years. Wall Street has always been happy to sell the latest brand of snake-oil to gullible investors, but the scale and utter cynicism of activity in the securitized mortgage market is truly unprecedented.

Enron, like the mortgage crisis, was a conjunction of reckless political deregulation, investor delusion, management corruption and stunningly short-sighted greed by all concerned.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/109357-fixing-the-enron-economy?

"THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx3KMX6T8bo

I want to add my own two cents to this Enron debacle. I was working for Deloitte in Dallas in the tax department at the time of the Enron meltdown. I was fresh out of college and Enron wasn't really a name that I was familiar with at the time. Quite a few of my friends from college worked for Arthur Andersen at that time, so they kind of filled me in. Little did I know that 6 years later I'd be working in Houston for an Energy Co-op (then called Texas Genco) that would be stock full of former Enron folks. They were smart, savvy, and definitely knew their way around a set of financial statements. My direct supervisor, the Tax Director, was a former Enron guy. Also, the Controller, Assistant Controller, CFO, and Treasurer were all former Enron employees. They had all done very well for themselves. I know that their pensions took a hit, but from the looks of it, they knew when to sell. The boss that I mentioned drove a new Porsche 911 turbo and he had at least 3 houses. From my experience, people in tax can live comfortably, but that was definitely at the upper echelon of the salary spectrum. Anyways, Texas Genco was owned a share of the South Texas Project (a nuclear power plant) and they also had their hands really deep into gas and oil hedge funds and derivatives (the real money makers). They had a "trading room" full of people that just sat all day and watched the tickers on giant plasma screens that filled the rooms. Texas Genco was purchased by a company based in Princeton, NJ called NRG, Inc. in 2006 (if I remember correctly). It all happened around the time that I was packing up and moving on. I helped prepare their short year final tax return and the initial return after the acquisition.

Anyways, I think I'm going off topic, but I just wanted to emphasize that although Enron went down the tubes, a lot of the people that worked there and learned the tricks of the trade from people there went on to continue working in the financial services industry. A lot of things go spinning out of control because people don't quite understand the impacts of some of these derivative instruments and how to account for them yet. With the constant evolution of new transactions and new types of business ventures, the accounting rules can't seem to keep up. I take CPE courses every year, and while I feel like I am ahead of the curve at times, there always seems to be new ways to report and account for items. It's a true nightmare for investors.   

Off Topic: One other thing that I haven't really heard people talking about and I wanted to bring up regarding General Motors. Why hasn't anyone considered that they are tanking not only because of mismanagement in the auto manufacturing industry, but they are also involved in the housing crisis. GMAC makes home loans through a company that used to be called Homecomings Financial (I think it's called Ditech or something now). Anyways, there needs to be some sort of division of these enterprises to help protect them from the risks involved in each industry. 

[HamletsMill]

texasbrian,

Thanks for your post! Absolutely fascinating. Please stay on this thread and the Hard Questions For Our Representatives thread as we go into the New Year. We are going to start to raise hell with these people. We need some answers and we are going to ask some hard direct questions.

Welcome! We need you on here with your insights and comments.

I did like the made-for-TV Enron movie. I thought it was well done for a TV movie budget. At the end when everyone was cleaning out their desks losing their jobs, one guy came in all excited. They asked him why he was so happy? He said he had just gotten a new job at a really great company! They asked him what the name of the company was. He said it was a really great company named..."Worldcom".

FREEZE FRAME

FADE TO BLACK