Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/12/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Seth Your rant is not unjustified and you feel you are among friends. I fear a community bound together with an interest in a niche photo niche is unlikely to be homogeneous in its political views and is unlikely to provide a forum for a considered debate on if/how/when capitalism can reinvent itself. Best if we ask about the future of Leica in these turbulent times. What is vital for the health of Leica is that they keep Leica users on board. That is the question for this forum. Chris B 2008/12/20 Seth Rosner <sethrosner@nycap.rr.com>: > Oh yes, Frank, the folks who adore free market capitalism - run amok. > Deregulate! Let the criminals fleece investors, earn billions of dollars in > compensation and leave it to taxpayers to save the world while permitting > the criminals to retain their billions. Don't get me started. > > Three years ago my nephew was writing reports and making oral presentations > to clients of his firm that predicted exactly what has occurred, accusing > Moody's and Standard & Poors, the two major credit rating agencies, of > gross > negligence in failing adequately to assess precisely the risks of the > financial skullduggery that led to 30-1 leverage ratios for lenders, > mortgage brokers l;ying to and conning poor people into buying homes they > couldn't possibly afford and the hedge fund crimes that ensued. Josh was > predicting exactly what happened. The firm asked him to resign as their > clients were offended! > > Now he consults frequently with the finance committees of our Senate and > House of Representatives on legislative solutions, appears regularly as a > commentator on financial news programs and last summer was invited by the > Brookings Institute to Paris for its three-day program on the sub-prime > melt-down where he appeared on several panels with Paul Volker, former > Chairman of the Federal Reserve. > > Finally the people who brought you this world mess leave Washington exactly > one month from today. They will leave behind a fair number of > Congresspersons of similar persuasion, so the war is not yet won. > > Gals and guys, understand that I am an independent voter, not registered in > any party for decades; I've cast my ballots for Democrats and Republicans > for the presidency, the Senate and House and for state and local offices. > Unfortunately the Republican Party was highjacked thirty years ago or more > by unprincipled thugs whose only precepts were to say and do anything for > money and power, lie, cheat, deceive. They've made the world a messier > place > than it's been in many, many years. > > Fortunately slightly more than half of the American electorate saw fit to > make an African-American our President. He's smart, principled and burdened > with the worst economy since the Great Depression and the worst world > crisis > since the demise of the Soviet Union. We'll see. > > Today seems to be my rant day. Please forgive. > > Seth > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Dernie" > <Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com> > To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org> > Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 3:31 PM > Subject: Re: [Leica] un-believable - now off-topic and long-ish > > >> Completely agree Seth. OTOH it was the government that removed the >> controls put in place post 1929 crash and left the inmates to run the >> prison... >> Greed blinds people to reality, look at the Madoff (sp) deal, no >> investor could have believed it was straight with those returns but >> they turned a blind eye as long as the cash came in. >> Frank >> >> On 20 Dec, 2008, at 16:44, Seth Rosner wrote: >> >>> caught in the economic catastrophe caused by the criminals who have >>> run the banks and investment banks and come close to destroying the >>> world economy. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com > Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.19/1857 - Release Date: 12/19/2008 > 10:09 AM > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >