Kind of hard to fight poverty when the richest 5% of the population gets a trillion dollars richer, for free even! I know I know, this money is going to “trickle-down” to us though right . . .

Conversely, it is kind of hard for money to “trickle-up” if they already have it all.

peace

dear Deepak,
"The fundamental problem with Wall Street is not greed"
I really
can't agree with that statement.

What a financial mess America is in.
That's the truth right now.
Time will tell how this country recovers.
~ Kate

"For years I have stated publicly that I have never heard of, read about, or personally experienced any problem that human society faces for which we don't already have all the resources and technology at our disposal to resolve. All that is lacking is our individual and collective will to resolve the challenge. This applies to overpopulation, global climate change, poverty, disease, and war. All that is lacking is our will to bring about this different paradigm of abundance and mutual success. And that begins with each of us accepting a new personal definition of success from which to experience all the difficulties we confront".

I have made it a part of my life, to bring about 'success' in my work, my family, my community - with love, patience, tolerance and a helping hand.

The real issue, imo, is how to gain the critical mass in 'Thinking' these changes are indeed possible, and then living them.

love,
~ Kate

Hello Rinaldo, Deepak and Everyone,

you write,The fundamental problem with Wall Street is not greed, but rather that it forgot the reason business exists.
The origination of business was likely started a individual who saw an opportunity to be of service by offering to bring the excess crops of one farmer to the other and to receive as payment a portion of what he conveyed. That is the fundamental role of business in society: to be of service to society."

I still think that most businesses in America, probably, not the "giants," certainly, not the auto industry, the drug industry, or the energy industry, but the smaller and small businesses are still offering a good product or a good service to their communities in exchange for a good profit, a good living.

Yes, I think the fundamental problem with this crisis is exactly greed on Wall Street, Lies on Wall Street, and, the New, highly educated, young financial minds, that, think they are brilliant beyond measure when it comes to making the deals, coming up with strategies that are too complex to figue the actual worth of any business or person. Yes, if you look at the failures they failed because of lies, hiding their stealth and greed, over compensating the top execs of their companies. If you mentioned "service to the community" to these folks they would pat you on the head and send you back to your "healing center" with a chuckle.

Most, "ordinary" Americans, get it, they work, they serve, they volunteer, they give, to their communities and they trusted that the "financial experts" would do the same. Sure, they, understood, people like to make a lot of money, but, they really didn't comprehend the extent of the greed, the sickness that had taken over our financial markets.

They trusted their government to do their part as far as safeguards to help the "Street" walk the straight and narrow, but the "Street" and our Government became partners, each scratching the other's backs, letting this little thing go, and, then, that, and, now, it has all fallen down.

Who knows if it can be put back together again, without, great, sacrifice, yes, the dirty word of all Americans....sacrifice....we haven't had to since the second world war....how does one do that, much less, a whole Nation, in order, to set itself right once again, I wonder if we even have it in us, anymore. We are a Nation that likes our instant gratifications, we, have become accustommed to having, and getting. It has been easy, nice, we haven't had to really concern ourselves, much, with the details of having and getting, but, that may all change...most likely it will.

There are those who like the message that McCain/Palin are still shoveling to them....no higher taxes...we, will, "drill baby drill" and everything will be magically A-okay, we will have our oil and our gas and even an SUV if we so choose. They want less government and more deregulation because they haven't had enough losses to really hurt them yet....let's do health care, now, McCain says....that should be a heck of a lot of fun and games...Yes, Americans are still hoping and praying that "sacrifice" will not darken their doors, so, they will vote republican, it will be their penny to throw in their "fountain of wishes."

I just have this feeling though that Americans will get intimate with "sacrifice," like my parents did, likef some of your grandparents did. They gave us a good sound financial basisf too badf we corrupted it, abused it, treated it like a high stakes poker game bluffing our way to bankrupting it and ourselves......

have a great evening everyone, ruth..

Hi, Kate, up north, today, very sunny in the afternoon, windy and chilly...the leaves are starting to loosen and tumble...really, needed a jacket for the first time, today....ahhhhh, it was a lovely summer, truly enjoyed the sun and the warmth.....

hi craig....things trickle up when there is nothing to trickle down anymore.....I guess that is why they needed to try the bailout...there might be some still clinging to the ceilings..:)

Deepak, yes in deed many of the points I have been articulating. I have also been engineering a possible new replacement system in anticipation. Most perturbing is that the takings from the system as a result of gambling and not creating value deprives the other economic participants of value or energy due leading to a scarcity among most economic participants (ESP).

