The WSJ's Evan Newmark, A Former Goldman Sachs Executive, Thinks Wall Street Protesters Are Buffoons
Newmark is wrong on several counts in the above clip, the most egregious example being his assertion that Wall Street bears no responsibility for the massive increase in the national debt, in stark opposition to accepted fact as Simon Johnson discusses below.
From Simon Johnson Destroys The Myth Of Jamie Dimon's Bernanke Complaint:
The realized downside risks, as handed to the taxpayer, should be measured not merely as the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or Federal Reserve rescue plans, but in terms of the increase in the national debt the financial crisis caused. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the financial crisis will end up increasing government debt by at least 40 percent of gross domestic product. (I’ve covered the details of this calculation elsewhere; this point is not controversial among fiscal experts.)
So, to turn Dimon’s question around, we know that previously low capital requirements led to social losses (those borne by taxpayers) in the trillions of dollars, as well as millions of jobs and homes lost, while the private gains were in the low billions.
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Oct 9, 2011 at 10:13 AM
