Who has seen the "Inside Job" ???????????

This should be mandatory viewing for the entire nation. I'm not kidding. Every adult in the US should be forced to watch this movie. People are still too stupid to realize the real crooks. The Wall Street crime synidcate. Of course there were only two copies of this movie at the movie store. An absolute joke. I can't fathom how this movie would not comprise an entire wall of new release space. A sign of the times I guess. Keep em dumb and keep em under our control.

But no........ Lets take care of those real crooks, teachers making 23,000 starting wages that can't even support themselves, let alone a family.

Any of you dimwits that support this trivial union busting need to see this movie. If you still feel you attack school teachers then do everyone a favor and swallow a barrel.

I do not support teachers unions

Now what?

how does a massive disgusting example of crony capitalism and corruption with political lobbyist scum lessen concerns over pension and benefit issues that are not budgeted for and were negotiated through crony capitalism and political lobbyist scum.

your concern over wall st is valid yet your tie in to the other issue should not be part of the debate.  by your logic, every social issue you favor should be off limits for discussion because of the wall st scandal.

thats like someone saying dont cut the military or ration medicare because wall st scammed us.

as far as swallowing a barrel, mine only point outward.

It is a matter of attacking the innocent and defenseless sheep instead of the wolves. It should make you absolutely sick to your stomach.

These are not separate issues, not by far. The real issue at hand is the attempt to redefine the quality of life of the so-called "middle-class". It is an all out plundering of the real back-bone of American finance. Like Michael Moore or not, he hit the crux of the matter dead on in the statement: "they are trying to give you the quality of life that your grandparents had".

Forces are trying to turn the middle class against itself in the aim to destroy it. This is easily done in these trying times. Anyone with the least bit of sense should see this quite clearly.

nothing but nothing destroys the middle class wealth more than inflation.  we are headed for massive inflation on top of our already massive inflation.  most just dont see it.
attacking teachers unions or any public service union, or any entitlement or any spending , or any taxation issue does not make me sick.  there can be no more sacred cows.  the problem is here, it is huge , and emotions should not be the guiding force but rather an awareness of the issues and all possible solutions.
everybody will suffer, now or later.  the longer we wait, the worse it gets.

We've been in class warfare for decades.  It hasn't been a level playing field.  Only the rich knew about it until recently.   

It is a matter of attacking the innocent and defenseless sheep instead of the wolves
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public unions are not innocent. they are marching in the streets asking to enslave their neighbors to pay for their goodies. the banksters have been doing it for 100 years through inflation

only very recently have both come to light. most people understand the public employee unions

ive tried explaining why fractional reserve banking and the Fed are a scam to smart people and they look at me like i have 4 heads

every american should watch this movie as well

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173#

seiu is innocent

If teachers are only starting at 23k a year why would anyone make that a career choice. My daughter is in here 4th year of teaching 2nd grade and makes 48k a year for 181 days of work and a life time of goodies down the road, That is a fact.

I am about 2/5's of the way through it, watching it after hearing Joe Rogan talk about it so frequently on his podcast. Very, very interesting (and disgusting) so far. The film does a fantastic job explaining the origins of the collapse and explaining in easy terms the security cycle that could lead to bank taking fees on things that they know are bad and leaving the taxpayers/investors to pick up the pieces.

I'll add more thoughts once I finish watching it all

Ya, I don't think she deserves that much either to babysit a bunch of rug rats. The problem is the unilateral payment methods. PE teachers, and elem ed teachers have the easiest jobs ever and don't have take home work. Attacking the system as a whole rather than fixing the real underlying problem is just going to make the education system even worse by keeping smart/talented applicants out. Gutting the education system is no answer.

Take the $ away from the consumer. He quits spending.

70% of the Economy

Hang on folks we are headed for the Dumpster..

That is amusing..Wall Street Bad, Public Union Good..

1st off, Wall Street does need fixed. I agree with you there.

However your disconnect between wall street and the unions concerns me…You do realize the pension funds are investment vehicles just like individual 401K;s, stock accounts, etc...

Typically, public pension funds put 60 percent of their assets in stocks, 30 percent in fixed income, 5 percent in real estate and the rest in riskier investments such as hedge funds and commodities.

That mix requires the non-bond assets to earn double-digit gains in order to reach expected rates of return.

So, here a few glaring examples...

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the seventh-largest public pension fund in the U.S., reports each year that its expected rate of return is 8 percent. Public records show the fund has had an average return of 2.6 percent during the past 10 years.

