Is this how you spell hypocrisy?

It amazes me how the media is able to spin this corporate corruption issue as strictly a republican problem. Enron dished out huge sums to both parties, including to Joe Liberman, who is supposedly heading the Senate investigation into...Enron. Gosh, wonder why that investigation is stalled? Ken Lay spent nights in the Lincoln bedroom courtesy of Clinton, not Bush. The Clinton administration went to the wall for Enron over that Indian power plant. But I'm sure they would have done it for any U.S company, yeah right.

The various bailouts of the 90's no doubt sowed some of the seeds of our current problems. Contrary to "Trader Mike" or whatever authority is being cited, they were instigated by Bob Rubin. Gingrich and the congressional republicans went along. Greenspan was more or less obliged to accommodate them. He certainly didn't stand tall against them, but I have never seen any evidence he pushed them either. Oh, that would be the same Bob Rubin who attempted to trade on his name and reputation by trying to get the Treasury Departemnt to lean on the credit agencies to hold off on downgrading Enron. I'm sure he was only concerned about 401k participants, and it had nothing to do with Citigroup's exposure.

We keep hearing about Bush's Harken "problem." No doubt he got in on some deals Joe Sixpack wouldn't. I just read that MBNA lent Dem. Congr. Moran of virginia around a half mill when he was in desperate money woes. Just a coincidence he sponsored legislation they wanted that was anathema to other lib democrats. Bush sold the Harken stock after being approached by a broker for an institutional buyer. The sale was vetted by counsel for the company. I'm sure many of you won't believe that, it doesn't fit the media template, but as they say, you can look it up.
 
You can't make this stuff up, and it just keeps seeping out of the sewer. From former Clinton spin artist Dick Morris' N.Y. Post column:

Meanwhile, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, anxious to protect their corporate campaign contributors, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, desperate to protect his wife's lobbying clients, have cooperated to kill the real reforms for which investors clamor and which Sen. John McCain has proposed.

By 71 percent to 29 percent, stock-market investors want CEO stock options to be reported as expenses on corporate disclosures. By 81-19, they want these options to include a downside risk as well as an upside potential.

More than 80 percent demand that the SEC be able to freeze CEOs' compensation and seize their assets when their firm goes bankrupt and they have profited handsomely in the process. A vast majority wants to ban CEOs from selling shares of company stock while they work there and for a year after they retire.

Until and unless the likes of Bush, Cheney and Daschle stop playing games and sheltering their corporate benefactors from real regulation, investors will continue to vote with their feet and stay out of the market.

Politically, of course, the scandal has the potential to be a godsend for the Democrats. But how can they expect to be taken seriously when two of their three chief public spokespeople - Daschle and Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe - have a lot to cover up themselves?

Daschle's wife is one of the biggest corporate lobbyists, and she reportedly persuaded him to oppose reform of stock options for CEOs. The senator won't divulge the names of his wife's clients or how much they pay her.

And McAuliffe's record in parlaying $100,000 into $18 million through investment in Global Crossing - and his nimbleness in knowing just when to jump off before it crashed - destroys his credibility on the issue.

When the GOP prepared to open fire on Clinton for Monica Lewinsky, incoming House Speaker Bob Livingstone resigned because of his vulnerability on sexual issues. Unless Daschle and McAuliffe do likewise, their attacks on Republican corporate greed will provoke belly laughs, not serious consideration.

And the Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq will sink lower and lower and lower.
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the Bush recession is OK for traders but it is killing investors, and without investors, traders have no one to feed off of. So I guess its very bad for traders and God awful for investors. It is hard to find anyone who has confidence in Bush/Cheney on economic matters
 
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