On coinage.me, which I put together, it covers these themes in great detail revealing a new economics and the end of the old.

Articles such as those below click my name.

The New Economics 101

The New Economics 102

The New Economics 103

The Holistic Economic System and Principles

What wrong with the current financial systems?

Transcending the Flaws of the Current Systems

The Solution a New System Currency With a Brain

Programming and Running The Financial Matrix

Universal Information System Architecture

A Compromise between privacy and transparency

The Solution: A balanced Global Value Exchange Accounting System with integrity

The Beauty of The System and it's Automatic Adoption

Burst of the Fiat Currency Bubble

Proof of flaw "Make a free small fortune with pennies."

Flawed Game Reveals Shocking Revelation about Worlds Financial Systems

Will oil become the tangible currency of choice?

Power Questions for The Discerning Mind

On newswire.pro it starts (click my name)

The Emeritus reports that the privately owned banks operating the monetary system under the Federal Reserve label, also know as the central bank, may have license to manage citizen’s monetary systems revoked, for failure to maintain an equitable balanced value exchange system. The world’s largest casino group operating under the Wall Street label has managed to warp the system causing market volatility and economic instability.

My hope with this is to have provided a $100 worth of benefit and value for a $1.00 to every being on the planet.

That would be 6 Billion Dollars for me and 600 billion dollars for all of you, a nice deal all around! I could get that big sailboat, a house on the Yucatan Peninsula overlooking the Blue Turquoise Green water with it’s extraordinary energy, and lift all the poor in that area out of poverty.

I just need a little help.

Hoping I can get Google to jump on board as the third party directory authority and perhaps act as one of the transaction processor hubs, the rest of the system is autonomous with a distributed management tweaking parameters etc. the economic system participants each provide a chunk of the infrastructure for the system.

ESP computer and a little electricity from the ESP household and a few large data centers.

Then we can do away with all those Bank Buildings (cost burden) and convert them into Sustainable Lofts, I already have an Architect with the plans.

That is what I would advise Obama….

"Profit is there as a necessary component of the transaction, but when it is seen as the only reason, we inevitably lose our way as we have today"

"Business in service to society."

Amen!

I like this line from Clues.me in "Clues to what is happening in the world's Current Events; Cause and Effect In the Now"

"Reality is tearing through the fabric of illusion"

Click my name.

I hear you Ruth.

I think Obama's campaign is in sore need of your blogging skills; you have been writing some hard-hitting stuff for awhile now!

Peace

You know, the term "homo sapiens" translates as "wise man".

I think Homo Sapiens actually hasn't evolved yet. What he have is "homo supertes" ("survival man"). And what Mr Brutoco is describing sounds a lot like Deepak's "wisdom based society", which he describes as a next evolutionary step for civilization.

I would argue that "civilization" doesn't exist yet. "Civilization" means people living together civilly. What we have now is a planetary-sized mob of people. Like any out-of-control animal population we are overbreeding and overwhelming our resources, becoming overstressed due to overcrowding, and have resorted, like a mob, to an 'every man for himself' state of panic.

Collectively, we are reacting in exactly the same way as any animal species reacts that becomes too successful in terms of overpopulation.

We're struggling with mob mentality. It seems that many individuals understand these things, but getting the whole crowd to behave intelligently as a unit is easier said than done.

It is easy to get a mob to riot. It is far more difficult to organize large numbers of people towards wisdom-based goals and behavior.

And there are still people who simply want to incite the mob, then give them a target to hate or destroy. And then grab all they can when the looting starts.

I'm all for the idea of Homo Sapiens - we should evolve the 'wise man' - we have the tools and know-how to do it.

Then the "wise man" can create the earth's first civilization. Where people treat each other civilly, and as Rinaldo notes, business and infrastructures are set up to serve the people, not vice versa.

It's a great idea.

Let's try it!

On 60 Minutes, they discussed the side bets that accompanied the mortgage crisis. These side bets comprised trillions of dollars in what were termed "credit swaps". They were actually insurance without the underlying reserves that a regulated insurance transaction--actually calling it insurance--would have required. You now see that AIG--itself an insurance company--was engaged, full tilt, in this thin-air leveraging of which $700 billion is a drop in the bucket.

