Bloooowback: Trump Held a Rally on Saturday

Posted by Tina

Trump held a rally in Florida on Saturday….

As expected, no matter what Trump said negative reporting would follow. Those who despise him make up their minds about what he’s communicating even before he opens his mouth…he’s just a racist xenophobe and that’s that. Likewise, his family members come under attack, despite past calls that the president’s family should be left alone. President Trump isn’t standing for fake news. Apparently Melania isn’t either. The big dog shows his teeth, while his mate seeks blessings from above. Call it a two pronged strategy to inspire higher levels of integrity in the press.

On Saturday Trump was discussing the turmoil and increased crime in European countries following the surge of refugees into nations like Germany, Sweden, and France. Trump:

“We’ve got to keep our country safe,” he said. “You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris.”

Trump was bashed for “misleading the people” in his remarks about Sweden. Reporters assumed he was referring to a terror attack the night before. Why would they make this assumption? Did they even bother to get a transcript of his remarks?

The President was not talking about a terror attack and certainly not about an attack that never happened. But the assumption and speculation (fake news) would make Trump look “unqualified” to be president and perhaps that was the intent. Never fear, the President explained (Tweet) that his remarks followed a report by Ami Horowitz on Tucker Carlson’s show Friday night. Horowitz asserts that Swedish officials are in denial about the negative effects of the refugee surge, including the fact that costly efforts to integrate refugees into Swedish culture simply have not worked. See an interview with Horowitz on the Stuart Varney show here.

The Horowitz documentary can be viewed here.

President Trump should be praised for using his position to bring awareness to our people. We can learn from the experiences of others. Depending on the ultimate fate of Europe, we could become the sole refuge of freedom in the future. The warning is not about refugees per se but about radicals among the refugees who are determined to use their voices and influence to install Islamic regions in the countries they invade under the cover of refugee status. The future of our free and open society depends on awareness about this very real and very dangerous problem. While Swedish officials remain dedicated to their open borders policy, and our media continues to play an activist political game, our President is serving the people, no matter how difficult to believe the message may seem.

The very gracious Melania apparently decided to make a statement of her own on Saturday when she chose to open the event with The Lord’s Prayer. Her decision garnered immediate derision on social media with activists “mocking her accent and religion and branding her everything from a hostage to a whore – all for the secular offense of reciting “The Lord’s Prayer.” One tweeter went “dictator” postal:

Melania starts the dictatorship rally with the Lord’s Prayer? NOT EVERY AMERICAN IS CHRISTIAN!!!! Country over party.

No, it wasn’t Dewey, unless his Twitter handle is @JaimePrimak. it could be one of his comrades. Do these intolerant ungracious people understand anything about this nations history or the meaning of freedom or tolerance? Apparently not. We have space for Islamic calls to prayer everywhere including in the halls of government, schools, and businesses but the First Lady’s choice of prayer at a rally is not to be tolerated. Remarkable and remarkably ignorant!

Fortunately the citizens that support the President and First lady were enthusiastic during the rally and very supportive of the way the pair are asserting the opinions and rights of many Americans whose voices have been blunted, criticized, violently protested and ignored for far too long.

Your thoughts?

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26 Responses to Bloooowback: Trump Held a Rally on Saturday

  1. Bryan H. says:

    “Trump was bashed for “misleading the people” in his remarks about Sweden. Reporters assumed he was referring to a terror attack the night before. Why would they make this assumption?”

    Because that’s the most rational interpretation of his words? When someone refers to something that happened somewhere last night…we assume they mean something that happened somewhere last night. We don’t assume they mean they watched something on TV last night about something happening somewhere.

    Trump is an unclear communicator because he rarely knows what he is going to say before he says it. You may be getting his intended message, but the majority of Americans aren’t. In fact I’d go further and say his message isn’t designed for the majority of Americans, but for the minority who still enjoy being conned by him.

  2. Tina says:

    Trump has been criticized by these reporters for his willingness to name Islamic terrorists and you think it’s rational for them to make this leap when he has not used these words? Astounding! That you think so adds weight to my argument that the media seeks to make him look unqualified.

