Book: The Weekend That Changed Wall Street by Maria Bartiromo

Oh really?? The weekend that changed Wall Street?? Perhaps it seemed that way but I doubt Wall Street has changed all that much. See the movie "Inside Job" which deals with most of the same material for different accounting of what went down.

Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, AIG, the CEOs of these companies, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, TARP, bailouts, buyouts...There was considerable movement of personnel in the higher echelons as everyone scrambled to stop or slow the train wreck which started the weekend of September 12, 2008. Do I understand it better? Only a little bit.

I actually am not very interested in the world of financial markets but would like to understand better what exactly happened/is happening. And how does the US government play into the game here? What power do they have? A lot, and it seems the taxpayers (you and me) bailed out the companies who messed up.

The author has a show called "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo" on CNBC and edits the "Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo." so I suppose she knows how this all works but perhaps she is too close and too connected.

There are commercial vs. investment banks and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (a bank regulatory act) supposedly allowed "reckless investing by commercial banks." This is one piece of the puzzle. Bill Clinton supported the repeal and still maintains that making it "possible for commercial banks to go into the investment banking business...might give us a more stable source of long-term investment." Yet, common-sense dictates that almost everything in our world needs rules to run well. We certainly need rules regarding our personal finances, although, unfortunately, the banks told millions that the rules were not all THAT important anymore.

There was an interesting conversation that the author had with Garry Kasparov, the chess player. He asked Maria if she thought TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was a good thing and she said she thought it was. Garry replied: "Then you are not a free-market capitalist...If you believe in bailouts, that flies in the face of free-market capitalism, which requires you to allow firms to fail. They made mistakes, they took on untenable risks and they should have failed, so new companies could emerge."

I am certain there are vigorous responses and counter arguments to Kasparov's words, and no doubt it is simplistic. No doubt letting the banks fail would have been disastrous for the country...I don't know, but it seems that a true capitalist country may not be what works the best. I think we should ask ourselves these questions. We know but seem to keep forgetting that fear and greed run the markets, which doesn't exactly promote confidence for the millions who have become victims. Theoretically, it all makes for interesting discussions but realistically, it means more and more Americans are homeless, jobless, in ill health, discouraged and losing faith in our systems. Politically, who wants the best for our citizens?

This book did try to put a face on the prime players but only superficially. The greedy got very greedy and then they got very afraid. So what is happening now? Again, go see the movie Inside Job for another look at "The Weekend That Changed Wall Street."