Having watched 60 Minutes, and then immediately having read this post, I think it's a great article because it is trying to pinpoint the problem instead of indiscriminitely approaching it as a scorched earth response. Because at the core of this lies a spiritual malady, not a financial one, and it will demand an ultimately non-violent cure.

I would welcome people to wiki Ben Franklin and insurance to get a sense of the rightful place of insurance. Because while a lot of fast-and-loose players bilked Americans out of the money ought to, instead, have gone to reserving, there were PLENTY of companies that did not...companies that played by the rules, because, I think, they recognized that THIS was the American way. That on the prairie, TRUST was an all important virtue, in the exact same sense that Ben Franklin stated that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness".

I think it would be helpful if The World Business Academy were to list large companies--especially those in the arena of finance and insurance--that participated in the market as adults in an era that berated simple, good behavior as stoggy and passe, folksy.

Because they were trustworthy and noteworthy when society clamored for something sexier, faster, and, to wit, fleeting.

How are they recognized as organizations and as individuals?

Read Hamlet.

It shouldn't be difficult to pick out your Horatio among Rozencrantz's and Guildensterns.

P.S. Hamlet ought to be required reading among all Wall Street executives.

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~

WASHINGTON - Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, Congress was told Monday.

As well, executives who feared for their bonuses in the company's last months were told not to worry, according to documents cited at a congressional hearing. One executive said he was embarrassed when employees suggested that Lehman executives forgo bonuses, and cracked: "I'm not sure what's in the water."

The first hearing into what caused the nation's financial markets to collapse last month, precipitating a $700 billion bailout, opened with finger-pointing and glimpses into internal company documents from Lehman's chaotic last hours.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the giant investment bank was "a company in which there was no accountability for failure."

Lehman's collapse set off a panic that within days had President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asking Congress to pass the rescue plan for the financial sector.

Richard S. Fuld Jr., chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers, declared to the committee "I take full responsibility for the decisions that I made and for the actions that I took." He defended his actions as "prudent and appropriate" based on information he had at the time.

"I feel horrible about what happened," he said.

Waxman questioned Fuld on whether it was true he took home some $480 million in compensation since 2000, and asked: "Is that fair?"

Fuld took off his glasses, held them, and looked uncomfortable. He said his compensation was not quite that much.

"We had a compensation committee that spent a tremendous amount of time making sure that the interests of the executives and the employees were aligned with shareholders," he said. Fuld said he took home over $300 million in those years — some $60 million in cash compensation.

Waxman read excerpts from Lehman documents in which a recommendation that top management should forgo bonuses was apparently brushed aside. He also cited a Sept. 11 request to Lehman's compensation board that three executives leaving the company be given $20 million in "special payments."

"In other words, even as Mr. Fuld was pleading with Secretary Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation," Waxman said before Fuld appeared as a witness.

The government let Lehman go under Sept. 15, only to bail out insurance giant American International Group the next day, in a cascading series of financial shocks and failures that put Washington on track for the multibillion-dollar rescue starting the end of that week.

Waxman described that plan as a life-support measure. "It may keep our economy from collapsing but it won't make it healthy again," he said.

That sentiment echoed on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrials sank below 10,000 on Monday for the first time in four years. Investors fear the crisis will weigh down the global economy and the bailout won't work quickly to loosen credit markets.

The rescue plan, now law, was so rushed that the usual congressional scrutiny is only coming now, after the fact.

"Although it comes too late to help Lehman Brothers, the so-called bailout program will have to make wrenching choices, picking winners and losers from a shattered and fragile economic landscape," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee's senior Republican.

Waxman said that in January, Fuld and his board were warned the company's "liquidity can disappear quite fast."

Despite that warning, he said, "Mr. Fuld depleted Lehman's capital reserves by over $10 billion through year-end bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividend payments."

Waxman quoted Fuld as saying in one document, "Don't worry" to the suggestion that executives go without bonuses.

That suggestion came from Lehman's money management subsidiary, Neuberger Berman. Waxman quoted George H. Walker, President Bush's cousin and a Lehman executive who oversaw some Neuberger Berman employees, as responding with a dismissive tone to the idea of going without bonuses.