    You don’t know what most Americans think at any given moment but your remarks certainly reflects the arrogant attitude of most of you on the left which also ASSumes majority opinions are always in sink with their own. The last three election cycles suggest otherwise.

    Related stories posted today that illustrate the hypocrisy of the left and dispute claims of “majority” opinion:

    National Review, Trump Is a Lot Like the LBJ Whom Liberals Still Idolize, an interesting read.

    The American Spectator:

    …most (if not the vast majority) of the scholars surveyed are clearly on the left, but there are a decent number of conservatives: By my estimate, over a dozen, possibly as many as 20. Of course, that’s still far out of proportion with the population at large, where self-identified conservatives have outnumbered liberals for decades (usually in the range of 35-40 percent self-identified conservatives vs. 20-25 percent self-identified liberals). C-SPAN needs to do better next time around. A field of 10-20 conservatives among 91 participants isn’t good…

    It is typical and works to create that illusion of left majority opinion.

    • Bryan H. says:

      “Trump has been criticized by these reporters for his willingness to name Islamic terrorists”

      He has? I haven’t seen this. I have seen him criticized for his administration making up Islamic terrorist attacks, such as claiming that Americans who were killed in Australia were victims of such when the police and parents say they were not.

      http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/318445-parents-upset-over-trumps-false-terrorism-claims

      And I’m not assuming that the majority doesn’t like Trump. I’m basing that on the polls. The last election cycle doesn’t prove that the majority likes Trump, as the majority did not vote for him.

  3. Pie Guevara says:

    Re: “…he’s just a racist xenophobe and that’s that.

    You left out homophobe, Islamophobe and sexist. I bet he hates and is a threat to old people, transvestites and transsexuals too.

    • Tina says:

      Probably kicks dogs and drowns kittens.

    • Bryan H. says:

      He is definitely a sexist, that one isn’t even arguable given his treatment of women. I haven’t seen much evidence that he’s a racist, though he appealed to them pretty strongly with his comments about Mexicans. I also haven’t seen any evidence that he is homophobic or transphobic, and in fact he seems less hostile to these groups than many other Republicans. Islamophobic? He spread the lie that he saw thousands cheer 9/11 in New Jersey, said that Mrs. Kahn “probably wasn’t allowed to speak,” and routinely inflates and exaggerates the scope of Islamic terror, to the point where he has called events Islamic terror that were in fact not. I think the label “Islamophobic” is fair.

      • Pie Guevara says:

        He isn’t a sexist. He can be a rude and crude jerk, but Trump is not sexist. His hiring practices belie that. The “Islamophobic” label is a load of nonsense too and a symptom of the absurd politically correct disease of phobia over “Islamophobia.”

        • Bryan H. says:

          Hiring women does not give one a pass for constantly making sexist remarks. Don’t act like you haven’t heard them.

          And whether or not you like the term “Islamophobia,” you cannot deny that claiming he saw thousands of Muslims cheering 9/11 in New Jersey was a lie meant to demonize Muslims. You can’t deny that saying “maybe she wasn’t allowed to speak” about Mrs. Khan wasn’t a bigoted stereotype.

          • Tina says:

            I can. There are reports about Muslims cheering on 911.

            See two videos here.

            Breitbart posted video from a local NJ CBS 911 report (see video):

            Just a couple of blocks away from that Jersey City apartment the F.B.I. raided yesterday and had evidence removed, there is another apartment building, one that investigators told me, quote, was swarming with suspects — suspects who I’m told were cheering on the roof when they saw the planes slam into the Trade Center. Police were called to the building by neighbors and found eight men celebrating, six of them tenants in the building.

            The F.B.I. and other terrorist task force agencies arrived, and the older investigators on the task force recalled that they had been to this building before, eight years ago, when the first World Trade Center attack led them to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, whose Jersey City mosque lies between the two buildings getting attention today. And the older investigators remember that the suspects that eventually got convicted for the first Trade Center case … lived in the building where these same eight men were celebrating the destruction that they saw from the roof. Calling this a hot address, the task force investigators ordered everyone detained.

            “Swarms.”

            “Swarms.”

            “Swarms.”

