The David Copperfield School of Economic Recovery, Pt. II
Now what?
Last week, the Obama administration brought us a $1 trillion Federal Reserve magic trick hatched by the David Copperfield School of Economic Recovery — printing up a trillion bucks and “pumping it into the U.S. economy”…by buying up bonds and mortgage securities…sold and backed by the government.
Today, hapless, truth-challenged tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner officially unveils another $1 trillion magic trick. Instead of letting failed banks fail, we’ll have another desperately massive and massively desperate attempt to prop them up through a “public private partnership investment program.” Eager to get the still-unfolding Bonus-gate behind them (see “Geithner Aides Worked With AIG for Months on Bonuses” and “AIG paid over $218 million in bonus payments”), Team Obama leaked details of the plan over the weekend. World stock markets were up this morning, full of audaciously blind hope.
Geithner ’s WSJ op-ed this morning lays out some of the details he failed to deliver when he first unveiled his non-plan plan a month ago:
Today, we are announcing another critical piece of our plan to increase the flow of credit and expand liquidity. Our new Public-Private Investment Program will set up funds to provide a market for the legacy loans and securities that currently burden the financial system.
The Public-Private Investment Program will purchase real-estate related loans from banks and securities from the broader markets. Banks will have the ability to sell pools of loans to dedicated funds, and investors will compete to have the ability to participate in those funds and take advantage of the financing provided by the government.
The funds established under this program will have three essential design features. First, they will use government resources in the form of capital from the Treasury, and financing from the FDIC and Federal Reserve, to mobilize capital from private investors. Second, the Public-Private Investment Program will ensure that private-sector participants share the risks alongside the taxpayer, and that the taxpayer shares in the profits from these investments. These funds will be open to investors of all types, such as pension funds, so that a broad range of Americans can participate.
Third, private-sector purchasers will establish the value of the loans and securities purchased under the program, which will protect the government from overpaying for these assets.
The new Public-Private Investment Program will initially provide financing for $500 billion with the potential to expand up to $1 trillion over time, which is a substantial share of real-estate related assets originated before the recession that are now clogging our financial system. Over time, by providing a market for these assets that does not now exist, this program will help improve asset values, increase lending capacity by banks, and reduce uncertainty about the scale of losses on bank balance sheets. The ability to sell assets to this fund will make it easier for banks to raise private capital, which will accelerate their ability to replace the capital investments provided by the Treasury.
This program to address legacy loans and securities is part of an overall strategy to resolve the crisis as quickly and effectively as possible at least cost to the taxpayer. The Public-Private Investment Program is better for the taxpayer than having the government alone directly purchase the assets from banks that are still operating and assume a larger share of the losses. Our approach shares risk with the private sector, efficiently leverages taxpayer dollars, and deploys private-sector competition to determine market prices for currently illiquid assets.
The self-delusional hope, as the NYTimes put it over the weekend (see “Toxic Asset Plan Foresees Big Subsidies for Investors”), “is that such a generous taxpayer subsidy will attract private investors into the market and accelerate the recovery of the country’s banks.”
Because, you know, the trillions of generous taxpayer subsidies we’ve already poured down the hole have worked such wonders to “accelerate the recovery.”
And because, you know, healthy investment firms will be sooooo eager to accept government funding after watching what happened to AIG.
Mike Shedlock boils it down:
This is similar in nature to fraudulent schemes that promise “what’s inside the bag is worth $1 million, unless you open the bag”.
In this case there may be a few “good bags” similar in nature to salting the mine schemes, but for the most part everyone knows what’s in the bag is toxic garbage. What really makes no sense whatsoever is why the government would risk 97% with shared “upside” instead of just buying it all.
Somehow, Geithner (and Obama by implication) believes that igniting a bidding war between hedge funds and private equity over a bag of cow manure will inspire confidence that there’s gold in the bag. Such insanity cannot possibly work, which means it won’t.
To paraphrase Obama’s favorite president, Abe Lincoln: “You can fool all of the Kool-Aid drinkers some of the time, and some of the Kool-Aid drinkers all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the Kool-Aid drinkers all of the time.”
