house of cards Archives

Reading 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown can be considered a good introduction to the country’s long relationship between Wall Street and Congress. A new reference for how our country began its relationship with Wall Street and the massive changes during the Reagan, Clinton, W. Bush and Obama Administrations reveal how well the financial elite have directed legislation in Congress.
To read about how our republics leaders’ viewed banking was a refresher. Of course it would be a great insight to hear their views of the 2007-2009 financial collapse and the new banking world we must struggle through.

Clearly Congress was pitched a bill of goods manipulated by Wall Street. That simply bit them in the ass. I was amused to see how they were asking for the government to bail them out when their house of cards folded in on them. And yet I’m amused to read and listen to “specialists” or “experts in the field” in the financial marketplace or even the vast field of TV “analysts” who say the government is socialist for ”buying” the banks.

TARP was issued under W. Bush? If the Treasury did not step in and bail out Wall Street we would be in the middle of a global revolution. Sure — ignore it all and watch our entire economy totally collapse.

I was impressed with the book’s level of detail surrounding the relationships between W. Bush and Obama’s senior leadership (who transitioned to the Democratic White House) and their twisted histories with the major banks on Wall Street. Its clear the amount of money funneling through Congress today provides Wall Street with a clear avenue to set policy — and even give away free money. Well its not exactly free…the money handed to Wall Street to protect their horrible investment decisions on terms they could bargain for collectively. And of course they all took it.

As Jamie Dimon from JPMorgan Chase stated, somehow during the financial collapse they managed to have the best year in the company’s history — and paid out billions in bonus compensation while most Americans who purchased their products lost everything: jobs, mortgages and ultimately their future as a result of the recession that followed.

13 Bankers blog

After ripping through Too Big to Fail it seems natural to continue understanding the collapse of Bear Stearns with House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street to get a bit under the hood of how the collapse of Wall Street almost killed our economy. The book’s focus is the last two weeks of life at Bear Stearns.
Most would agree Bear Stearns was the “perfect storm” in hilighting whats wrong with Wall Street. Trusted executives who cannot lead their company or explain products they are selling.

Author William Cohan even points out as Bear Stearns was collapsing two executives were in Nashville playing in a bridge card game tournament.

I was rather amused that with their ‘tough guy’ reputation on Wall Street, in the end the executives at Bear Stearns, facing the closure of their firm were actually considering filing chapter 11 to force a major collapse of the Western financial marketplace.

Known as their “nuclear option” Bear Stearns actually considered triggering the collapse of the US economy because they were unable to secure their quickly falling stock price at an “acceptable” price during negotiations with the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase in their final hours of operations. And in the end, many of those tough guys ended up crying at their desks.