Mr. Girjalva is being kind by saying Jan Brewer is delusional. She is, in my opinion, a straight up liar. What the heck is going on with all the lying by republicans? They all just lie every single day about everything!

Lying is a crime, not to mention immoral, and most certain unethical. The republicans think they can parrot lie after lie and Americans will believe it. Nope, we the normal and responsible Americans do not buy it. Only if you watch the pig-sty of lies, F---news do you think for one second their lies are acceptable. F---new is the slop bucket of all lies, sarcasm, distortion and tight-a** arrogance. Sickening and unhealthy for the civility of America.

Obama/Biden 2012 For Sure

"Christians should not vote for those who tell lies" Joyce Meyer Oct '06

Comprehensive immigration reform is the only way to solve this whole matter. I write this over again but what else is there to say about this? Jan Brewer is not only delusional she could well be a mental case on this issue. The Arizona law is a poor law. But when will the Congress ever do the right thing and pass the Dream act and comprehensive immigration reform that gets those 11 million to 12 million people citizenship, into schools, and organized into unions. Then we have to unleash their energy to fight these right wing turd blossoms until the Democrats control the Congress, State houses, governorships, the White House, and the Senate. The GOP needs to get clobbered and clobbered again. We as Democrats must go on offense against the vile rotten right wingers.

Enough with the 30 seconds commercials before every segment, already.

She is delusional on one hand and a duly elected state official on the other. This is the direction we are heading in. I see nothing to alter our course, now that the Supreme Court has become a political body. How do I know they have? Well, they decided the 2000 election with a decision that was so political in nature that they had to issue a disclaimer that it couldn't be used to set precedent. Isn't it ironic that they had a chance to avoid putting in office the worst President in history and chose not to? Does that by extension make them the worst Supreme Court in history? It does in my book.

Theses Tea Party types are all handpicked by their leaders the Koch Brothers. And they all have shown to be mentally unsound look at Backmann and Palin, certifiably off their rockers. I think that a house is overdue to land on her!

Folks, we can't have open borders and not enforce federal law on top of that. Let's be realistic about this. It is a recipe for disaster.

Post 1.7

Whomy, are you telling me John Edwards didn't lie about his affair and child because he's a Democrat. Once again you have proved yourself a meathead.

DemElizabeth, I notice that Reaganomics did not answer your post. So typical. They spew hateful lies, hoping that they people will just assume they are right. The moment they are confronted with the truth/proof, they either start name-calling or they disappear. Temporarily, unfortunately.

I haven't been able to get a good answer to the question of why, if Obama is a socialist, is wall street doing so well? Do tell...

The rule of law. The United States has laws, we are a nation of laws. When you come in to this Great Nation illegally you must and should be punished by jail time or be sent home. Period. No questions asked.

I don't usually find the lies on the liberal side though Henry. I'm being honest. Not to say there aren't good and bad in every party, but most of these threads I have ever gone on, the republicans arguments are simply not based in fact, ie: Obama born in Kenya, Obama a socialist, Obama the most liberal president we have ever had when he is really just left of center. How can we ever have a productive discussion if we can't even agree on the facts? By the way, if I disappear, it is because I get tired of the corrosive, name-calling, fact-twisting, vile way that most of you choose to argue.

Man, you lefties are so sad.

Obama and his admistration does nothing about immigration after he takes office...Bush did nothing...Obama does nothing....

The state of Arizona, (because the federal govt does nothing) decides to take matters into their own hands and do something about it.

Then Obama and his people wake up and he gets Holder to get a lawsuit to stop Arizone from taking care of their own problem. Obama's arrogance will not let them do anything.

Then it goes to the Supreme Court and the court upholds of the the key provisions.

Then sore loser Obama and Holder dis-own Arizona and tell them if they arrest anyone, they are not going to help them from then on.

I will tell you one thing. The sooner Barack Obama is escorted out of 1600 Penn. Ave, the better. This has to be the worst president we have ever had. And the same with Holder.

