cannonball on November 11, 2008 at 2:53 PM

A question would be what is the net cost? We don’t know, of course but the collapse of Lehman had a much greater effect on the markets than Treasury thought, increasing borrowing costs and causing a money market to break the buck which then caused the Fed to step in and guarantee money funds.

The market decline has already caused more than a trillion dollars of potential tax revenue to disappear. Would the declines in the market have been steeper if AIG had collapsed? Almost certainly, but they were so interconnected through CDS instruments and derivatives that nobody really knew how big a crater would be formed by their failure.

One other consideration is that the U.S. received warrants or preferred shares in AIG and the big banks in exchange for the liquidity they pumped in. The value of the shares may go up or down but there is a market value that can be estimated.

Boston tea party? Oh, wait, these are not foreigners….

Sir Napsalot on November 11, 2008 at 11:35 AM

How about a Chicago tea party in Barry’s backyard pool?

257 pigs at the trough in the House, and Pelosi wears lipstick.

Makes sense to me…

NOT!

Keynsianism has never worked. Not once. Even a basic understanding of how the economy is enough to demonstrate why it can’t possibly work.

Unfortunately even a basic understanding of anything is beyond your average liberal.

MarkTheGreat on November 11, 2008 at 11:44 AM

WWII was a public works project with an enormous Keynesian government spend.

Currently, the world is going through a massive deleveraging. Moving up capital expenditures by governments can help keep employment numbers from rising too high and also keep revenues from dropping too far for U.S. corporations.

Now that they won their second straight national election on the premise of fiscal responsibility…

I don’t recall anybody talking about fiscal responsibility. And judging from the outcome the voters didn’t care about fiscal responsibility either.

Why call this a “silver lining”? It’s more than just a demonstration of rank hypocrisy by the Democrats. It removes one of their favorite rationales for tax hikes. While Bush and the Republicans spent money between 2001-6 in a manner that would embarrass drunken sailors, Democrats claimed that the irresponsibility didn’t come from the spending, but from the failure to confiscate more money from taxpayers to fund it.

Ed, you naiive softie. The Dems will raise taxes without the “constraint” of Pay-Go; it was, as you later pointed out, just a bludgeon to keep down the spending of the less-liberal half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government.

Throw Obama in there to do away with what meager vetoes Bush was throwing and we’ll be looking back at the “fiscal conservatism” of the 2000-2006 GOP Congress with nostalgia.

If Republicans can recapture this issue they will own the next generation of voters.

rockmom on November 11, 2008 at 10:31 AM

Thanks to the utter irresponsibility of the current Republican leadership, it will be very hard for the Republicans to recapture this issue. Given the way they outspent even the Democrats when they were given the chance to control both branches of govt, why should anyone believe them when they claim that this time, they will be responsible?

However, the economic crisis has much more significant causes than the Dem interference in lending markets. Also, regardless of whoever was elected, fiscal restraint would been the wrong medicine at this time. If there is ever a time for a bit of Keynsianism, that time is now.

dedalus on November 11, 2008 at 10:22 AM

Keynsianism has never worked. Not once. Even a basic understanding of how the economy is enough to demonstrate why it can’t possibly work.

Unfortunately even a basic understanding of anything is beyond your average liberal.

Unfortunately, government spending is not an issue most people care about. It’s only when taxes are increased, and people see a direct effect, that revulsion of government takes place.

Correction, it’s only when their taxes are increased that people get upset.

Raising other people, especially if those other people have spent their lives working hard, resulting in them having more than you do, that’s ok with most people.

What would happen if millions of people just refused to pay taxes? This is truly a case of taxation without representation..

americanpatriot on November 11, 2008 at 9:53 AM

Boston tea party? Oh, wait, these are not foreigners….

“Capitalist” is spelled with two “a’s”, not an “o”, friend.

leetpriest on November 11, 2008 at 11:21 AM

Perhaps we are all becoming Capitolists, now that more of our economy will be managed from Capitol Hill?

Hopefully, the Dems won’t use the financial crises to grow government…

That’s funny.

What job would that be, The Great Obamessiah will provide all they need. These hopeychangelings need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and move the fuck out of their parent’s basements

UNREPENTANT CONSERVATIVE CAPITOLIST on November 11, 2008 at 10:50 AM

As do the Latte-sipping liberals in their 30’s 40’s 50’s and 60’s. Ultimately, we can blame all former generations for the way that “those damn college kids” turned out.

I guess had all of us “damn college kids” had decent parents, we wouldn’t have turned out to be “hopeychangelings need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and move the fuck out of their parent’s basements”.

“Capitalist” is spelled with two “a’s”, not an “o”, friend.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE (mo-lone lah-veh) Translation: Come and take them!

I can’t in a few years when all these gullible college kids who voted for him get their first job and see just how much “hope and change” is taken out of their paycheck.

Bet the limited government GOP won’t look so bad afterall.

gophergirl on November 11, 2008 at 9:42 AM

What job would that be, The Great Obamessiah will provide all they need. These hopeychangelings need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and move the fuck out of their parent’s basements

My vision is for the RNC to produce a real-time national debt counter widget, which can be placed on every blog, MySpace, Facebook, etc. and inserted in emails so that all young people can see how much more debt the government is piling on them every day. This should be backed up with Republicans in Congress voting against every increase in the debt ceiling and every new item of spending – especially any new bailouts for the auto industry or state and local governments.

rockmom on November 11, 2008 at 10:31 AM

Not a bad idea. It could include fields to view the number as a percentage of GDP and the cost per year to service, to help people understand what part of their tax bill is to pay for past spending.

There is a viral email going around among these kids about the national debt and how much each current 16-year-old is going to owe when they get out of college.

rockmom on November 11, 2008 at 10:31 AM

I would like to see that. And your debt counter idea is great! The 15-16 kids need fiscal conservatism as their mantra.