Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A Room full of Idiots!
Watching the hearings on the bailout one could only think that the lunatics are finally running the asylum. Sen Dodd said they were not going to be rushed, others said that maybe if they wait it will take less money than the 700 billion proposed. It's a lot like a fire department saying they are not rushing to put out the fire, and anyway, if they wait awhile it might take less water. Good thinking guys. Let's wait until the entire system collapses, and we are in the midst of the second great depression. Banks are already refusing to make loans to each other, and now some are stopping car loans. Soon they will not be loaning any money to anyone. That means your credit cards will not work, you won't be able to buy a car or major appliance (unless you have cash), and forget about a mortgage. People think this is a bailout of 'wall street'. It is not. It is a bailout of the American economy. It's time politicians stop playing for votes criticizing CEO's who were forced to make risky sub prime loans by congressional pressure. It was Congress that changed the rules to allow hedge funds to sell credit default swaps without having the assets to back them up. Congress threatened lawsuits over red lining if banks didn't make more sub prime loans. Congress pushed Fannie and Freddie to buy more sub prime loans and Congress that rebuffed attempts at oversight of them. Warren Buffet said this is the right thing to do. Bernanke said the time is now. So stop the game playing, stop the blame game, and pass this bill, without your stupid additions. Now.
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It's increasingly clear that we have a government largely composed of idiots...sadly, it appears they've also been elected by idiots, especially neocons, who seem all too willing to part with their hard-earned cash...and lots of yours too.
Neocons live in a universe where the basic laws of financial physics don't apply. In the neoconiverse you can deregulate monopolies and critical industries; you can wage hugely expensive pet wars, can build giant government agencies, and proudly cut taxes (at least for the wealthy). In the neoconiverse, you can fund all of this just by printing more money. In the neoconiverse, it doesn't bother taxpayers that their newly saved tax dollars *and all the rest of the money* has been badly devalued.
Since I don't live in the neoconiverse, it is not at all clear (to me) that we *must* rush to gift 700B taxpayer dollars to investment banks (yes, buying their bad investments far above market value is a gift). I haven't been convinced this would help the current situation or solve the behavior that led to the problem; in fact I strongly suspect it will aggravate it.
The sudden emergency need to have taxpayers pony up a massive gift for a few private companies with little oversight or explanation looks like an attempt to hornswaggle taxpayers. The last times we trusted GWB with the American Platinum card, he started a pointless (and hugely expensive) war and a massive government spending program (DHS).
If the credit markets need an infusion, let's put the $700B into making *good* loans, not buying up the bad loans nobody wants. $700B would fund quite a large number of auto loans...and we'd be far more likely to see a decent return on that investment.
BTW, since you oppose raising taxes, how exactly do you plan to get this $700B?
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