            ADDED: People are arguing falsely that the fact that only 8 suspects were apprehended contradicts the “swarm” claim. Read it again. An “investigator” told CBS about the “swarm.” The fact that a certain number were brought into custody does not change the fact that there was a “swarm.” The obvious impression is that of the “swarm,” only eight were brought into custody. Eight people do not swarm on all those rooftops. They “gather.” Look at the video of the rooftop and picture “swarming.”

            You want to get into semantics about how many people make up a swarm?

            But that’s not all.

            You have to add up all of the contemporaneous news reports. You are Donald Trump. You are taking in all the news during that awful week. You are told by the media that “swarms” of Muslims in a known terrorist’s neighborhood were seen on rooftops celebrating 9/11. Just two days earlier you have read this in the New York Post:

            Here in New York, it was easy to get angry listening to Egyptians, Palestinians and the Arabs of nearby Paterson, N.J., celebrate as they received word of the murderous attack in New York and Washington. But Mayor Giuliani (who has been tireless and magnificent in this crisis) rightly warned New Yorker-ers that is would be wrong to take their anger our on the city’s Arab and Muslim residents. Attacks on Arab-Americans in Paterson or elsewhere are utterly indefensible.

            You hear radio news reports about Muslims celebrations.

            MTV runs a news report about Muslim celebrations.

            From all of those news reports, it is perfectly reasonable and nothing close to lying to put together a picture of “thousands”.

            NY Post:

            Some Muslims in New Jersey did celebrate the 9/11 terror attacks during rooftop and street parties until they were broken up by the cops, a new report said Monday.

            There were at least two celebrations and likely more, with men shouting “Allahu Akbar” and women chanting in Arabic, NJ.com reported.

            “Some men were dancing, some held kids on their shoulders,” said retired Jersey City police Capt. Peter Gallagher, who responded to the scene after numerous 911 calls from outraged residents.

            “The women were shouting in Arabic and keening in the high-pitched wail of Arabic fashion. They were told to go back to their apartments since a crowd of non-Muslims was gathering on the sidewalk below and we feared for their safety.”

            Gallagher said he cleared a rooftop celebration of up to 30 people at 6 Tonnele Ave., a four-story apartment building with a view of Lower Manhattan, after the second tower fell.

            Another witness said he saw a celebration on John F. Kennedy Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in the city.

            “When I saw they were happy, I was pissed,” said Ron Knight, 56, who also heard cheers of “Allahu Akbar” — “God is great” — from a crowd of about 20 people that morning.

            Residents also placed numerous 911 calls complaining about Muslims partying on a rooftop at a third location, three cops told the website. …

            Discussion at Frontpage Magazine:

            Numerous New York and New Jersey residents insist that they or those close to them saw New Jersey Muslims celebrate 9-11. New Jersey radio station 101.5 quotes some of these accounts here. A sampling:

            Tom Penicaro: “I worked for PSEG in Clifton on the Paterson boarder and I witnessed it firsthand. They were celebrating in the streets cheering and stomping on the flag. I am a Marine and I remember very very clearly because I was so pissed I wanted to engage them with a bat I had in my van.”

            William Hugelmeyer: “I was working in the jail when the attacks occurred. Once it was clear it was a terrorist attack, we had inmates celebrating. This instantly caused a lockdown. As you could imagine, many other inmates and officers didn’t share their jubilation.”

            John Pezzino: “They were in the streets banging on the cars trying to drive through the crowd in the street. The Muslims were shouting death to Americans and Allah is great other crap I didn’t understand. We were amused until a car with 3 young women mistakenly turned on to main st. The muslims were banging on their windows and screaming, thats when we came out of our car and pushed the muslims off their car helped them back out and get back to the Parkway.”

            Walter Emiliantsev: “I lived in NJ at the time on Demott Ave., Clifton! When I tried to go to Paterson to my brother in laws shop, I usually took Main Ave. There were so many people dancing on Main, I couldn’t get through! I KNOW what I saw!”

            Trumps remark about Mrs. Khan could be seen as respectful. Given the religions known restrictions on women and some Muslims adherence to those restrictions he was not about to assume she would.

            How would anyone know?

