Pelosi: The day I heard our economy might fail

[Bill USA]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/17/pelosi-financial-crisis-lehman-column/2828951/

[font size="3"]In 2008, our system was teetering, so Democrats took bipartisan approach, which is needed again now.[/font]


Five years ago Wednesday, when I was the speaker, I gathered the other Democratic House leaders in my office to discuss the latest financial news. I told them that, as a matter of course, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson briefed me on the state of the markets and the financial system, but had not done so that week.

In that time, Lehman Bros. had filed for bankruptcy; Merrill Lynch had faced failure and had been purchased by Bank of America; and, two days earlier, AIG had survived only after a Federal Reserve bailout.

After the meeting at 3 p.m., I placed a call to Secretary Paulson and asked him to come the next morning to brief the leadership. Then came his stunning response: "Madam Speaker, tomorrow morning will be too late."

At that point, my question was, "Then why am I calling you?" My impression from his response was that the Bush White House did not want him informing Congress of the pending meltdown. But, he said, "You're the speaker of the House; I'm the secretary of the Treasury. You're asking me, so I'm telling you what's happening."
(more)

[tazkcmo]

1. Then

I got right on the phone with my financial adviser and made a ton!

[Autumn]

2. "After the meeting at 3 p.m , I placed a call to my stockbroker." Fixed it

And here comes the preemptive bipartisan approach

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. But impeachment was off the table. Wall Street was bailed out.

Some on Wall Street even gave themselves bonuses with the taxpayer money.


Yay, Democracy wins for the rich!

Today, Republicans have raised the specter of yet another crisis — the prospect of a default on the national debt to which the Bush policies contributed. They are willing to hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to their anti-government ideology. This irresponsible action poses a cataclysmic danger to the stability of our markets and the economic security of our middle class.

Hasn't PBO talked to Nancy about the need to look forward and not back?

[Bill USA]

5. they didn't even have time to impeach the Bushter at the time. Trying to prevent the Trickle Down

Disaster pretty much took up everybody's time.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. No. Sorry. Wrong. That is an excuse, and a very poor one.

They took impeachment off the table. Period. They didn't set it aside to visit it a month later. They hid it away.


Poor try though on your part.

[Bill USA]

14. what 'high crimes and misdemeanors" would he have been charged with? Dems are not nearly as partisan

as - and lack the meanness of the GOPers.

THe Bush administration and Republican party created the Trickle down Deregulation disaster but they would just plead stupidity - 'We thought wealth concentration in the hands of fewer and fewer people and deregulating banking - especially mortgage lending (see "Predatory Lenders Partner in Crime&quot would lead to prosperity." They STILL keep claiming this will produce a strong growing economy!!

I agree it's nice to contemplate Dems doing that but it's really not realistic to say they could have/should have impeached Bush. Can you impeach for incompetence - I don't think so.

[Bill USA]

4. At that point, my question was, "Then why am I calling you?" My impression from his response was the

......the Bush White House did not want him informing Congress of the pending meltdown

"At that point, my question was, "Then why am I calling you?" My impression from his response was that the Bush White House did not want him informing Congress of the pending meltdown."

[Autumn]

6. That would have been nice to hear that about 5 years ago.

Yet I don't seem to remember anyone saying that. I may be wrong and she may have said it at the time but something like that would stick with me.

[Bill USA]

13. "she may have said it at the time but something like that would stick with me." ..were you in on the

phone call?... or did you think this exchange would have found its way to print at that time? I mean not everything gets passed on to reporters (CIA keeps it's wiretaps to itself ... ha-ha)

[fasttense]

8. And the bailouts for the idle uber rich began immediately at the expense

of every middle class and poor American citizen.

[blkmusclmachine]

9. Impeachment is off the table.

We must kill Social Security to save it.

Satan Sandwich.

etc.

LIAR

[Brigid]

10. "Might fail?"

Nancy dear, it already *has* failed. You need to start reading DU regularly; lately you seem to be coming up with brainstorms that we figured out here a long time ago.

[Octafish]

11. How did she ever manage to save her porfolio?

She had a lot on her mind then:

"I've had four or five months of people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco and angering my neighbors," Pelosi said at a gathering sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Pelosi added that the squatters have engaged in decidedly non-neighborly behavior like hanging their clothes from the trees; moving in sofas, chairs and other "permanent living facilities"; and, oddly, building a large Buddha on the sidewalk in front of her home. "You can just imagine my neighbors' reactions to all of this," she said. "And if they were poor, and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they'd be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/10/protesters-building-large_n_67826.html

I mean, goodness, really, having to live with THOSE people protesting Bush the war criminal. They hadn't even heard about how Paulson's banksters would ruin and throw out on the street MILLIONS more -- and have the U.S. Taxpayer bail them out and pay them a nice bonus in the process.

[Doctor_J]

12. grrrr. We absolutely do not need a bipartisan approach

Stop bargaining with terrorists