Subscribe to this BlogA deck stacked against you: Financial-crisis playing cards
If the economic meltdown has forced you into a budget-friendly staycation this summer, you can treat yourself to some cheap and potentially cathartic entertainment. For a mere $5.95, just buy a deck of Financial Crisis Most Wanted Playing Cards.
Not to be outdone by the Iraqi most-wanted deck of cards from a few years ago, budding entrepreneur Jason Witt of San Ramon, Calif. came up with 52 faces of the financial crisis. The deck features Wall Street hot shots, financial felons (convicted or at least alleged), ineffectual regulators and other poster boys of the times. (And we do mean boys, since 51 of 52 cards picture men.) In the Iraqi version, the Ace of Spades was reserved for Saddam Hussein; in the crisis deck, that dishonor goes to Bernard Madoff, the Ponzi-schemer extraordinaire.
There is no shortage of intriguing “winning” hands. Here's a memorable full house:
–King of Spades: Alan Greenspan (former Federal Reserve chairman)
–King of Hearts: Angelo Mozilo (former CEO, Countrywide Financial, current defendant in civil fraud case for insider trading)
–King of Clubs: Richard Fuld (former CEO, Lehman Brothers)
–Ace of Diamonds: Ben Bernanke (current Federal Reserve Chairman)
–Ace of Clubs: Jim Cramer (CNBC stock jock)
The lone woman in the mix is FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair. Witt says he wanted to include banking analyst Meredith Whitney, who has been credited as one of the few voices to sound the alarm bell early, but he was unable to snag permission.
Jokers are reserved for educational purposes. One features a 10-year timeline of key events, the other lists acronyms of the time, such as CDO and TARP.
What’s missing are stand-ins for some other key players, including the appraisers happy to pump hot air into the already dangerous bubble, and yes, the homeowners who fell for it all and took on mortgages they never really could afford. Who would you nominate for your own deck of shame?
–Carla Fried
I would!
Happy Hank Paulson for a full playing cards set winning Ace of Spades for the win!
The appraisers? What about the mortgage brokers working on a "yeild spread premium" and even bank lending officers on commission, pressuring appraisers to "hit the number" or lose thier livlihood?
When things like this go south, everyone wants to blame someone and no one wants to take responsibility. Truth is if everyone who had some culpabiliity left the country, it would be pretty dang quiet around here
Happy Hank Paulson Ace of Spades
Phil Gramm Ace of Clubs
Jimmy Leach Ace of Hearts
Thomas Bliley Ace of Diamonds
Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedmann, Newtie Gingrich,Babblin Ben Bernanke Kings of Nothing
Ronnie Reagan, Georgie Bush Junior jokers
John Thain, Jamie Dimon, Vikram Patel, Ken Lewis Welfare Queens
Tom "Flat World" Friedmann, Rush "Draft Dodger" Limbaugh, Jim "Idiot" Cramer, Paul Volcker Jackasses of spades,hearts, clubs and diamonds
the remainder can go to a random pick of Wall Street brokers, mortgage pimps, fake estate hustlers and flippers and a host of others.
Oh and quit trying to blame all of this on people trying to own a home. There were working bank regulations in place for over 50 years. They were removed as unnecessary. We were told the market would self correct. We were told that the bankers were more responsible and would not repeat the mistakes that lead to the 1929 crash. They didn't repeat them, they did them ten times better.
Can someone explain to me what I am missing. Markert experts are saying the economy is getting better yet oil prices have increased 75% since the $43.00 lows in Mar 09. Gas prices were $1.32/ gal on average and now are $2.60/ gal on average. That is a 50% increase. Since Jan 09 to present date 4 million jobs have been lost. President Obama cannot save anything until America desides to save itself. American greed is killing our nation. We like big and better things and money drives that train. We as a nation need to revalue our economy to fair market value. We have out priced ourselves. OPEC got it right after oil prices slipped from its $150.00/barrel high. OPEC revalued their market and said they could live with $75.00/barrel and they have slowly raised prices right before our very own noses and we as a nation have bought into it hook line and sinker.
We as a nation need to wake up and realize we have out priced and marketed outselves to where we have made our goods and services unaffordale. Despite the ERUO's successes their markets are no better than ours.
China practically owns the US. China is a major bond holder in the US and if they ever decided to make us pay up we would be in a world of hurt. We in the US have a lot of bad debt its like the credit market here. We owe more than we make to China. I think you know were I am going.
So when its all said and done; President Kennedy said it best. "Ask not what your country can do for you but you can do for your country".
We as a nation need to start giving back freely instead a taking.
A man is not remember for their possesions he/she owned but what they accomplished for their country.