            How arrogant of you to assume this woman didn’t remain silent in deference to her husband! Not all cultures and religions are alike.

            And isn’t that one of the reasons we attempt to have this discussion? There are serious questions about assimilation. You can’t hide behind PC and fake definitions and word restrictions forever. One day you will need to grow up and communicate like a real honest to goodness adult.

            Trump calls all of you out every time he opens his mouth…and the country is loving it.

          • Bryan H. says:

            “I can. There are reports about Muslims cheering on 911.”

            But there are no reports of thousands doing so, nor was this ever shown on TV. And nothing you provided supports that. Trump was lying to spread fear of Muslims.

            Your assertion that Trump engaged in a bigoted, stereotypical assumption toward Mrs. Khan out of respect is some quality spin. Kellyanne Conway would be proud of that one. Are you?

  4. Harold says:

    Since he has been in office, President Trumps primary goal has been to rebuild America. President Trump is looking out for all Americans, and our country, including those that do not support him
    And he done so and has not disgraced us by performing an apology tour, so a verbal miscue from Trump I can accept, verse the groveling when Obama openly disrespected all of America.

    Trumps current speech patterns are going to take some getting use to, but it refreshing to hear a elected tell it like it is, and cut the PC BS.

    Yes Trump could have said something like “as I heard it reported last night regarding Sweden’s problems”, that would have made this a non issue, but he misspoke. Yes it was a error, but it is nothing as far as I am concerned when compared to Obama who should have stood upright like a POTUS instead of bowing and asking for forgiveness in Americas name.

    • Tina says:

      Good point Harold!

      Trump is a public figure but not a trained public speaker. He thinks very fast and sometimes speaks in incomplete sentences, especially at an event like a rally.

      He would be wise to learn to slow his thought processes down. If all was well in the world polish might be high on his priority list…and mine. But all is not well in the world. The world he inherited is a real mess and it will take dedication and determination to repair and restore things to better function.

      I prefer he concentrated on fixing the tax code, repealing and replacing Obamacare, getting criminal aliens out of our country and improving conditions at the border and in our immigration system. I prefer he concentrate on ending ISIS and, apparently, a suddenly stronger al Qaeda. I prefer he concentrate on renegotiating trade deals and creating conditions that get our citizens working again!

      Harold the left loved LBJ, a big, crude, blow hard kinda guy from Texas. Even though they turned on him because of Vietnam they still admire the man. Selective outrage is a game they play. Americans are waking up to the game. Watching as businesses die and being out of work for more than a year will do that.

    • RHT447 says:

      Heh.

      “(Irony Alert) This can’t be right! Everyone knows that Sweden is a land of Nordic peace and tranquility, a land that welcomes one and all to share its yearly travail of light deprivation and reindeer pie.

      This must be a mistake. If this were true then the accusations of Trumps’ mental instability might lose credibility … pl”

      From here—

      http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2017/02/meanwhile-rioting-breaks-out-in-sweden-zerohedge.html

  5. Libby says:

    My thoughts? Well, as nothing of any moment had happened in Sweden the night before, I think we were all correct to go … huh? This is just … yet more … of the man spouting off the top of his head stuff he did not understand correctly in the first place. That is extremely irresponsible, particularly in a President.

    More of my thoughts? This man is a flaming pain, any which way you care to consider it. I mean, you all was getting yourselves in a snit over the O-man’s couple of vacations a year. This extravagant dweeb has gone golfing at the “Winter White House” twice this month.

    http://www.salon.com/2017/02/21/trump-wont-stop-visiting-mar-a-lago-and-his-neighbors-are-getting-annoyed/

    And let’s not even talk about what the kids are getting up to:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-sons-eric-donald-jr-secret-service-protection-costing-millions-dubai-a7587541.html

    If Paul & Mitch go ahead and gut the corporate tax rate, who’s gonna pay for all this?
    Three guesses … suckers. Either that, or they’ll just let the deficit balloon … has did Reagan, and Bush I; Clinton got it down a bit, and then Bush II ripped the lid off, Kabooommee, … again. You don’t learn, do you?

  6. Tina says:

    Obama doubling the debt doesn’t count? That’s a good one.

