One Woman Warned About Derivatives & Financial Meltdown

FRONTLINE has produced a remarkable documentary titled "The Warning" which documents how Lawrence Summers, Greenspan and Ruben attacked and blocked Mrs. Brooksley Born, who was in charge of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) when she warned of the derivatives danger in the mid 90s and heroically fought to regulate them. The OTC (over the counter) Derivatives market represented a Black Box within the Wall Street, with very little information, reporting, knowledge or understanding by anyone in the Government and its Regulators. The toxic assets of Banks once considered 'too big to fail' consisted mostly of OTC derivatives.

See how Michael Moore tried to get a simple explantion of Derivatives which are complex financial Instruments or rather complicated betting schemes designed to escape regulation. The financial sector has five lobbyists behind every congressman.

Alan Greenspan, the wizard of Wall Street admitted that his worldview and ideology of 40 years about the self-correcting free market and unfettered capitalism is false. This brilliant presentation takes the problem that created the crisis back through the Greenspan, to its origin in his philosophical mentor, Ayn Rand. Watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" here.

It remains to be seen how Obama fares with his top economic advisors Tim Geithner and Larry Summers! Are we as conscious citizens paying attention or willing to learn and grow in wisdom from our experience?

Buddha spoke about the importance of the practice of 'heedfulness' or the quality of 'appamada' that keeps both kinds of benefit secure — benefits in this life & benefits in lives to come. More on 'appamada'. Also see subtle meaning of 'pamada' and 'mada' in Pali Text society dictionary. Here's Bush's insight off the record.

A site with interesting links and perspectives on 'Physicists Play with Finance".