The Bailout Disaster & Our Crippling Economy

This "Financial Crisis" has been going on for some time now. This did not just happen over the past month. It is not just bad mortgage loans the market is dealing with here. It is bad mortgage loans, credit default swaps also known as collateralized debt obligations, bad investing and a shadow market that has been played with absolutely no regulation what so ever.

"A credit default swap (CDS) is a credit derivative contract between two counterparties, whereby the "buyer" pays periodic payments to the "seller" in exchange for the right to a payoff if there is a default[1] or "credit event"[citation needed] in respect of a third party or "reference entity". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap"

"Credit default swaps are the most widely traded credit derivative product[2]. The Bank for International Settlements reported the notional amount on outstanding OTC credit default swaps to be $42.6 trillion[4] in June 2007, up from $28.9 trillion in December 2006 ($13.9 trillion in December 2005). By the end of 2007 there were an estimated USD 45[3] to 62.2[4] trillion worth of Credit Default Swap contracts.

In the US alone, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported the notional amount on outstanding credit derivatives from reporting banks to be $16.4 trillion at the end of March, 2008. (To put these numbers in perspective, the CIA World Fact Book estimated the US GDP for 2007 was $13 trillion.)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap

There is something wrong here with this picture. The credit swap derivatives is more than Gross Domestic Product of the United States in 2007.

The reason why these swaps are called Credit Default Swaps is because if they called it Credit Default Insurance then they would have to be regulated by the government. This is where the "Shadow Market" is coming from in our Economy. So do I think that the CEO's of Merrill Lynch, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Freddy Mac, Fannie Mae & Goldman Sachs, just to name a few, should get a golden parachute for retirement. The answer is unequivocally NO. These CEO's used terrible judgement that not only put there own companies at extreme risk, but the American economy at extreme risk. It is amazing how 150 million dollars can blind you to the point of outright ignorance. In my opinion, all of these CEO's and others involved should be put in jail for theft. How is it our government would go after Enron and do nothing about this Medusa of a problem. Was our government afraid of turning into stone if they dared to look at this Medusa?

The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis should have been enough to make Congress act. But as with everything else, our government waits to long before anything is done. Could this be because of the jockying for position between the Republicans and Democrats? Is it to logical to set aside partisan warfare long enough to save our economy from this disaster created at the hands of greedy and corrupt crooks? Is it to logical to make an attempt at not complicating a steel ball? Is it to logical to come together as a group and get focused on a common goal. Our government is as bad as a couple going through divorce, constantly fighting, smearing and throwing mud on each other. This is like when an individual is not called a Hero until after they are dead? What was wrong with them being a Hero when they were alive? Our economy is on the road to being dead and stagnant. What was wrong with fixing it while it still has some life left in it?