It will all come out soon. We will not rest until we get to the bottom of Fast and Furious lies that Holder told, until we find out which of Obama's cronies leaked the sensitive information and we will not rest until Barack Obama is defeated.

You lefties do not have a leg to stand on.

Mitt Romney for President of the United States of America. Lets get Obama OUT!!!!!

Obama....arrogant....narcissistic......dictator wanna be.

I have never seen a president in my lifetime.....Kennedy on.....lie as he does. Spin like he does. Pull stunts like he does.

He holds the record for broken campaign promises. The most liberal, left president we have ever had.

We have had enough. Forget his color for one minute. Can't you people see the damage he has done to our country? He has polarized our people.....polarized our representatives......Does not matter the color so stop playing that card.

He has been and is a bad president...period. Thats it. There is not ONE positive thing you can say he has accomplished. Nothing.

Mitt Romney for President of the United States of America

Everyone thinks there is a problem with immigration. The disagreement lies in what we do about it. Immigration is a federal issue. The supreme court made that clear. If you have a problem with the federal govt. not doing something about it, put pressure on the federal govt., don't support state laws that will victimize law-abiding citizens. Sorry, as far as the worst president we have ever had, I think Bush will hold that title for a long, long time...

Fine, I am not a Bush advocate. I do know that 9 months after he took office, we were attacked and we were kept safe for the remaining of his presidency. Like it or not, we were not successfully attacked again.

I cannot trust Obama. I just don't believe anything he says. I was not talking about promises he made to the left. Just plain promises to everyone.

It would take a day to write it all. I just do not trust him. Thats it.

Willard if elected would open the way for more mannequins to serve in public office.

None of Ann Romney's children are sure that Willard's their father because he won't answer the question are you my daddy?

With all the new voter restrictions laws and millions spent in support of them I think is only fair that those who have been pushing for it also pay for the new IDs and information as it is making for much larger government and will cost the taxpayers a huge amount of money.

The GOP filibustered the Dream Act in 2010 after it passed in the House. The bill received 55 votes which should in a democracy be enough in a 100 member chamber. But of course the "do nothing" GOP Senatefilibustered the bill. Dream children have been here since they were toddlers or babies in many cases. We invest huge amounts of money educating these children from these Dream families but all of a sudden when they graduate from high school they are no longer welcome here! The absurdity of the GOP filibuster in the Senate in December, 2010 shows that the GOP is living on another planet.

I despise and loathe the GOP for filibustering the Dream Act in 2010. The Dream kids are America's kids. The GOP hates children and families if they are not of the right skin color, mainly their own. Its fine that we have cheap vegetables, food, and other services but treat Hispanics workers and their families like real human beings? Good God forbid such a thing. We can not have that if we are a Republican. Besides Republican businesses like it when they can screw people over and rip them off like they do the mostly Hispanic undocumented workers. The Big Wall Street banks run pay day lending businesses that I loathe. These pay day lenders charge fees for undocumented workers to cash paychecks and to wire money home to families. Pay day lenders also charge interest rates that compound to about 150% or even higher on these pay day loans. Nice racket to get into if you are part of the GOP mafia huh? So not only do the employers pay these undocumented Hispanic workers less for their labor, the big banks running payday lenders steal and gouge those mostly Hispanic workers out of money and wages. This is the GOP way of doing things. The GOP wants to continue to treat undocumented Hispanic workers and their families like serfs.

President Obama has increased Border Patrol agents to the highest level seen in our history. We have upwards of 20,000 Border Patrol agents mostly on the Mexican border. Drone planes have been introduced to the Border Patrol. Something much deep is going on that makes a large amount of this entire discussion increasingly academic. Mexican women in their child bearing years are hardly replacing themselves. Demographers have come up with the 2.1 children per women ratio for replacement of the parents. Mexico has had a very successful family planning and birth control program. Worse than this many Mexicans are staying at home because job opportunities are increasing. So who will the GOP have to exploit when the Hispanics no longer come across the border to the U.S.?

http://www.realclearenergy.org/charticles/2012/06/04/bakken_gas_continues_to_be_wasted.html

Although it might appear that we have solved the problem of flaring off natural gas that was regarded as such a primitive waste in previous decades, in fact the same thing is still going on in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota.

