Europeans on left and right ridicule U.S. money meltdown

[dtotire]

Source: LA Times


Europeans on left and right ridicule U.S. money meltdown

They list greed and Greenspan among the culprits, and there are comparisons to . . . Albania. But amid the gloating, there is fear for financial systems in Britain, Spain, Italy and elsewhere.
By Sebastian Rotella and Janet Stobart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 20, 2008
LONDON -- It's a rare day when finance officials, leftist intellectuals and ordinary salespeople can agree on something. But the economic meltdown that wrought its wrath from Rome to Madrid to Berlin this week brought Europeans together in a harsh chorus of condemnation of the excess and disarray on Wall Street.

The finance minister of Italy's conservative and pro-U.S. government warned of nothing less than a systemic breakdown. Giulio Tremonti excoriated the "voracious selfishness" of speculators and "stupid sluggishness" of regulators. And he singled out Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, with startling scorn.


http://websearch.cs.com/gw/boomframe.jsp?query=Drudge&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D54d4291dce7f4406%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3DDrudge%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.drudgereport.com%252F%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DGWYTop%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drudgereport.com%2F





"Greenspan was considered a master," Tremonti declared. "Now we must ask ourselves whether he is not, after bin Laden, the man who hurt America the most. . . . It is clear that what is happening is a disease. It is not the failure of a bank, but the failure of a system. Until a few days ago, very few were willing to realize the intensity and the dramatic nature of the crisis."

In an interview Thursday in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Tremonti drew a comparison to corruption-ridden Albania in 1997, when a nationwide pyramid scheme cost hundreds of thousands of people their savings and ignited anarchic civil conflict






http://websearch.cs.com/gw/boomframe.jsp?query=Drudge&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D54d4291dce7f4406%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3DDrudge%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.drudgereport.com%252F%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DGWYTop%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drudgereport.com%2F

Read more: http://websearch.cs.com/gw/boomframe.jsp?query=Drudge&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D54d4291dce7f4406%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3DDrudge%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.drudgereport.com%252F%26invoc

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. So, . . can we assume less investment in the USA from Europeans in the future?

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I think so.

The USA has shot itself in the foot,

well . . .

maybe BOTH feet.

And as I said before, and will repeat . . .

China and Russia are watching,

and waiting . . .

[Javaman]

7. we blew off both legs and are still trying to tap dance. nt

[Iterate]

2. And why the drudge links? No thank you.

[Joanne98]

3. I like this description..."voracious selfishness"

[Wilber_Stool]

4. My local NPR station, WCQS,

Plays the BBC morning show from midnight to five am. They did a story on the melt down last night. I felt so ashamed for us when I listened. It sounds so much worst when you hear someone else talking about it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Osama bin Greenspan.

[mainegreen]

6. They're probably next. n/t

[eowyn_of_rohan]

8. awww BS - they, too, have been greedily grabbing pieces of this pie

and that is why they are also scared.

[WriteDown]

10. Nailed it...

To believe this is only a U.S. phenomenon is a new exercise in sticking heads in the sand.

[AlphaCentauri]

11. of course they are scare, why bother buying stock in euros when investors can get them for pennies

we are about to become to them what China is to us.

Cheap goods.....

[edwardian]

12. It is conceivable

that Europeans have come to trust American leadership on many issues, finance included. They were surely aware of the unregulated nature of American financial markets, but deemed to remain silent about the consequences while they waited to reap the benefits of these new financial tools. Greed certainly played into it, but the issue of trust should also have played into it. Can't trust Americans is now the mantra...over here.

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. "Can't trust Americans is now the mantra...over here." - good idea

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BUT

I'd like to put in a plug for US_American citizens.

It's the government and financial gangs that are causing the problem,

but the citizens are too lazy or dumb to vote properly.

I really don't know the solution to the US-American problem.

Maybe someone should invade the USA??

USA seems to think that's the way to "fix" other countries . . .

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. apparantly everyone else understands that the fundamentals are NOT sound.