    The Obama’s had plenty of occasion’s when secret service duties were doubled. Every time Michelle went to Hawaii or some other location ahead of her husband for instance they required separate teams AND two planes.

    Obama’s vacations and travel were excessive and costly compared to ALL previous presidents (2014 article):

    Barack Obama has spent more time traveling internationally than any other modern president — at a skyrocketing cost to taxpayers, according to a study by a watchdog group.

    The survey by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) was released Monday as the president started a five-day, five-country trip to Europe and the Middle East.

    It says that Obama has taken 31 foreign trips totaling 119 days since assuming office in 2009.

    At the same point in his presidency, George W. Bush had spent 116 days on 28 trips, while Bill Clinton had taken 27 journeys for 113 days. Ronald Reagan, after five years, had taken just 14 trips for 73 days, while Richard Nixon had taken 12 trips for 60 days. …

    More from a 2013 Newsmax article:

    President Barack Obama’s four vacations to Hawaii since becoming president may cost taxpayers “in excess of $20 million, and possibly much, much more,’’ the White House Dossier reports.

    A breakdown by the Hawaii Reporter shows his trips in 2009, 2010, and 2011 cost about $4 million, much of it for Air Force One. But that doesn’t include costs like flying in advance teams and separate flights Michelle Obama twice took.
    When Obama returned from Hawaii to work on the fiscal cliff deal last week and then jetted back to Honolulu, the second roundtrip flight added about $3.24 million to the tab, bringing the 2012-2013 vacation to over $7 million, the Reporter said.

    The Obama’s did very little, if anything, to save the taxpayers money…especially when it came to their entertainment. They’ve set quite a precedent…a stupid, thoughtless precedent.

  7. Tina says:

    Her is an on the ground eyewitness report from a citizen blogger in Sweden who lives in a suburb heavily populated with refugees migrants from the ME:

    “Is it correct that Sweden got major problems handling the immigration? I would say yes. My grounds for claiming that is just by looking out the window where I live, inside a migrant dominated area. Almost every evening cars are set on fire and police officers are attacked by criminal gangs. But you don’t read very much about it in the Swedish main stream media.”

    Frick describes the immigration coming primarily from middle east countries as changing Sweden a lot.

    “We have areas that are not even close to something we used to have. I am of course referring to the ”no go areas”. And those areas are growing…lots of immigrants are living on social welfare. And they have nothing meaningful to do during the days.”

    Frick said that President Trump is absolutely correct. Not just based on his experiences, but because of what police officers have told him who have worked on issues related to immigration.

    The liberals who post here don’t want to talk about it…totally PC and adolescent.

  8. Libby says:

    “Obama doubling the debt doesn’t count? That’s a good one.”

    In cleaning up BushCo’s mess? … yes … he get’s to take a pass. You have the shortest and most selective memory on God’s Earth.

    And what’s this got to do with a comparison of work habits? Somebody was quite diligent, and somebody most certainly is not.

    • Tina says:

      Come on Libby, Bush warned Barnie Frank every year to do something and Old Barnie was as stubborn and ignorant as you and did nothing.

      Bill Clinton set the stage, Jamie Gorrelic and others at Fannie et al played the game for all it’s worth, and Barnie failed to take steps to secure the nation before it was too late and the house of cards came tumbling down. It was all working from legislation and regulations the /democrats loved and defended as part of their civil rights programs…what a sham!

      Then you idiots elected the one person who would do little that was positive to right the ship but instead created draconian, job killing, industry killing regulations and focused mainly on a pet project, Obamacare, the next leg in the socialist transformation of America. Once the ACA passed he spent the rest of his time making sure America was crippled and divided and the ME blew up into a horror show.

      Man you do have some cheek!

      • RHT447 says:

        I would beg to differ that Good Old Barnie and his cronies were ignorant. I firmly believe they knew exactly what was happening and were all for it because it benefited them in many ways. Pizzagate? There is not a corner of he77 hot enough for the likes of them.

      • Libby says:

        What the hell did Barney have to do with Lehman Bros going under? That was The Shrub’s choice ! His choice !

