Archive for September, 2008
Here We Go Again
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
CNBC is reporting the Senate will bend some rules set forth in the Constitution a vote on a revised bailout tomorrow night. It takes five minutes to track down your senator’s web site and fire off an email. If you’re against rushing this fiasco through, if you’re against buying up 1 trillion in bad debt currently held by American and Foreign Banks, if you’re against giving Paulson unbridled power to blow our money however he sees fit, if you’re for researching all of the alternatives first, please send an email demanding the Senate vote this thing down.
A Battle is Won, But This Is A War…
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
We won the battle. Please remember this is a war.
Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Treasury Secretary Paulson, Obama, and McCain all still want to pass this stupid bill.
If Your Legislative Representative Voted No…
If Your Legislative Representative Voted Yes…
This is serious.. please spend tomorrow doing whatever you can to shoot this thing down!
Bipartisan Fury
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
“The defeat in Congress of a proposed $700 billion economic-rescue package followed an intense outpouring of voter anger, fanned by politicians, interest groups and media on the left and right, that overwhelmed calls from the president and top lawmakers to pass the deal.”
HHHHmmmmmm… ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Heard Recently…
Monday, September 29th, 2008
On a local real estate message board –
“So the Fed is paying for some top dollar real estate at 2005 prices? I wonder if they’ll be working with local realtors?”
No, but they’ll be using your money to buy it.
Paulson: Can I Get A Do Over?
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Hold on a sec, let me breath this moment in for a just one moment.. .. ahhhhhhh. A rare moment, where our representitives listened to the public, and did their bidding. Hmmmmmm. That felt really really good.
“We need to work as quickly as possible; we need to get something done,” Paulson told reporters at the White House after meeting with President George W. Bush. “We believe that our plan, and the plan that we developed with congressional leaders and worked so hard, is a plan that works. And we need a plan that works.”
-Paulson
700 billion to cover 3-6 trillion in bad investments and a recession right around the corner regardless. Time to get back on the phones and faxes! Goldman Sachs still has a determined fan in Washington!
Waste of Money
Friday, September 26th, 2008
A $630 billion spending bill nearing final approval in Congress includes $6.6 billion for thousands of lawmakers’ pet projects, including $51.5 million requested by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden when both presidential candidates have sworn off seeking any money.
..
Both presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, have criticized earmarks. McCain, who doesn’t request earmarks, has said that as president, he would veto any bill containing them. Since joining the Senate in 2005, Obama has requested $860.6 million in earmarks, according to the taxpayer group, but none this year, and he has pledged to reduce them if elected president.
I’m amazed McCain isn’t running advertising on this.
The Obvious
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
I’d just like to publically state the obvious – I am totally against the bailout plan currently circulating Washington. The causes of this financial disaster stretch back quite a number of years, and I’ll accept, most of the causes were based on good intentions. Sometimes though good intentions go bad, especially when they’re mixed with greed. But this country was founded upon the idea that reward walks hand in hand with risk. I believe we need to accept that now, and deal with the consequences of our actions. To not do so means we’ll just repeat the same mistakes later down the road.
The Invest-a-Bailout plan
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Questions nobody seems to be answering –
1) The housing market is still in decline, and a recession will put additional downward price pressure on these types of securities as more foreclosures occur. What if 700 billion spent on undervalued securities doesn’t even begin to cover the a total outstanding amount of undervalued securities owned by banks?
2) What is the maturation value of these securities, and if it’s higher than current prices, why aren’t investors buying them at those prices?
3) What if commercial rates remain high even after we’ve bought due to the problems mention in question 1?
4) What effect does this debt have on the value of the dollar?
5) What effect will this have on the interest rates of treasuries we’ll have to sell to fund this mess?
6) Why are the firms responsible for all this leveraged buying walking away from this deal scot free?
7) When you add it all up, over the lifetime of this deal, how much will the American taxpayer loose? 200 billion? 300 billion? 500 billion? 1 trillion or more?
8) What are the real costs of doing nothing? Wouldn’t these costs fall far under the potential loss of this grand investment bailout?
9) What happens if this fails?
Electoral Tie
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
What happens next, isn’t entirely clear.
Hammer on Nail
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
There is a term in political philosophy to describe a government takeover of a critical industry: That term is socialism. The government is telling us that capital and credit markets cannot, for several reasons, solve the current crisis on their own—only the federal government and its massive taxpayer base have the authority and the resources to solve it. That is state socialism: the philosophy preached by the founders of the Second International, by the radical wing of the American labor movement, through the formation of the Soviet Union and its satellites, and now by Henry Paulson.
What’s a little scary however, is that the author of the Slate article seems to think this is a “good thing”.