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- Obama Talks Too Much: Time to Fire Toxic Tim Geithner « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Obama Budget Explodes Debt, Taxes, CBO Admits | OpenMarket.org
- Is Obama Serious About Economic Recover? « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Obama laughs as preparations made for new Global Currency | Liberty Confidential
- Is Obama losing it? « Jim Blazsik
- Timmy’s Plan « NObama Blog
- Blind to Obama’s Broken Promises | OpenMarket.org
- Geithner Makes Big Announcement With No Cameras Allowed « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Yet Another Trillion Dollars of Taxpayer Money… Gregg Warns That Obama’s Bailouts Will Bankrupt America « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Jules Crittenden » In Worm-Turnage Developments
- Unintended Consequences - MYSTERY SOLVED VIDEO UPDATE « Designated Conservative
- Obama’s economic team is in full meltdown « Goodtimepolitics
- Mark-To-Market Accounting Rules Driving Banks To Bailouts–Change The Rules–Fed Chair Bernanke Explains!–Videos « Pronk Palisades
- The Monetarization of The Debt and Quantitative Easing: The Federal Reserve is printing $1,000,000,000,000!–Run-Away Inflation Coming Soon! « Pronk Palisades
- “Heads I win, Tails the Taxpayers Lose”: Toxic Asset Rip-Off | OpenMarket.org
- Meet the New Plan, Same As the Old Plan : The Sundries Shack
- Geithner reveals plan for toxic assets … to the tune of $1 trillion « Wellsy’s World
- Wintery Knight Blog
- Geithner Explains His Plan « Liberty Street
- Tax cheat Geithner’s plan - cash for trash | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Vampire Vulture Ventures: Geithner’s Government Gamble–Heads The Vermin Win–Tails The American People Lose! « Pronk Palisades
- And More Nonsense From Geithner « Beltway Snark
- La Transición de Obama: economía. El Plan de Rescate de Bancos de Geithner « Sarah Palin en Español
- Markets Rally on Hopes of Regulatory Relief | OpenMarket.org
- Michelle Malkin » The biggest, most magical makework program ever!
- Rush Limbaugh: Obama is Destroying the Economy!–Videos « Pronk Palisades
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Categories: AIG, Subprime crisis, Tim Geithner
American Thinker
» Contract FROM America: Giving the People a Voice in Congress
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» No Place to HideMudville Gazette
» She got toldPundit & Pundette
» Large crowd at Minnesota "Kill the Bill" rallyRiehl World View
» Kill The Bill!Riehl World View
» Alan Colmes: Can You Euthanize The Brain Dead?Doug Ross @ Journal
» Pelosi: I'm delighted the President will be here to burn the Constitution in Effigy... it's going to be historic.
My first reaction is: When are these guys going to learn?
My next reaction is: When are we going to make these bastards burn?
Cause it’s evident they are making every effort to bankrupt this country into oblivion.
The foundational element here is government believes it knows best. Of course, if anybody ever really thought about that, they would realize that there is almost never a chance that government would know best.
Why would lawyers (for the most part) be experts in economics, finance, environmental science, education, biology, medicine, and defense strategy. They might be experts in some aspect of law and they might even have good source material in another field. That however, does not qualify them to make broad decisions affecting every citizen in every area.
Well there’s that or just letting failure fail which would be near zero cost to the taxpayer.
I’m not adept at Photoshop, but maybe this would fit.
Barry’s head on Dustin Hoffman’s body in Rainman. The hung down, tilted aspect of Raymond’s head replaced by the smug, imperial ‘O’. REid or Pelosi head on Cruise’s body.
OR
Bainman - Barry’s head on Cruises Body and Geitner’s head on Hoffman’s body.
The long angle scene in the hospital driveway.
When candidate George H. W. Bush criticized his opponent, Ronald Reagan’s economic recovery plan, Bush was flat out wrong. But the description of that plan came to mind while reading this post. This scheme would be properly labeled “Voodoo Economics”.