The nation’s largest public pension fund, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, has been reporting an expected rate of return of 7.75 percent for the past eight years, and 8 percent before that. Its annual return during the decade from Dec. 31, 1998, to Dec. 31, 2008, has been 3.32 percent, and in 2008, when markets tanked, it lost 27 percent.

The system as stated above has been deteriorating for years, and it is now at a point of insolvency.  Now that they have to use  more realistic rates of returns…just like private retirement accounts are forced to do.

So, since the unions love membership, and membership dues, and have clearly been inept at not only administering their pensions,   but also estimating future returns and payouts – why should the private sector, and private citizens through taxation be held accountable?

You refereed to me specifically, as a dim-wit, and that this union busting is trivial.   It is the #1 economic concern facing our economy..see Wisconsin, Ohio,  and any other state that is trying to force us to pay for these shortfalls.  That is what I find amusing.

The middle class did it to themselves.  Bidding up house prices via debt, MAKES US ALL POORER! Why is this such a hard concept for people to grasp? 

Incomes/wages are the product of your labor
House prices are a function of wages

It is beyond me how one could be duped into thinking that buying Real Estate via a mortgage is an investment.  That doesn't make any sense. 

Investment is putting money into something with the expectation of profit. More specifically, investment is the commitment of money or capital to the purchase of financial instruments or other assets so as to gain profitable returns in the form of interest, dividends, or appreciation of the value of the instrument

Housing is a consumption item, outside of the act of building a new dwelling.  Otherwise it is a box made of sticks and stones that is left to the elements to rot.  It requires constant maintenance and ever-increasing taxes.  How exactly can one expect a house to turn a profit? (outside of land speculation).  Not to mention that in order to realize gains from an investment, you have to sell the investment to someone else, so who in their right mind would plan for their golden years with their biggest investment being their shelter, when the only way that you can cash out is to sell it, leaving your ass on the street?!

There is absolutely no way to fix our system until we the people educate ourselves about housing, and fix these glaring problems.  For starters, we need to do away with the MID.  That subsidy for the stupid/rich, costs taxpayers 100 BILLION dollars annually, and FOR WHAT?

points made in post 14

Doc. Did plenty to indict wall st. but not even close to enough to point the finger at the Treasury, Fed, and Politicians.  

this is like saying, lets not fix SS/medicare bc we are spent too much on iraq/afghanistan.  2 wrongs dont make a right

steve got boxed again?

I'm about 2/3rd of the way through it (watching it in pieces obviously). These ratings agencies should be fucking shot, what despicable behavior on their behalf. AAA and A2 ratings for these shitty securities, which then allowed them to be invested in by so many retirement type investments because of their supposed stability and safety? Give me a fucking break. People should be in prison for this fraud.

The crisis was portrayed as a natural economic bubble in the media, for-the-most-part, something too complicated for the average Joe to understand. This flick sure does a good at showing how there was nothing natural at all about this so-called "bubble".

The many guilty parties involved need to be prosecuted. They should be rounded up, their assets stripped, and condemned to concentration camps. From there they can learn what it means to earn a living, an honest one that is.

The many guilty parties involved need to be prosecuted. They should be rounded up, their assets stripped, and condemned to concentration camps. From there they can learn what it means to earn a living, an honest one that is
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i would agree...however many of them work in high places in government. tough to get one fox to tell another fox not to raid the henhouse

 

I sense you are a bit demented... good luck with that

I fully support teachers, and their best efforts to earn the best wage they can.

I do not support teachers unions which are always about power and sucking the resources dry of public funding.  THAT is not what education is about.

Demented? Informed....... I am fully aware of the progress China and other countries are making in education, while America is quickly falling behind. I am aware of problems in the unilateral pay scale of teachers that needs to be reformed. I am aware that gutting the education system as a whole will keep good teachers out of the profession.

Funny how teachers unions are about sucking public funding dry, instead of workers collective bargaining rights. Oh right, that is what Fox news told you.

"The middle class did it to themselves.  Bidding up house prices via debt, MAKES US ALL POORER! Why is this such a hard concept for people to grasp? 

This is what I think did start the crisis. But it wasn't the middle class "biddibg up house prices"

It was Congress (Barney Frank, Dick "Turbin" Durbin") who encoraged (coerced) banks to make politically correct loans to people who were showing unemployment for income. Fannie and Freddy knew they had nothing to lose and would be bailed out.