Plunder and Blunder; How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You

[NicholeW.]

Plunder and Blunder; How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You
By Dean Baker, PoliPoint Press. Posted February 7, 2009.

Anyone with common sense, a grasp of simple arithmetic and a desire to go against the consensus should have seen the financial crisis coming.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/125421/

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy by Dean Baker, published by PoliPoint Press, 2009.

The stock market and housing bubbles were the central features of the U.S. economy over the last 15 years. The stock bubble propelled the strongest period of economic growth since the late 1960s. The housing bubble lifted the economy from the wreckage of the stock bubble and sustained a modest recovery, at least through 2007. However, financial bubbles by definition aren't sustainable, and when they collapse, they cause enormous social and economic damage.

[gennee]

[size=3Thank you for the link. I worked in the securities sector over 20 years and saw a lot of this coming. Here there are condos and apartment sitting empty or half empty because the market is oversaturated. I remember when the dot coms were hot. I waited unitl the dust settled. By the end of 2000, 210 dot coms went under. 

Greenspan was grossly negligent in his duties. Instead of placing controls on the federal reserve and informing the public about what was really happening, he went along with the misinformed experts. I remember the s & l scandals because my company received some of the worthlass securities. THey were still sitting in vaults 7 years later when I was laid off.

I'm happy that I sold my house in 2005. I would have lost a bundle. I'm not surprised by what is happening now.

Gennee [/size] 

[Hazumu]

I paid off all my debts in 2000, and have had positive net worth since then.

I'm SO glad I did not succumb to the temptation of the speculative housing market.

My retirement fund, though has been wrecked by the worldwide economic collapse.  But until I change the distribution, the loss is 'paper'.  Maybe it will revive by the time I need it.  But I can't count on it.

I now understand my stepmother.  She lived through the Great Depression.

=K