        What the hell planet do you people live on?! Does the acronym AIG ring any sort of bell with you (I’m sorry … but it is what it is) mental defectives !

  9. Tina says:

    “What the hell did Barney have to do with Lehman Bros going under? ”

    Don’t play dumb Libby. We’ve been through the entire history of stupid decisions and lack of effective regulations that led to the housing debacle and financial crisis. it began with Carter, Bill Clinton expanded it, Barney Frank was warned repeatedly that he needed to do something (Head of the Ways and Means Committee) about out of control lending practices and a growing and dangerous bubble and he refused to heed them…YOU HAVE SEEN IT ON TAPE!

    See Fox report here!

    People with an actual interest in what happened to Lehman Brothers can read about it here:

    despite its ability to survive past disasters, the collapse of the U.S. housing market ultimately brought Lehman Brothers to its knees, as its headlong rush into the subprime mortgage market proved to be a disastrous step.
    The Prime Culprit

    In 2003 and 2004, with the U.S. housing boom (read, bubble) well under way, Lehman acquired five mortgage lenders, including subprime lender BNC Mortgage and Aurora Loan Services, which specialized in Alt-A loans (made to borrowers without full documentation). Lehman’s acquisitions at first seemed prescient; record revenues from Lehman’s real estate businesses enabled revenues in the capital markets unit to surge 56% from 2004 to 2006, a faster rate of growth than other businesses in investment banking or asset management. The firm securitized $146 billion of mortgages in 2006, a 10% increase from 2005. Lehman reported record profits every year from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, the firm reported net income of a record $4.2 billion on revenue of $19.3 billion.
    Lehman’s Colossal Miscalculation

    In February 2007, the stock reached a record $86.18, giving Lehman a market capitalization of close to $60 billion. However, by the first quarter of 2007, cracks in the U.S. housing market were already becoming apparent as defaults on subprime mortgages rose to a seven-year high. On March 14, 2007, a day after the stock had its biggest one-day drop in five years on concerns that rising defaults would affect Lehman’s profitability, the firm reported record revenues and profit for its fiscal first quarter. In the post-earnings conference call, Lehman’s chief financial officer (CFO) said that the risks posed by rising home delinquencies were well contained and would have little impact on the firm’s earnings. He also said that he did not foresee problems in the subprime market spreading to the rest of the housing market or hurting the U.S. economy.
    The Beginning of the End

    As the credit crisis erupted in August 2007 with the failure of two Bear Stearns hedge funds, Lehman’s stock fell sharply. During that month, the company eliminated 2,500 mortgage-related jobs and shut down its BNC unit. In addition, it also closed offices of Alt-A lender Aurora in three states. Even as the correction in the U.S. housing market gained momentum, Lehman continued to be a major player in the mortgage market. In 2007, Lehman underwrote more mortgage-backed securities than any other firm, accumulating an $85 billion portfolio, or four times its shareholders’ equity. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Lehman’s stock rebounded, as global equity markets reached new highs and prices for fixed-income assets staged a temporary rebound. However, the firm did not take the opportunity to trim its massive mortgage portfolio, which in retrospect, would turn out to be its last chance.

    Hurtling Toward Failure

    Lehman’s high degree of leverage – the ratio of total assets to shareholders equity – was 31 in 2007, and its huge portfolio of mortgage securities made it increasingly vulnerable to deteriorating market conditions. On March 17, 2008, following the near-collapse of Bear Stearns – the second-largest underwriter of mortgage-backed securities – Lehman shares fell as much as 48% on concern it would be the next Wall Street firm to fail. Confidence in the company returned to some extent in April, after it raised $4 billion through an issue of preferred stock that was convertible into Lehman shares at a 32% premium to its price at the time. However, the stock resumed its decline as hedge fund managers began questioning the valuation of Lehman’s mortgage portfolio.