There’s a shuttered nuclear power plant outside Sacramento. For decades,its toxic nuclear fuel has been watched by a full time crew. Its going to be there forever if that Senator Reid gets Yucca Mountain killed….and he will. The taxpayer is stuck with a toxic asset.
Now Reid and his cronies want to foist another kind of toxic asset off on the taxpayer….overvalued property assets. They want the property to be sold at a premium so that the local agencies can get the elevated tax benefits from them and thereby avoid another wave of bailouts.
The trouble is anyone who buys these toxic assets at any price can have the taxes raised on them down the road without having a buyer to sell to. Buying more property than you can handle can be dangerous to your financial health.
The rational answer is to sell the land at auction on the courthouse steps. Instead, the government wants to be your partner in ownership. Your government partner is Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. Go ahead. I dare ya.
Lemme see if I get this:
They tax me (plus generations to come…) out the wazoo,
…and then they want me (“the private sector”) to buy up the toxic properties.
heh.
What we are seeing here is a small taste of what a command/control (communist?) government looks like. Now imagine if you add in healthcare, auto industry (oops, they already have the auto industry), and other sectors of the economy.
These morons can’t even balance their own dang budget, yet the think they can control the economy.
Why yes, I just can not wait to get in on this opportunity. Little Timmy’s Efficiently Leveraged Taxpayer Dollars on these now double sub prime loans was the Fannie/Freddie-AIG insured Hat Trick that got us into this mess.
I am rather confident that there will be Most Favored Friends who will make a bundle on this ponzi scheme. Robert Rubin comes to mind, but he is so old era. Perhaps a Chicago Connection will rise up to take advantage of this Golden Flow. With the Obaminites and Congress now talking of Executive Compensation controls these New Era Schemers will need to come up with a new way to pay themselves our millions–perhaps Barney Frank Approved Retention Bonuses. Let’s say a 2% commission on Public-Private Investment Program Bonds sold to Pension Funds, our new and reconstituted IRAs, 401K-or should that be 200.5K- and other cool Hat Tricks.
Friends of Timmy, He Whose Middle Name is Hussein, and Congressional and Senate Chairman should do well. Have a nice day.
Good Bye America-you will be missed.
—
Keep the change-I’ll keep my guns
The Public-Private Investment Program will purchase real-estate related loans from banks and securities from the broader markets.
It worked so well with Fannie and Freddie.
I’m mad as hell; And I want my country back !
By printing money and devaluing the dollar, they have essentially found a way to tax wealth, in addition to income. God help us.
Where does this stop? What is wrong with not spending if you do not have the money? Every child is taught this lesson before going to school. If these instutions fail, it is for a reason and not up to the US taxpayer to purchase them. This new plan sounds like dictatiorship 101.
Just wonderful! Besides printing TRILLIONS of Monopoly bucks [aka. fiat money] Da Bama is also trying to bankrupt private investors.
It won’t be long before Da Bama puts us into the next DEMOCRAT Depression.
I’ll be watching the stock market like a hawk today.
The depth of stupidity in Washington is breath-taking. Yesterday, we learned that Obama is standing by his taxcheat man. What happened to the so-called growing doubts in congress about more bailouts? Has Barry been a busy bee on the telephones promising the moon in monetary and political paybacks for one more congress-approved, trillion dollar bailout? Don’t these bloody fools understand that there are consequences to spending trillions of dollars that you don’t have?
Even a Monopoly Game only has so much money in it, and it’s known to be a toy.
In fund-raising circles this is what is known as a ‘Chinese auction’, Trouble is, the Government is using most of it’s own money to buy the tickets,
Alas … The smoke continues to clear and the mirrors keep breaking …
Soon all will see through the illusion that is Obama …
And the taxpayer’s profit, when it eventually arrives, goes to……ACORN!!!
Its The OBAMBI’s magic trick in action again. Heads, we win! Tails, you lose.
Oh, so this is the program that’s going to take those “toxic assets” out of circulation.
Not the first $350 billion of TARP.
Not the second $350 billion of TARP.
Not the $787 billion stimulus.
Not the $410 billion omnibus.
