Who could have foreseen....

...that financial institutions wouldn't learn anything?

Morgan Stanley plans to repackage a downgraded collateralized debt obligation backed by leveraged loans into new securities with AAA ratings in the first transaction of its kind, said two people familiar with the sale.
...
Two years after the credit markets began to seize up, costing the world’s biggest financial institutions $1.47 trillion in writedowns and losses, banks are again taking so- called structured finance securities and turning them into new debt investments with top credit ratings.

You mean to tell the bunch of geniuses who barely even understood what they were doing when they bundled piles of shit together into one big pile that collapsed he world economy, aren't smart enough to know not to do it again? I'm just surprised by how quick they're trying to jump back down that hole. I expected we'd at least be out of the current collapse before some genius said "Hear me out. Remember how we destroyed the economy? Let's do the exact same thing but expect different results because we've ostensibly learned something from the whole collapse?" Nope. They aren't even doing something different that just sounds similar. They're doing the exact same thing, possibly with even the exact same bad paper. In case you're wondering if the economy can crash twice within a year, we'll we're about to find out that the answer is yes. I can't believe that they couldn't even find a way to fuck things up in a new way. I hate repeats.

...that the CIA would constantly lie to elected officials?

In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. “This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,” said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers.

In an interview, Mr. Holt declined to reveal the nature of the C.I.A.’s alleged deceptions,. But he said, “We wouldn’t be doing this over a trivial matter.”

Oh my, not the CIA! Not our most trusted government organization! Not after Republicans spent all that time criticizing Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats when they said they the CIA was hiding information or misleading them on a number of fronts! I guess this is why its such a smart idea for President Obama to threaten to veto a bill that expands the disclosure of covert actions to entire House and Senate Intelligence Committees. I guess he just doesn't want them all to be lied to. You can't have entire committees with hurt feelings, its better they're kept in the dark. I'm just glad that, once again, nothing will be done. I think the order goes something like:

1. CIA admits constant program of misinformation and lies to elected representatives
2. someone uses the phrase "boys will be boys"
3. the CIA's hair gets tousled and they're referred to as a "scamp" or "rascal"
4. everything continues on as if nothing happened.

I fail to see how the CIA never gets the message that they shouldn't lie to Congress. How much more harsh a rebuke than "scamp" can we throw down? Must we traverse down the slippery slope of "ne'er do well" and "nogoodnik"? I'm sure they'll get the message this time.