"Sorry team," he wrote to the executive committee, according to Waxman. "I'm not sure what's in the water at 605 Third Avenue today.... I'm embarrassed and I apologize."

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said: "I wonder how he sleeps at night."

Fuld said in his statement that the company did everything it could to limits its risks and save itself.

"In the end, despite all our efforts, we were overwhelmed, others were overwhelmed, and still other institutions would have been overwhelmed had the government not stepped in to save them," he said.

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~

WASHINGTON - Executives at American International Group Inc. (AIG) hid the full range of its risky financial products from auditors as losses mounted, according to documents released Tuesday by a congressional panel examining the chain of events that forced the government to bail out the conglomerate.

Amid the rising losses, Federal regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision warned in March that "corporate oversight of AIG Financial Products ... lack critical elements of independence."

At the same time, AIG's auditor, Pricewaterhouse Cooper confidentially warned the company that the "root cause" of its mounting problems was denying internal overseers in charge of limiting AIG's exposure access to what was going on in its highly leveraged financial products branch.

AIG's problems as outlined at the House hearing did not come from its traditional insurance subsidiaries, but instead from its financial services operations, primarily its insurance of mortgage-backed securities and other risky debt against default.

Government officials feared a panic might occur if AIG couldn't make good on its promise to cover losses on the securities; investors feared the consequences would pose a threat to the U.S. financial system, which led to the government bailout.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., also said that even as losses were engulfing the company, AIG executives depleted AIG's capital through stock buybacks and higher dividends.

The federal rescue came after AIG suffered disastrous liquidity problems after its credit rating was lowered, forcing the company to come up with even more capital.

"AIG was caught in a vicious cycle," Willumstad said in the testimony.

A third former AIG CEO — Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the company's largest individual shareholder — canceled his appearance before the committee. Committee spokesman Karen Lightfoot said that Greenberg had bowed out because of illness.

The hearing is the second in two days into financial excesses and regulatory mistakes that have spooked stock and credit markets and heightened fears about a global recession.

The Federal Reserve rescued AIG with the $85 billion loan Sept. 16, one day after investment bank Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy when the government wouldn't come to its aid.

Lehman Brothers' chief executive officer testified Monday before the congressional oversight panel but didn't shed much light on how the mid-September events cascaded into a collapse of credit markets requiring a broad bailout.

The Fed's move rescued the company from bankruptcy after the insurance conglomerate's exposure to enormous losses related to subprime mortgage securities forced it to the brink.

Despite the government's move on AIG and Congress agreeing to spend up to $700 billion to buy up soured mortgage-based securities and other bad debt, credit remains tight, prompting the Fed Tuesday to announce it will buy huge amounts of commercial paper, a short-term financing mechanism that many companies rely on to finance their day-to-day operations, such as purchasing supplies or making payrolls

Hi,

reading #13 & 14.....it leaves one feeling very sad. These men, highly educated, supposedly, of the best and the brighest in our business world allowed their complete self interests to dictate their business strategies.....but should we really be suprised at this considering that in today's Congress more of our Congressional men and women have family or friends that are lobbyists or many Congressional folk leave and become lobbyists...making tons of money..for themselves and their special interest clients.

It seems as though our business and government institutions are nurtured on self interest....and the interest of a Nation and it's peoples have simply been wiped off the face of their consciousness and this has been happening for many years, now, really, this crash was seen, expected, people in high places knew and have know just how bad it was knew it would eventually come to this...we have had warnings here and there, hints ignored, and the real chance of recovery is unknown.

Americans, have this banking, financial crisis an we haven't even a real workup on the wars, their effect, and costs...

It is sad...scary, disappointing, challenging..

These fattened egos ate everything they could until they finally blew up and devoured our global economy.....yum, yum, yum.....oh, but what a stomach ache they inflicted on their victims....

Barak Obama is going to need all the help he can muster up, a very damaged Nation will be put in his hands.......the other day in the Washingtonpost they were doing a story on Michelle Obama's great great Grandfather, he was a slave. I think it is remarkable that a genetic piece of her history, of our Amerian history, slavery, has come to the White House(if Barak Obama is our next President).....a family's journey from slavery to the White House.

truly, awesome....only in America....ruth