John Edwards gets an early start...

[Tyrone Bigguns]

no one should ever profit from hedge funds. Damn einhorn!

I have no problem with the profits.....it's the duplicity.

Duplicity? You mean like cheating your wife?

Or being a "maverick" in campaign finance reform after being investigated for political influence/Keating 5?

I didn't realize the hedge funds caused the mortgage meltdown. Please explain.

[Kiwon]

And, when he did start his own firm..his biggest case was product liability.

And after Dow-Corning went bankrupt the "science" behind the claim linking their implants to breast cancer was discredited.

So where does Dow-Corning and their investors go to get their money back?

Puke lawyers like Edwards and their phony lawsuits ARE the reason people can't get reasonably priced health care. The threats of lawsuits drives up the cost of malpractice insurance for doctors who pass the costs on to their patients.

Edwards is as phony as the day is long. That is plain to see, but not to you.

Why are you such a jerk and have this obsession to defend any idiot that calls himself a liberal? Please answer this question succinctly in a 500-word essay. Remember, points will be deducted over punctuation and grammatical errors.

You have 45 minutes. Begin now.

[HowardRoark]

Duplicity? You mean like cheating your wife?

Yes, that too.

[HowardRoark]

I didn't realize the hedge funds caused the mortgage meltdown. Please explain.

First, it may be nuanced, but you are nothing if not a master of nuance……I never alluded to whether or not hedge funds caused anything; merely that the duplicitous John Edwards profited off what happened.

But, now that you ask.

Back in the day, your bank would do the underwriting on your mortgage, and then keep it on their balance sheet. They had a vested interest in your ability to pay the money back.

In the past few years, mortgages have been securitized and sold off in bundles known as CDOs. These CDOs have different traunches, depending on the risk of repayment. Because of fees, etc. there was a very large appetite for putting together these securitized loans. And offloading them.

Hedge funds were able to put together extremely highly leveraged funds of these securitized loans. Sometime 16:1. And, to add fuel to the fire, they were borrowing money in Japan at practically 0% interest and taking that cash over here to put the funds together. So, they not only had U.S. credit risk, but also foreign currency risk as well. It was an extremely highly torqued spring.

Certain firms, which I will not name, had a HUGE chunk of this stuff on their balance sheets. It was easy money, but they were not taking care of the risk management.

These securities aren't heavily traded or priced for that matter, and a flood of supply into the open market could drive prices down, forcing other holders of these securities to mark down the value of their holdings. When these loans are marked down, they start to really erode balance sheets. As balance sheets continue to erode, rating agencies such as Moodys and Standard and Poors lower the rating on these companies. As that happens, institutional investors, such as endowments and pensions, by their bylaws are forbidden from holding them anymore. The pensions, etc have to liquidate…..and so the flood of this stuff continues on the market.

As any Capitalist knows, when there is too much of something offered for sale real quick, there can come a time when there is no “bid” at all. That is where we are today. No “bid” for these securitized loans, so theoretically……they are worthless. Companies have to put this stuff on their balance sheets as worthless. Killing the companies.

Now, for the “short” side. Some smart guys/gals out there in the past couple of years have put huge bets on that this would all happen. Either through shorting, puts or buying credit swaps. When something is shorted, it is sold high, with the intention of buying back later cheaper. So, the shorting actually added a whole lot of fuel to this fire. Read Einhorn’s speech:

http://www.foolingsomepeople.com/main/TCF%202008%20Speech.pdf

What we need now is a “bid” on this debt.

[SkinBasket]

Must have taken a lesson from Newt...hmm, serve your wife with divorce papers while she is in the hospital.

Remind me again how many times McCain has been married?

Yep, dems have the lack of morality cornered.

Attempts at equivocation don't make Edwards any less disgusting or pathetic.

[SkinBasket]

Sex is a very hard thing for some people to resist.

I see the rapist side of JustinHarrell is back.

Acctually it's the side that is not going to gang up on a guy for his human weakness. It was a bad thign to do. I don't think he feels great abotu what he did/is doing.

You're right. Edwards is obviously that type of guy that is so animalistically base in nature that he lacks the mental capacity to understand the ramifications of his own raging sexuality. You can tell by the thousand dollar haircuts.

[MJZiggy]

I wonder if $1k could make my hair look that good...