    On June 9, Lehman announced a second-quarter loss of $2.8 billion, its first loss since being spun off by American Express, and reported that it had raised another $6 billion from investors. The firm also said that it had boosted its liquidity pool to an estimated $45 billion, decreased gross assets by $147 billion, reduced its exposure to residential and commercial mortgages by 20%, and cut down leverage from a factor of 32 to about 25.
    Too Little, Too Late

    However, these measures were perceived as being too little, too late. Over the summer, Lehman’s management made unsuccessful overtures to a number of potential partners. The stock plunged 77% in the first week of September 2008, amid plummeting equity markets worldwide, as investors questioned CEO Richard Fuld’s plan to keep the firm independent by selling part of its asset management unit and spinning off commercial real estate assets. Hopes that the Korea Development Bank would take a stake in Lehman were dashed on September 9, as the state-owned South Korean bank put talks on hold.

    The news was a deathblow to Lehman, leading to a 45% plunge in the stock and a 66% spike in credit-default swaps on the company’s debt. The company’s hedge fund clients began pulling out, while its short-term creditors cut credit lines. On September 10, Lehman pre-announced dismal fiscal third-quarter results that underscored the fragility of its financial position. The firm reported a loss of $3.9 billion, including a write-down of $5.6 billion, and also announced a sweeping strategic restructuring of its businesses. The same day, Moody’s Investor Service announced that it was reviewing Lehman’s credit ratings, and also said that Lehman would have to sell a majority stake to a strategic partner in order to avoid a ratings downgrade. These developments led to a 42% plunge in the stock on September 11.

    With only $1 billion left in cash by the end of that week, Lehman was quickly running out of time. Last-ditch efforts over the weekend of September 13 between Lehman, Barclays PLC and Bank of America Corp. (BAC), aimed at facilitating a takeover of Lehman, were unsuccessful. On Monday September 15, Lehman declared bankruptcy, resulting in the stock plunging 93% from its previous close on September 12.
    The Bottom Line

    Lehman’s collapse roiled global financial markets for weeks, given the size of the company and its status as a major player in the U.S. and internationally. Many questioned the U.S. government’s decision to let Lehman fail, as compared to its tacit support for Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in March 2008. Lehman’s bankruptcy led to more than $46 billion of its market value being wiped out. Its collapse also served as the catalyst for the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America in an emergency deal that was also announced on September 15.

    The same arrogant stubborn thinking that kept Barney Frank from making changes in banking regulations were alive and well in Lehman Brothers bankers…they had several chances to change course and chose to ride the dangerous wave.

    You think me a mental defective with the selective thinking of a complete mental defective.

    Irish Times, “Why Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail” offers further incite:

    W hen Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15th, 2008, the financial sector shook across the world. The bank was forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the largest ever such filing in US history.

    Six months previously, Bear Stearns had faced a similar fate but survived when the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, intervened with the US treasury department’s support. Why did the US government not intervene in the Lehman case?

    In the case of Bear Stearns, the Fed engineered a sale to JPMorgan Chase by agreeing to assume $29 billion of the risk of losses from Bear Stearns. When potential purchasers of Lehman sought similar assurances from the Fed, the regulator demurred, and the bank was left with little choice but to file for bankruptcy.

    According to Lehman’s bankruptcy examiner, Lehman’s business model was not unique. All of the major investment banks of the time had some high-risk model that required the confidence of counterparties.

    While Lehman’s assets and liabilities of about $700 billion cancelled each other out, it had insufficient hard cash (about $25 billion) to meet its needs. Confidence in the institution was so low that clients were withdrawing funds at a rate the bank couldn’t keep up with.

    Lehman funded itself through the short-term money markets and had to borrow tens of hundreds of billions of dollars in those markets each day from counterparties to be able to open for business. Confidence was critical.

    Lehman’s problems began when it embarked on an acquisition spree of subprime mortgage lenders. These were lenders who provided loans to those with impaired credit ratings. Lots of Americans got loans that they couldn’t afford.

    In 2006, Lehman made the deliberate decision to embark on an aggressive growth strategy, to take on sig you complete jerknificantly greater risk. In 2007, as the subprime residential mortgage business progressed from problem to crisis, Lehman was slow to recognise the developing storm and its spillover effect on commercial real estate.

    Fortune, “Fed transcripts: Bernanke chose to let Lehman fail”

    More commentary from your beloved PBS.

    Your ignorance may outweigh your arrogance…it’s a close toss up.

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