The above graph shows the percentage of gas that is being flared off and how it has opened such an extraordinary gap between the gas that is brought out of the ground and what ends up in the pipelines. The blue line is production in thousands of cubic meters (mcm). The green line below it is the amount of gas that is actually put into sales. The scale for both is at the left. The yellow line is the percentage of gas that is being flared off instead of being put into pipelines. The flaring figure hovered around 10 percent during the early years of development of the Bakken but rose to 40 percent in 2009 and has since climbed back up to that peak in 2012. Thus almost half the gas in the Bakken is being flared off. The reason is that the infrastructure has not yet been built to connect it to consumers or to store it back in the ground, as is being done in Alaska and other mature fields. Flaring gas, of course, is a huge waste, both in terms of lost resources and in putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The numbers are prepared by the International Energy Agency in its report, “Golden Rules for the Golden Age of Gas.” IEA argues that we are indeed entering a golden age of gas but that these resources should be developed in a systematic fashion so that gas is not lost to waste. IEA argues that fields should not be developed until the infrastructure is in place to make sure the gas can either be stored or delivered to customers.

http://billingsgazette.com/article_85e40396-3ae0-5cc1-8cf9-5b8e8fbce30b.html

Related Documents

G2G logo

North Dakota leads nation in growth

North Dakota topped the nation last year in rapid economic growth.

Oil production helped North Dakota’s gross domestic production jump 7.6 percent in 2011, dwarfing the U.S. average of 1.5 percent.

Forty-three states saw their economies grow last year.

Montana’s economy was flat, which put the state in 44th place. The zero percent growth rate was attributed in part to fewer government jobs and less manufacturing of nondurable goods. Those are products consumers use within three years, like clothing.

With zero growth, Montana at least didn’t lose ground and was able to hold on to the 3 percent gains it logged in 2010.

Wyoming wasn’t so fortunate.

The Cowboy State came in last among the 50 states for growth, according to a ranking by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Wyoming’s growth last year fell 1.2 percent, largely due to a slowdown in coal mining and construction, plus low prices for natural gas.

In 2010, Wyoming saw almost no change in growth. And in 2009, Wyoming saw a growth rate of 2.3 percent.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and Jim Robinson, senior economist for Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division

The unprecedented oil-and-gas boom in the Bakken and Three Forks shale underlying western North Dakota and Eastern Montana is creating tremendous wealth for some and an unprecedented number of jobs.

But the play also is generating plenty of pollution. Hundreds of natural gas flares have turned a once jet-black prairie night into eerie artificial daylight.

With 203 rigs each drilling a well a month across western North Dakota and 22 rigs working the Montana side, according to Baker Hughes Inc., pipeline companies cannot install pipe fast enough to connect all the wells and haul the gas to market.

So one-third of the North Dakota gas is burned off or flared.

That waste gave four Montanans the idea to start a company to capture and sell some of those gas emissions and help the environment at the same time.

“Here’s an issue that’s going to become a bigger issue,” said

Brian Cebull. “Anyone who drives over there can see the flares. This is a problem in search of a solution.”

Last August, Brian and his wife, Amy Cebull, who own Nance Resources in Billings, and two partners from Helena formed a limited liability company called G2G. The name stands for gas to green, as in environmentally green.

The company installs what is basically a mini-natural gas plant in a trailer that can be hauled out to an oil well to capture, liquefy and store gas emissions.

North Dakota has 4,377 wells connected to a pipeline, leaving another 1,094 wells waiting to be hooked up, said Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority based in Bismarck.

The state allows companies to flare gas for one year after production starts. Flaring can continue if the producer can show that hooking up to a pipeline is economically unfeasible or the gas cannot be sold at a profit. Production may be reduced or fines imposed.

Last fall, the New York Times reported that North Dakota was flaring 100 million cubic feet of natural gas each day, enough to heat half a million homes for a day. The flaring releases at least 2 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, an amount equivalent to a medium-sized coal-fired power plant, the Times reported.

