There are extracts here:

http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/llyfr.html

And it may be that the principal loser in all of this is the US, since the rest of the world seems to be saying thanks, but no thanks, to anything remotely resembling the Mother of All Bailouts.

Unfortunately the UK is probably tied tightest to the US financial markets, but there is a plus point. Gordie has his faults, but he refused to sign up to the Hank ‘Buddy Can You Spare a Trillion’ Paulson deal.

Tone would have been shoulder to shoulder with Bush on the White House lawn…

We know why it happens; we just don’t do anything very much about stopping it happening, indeed, if you look at the IMF’s actions down the years we have been instrumental in making it happen.

The lunatic belief in the infallibility of the Invisible Hand has destroyed communities and countries; it has killed a lot of people and will undoubtedly kill an awful lot more. The free market fundamentalists are just as dangerous as all the other fundamentalists…

But people have died since our species came into existence, for good, and bad, and downright horrible reasons; the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse* weren’t invented in the 19th century, and we can’t blame it all on capitalism, however inviting that is.

*Plus Chaos, of course, who’s rejoined the band for the current gig…

You seem to share the common delusion that retribution falls only upon those who deserve it; the vast majority of the people who suffer aren’t the high rollers. They have their mattresses stuffed with gold bars and high grade diamonds in places with really nice climates, like the Cayman Islands.

It’s the same the whole world over,
It’s the poor that get the blame,
It’s the rich that get the pleasure,
Ain’t it all a bloody shame. …

‘This audit was not intended to be a complete assessment of the multitude of events that led to Bear Stearns’ collapse, and accordingly, does not purport to demonstrate any specific or direct connection between the failure of the CSE Program’s oversight of Bear Steams and Bear Steams’ collapse. However, we have identified serious deficiencies in the CSE program that warrant improvements.

Overall, we found that there are significant questions about the adequacy of a number of CSE program requirements, as Bear Steams was compliant with several of these requirements, but nonetheless collapsed.

In addition, the audit found that TM became aware of numerous potential red flags prior to Bear Stearns’ collapse, regarding its concentration of mortgage securities, high leverage, shortcomings of risk management in mortgage-backed securities and lack of compliance with the spirit of certain Basel II standards, but did not take actions to limit these risk factors.’

In other words, by any objective measure the regulators had enough information to be aware that Bear was in deep trouble but did nothing about it.

Greed, incompetence…

They will not have to re-regulate the investment banks since the investment banks have all gone to the Parrot Perch in the Sky; if they don’t manage to get some sort of a working handle on the $60 trillion credit default swaps then we may shortly be saying the same thing about the rest of the financial markets.

Dead is dead, and beyond our knowledge; the living can still suffer. Is there any difference between the barracuda on Wall St and the pirates who operate on the Somalian coast?

I see no moral distinction between the two groups…

I am baffled as to where you derive your apparent belief that I was calling for retrospective legislation; I wasn’t.

I was pointing out that the man who was supposed to be responsible for regulating the securities market kept telling people in general and politicians in particular that regulation was a bad thing.

It is only since what looks more and more like the greatest Ponzi fraud in history started coming apart at the seams that Cox has undergone his Damascene conversion, and is now announcing that ‘The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work.”

Try reading the SEC Inspector General’s report on how the SEC managed to screw up on the Bear Sterne collapse; it’s a nightmare.

http://www.sec.gov/about/oig/audit/2008/446-a.pdf

But if you think that the really poor are not going to be made even poorer by all of this then I think you are mistaken.

It is, I suppose, possible that the IMF, having shown itself yet again to be philosophically and morally bankrupt, may be a little embarrassed at being seen to harass small countries subsidising their own small businesses, but I wouldn’t count on it…

Is there for honest Poverty
That hings his head, an’ a’ that;
The coward slave-we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that.
Our toils obscure an’ a’ that,
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,
The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an’ a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man’s a Man for a’ that:
For a’ that, and a’ that,
Their tinsel show, an’ a’ that;
The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor,
Is king o’ men for a’ that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca’d a lord,
Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that;
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a coof for a’ that:
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His ribband, star, an’ a’ that:
The man o’ independent mind
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an’ a’ that;
But an honest man’s abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Their dignities an’ a’ that;
The pith o’ sense, an’ pride o’ worth,
Are higher rank than a’ that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a’ that,)
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s coming yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man, the world o’er,
Shall brothers be for a’ that.

Rabbie was a philosopher as well as an exiseman and poet, sentiments of his written word lost in a sea of greed.

Cox was the arch-proponent of deregulation; he’s put out a press statement trying to look as if he was a poor victim in all of this but he was the person who told Congress that there was no need to legislate because his voluntary program would work just great.

It worked so great that there are no investment banks left to self-regulate.

Oh, and there’s a global credit crisis as well…

I hesitate to inflict still further bad news, but the $60 trillion credit default swap (CDS) market is completely unregulated by anyone anywhere…

What about a 2008-style ticker-tape parade?
Instead of ticker-tape, get the now redundant finance workers to lob equally redundant consoles and monitors at the the assembled great and the good of the hedge funds and wizard roll-out packages.

Whatever else, these people should be charged and asset stripped. Trouble is, they may enjoy it.