This is the part I was waiting for. Got it.
You know it’s really bad when even some Democrats think you’re spending too much money! This is akin to bailing water out of a boat by shooting a hole through the bottom!
That would be the height of irresponsibility.
On March 23rd, 2009 at 7:24 am, maine yankee said:
Exactly.
The “stereotype” about liberals is that they tax and spend; and gut defense.
They have proven that stereotype ten-fold with this spectacle. Spending like money is water, hamstringing our country’s future for generations, while at the same time, doing everything they possibly can to roll back the policies that have kept us safe for over 8 years.
Who told this jack-ass President and his party that they had a mandate??? He was losing to John McFraud before the financial collapse last fall.
The 2010 mid term elections cannot get here soon enough. I just hope that there is a country left to save when it rolls around.
I have this terrible feeling that my Country is being totally crippled and destroyed before my eyes, by a bunch of lunatics.
I am an economic idiot.
I don’t understand why anyone would buy anything with the name toxic assets.
I look at the Dow Futures and idiots are buying it. What are they thinking?
scary…just….scary!
It took 8 years for George W. Bush to prove to me that he was the stupidest man in America. Barack Obama has one-upped George. After less than 8 weeks he has proved HE is the stupidest man in America. That is quite an accomplishment!
Does Obama WANT it to get better, or is the man in a quandary? Perhaps he needs some improvement in the economy to hold on to his Democratic Party majority in Congress BUT
This bitter, resentful, Black Supremacist, Marxist oriented man and his wife do have a chip on their collective shoulder. Along with their fellow Grievance based fellows David Axelrod, Rahm Emmanuel and Eric Holder Pay Back is paramount. Whitey, Race Traitors, Capitalist, Christians, Families (where there was a father?) all have IT coming and Obama is desperate to deliver.
Yes these thugs are in a quandary. Timing is their only problem. When is it safe to stick it to the Bitter Clingers-when is the best time for the Night of the Long Knives? When can they call the chickens home to roost?
But the people voted-Barney Frank, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman and Shumer are in line to do their damage-Pay Back bros and hoes-payback is coming. Individual issues such as this are an irritant to be sure-but they are a means to an evil end.
Good Bye America-you will be missed.
—
Keep the change-I’ll keep my guns
You know the saying, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…it’s prolly a duck. The general population didn’t pull this description of dems out of the air – it is what it is. No thinking individual would vote for these morons. That leads me to my next conclusion…wanna guess what that is?
It’s not surprising that Obama’s solution, if you dare call it that, is to get someone to buy devalued crap, expecting them to believe that this “bag O’ crap” will re-inflate to its previously unrealistic value.
Market forces and the reality of individual buyer’s financial situation drove the prices of homes back down from the insanity they rose to.
Think about it. What young couple could afford to buy an $800,000 home? …And pay all the bills that go along with it? ….And without using some sort of BS loan that doesn’t ever pay the principle?
Few if any can really afford it.
Team Obama thinks that getting those loans written again and getting prices back up to sky high levels is the solution. He must be smoking crack again.
This was a correction to home prices and a message to all that there’s no “right” to own a home. You simply have to have the cash and the income to do afford one.
I’d rather pay 165 million in bonuses to AIG employees THAN the 93 million annualy in BASE pay that we pay to members of Congress.
Gee, (giggle giggle), you have to have, (giggle giggle), a sense of humor about all this, (giggle, giggle). Thanks Obambi but, lots of folks that voted for you are crying now!
I think most agree with you – we need congress and ZerO to read the dang signs – literally! We couldn’t care less about AIG and the bonuses…HEY DUMMIES – THAT’S NOT IT!
On 60 Minutes last night BHO said that he needed a little “gallows humor” to get through the day. Had anyone else said that, they would have been vivisected alive by the MSM.
What a meathead. Honest Americans have lost their jobs and their homes, and the President is making jokes?
Hey, BHO, you’re a real comedian, you arugula and Kobe steak-sucking child of unmarried parents.
Dem politicians have long relied on the uber-stupidity of their voting constituency. Worked like a charm last November!
