Tom Toles for March 19, 2018

Hits the nail on the head. Including Marginal Man. We – and especially the huge banks/investment banks/insurance groups are refusing to learn not only from the history of 100 years ago, but from the history of 10 years ago. We are going to not only permit, but encourage them, to resume doing what they were doing when they caused a global economic collapse that began in 2007. They will claim that new operational controls that are so sophisticated that we cannot possibly comprehend them, will prevent what happened last time. This is, of course, nonsense. It always happens. That is why those three pillars of the financial markets MUST be separated. If they are not properly segregated, then the failure of any one firm that is a major player in all three markets will likely bring about a complete collapse of the financial system, followed rapidly by the economic underpinnings of society. Presto, Great Depression II. Those were the Glass-Steagall Act requirements that Congress repealed right around the turn of the century.

We don’t have to ask what could possibly go wrong, we lived through it very recently.

POLS SERVE THE STREET – {rhyme}

Congress bumps up the Wall-Streeters’ stock,

by dropping the regs intended to block

their profiteering by methods so frisky

that for everyone else the economy’s risky.

“Let bankers be freed,”

is Congress’s creed, -

- though Others bleed

from a banker’s misdeed.

====

{Off the cartoon’s topic:}

ENABLING the GUMMINT’S DISABLING – {limerick and coda}

Repugs continue sclerotic

while Trump’s ever More psychotic

in feeding his urge

to mangle and purge

and make our gummint chaotic.

… Coda:

Repugs ENABLE his doings despotic;

they’re unrealistic and quite quixotic.

They’re idiotic?

or Under a narcotic?

========

{Off the cartoon’s topic:}

HITCHED TO TRUMP’S WAGON – {limerick and codas}

If your nose isn’t orange, “You’re Fired!!”

Kiss my ring to get hired.

To ME hitch your wagon,

and You will be braggin’

on the nation that I have acquired.

… Coda #1:

You’ll LOVE me, – and be

my Mini-Me.

… Coda #2:

“The Land of the Free”

has been trumped by Me.

======

Rules are made from experience to avoid repeating past errors in judgement. Children and bankers don’t like rules, yet both get hurt without them.

Have we learned from our mistakes? Yes, we can repeat them perfectly.

America is Heading for a banking crisis that will make the Bush recession look like a minor adjustment…thanks to "Con"gre$$.

{Off the cartoon’s topic:}

HIS FANS THEY THRILL TO HIS TWEETS – {limerick and coda}

Will NEVER they smell the putridity

in Trumpian tweetings’ acridity?

Will NEVER they learn?

Will they NEVER discern

that his tweets disguise his stupidity?

… Coda:

Trump is the apex of yuuge vapidity,

his muddled mind of muddy turbidity.

Yet his supporters accord him validity!!

======

{Off the cartoon’s topic:}

TRUMP MUST BE CHECKED – {rhyme}

There’s much about Donald ‘bout which to object

{There’s little to regard as okay}.

So much of our country The Donald has wrecked

{In his autocratic way}.

By Congress and Courts he ought to be checked

{Someone, please hold him at bay}.

…

May Mueller dethrone this Mussolini

and put back in the bottle this evil genie

who serves the whims of the wealthy

with tricks both blatant and stealthy.

…

America must twist like Harry Houdini

to escape from the chains of this Trumpian meanie.

===========

The law passed 67-31 in the senate, meaning that a couple of sell out Dems voted with the cons for deregulation. This turd is gonna get signed by Trump since the house is full of loonies.

Nice illustration combining Guns & Banks. Certainly gets the message across!

When the rich are successful they keep the profits.

When the rich fail, the taxpayer bails them out.

@paulkrugman

Via @ThePlumLineGS, this. The entire GOP now consists of apparatchiks; they’ve built their careers on toeing the party line, and neither obvious obstruction of justice nor clear evidence of collusion with a foreign power will make them take a stand pic.twitter.com/B47VuJXOKV

Don’t act so surprised .. you and your bank buddies are writing the laws.

Why bother with a bump stock? A fully automatic, military assault rifle would be much more efficient. Efficient at doing, what? Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Besides, it would cost twice as much and bump up the weapons manufacturers’ stock prices. So, come on, upgrade your arsenal today!

Financial stability deregulated as shown by the nervous Market on Wall Street that has fallen for the third time… Even if it’s still up from the past.. how many are losing their 401ks and their retirement funds?? We learned nothing from the lessons of October 29th 1929 or the gross manipulations that Banks were involved in that caused the most recent depression in 2006.

Question….Why on Tom Toles when I ‘like’ a comment, the number of ‘likies’ (cute typo) often goes up two numbers? Do they show up twice on the likees (not a typo) notifications?

Those who don’t learn from the past are probably taking bribes in the present………

You can tell the Trump Economy is kicking in, the Stock Market is falling again.

Sorry if this is getting tiresome, but I’m going to beat on the same old drum again. Super-loose banking regulations aren’t the problem, they’re a symptom. The REAL problem is terrible campaign-finance laws, made even more terrible by the disastrous Citizens Untied decision in 2010.

No matter what your primary cause is — guns, health care, the environment, schools, women’s rights, drugs, immigration, climate change, you name it — it’s a lost cause as long as the super-rich can buy public policy with their giant, expensive megaphones that drown out the voices of the common people.

The only true long-term solution is a Constitutional amendment that will restore the meaning of “people” to be actual living, breathing human beings and “free speech” as not including free spending.

Richard Russell is correct, of course. Other symptoms are Congressional inability to deal with gun violence, health care, climate change, environmental protection, the internet, and on and on.

Are we Great Again yet?

Yes, there is another crash coming, as corporations use their tax giveaways to buy their own stock and pump up stock market prices unsustainably. Read The Big Short for how to tell, and some ideas on how not to be a victim.

Yes, there is another crash coming, as corporations use their tax giveaways to buy their own stock and pump up stock market prices unsustainably. Read The Big Short for how to tell, and some ideas on how not to be a victim.