Recession 2008

Recession 2008

Postby Oscar » Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:37 pm

Recession 2008

February 23, 2010 5:23 PM

To the Editor,

In my last letter I wrote about Canada 's National Debt, and the cost of that debt which is borne by Canadian taxpayers.

However, there is an even greater financial cloud hanging over Canada. It is the astronomical debt of our neighbor -- the USA.

After the great Depression of 1929, the American administration introduced the Glass/Steagall Act. It was designed to regulate the greedy wolves of Wall Street, but in the 1990's President Clinton repealed that Act.

Jack Cafferty, recently speaking on the Wolf Blitzer TV show, stated that the U.S. national debt is $14.6 trillion. Consumer Credit Card debt is estimated at $8 to 10 trillion. It is difficult to assess Corporate debt, but $15 trillion has been suggested. The annual budget deficit is $1.4 trillion Then there are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan expected to cost trillions of dollars, with Canadian troops now involved.

It's difficult [especially for this peasant] to find relevance to 1 trillion dollars. However, a professor with a PhD in math placed it in perspective for us: "If I gave you 1 trillion dollars in 1 dollar bills, and told you its all yours if you count each bill,-- you would be the sole owner after counting for about 32,000 years!"

Ben Bernanke, past chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank, who recently was reappointed for another term by President Obama, stated he did not see this recession coming. Alan Greenspan, who retired in 2006 said the same. He was the spokesman for that group of gilded, greedy gurus on Wall Street, along with Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and others. They managed to convince the American Senate and the House of Representatives that the first monetary glitches due to the sale of derivatives and hedge funds -- a $27 trillion market -- or the fraud, would be taken care of by "the market".

That statement was utter nonsense.

The first signs of a Wall Street and bank mess-up, around the year 2000, was brought to the attention of the U.S. administration by a young brilliant legal lady, named Brooksley Born. Government officials became concerned and appointed Born to head up of what became known as the Long Term Capital Management office. However, under pressure from powerful financial interests, Born was replaced by a new chairman who met the approval of the boys on Wall Street.

The rest is history. The Wall Street financial bubble finally burst in 2008. There were world-wide heavy losses sustained by many financial institutions and millions of smaller investors, but it also made a few investors a great deal wealthier, leaving the American taxpayers to clean up the mess, a mess which will also affect Canadians.

Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1B0
Phone (306) 256 3638
Oscar
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