Have you heard of Century Village's Wall Street Club? They
are a keen group of residents who meet on Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. in Classroom B of
the Clubhouse. Founded by Don Hecht in 2015, the club's object from the
beginning has been to share insights on investing, NOT sell you anything. Don
says he formed the club so residents, including himself, could pool their
investing knowledge and learn from one another.
This club "special" is a showing of the film
"The Big Short" at the Okeechobee Public Library this coming
Wednesday, January 18 at 4:30 p.m. (in place of their regular meeting in
Classroom B). The movie, which is highly rated and lasts about two hours,
examines the reasons leading up to and behind the collapse of the US economy in
2008, now called the "Great Recession." Anyone may attend. Both the
movie and membership in the Wall Street Club are FREE.
Hi Lanny,
ReplyDeleteIt is not generally understood, that we were very close to the precipice of crashing the world economy.
I will never forget when Fed Chair Greenspan said at a Congressional hearing; "I discovered a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works"!
This problem of worthless mortgage bundles, toxic assets, complex and sometimes worthless derivatives, which no one without a PHD in mathematics could understand, started at the highest levels of Government with the idea that "everyone deserved a home, whether they could afford it or not". Also, the incredible lack of regulation of the banks, who responded to that philosophy with "no-doc" loans for virtually anyone who walked in the door.
It was the worst financial crisis in over a century!
The joint WPRF and UCO sponsored Asset recovery program is a direct effort to counter the results inflicted on many residents of Century Village who were granted mortgage loans they simply could not afford.
Dave Israel
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I read Timothy Geithner's book "Stress Test" and it was an eye-opener about how close the US (and the world, you are right) came to economic collapse. Geithner was treasury secretary under Obama, and he and his desperate colleagues tried everything to keep the economy from spiraling out of control altogether. The book gets its name "Stress Test," because Geithner & Co., working with the key financial institutions, created hypothetical "What if?" situations. This enabled government to know better what the institutions would do (fold? keep on?)—and vice versa, the big financial institutions to know better what under hypothetical situations the government would do. Thus speculation and fear about what the "other party" might do was reduced, and the two parties could work together to avert a looming crisis. It was a very close call, and you're right, I expect few people realize HOW close.
And yes, the Greenspan admission he had been so wrong (credit him, though, for admitting it) came as a shock because he had been so trusted.
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