dwot (99.48)

Fraud Probe - International Relations

December 05, 2007 – Comments (3)

I was thinking about the implications in a broader sense of what Wall Street and the banks have done in terms of working relations with other nations.  Right now we are seeing losses to different levels of government, pension plans, money markets and the US subprime mortgage losses are limited to the US, but are around the world.  These things were rated triple AAA by US firms.

In Canada we have the Yukon Government with $36.5 million frozen in this kind of garbage, which is about $1200 for every man, woman and child that lives in the Yukon.   Several small communities in Norway have been badly hit.  These are but two international hits that I know about.

Now we have New York prosecutors issuing subpoenas to Wall Street firms.  Make no mistake, this is morally a fraud and there is a serious problem with the law for it to not be legally a fraud.

But this is a fraud that has been committed against the world.  What I know as a Canadian is that we've had high taxes and we've sacrificed a lot to get our debt under control.  We've had a sluggish economy and disgraceful job prospects for our university graduates, but we now have surplus budgets and we have been reducing our federal debt.  We have far more responsible lending laws and much stronger insurance costs for mortgages with less than 25% down.  At one point we had 54.9% income taxes for income over $80k, yet average housing prices were $300k.  The sacrifice for getting our debt under control was beyond enormous.

I am just waiting for the "$hit to hit the fan" with our Canada Pension Plan, which has been investing our tax dollars.  I have a feeling that all that sacrifice, hard work and belt tightening is going to be wiped out by this mess.  Having said this, my first thoughts when was researching our Canada Pension and found out they had put our money in the market was, "you dumb, stupid, ignorant, f---- idiots, we have debt and that's the first place of responsibility to put our tax dollars." 

But regardless of what my instincts and feelings were with respect to what the government did, this stuff was rated as having a very low risk.

So, take a minute and think about this.  Do you think a US citizen is going to get a welcome of any kind from those small towns in Norway that don't have the money to pay for their children's education any more because half of their tax money just dissolved? 

I predict there is going to be some ultra serious international relationship problems by the time this stuff works its way out of the market.