A trillion here, a trillion there, soon you will be talking REAL money.
But seriously. Where the hell are we getting all this money we are spending???
I know we just printed 1 trillion, but where is this trillion going to come from???
This is going to smooth out somewhat for a time then get really really bad really quickly.
Roman, you’re correct. Had a republican said that, it would have been a NY Times headline and Reid would have been pounding his fist denouncing whoever said it.
Essentially, it proves that Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has nothing of substance to say. Ever. He’s only got sound bites to rattle off. The guy is a walking campaign speech. Nothing more.
At Harvard, they won’t even release any of the work he supposedly did there.
It’s unreal but the Sham-Wow guy has better skills than Obama.
Facts are though – the economy has been a house of cards for a long time (or at least a pretty big section of it).
As soon as the goal was to increase the appearance of wealth (as opposed to actually create wealth), politicians began doing ever more “radical” things to accomplish the appearance goal. Never mind “responsibility” – that’s for “old fashioned” people. You want it, you should have it.
Says Council of Economic Advisers Chief Christina Romer…
So these firms are going to make really bad investment bets because Timmy G says they need to do it?
I have to go look up the meaning of wishful thinking again. I think we may have a brand new example to use here.
Those are the people zerO is pandering too, with his little giggles, sarcastic jokes, his NCAA brackets, etc., etc., etc. People with a couple of brain cells…not so much.
They are thinking that the ATM is open again.
If you will remember the governmemt couldn’t even run a whore house in Nevada (Mustang Ranch) and turn a profit. How can you expect them to do any better now?
ivy league indoctrinated, intellectually and ethically challenged. the ponzi scam continues.
It won’t be “wishful thinking” that causes firms to behave this way. Obambi and friends will do it the same way Clinton did. If you don’t buy up what the government wants you to buy up then you will be
persecuted, er, prosecuted as racists and charged with hate crimes and have special laws passed to strip you of your earnings and bonuses with 110% tax rates. It will be called the “Joe the Plumber Privacy Protection Act” or something like that.Are you like NOT paying attention lately…
Romer: Firms Will Buy Toxic Assets Because ‘We Need Them to Do This’
WTF, isn’t this what happen with crap loans. The Gov. needed a quota and it failed.
So Romer is telling us that they will pressure firms to buy TOXIC crap and eventually this will boil over AGAIN
AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Thats me watching blood shot out of my eyes.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m thinking something closer to “Scientology Economics” because to swallow the plan you have to have a deep down belief in Science Fiction.
not a chance. there is no rationality among the dem supporters…they’ve latched onto their savior…
gee, franklin raines part deaux: let’s take a whole bunch of crappy subprime loans we forced banks to make, and then we the gubmint insurer bought and bundled into marketable crap securities which the world bought and aig insured, and then the gubmint paid off through aig bailouts, and now we need to start the whole process over. HOW DAMN MANY TIMES DOES THE TAXPAYER HAVE TO BUY THESE SAME DAMN TOXIC ASSETS? just force the banks to sell the houses, and get them on the market instead of forcing the taxpayers to continue to buy the same crap mortgages over and over. obviously the wall street banks and fannie and freddie and aig are HUGE campaign contributors to the dem party and obama.
New political speak: “Legacy assets”. A rose by any other name……..
And unfortunately, I think some are right. O and Timmy are going to make bargains with those holding our 401Ks and IRAs to get them to purchase this garbage.
Remember over the weekend we heard about possible regulation on businesses’ bonuses and compensation plans? Wanna bet O will make a deal – you buy our garbage and you won’t be regulated. You don’t buy and your compensation plan will be handled by the government. What choice do you think CEOs will make?
Sorry, you are mistaken if you think these toxic assets actually represent houses. They don’t. That’s what makes them so very toxic.
I know, why don’t they call it something like “Toxic Asset Relief Program”?
There has beeen zero accountibility for the trillions already spent but we’re giving them a blank check to spend more. Where socialism for the rich is concerned, price is no object.
I stand corrected. I had briefly forgotten about the politico-terrorists like ACORN, Jesse Jackson and certain members of Congress.
