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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Monday, September 29, 2008

Picture of the Day - 2 - The Bailout Fails.


"You Maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

posted by mikevotes at 4:12 PM

10 Comments:

  • You know, this whole bail out thing.... They might as well be taking about string theory and particle physics. Actually, I think I'd be better able to understand a discussion on string theory... This economics, markets thing... *swoosh* right over my head.

    And here's the thing: The Bush administration (and Congress to some degree) has violated the public trust so absolutely that they have NO credibility when they cry "Fire!" So really, part of this crisis is a crisis in confidence in Bush and his people.

    By Blogger -epm, at 3:50 PM  

  • "S&L Greed is PEOPLE!"

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:58 PM  

  • Short version. The credit markets need an influx of cash to bridge themselves, and without that, through a series of connections, loans will become about 50% harder to get, meaning cash strapped mid to small businesses can't get loans during a recession and consumers can't buy houses (dooming that market,) cars or other durable goods on credit.

    So, businesses fail, people go unemployed. Housing market collapses. Consumers can't buy. All feeding in off each other.

    It's a countrywide disaster we're looking at. I'm not going to say Great Depression because, from here, that's too many extrapolations, but serious, serious shit.

    I was just sure something would go through.

    On the bright side, the collapsing market (and everyone recalculating their investments in their head) will put a ton of pressure on those no votes.

    But this is a major fuckup.

    (I'm not really posting on all this directly on the front page because it is complicated, I'm not an expert, and I don't want to give out bad or misleading information.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:05 PM  

  • Bruce, That's Great!!!!!!!

    Now do Omega Man....

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:05 PM  

  • But the general public -- me included -- sees the current bail out plan as being pro-speculator and anti-Main Street. They see the markets as corrupt and the bail out as corrupt as well...

    They see the apocalyptic scenarios as bullshit from crooked politicians on the take. They see the bail out as taxing the struggling homeowner just to shore up the people who are trying to take his home.... A reverse Robin Hood.

    As I said the bail out proposal is over head. To me, it smells: lack of strong oversight, too much leniency for senior management, too much back-door support for non-US entities. The ONLY reason why I supported this legislation is because I have great trust in Barney Frank. He's a good man... and a REAL straight talker. (there's a pun in there...)

    By Blogger -epm, at 4:20 PM  

  • Oh definitely. I get it. I hear that from people. And I want some blood out of these guys too, but the deal is, regardless of where the opinion is, we really have to have something.

    And, even if it's not apocalyptic, just a bad result will swing the economy way down.

    The cost of doing nothing is worse than what was proposed.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:28 PM  

  • Gotcha. And I believe your statement "The cost of doing nothing is worse than what was proposed." I'm just so gun-shy with Republicans (and most career Dems).

    As I said, if Americans still had faith in their government... But the Republicans have been poisoning the well of public trust for so long now...

    "Government isn't the solution. Government is the problem!" -- R. Reagan.

    Thanks, Ronnie. Heckofa job....

    By Blogger -epm, at 4:43 PM  

  • The estimates are that $1.1-$1.2 trillion was lost in the market today alone.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:01 PM  

  • epm wrote:
    To me, it smells: lack of strong oversight, too much leniency for senior management, too much back-door support for non-US entities.

    I agree with epm on this.
    Particularly, I don't like Paulson being handed $700 billion (over time, of course) to do with as he sees fit (without oversight) and awarding no-bid management contracts for firms being taken over.

    This kind of approach is how we got into this mess. If we are going to restore confidence, we have to do something that fundamentally addresses what went wrong. What went wrong was not that there wasn't one man throwing money to his cronies behind the scenes before.

    We have to do something, yes, but that doesn't mean that we have to do something stupid.

    The House Republican plan is profoundly stupid. It is closing the stable door after the horse has run off.

    The estimates are that $1.1-$1.2 trillion was lost in the market today alone.

    It wasn't really "lost", though. It's not as if it were currency consumed in a fire, or gold bars tossed into a bottomless chasm. It's lost potential money or "value". Just like Tinkerbell, if people clap hard enough all of that value can come back.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 8:47 AM  

  • Fair point on the losses, Todd.

    Your oversight point is valid, but, frankly, the Dems would be better off, issuing this as a blanket now, and then passing the regulation stuff when they have more seats in Congress and the presidency, you know?

    And, As a bit of a pointless and technical correction. The bill under consideration wasn't $700 billion straight out. It was approx $350 billion at discretion and another $350 available if the Congress later votes for it.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:57 AM  

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