In Montana, oil companies can flare for 60 days. Then members of the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation must vote to extend or curtail the flaring permit, usually a month-by-month decision.

“Flaring isn’t a problem right now in Montana because all our new wells are connected to a pipeline,” said Tom Richmond, the administrator of the Montana Board of Oil and Gas.

World Bank statistics said worldwide gas flaring is adding some 360 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, according to a May 2 Reuters article. That is equivalent to the emissions from about 70 million cars.

After nearly six years of decline, global flaring increased last year mostly because of flaring in North Dakota, according to Reuters. That increase pushed the U.S. into the top 10 gas-flaring countries, along with Russia and Nigeria.

Pipeline companies are working hard to connect to wells, and natural gas processing facilities are being built, Kringstad said, but the Bakken oil field covers an “unheard-of 18,000 square miles.”

The Bakken natural gas is unique because a larger percentage can be liquefied.

“Any technology like this to capture the value of natural gas is vitally important,” Kringstad said. “It’s exciting to see people like G2G going after this gas because there is tremendous value.”

Getting off the ground

Cebull credits his wife, Amy, for a lot of the work in setting up G2G.

The couple started Nance Resources with Amy’s father, Robert Nance, who retired in 2007, but remains a senior consultant. The Cebulls bought out Nance’s interest in 2010.

His original company, Nance Petroleum, merged with St. Mary’s Land & Exploration Co., which now is called SM Energy.

Mark C. Peterson, who owns Aspen Consulting and Engineering in Helena and helped form G2G, is a chemical engineer who specializes in air-quality permitting. The fourth partner is a mechanical engineer in Helena who doesn’t want to be publicly identified yet.

“We’re certainly reducing carbon emissions by a great deal. We taking out the most carbon-rich portion of the flare gas,” Peterson said.

In a single month this spring, Brian Cebull drove 3,000 miles selling G2G’s service, something he said is a pretty easy pitch.

“We’re creating wealth from a waste stream,” he said.

Depending on the well, G2G’s technology can capture up to three-fourths of the natural gas liquids and provide another revenue source for well and mineral rights owners.

So far, G2G has one trailer liquefying gas at an oil well within an hour’s drive of Watford City, N.D. One is undergoing final preparations, and two more are being built in Texas.

Not all the gas can be captured. Methane can technically be liquefied, but only at tremendous pressure, which isn’t practical in the field. G2G uses methane to power its equipment in the trailer.

After some of the gases are liquefied, G2G pumps the mix into 18,000-gallon capacity tanks.

“That’s the beauty of what we are doing. We’re converting the gas to liquids, so we can transfer it by truck or rail,” Cebull said.

The Montanans didn’t invent the basic technology, which has been around since the 1970s. But they signed a contract with a Texas company that agreed to make the equipment exclusively for G2G. Neither the Texas manufacturer nor a major oil company working in North Dakota that has purchased G2G’s services can be identified yet, Cebull said.

Private investors and First Interstate Bank in Billings funded G2G’s start-up costs, which weren’t disclosed.

Now that most of the technical kinks are worked out, next month G2G plans to add two trailers each month to service the Bakken.

“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re rolling now,” Peterson said.

Conversations with potential clients at May’s oil-and- natural gas conference in Bismarck generated lots of interest in G2G, Cebull said.

“They just want to see some operating history, which we’re generating now,” Cebull said.

Selling services

G2G sells its services without taking ownership of the product. The well owner is responsible for hauling the liquefied gas to a natural gas plant or other buyer.

By selling services only, G2G owners avoid the retail hassle of having a truck driver call at 3 a.m., complaining that his truck won’t start.

The trailers can be hauled to the site in a day and more trailers can be added, if needed. Bakken wells are famous for having high production rates early on, but the output declines rapidly.

Selling natural gas is more difficult now with prices lower than they’ve been in a decade.

Crude oil prices briefly dipped below $81 a barrel last week, down from a recent high of $115 a barrel and closed the week around $84.

