In Too Big To Fail, the “superstar” chief of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, along with “smart” Jamie Dimon of Chase, “fighter” John Mack of Morgan Stanley, and other titans brokered the deal of deals, just in time to stave off a Mad Max scenario for us all.
The plan included a federal bailout of incompetent AIG, along with key mergers – Bank of America buying Merrill, Barclays swallowing the sinking hull of Lehman, etc.
With respect to the fine actors in the film, the legend is bull.
There are more accurate chronicles of the crisis period, including the just-released Financial Exposure by Elise Bean of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, probably the most aggressive crew of financial detectives who sifted through the rubble over the past 10 years. Bean’s account of what went on at banks like Goldman, HSBC, UBS and Washington Mutual is terrifying to read even now.
But history is written by the victors, and the banks that blew up the economy are somehow still winning the narrative. Persistent propaganda about what happened 10 years ago not only continues to warp news coverage, but contributed to a wide array of political consequences, including the election of Donald Trump.
The most persistent myths about 2008:...I'd say that the problem is not so much nothing learned as nothing done. What was learned was buried under an avalanche of propaganda, blame-shifiting and excuse-making because it would compromise powerful interests.
Rolling Stone
Ten Years After the Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing
Matt Taibbi
3 comments:
I came across a right wing site the other day and the site owner was pretty intelligent with a lot of well thought out and argued articles. He had one about the 2008 the crash where he blamed the crash the Democrat government which he said had forced Freddie Mac and Fannie May to loan to poor non credit worthy people. And he blamed the people who took the mortgages out for being liars. So you can see how the banking industry shifted the blame away from them. The fact that they run the Democratic Party and can get into government to change its laws it not acknowledged by many on the right.
Iirc Taibbi is a heroin addict?
He had one about the 2008 the crash where he blamed the crash the Democrat government which he said had forced Freddie Mac and Fannie May to loan to poor non credit worthy people. And he blamed the people who took the mortgages out for being liars. So you can see how the banking industry shifted the blame away from them.
This is one of the earliest canards to appear as an "explanation." It was and is total BS, of course.
Post a Comment