Nope. It’s going to be like the Community Investment Act – you buy our crap or we’ll shut you down, regulate the h*ll out of you and whatever other threats will convince you to fork over the savings of millions of Americans.
“In every State, the government is nothing but a permanent conspiracy on the part of the minority against the majority, which it enslaves and fleeces.”
Mikhail Bakunin
Did anyone catch the protest in front of AIG executive homes on the news? Pretty infuriating if you ask me. A black woman read a letter outside one of these homes and when asked by the media her thoughts, she said the rich need to give her some money! She felt it was a crime that AIG executives should have so much and she have so little. This explains why zerO and congress refuse to accept the conservative stance on all of this. That we are angry at them and not AIG. zerO, congress and the MSM only hear what people like this woman are saying. As noted above
right4life …
You are correct that the disciples of BO are numerous … but the poisonous kool aid they keep drinking will only keep them satisfied for so long before they realize it is killing them …
The following sequence of events will bring about the fall of BO … even amongst the most ardent of his hoodwinked followers …
1. The car is sitting at the side of the road because BO didn’t keep it full of gasoline …
2. The cable for the big screen TV is gone because BO didn’t pay the bill …
3. The cupboard is empty because BO didn’t buy the food …
4. The utilities are turned off because BO didn’t pay the bill …
5. The houses and apartments are gone because BO didn’t pay the rent …
Reality Bites …
Disillusionment Leaves Truth …
I am by no means a financial genius. Even so, I have to wonder why anyone would want to invest in any of this?
And if they don’t get any private investors, then I guess it’s all the taxpayers who gets the risk.
What could go wrong, right? I got a bad, bad feeling about this.
no2pcbs1 said (#40):
Actually, much of the Ivy League is against the Geithner plan. Krugman panned it.
And we all know how well public/private organizations work to solve problems (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac).
Our ship is sinking…the pumps don’t work…every bucket has a whole in the bottom…and Obama and Geithner are passing out Dixie Cups.
I used to think that way too..but I look at detroit and all the other failed cities of the liberal left..and they keep voting the same way…
I have friends, supposedly christians, who are all for obama…makes no sense…
there will be a scapegoat..the rich, the republicans, the christians, the jews, to blame the failures on…bank on it…
The Federal Reserve isn’t accountable to anyone, including the Obama administration. Geithner’s screw-ups are on Obama’s tab, the Fed’s screw-ups are on their own. Just thought I’d chime in with that clarification.
That picture of Copperfield is freaking me out. Seriously. It’s like his eyes are piercing my soul.
cabrerski said:
Had to finish that statement …
Well, this is the change most Americans asked for. So, this is what WE ALL get!
Maybe next time they’ll listen to us. And, hopefully, next time Republicans will run a REAL Conservative!
It never dawns on those dopes that the evil rich people they hate so much ARE the Democrats. But if it ever does, watch out.
obama is really trying hard to out spend the entire bush administration this year isn’t he?
Another trillion dollars gone.
Poor Kool-Aid. Forever linked with an event that should properly be associated with its bastard cousin, Flavor Aid.
Actualy it should be the makers of the posion if you want to get REALLY techinical.
But, “… drink the D-Con…” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
This plan is all about perception.
They want the governemnt to buy these assets, but the people are not enamored of Socialism…
So… they will have a few front companies that will buy these in name, with Government money… with the Gov supplying up to 97% of the money.
Strings will be horrendous, but hidden… as this will be run by the Fed Res Bank…
Face it folks, they own us now.
Yeah, cyanide never recovered its sales after its association with Kool-Aid.
Next time? What next time. Don’t you realize we are royally down the toilet. America is GONE. There is no next time. THIS is it!
The more you “perceive” the less they can “deceive” you …
Anybody would think it was harmfull. Its like these trillion dollar spending sprees, call them something else and it goes down just fine. Who would vote for a bill called, The buy up toxic assets bill???
Looked out the window, its still there.
To set the record straight, both brands were used by the late Mr. Jones and his followers…
could you all keep it down?