[SkinBasket]

He looks straight out of Falcon Crest. I'm not sure if that's the look you want.

[Joemailman]

I don't know if Edwards is guilty here or not. If he is, it's reprehensible. However, am I the only one who read the last line of this story?

Hunter has said that the father of her child is former Edwards campaign official Andrew Young. The 41-year-old married father of three has also said he is the father.

Are we to assume that they're both lying?

[texaspackerbacker]

Our lefties have a point with the hypocrisy angle. There's plenty of crap on our side too--including the much more insidious infestation of Congressional fags.

The bottom line is that with Edwards, just as with Clinton (either one), Kerry, Obama, Reid, whoever on the left, there is so so much to hate them for that is ISSUE-ORIENTED without stooping to this sexual stuff.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

And, when he did start his own firm..his biggest case was product liability.

And after Dow-Corning went bankrupt the "science" behind the claim linking their implants to breast cancer was discredited.

So where does Dow-Corning and their investors go to get their money back?

Puke lawyers like Edwards and their phony lawsuits ARE the reason people can't get reasonably priced health care. The threats of lawsuits drives up the cost of malpractice insurance for doctors who pass the costs on to their patients.

Edwards is as phony as the day is long. That is plain to see, but not to you.

Why are you such a jerk and have this obsession to defend any idiot that calls himself a liberal? Please answer this question succinctly in a 500-word essay. Remember, points will be deducted over punctuation and grammatical errors.

You have 45 minutes. Begin now.

Why are you bring up Dow? Edwards wasn't involved with that.

Typicial Kiwon red herring. Why don't you actually talk about what he did..rather than what you deem a frivilous lawsuit.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Must have taken a lesson from Newt...hmm, serve your wife with divorce papers while she is in the hospital.

Remind me again how many times McCain has been married?

Yep, dems have the lack of morality cornered.

Attempts at equivocation don't make Edwards any less disgusting or pathetic.

No, but they do put it into context. Labeling this liberal/dem behavior and then demonizing the left is ridiculous.

A great portion of man around the world cheat on their spouses..and vice versa. And, a HUGE portion of politicians cheat...on both sides.

At least the dems haven't had an pedophiles or toe tappers exposed.

[texaspackerbacker]

Isn't that what I just said?

[SkinBasket]

Must have taken a lesson from Newt...hmm, serve your wife with divorce papers while she is in the hospital.

Remind me again how many times McCain has been married?

Yep, dems have the lack of morality cornered.

Attempts at equivocation don't make Edwards any less disgusting or pathetic.

No, but they do put it into context. Labeling this liberal/dem behavior and then demonizing the left is ridiculous.

A great portion of man around the world cheat on their spouses..and vice versa. And, a HUGE portion of politicians cheat...on both sides.

At least the dems haven't had an pedophiles or toe tappers exposed.

What makes this "special" to me I suppose is the dying spouse angle. Just like I think Armstrong is a fucking waste of post-cancer life for leaving the hottest pair of lips (on her face) in the world when she was facing the same ordeal. Call me a romantic, but bailing on a sick and/or dying partner is about as low as one can get - politician or not.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Must have taken a lesson from Newt...hmm, serve your wife with divorce papers while she is in the hospital.

Remind me again how many times McCain has been married?

Yep, dems have the lack of morality cornered.

Attempts at equivocation don't make Edwards any less disgusting or pathetic.

No, but they do put it into context. Labeling this liberal/dem behavior and then demonizing the left is ridiculous.

A great portion of man around the world cheat on their spouses..and vice versa. And, a HUGE portion of politicians cheat...on both sides.

At least the dems haven't had an pedophiles or toe tappers exposed.

What makes this "special" to me I suppose is the dying spouse angle. Just like I think Armstrong is a fucking waste of post-cancer life for leaving the hottest pair of lips (on her face) in the world when she was facing the same ordeal. Call me a romantic, but bailing on a sick and/or dying partner is about as low as one can get - politician or not.

But, Edwards hasn't left. He is merely continuing a behavior established.

Unless he leaves, he is just no different than any other cheating spouse. And, while i'm not exonerating him...i also dont know their relationship. Who knows what kind of deal they have.

Maybe it is something out of "Breaking the waves."

I do hear your sentiment, and am inclined to agree. but, should someone stay in a broken relationship because of a problem..ie, armstrong?