If the low prices last, some marginal wells will no longer be economical, even in the Bakken — considered among the hottest oil-and-gas plays in North America.

Another business risk for G2G is that the pipeline companies will eventually connect to most wells.

“But there’s so much activity now they can’t keep up,” Cebull said. “Some wells are close to a pipeline. Others are so far away that they may never be hooked up. Other wells are hooked up, but the pipeline is full.”

Still, G2G is a “fairly low risk” business venture, Cebull said, although he added that all oil booms end someday.

“Just the vastness in the Bakken is proof there will always be productivity and opportunity for us,” he said.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/article_85e40396-3ae0-5cc1-8cf9-5b8e8fbce30b.html#ixzz1ywpancXu

Petition/Overturn SCOUS decision for Citizens United power grab!

http://democracyisforpeople.org/

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=f1c2660f-54b9-4193-86a4-ec2c39342c6c

Talking to conservatives is like talking to a rock or a concrete block wall. Take the issue of peak oil. Many people probably don't really care about peak oil but guess who does? Oil geologists at the PHD level take the issue of peak oil deadly serious. The truth is that Dr. Hubbert predicted peak U.S. oil production in 1969. It actually turned out to be 1970. Dr. Hubbert did this back in the 1940's and 1950's using statistical analysis that resulted in a bell curve distribution of oil production, new discoveries of oil, and new wells found. Once this information is compiled pretty detailed predictions about the future can made once these numbers and other statistics are put together. Not only has Hubbert predicted peak world oil for the U.S. but his methods also accurately predicted the peak oil production in the Former Soviet Union. Hubbert predicted peak world oil production for 2006. Dr. Hubbert passed away years ago but oil geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes in his book called "Beyond Oil, the view from Hubbert's Peak" 2005, Hill and Wang, New York, confirms Hubbert's predictions about peak world oil.

The International Energy Agency's "2010 World Energy Outlook" of oil industry geologists, academics, other scientists and engineers in the energy field use Hubbert's 2006 peak world oil production to say "the age of cheap oil is over". Again these are people many with PHD's and decades of experience, who make their living in the energy industry, science, and academia not wild tree hugger types. I can point out source after source about peak world oil production which actually be 2015 or 2020, that is essentially irrelevant. What is relevant is that the age of cheap oil is running out. The BRIC countries are going to shift from high gear into overdrive and produce at least 200 million vehicles by around 2020. So at a time when oil geologists are wondering how we will maintain current levels of oil production while oil demand will do nothing but shoot upwards because the BRIC's and the Asian-Pacific rim countries have an continuous increase in their demand for oil. The oil won't be there for them. So the price is going to start going upwards inexorably. Remember a 5% shortage of oil in the 1970's caused oil prices to quadruple. We could easily have $200 per barrel oil by 2020, sooner if there is a major Middle East instability such as a war or revolution in a major oil producing country.

It makes no difference to conservatives about facts, sources, logic, or science. Another article to refer to is from Colin J. Campbell and Jean H. Laherrare, 1998, "The End of Cheap Oil", Scientific American. Both of these men have 40 years experience as oil geologists as academics, writers, or in the commercial oil industry. Both of these men confirm Hubbert's analysis of a 2006 peak world oil production. I like to also point that 40 out of 54 major oil producing countries are past peak production many years ago. Officials in the other 14 countries report that in coming years they doubt they can maintain current levels of production (Truecost blog, Is Peak Oil Real? List of countries past peak, 2009). So maintaining our current global production of 85 million barrels per day is increasingly in doubt.