I’m really trying to listen to Michell-O talk about her garden. And how she’ll have fresh ‘fruit’ for her family…
BTW, if you want a really good powdered drink look for ZUKO brand when traveling outside the USA you should try it. To the best of my knowledge is has NEVER been used by any cult-like groups for nefarious purposes. And it comes in many tasty flavors.
Despite his incompetence I still do not see what would be gained by Geithner leaving until after the 2010 election.
For him to go now would only – a.) allow Sen Dodd a chance to resuscitate his faltering reelection bid, by blaming his woes on Geithner who will not have a public forum to respond; b.) give Democrats and the media an unwarranted opportunity to blame Republicans for his departure and accuse them of being “the party of no;” c.) afford Obama the chance to nominate someone perhaps even more inept – and with the Democrats still in charge of congress, whomever Obama selected would surely be chosen!
IMHO, we’re better off staying w/ Geithner until 2010 when, hopefully, the GOP will be in charge of the House and will have some say in the competence level of our next T-Secretary.
Fixed
As a denizen of the Republic of Nevada, I have mixed feelings about this. We get lots of Earthquakes too you know and there are three faults running through the middle of Yucca Mountain … no matter what the EPA says … but maybe down by Vegas there will be room soon since congress has decided that people should not be going there for conventions any more. They do say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right? Maybe we could make it happen there?
Ummm I worked for Joe Conforte and for Ms Sally’s Nephew. If nothing else, Joe always did take good care of his people. The only reason he got in trouble was because a
district attorneyman in town got jealous because the girls he was running were losing money to Joe’s girls but you can email me for more about that. This is not the proper place to discuss it. Still, the government never opened up the Ranch once they took over. Dare I say it? They were trying to run everything by hand.As for the toxic assets, they are indeed trying to sweeten the pot while they pull the wool over the investor’s eyes.
The bait:
You buy this junk and the taxpayer (Unwillingly) backs it up guaranteeing that you will not suffer any losses.
The Switch:
90% tax rates, AIG Executive style outrage and protests at your door when you try to collect, selective government enforcement of the law … pick just about anything that the current administration is already trying to do and you can get a glimpse of what is in store for these private investors.
Yes, but only the grape Flavor Aid was used in the suicide.
Either it truly was too awful for even Krugman to cheer-lead for, or the NYT feels the need to shield Obama’s poll numbers from any Geithner back-splash.
This seems like another confusing finance instrument to me.
..and if I’m not mistaken, it was confusing finance instruments that got us in to this mess to begin with; so how exactly, will replicating what led to the crisis, solve the crisis?
It’s true. America is not gone. It is just slowly morphing into AmeriKa, one moronic, ill-conceived step at a time.
Obambi and friends are on the way to introducing AmeriKKKa one stupid socialist, racist step at a time. Do you suppose they see the irony…
speaking of Jones–does that new movie ‘Milk’ point out the detail that Harvey thought Jim Jones was just the bees knees?
I have found that if a financial instrument cannot be explained in short, simple English to a person of average intelligence, it means two things:
1) The person explaining it does not understand it either, and,
2) It is probably best to avoid it.
As opposed to the old, stale fruit (Bawney Fwank) we have to deal with?
Who is the president of France?
If you answered Jacques Chirac instead of Nicolas Sarkozy, you may already be the president of the United States.
Obama sent a letter to the French president, and called him Jacques Chirac.
I thought Americans – in their near ignorance of the world – needed to know more than just “Merci beaucoup”. Another absoulute Dolt moment from Little Boots.
You have gotta be kiddin’!
I presume you all saw the pictures of the folks who went to the homes of AIG executives to protest. Well here are a couple of interesting questions. How did the protesters get and pay for the bus? Who provided the food for the day? How did these folks get to the bus and then home after their protest. Anybody want to guess that ACORN or some group of liberal Dems has their hands all over this?
Interesting, the MSM didn’t cover that part of the story at all. Oh well, the MSM is slowly disintegrating because they just can’t tell a true story anymore.
The MSM probably paid for the buses and food so there would be a story they wanted to print…