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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Why Were Lessons of 1998 Mini-Crash Ignored?


The American financial system almost collapsed in 1998 when a hedge-fund, "Long Term Capital Management" went belly up. In a harbinger of 2008, banks had placed huge derivative bets on the Russian economy with LTCM.

The Fed forced 13 US and international banks to purchase the hedge-fund. Altogether $4.6 Billion was lost.

A PBS Frontline Documentary "The Warning" magnificently shows that although the American (and world) economies are at stake, the Clinton and Bush Administrations refused to regulate the derivative market, and allowed it to grow to an eventual $595 Trillion during the housing bubble.

Not only did they refuse to regulate the industry, they forced out Brooksley Borne, the Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who had demanded action.'

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1 comment:

  1. Hello. I am afraid that Obama's policy is not much better. The Fed is spending money on reforms which are leading to even bigger debt, the unemployment rate is getting higher and people aren't able to pay loans. If the government continues this way I don't think there will be any economical recovery, on contrary, I'd say there will be another housing "bubbles".
    Take care,
    Jay

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment it is much appreciated.