Some like to point out coal to liquid fuels, hydraulic fracturing, tar sands and oil shale can produce oil. These are called unconventional sources of oil. Tar sands and oil shale have serious problems with huge amounts of pollution and water consumption. Tar sands leaves toxic chemicals in waste water that has killed lots of ducks and wildlife in Alberta. The tar sands oil itself is extremely acidic and eats away at the steel in the pipelines causing lots of oil leaks. Tar sands oil has proven especially difficult to clean up in Michigan several years ago in a pipeline rupture. Oil shale for instance uses huge amounts of water. Colorado has lots of oil shale but where will the water come from to produce it? No one can answer this question because Colorado is perennially short of water. What water Colorado has must be used for agriculture or for human consumption. Federal law requires that Colorado share its water with lots of other states from Kansas, Nevada, Nebraska, Arizona, Nevada, and California and perhaps one or two I missed. So good luck changing all those laws to get water for oil shale. No one who advocates oil shale can ever say "Where is the water going to come from to produce it?" Coal gasification also produces much CO2 and uses much water in the process. Tar sands, oil shale, and coal to liquid fuels are at best partial answers to our oil consumption habits. Remember we reached peak water long before we reached peak oil.

Conservatives don't like talking about peak oil because it scares the hell out of them. They like to think that the U.S. can just drill its way out of our problems but Hubbert has an answer for this: all more drilling will do is suck the oil that is left in the ground out faster. Good luck conservatives proving Dr. Hubbert wrong. Peak oil might actually happen a little bit later than Hubbert's prediction of 2006 but that is irrelevant. By the time we actually know for sure when peak oil will be reached the global economy will have oil priced to $200 per barrel. How does $8 to $10 per gallon fuel grab your attention? The industrial growth and the rise of growing middle classes in the BRIC countries and the Asian-Pacific rim countries plus 200 million new vehicles at a time of peak oil will guarantee such and outcome in the next coming decade. We need an Apollo energy program now or else we will be fighting trillion dollar wars for a $200 per barrel of oil. Our kids deserve better than to have to have more names stenciled on marble memorial walls for fallen soldiers.

xxx ooo: You are correct they are still flaring natural gas in North Dakota out at Williston, North Dakota. We road the Amtrak out to Seattle a month ago. My wife and I could see the flaring of natural gas from miles away. It is a sickening waste to me. Here is the problem with North Dakota: the Republicans own both chambers of the state legislature and the Governor's office while the oil companies own the Republicans. Do you need a further explanation? I have sent Senate Democratic candidate Heidi Heitkamp $10 for her campaign even though I live in Minnesota. Oil companies can send Republican GOP Senate and Tea Party favorite candidate Rick Berg tens of millions of dollars. Sorry dude I can not compete. Heidi Heitkamp is going to tear Rick Berg apart in their debates but will this be enough to overcome three or four dollars to one? This is what makes me so sick and tired of the whole United States system. I lived in Europe for four years and the Western European countries do not allow corporate money in their political system like we do. But then again most Europeans are much smarter than most conservatives.

Reagan idiot: Sorry I don't always get around to respond to every GOP moron on this blog because I just to all kinds of blogs through out the day. Why do you ignorant Republicans want to tear the country down rather than to build it up? I retired from the U.S. Army after 20 years and am working on a second bachelor's degree. I don't always source everything because too often the conservatives don't bother looking at the sources anyway. I have not seen any solutions to problems on your posts either just right winged filth.

President Obama has been very good for the corporate sector on Wall Street. The Dow Jones is up to 12,600 when he came in it was barely at 6,000. The manufacturing sector is picking up jobs after years of decline. We have had 27 straight months of job growth with about 4.2 million private sector jobs. 2011 saw corporate profits up to a record $2 trillion. This year corporate profits are set to go to that level again. This sounds like capitalism humming along to me. So with all those Bush tax cuts and record corporate profits where are all those jobs? If the GOP House had passed President Obama's American Jobs Act at least one million more jobs would have been created building infrastructure and keeping public sector workers on the job instead of laying them off. Austerity does not work when the economy is slow because it hurts the recovery and drags the economy back into recession. Economist Paul Krugman wants a large stimulus bill again and the data says Krugman is correct.

The Main Street economy is a different animal. The Main Street economy requires a middle class with a disposable amount of income. About 70% of our commercial economy is driven by middle class people buying goods and services. A strapped middle class and working class with no money means a prolonged recession or even a depression. Wealth inequality is a major factor in this problem. The richest top quintuple of households owned 85% of the total net worth and 93% of the financial wealth in the country in 2007. The bottom eighty percent of households owned just 15% of the net worth and a mere 7% of financial wealth. The richest one percent of households owned 34.6% of the net worth and 42.7% of the financial wealth in 2007 (Domhoff 2009). Check out Professor G William Domhoff's, "Who Rules America, Wealth Income, Power) Department of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz website.

If you have ever read any history wealth inequality was a major cause of the Great Depression in 1929. Wealth inequality is trending dangerously towards the time of the during the 1920's when the top one percent owned about 44.2% of the national wealth in the country in 1929. The top one percent is gaining more and more of the national income while the bottom eighty percent essentially stagnates even though the productivity has increased markedly and American workers are very productive when compared to the rest of the world. As the middle class loses income we got the Great Depression in 1929 from a stock market bubble crash and the Great Recession of 2008 from a real estate bubble crash. Both of these speculative bubbles were caused because of a GOP deregulation that allowed corporate greed to run rampant unchecked.

The lessons from history books are clear: without strong regulation of the private sector the greed from speculative schemes on Wall Street will get so greedy that it will absolutely destroy itself dragging the Main Street economy right down after it. These are the lessons of 1929 and 2008. Republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves for pushing for the repeal of the 1932 Glass-Steagall Act with the 1999 Graham-Leach-Bliley Act. GOP deregulation almost brought down the whole U.S. financial system in 2008. Go read the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report that stated that human actions caused the 2008 financial meltdown with deregulation and unchecked corporate greed and absurd speculation in the securities markets by the big Wall Street investment banks that privatized profits and left nearly $9 trillion in Federal Reserve Actions and TARP and other relief actions by the Federal Government to keep the economy from totally collapsing like it did in 1929. I never get a conservative to adequately respond to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report. Canada kept its banks regulated and no Canadian taxpayer bailouts were necessary. But Canadians are smarter than American conservatives and the facts prove it.

The solution to our problems are tough regulation for Wall Street investment banks. We need to strengthen the Dodd-Frank reforms if they prove to weak. We also need tough antitrust lawsuits in federal court that breakup the five largest "too big to fail" Wall Street investment banks. The five largest banks control over one-half of all the financial wealth in this country. This huge concentration of power means that if these banks invest in highly speculative schemes they need to be small enough for bankruptcy court. The "too big to fail" scenario for banks means that the 2008 crisis was caused when mortgages were bought and bundled into "mortgage backed securities and sold on the highly leverage securities market.

I am referring to derivatives, hedge funds, and other securities. The mortgage backed securities were highly leveraged meaning if they were leveraged 30 to 1 the owners of those securities made $30 for every one dollar the securities went up in value. No one ever really knew the true value of these securities. So all was fine as the real estate market appreciated. When the real estate market started serious declines those owners of mortgaged backed securities owed $30 dollars for each dollar the mortgage backed securities declined. Because major financial institutions only keep a relatively modest amount of money as capital reserves the depreciation of the real estate market, particularly the sub-prime mortgage collapse led to the insolvency of many big investment banks on Wall Street that would have brought down our entire financial system had we not had about $9 trillion in Federal Reserve emergency actions along with TARP, and other bailout actions taken by the federal government and the Congress.

The bottom line is simple: we need to make sure the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 is put back on the law books. We need to breakup the big banks on Wall Street. We need to remember that the Canadians kept their banking system highly regulated. No Canadian taxpayers were asked to bailout their banking system. I am reading the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report that says in a nutshell that the 2008 disaster was a human made disaster that was caused by lax regulatory oversight, a culture of excessive greed and reckless risk taking on Wall Street that brought down the Main Street economy. If we do not institute more tough regulatory and antitrust actions against the Big Wall Street banks we will just have more "too big to fail" bailouts in the future. GOP deregulation has been totally and completely repudiated by the 2008 disaster. Mitt Romney pushes for more deregulation of the big Wall Street banks making another disaster all but predictable. Unregulated capitalism will destroy itself with excessive greed. This is a lesson that conservatives don't want to here but remember how much smarter Canadians are than American conservatives.

What a fool this women is! So dumb!