We are? Ignore the 7.4 quoted by Hawkins below — the article has since been updated to fix the number at 7.76 trillion. The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or……

Incestous b*st*rds

NOT RIGHT KIND OF EXPERIENCE

Born in Nagpur, India, the 51-year-old Pandit obtained two electrical engineering degrees and a doctorate in finance from Columbia University.

He joined Citigroup in July 2007 when the bank acquired his hedge fund and private equity firm Old Lane Partners LP for about $800 million. Earlier this year the fund faced massive redemption requests and was forced to shut down.

Prior to Old Lane, Pandit worked at Morgan Stanley, where he headed institutional securities, overseeing banking, trading, prime brokerage and investments, and was credited with expanding outside the United State –

HSBC wouldnot rule out buying citi assets

We have a clear strategy that says we’re going to develop our business with a primary focus on emerging markets and that for us primarily means, because of our footprint, Asia, Middle East and South America,” he said, adding deals also needed to fit in terms of price and the quality of assets.- Chairman of HSBC Europes biggest bank

Let’s bail out citi so HSBC can pluck it to finance Asia

Something to be said for his talk, because the big investment houses created fake instuments, and speculated them up, using people’s bank accounts and pension funds
while giving themselves million dollar salaries and bonuses.

Meanwhile, the mayor said, if we stop making cars, do we want to buy all our cars from China?

He is onto something people overlook. The Japanese moved production to the US so they could compete against the big three. If the big three are gone, they do not have to stay here. In fact, they are then competing against China for profit, and the first Chinese vehicles are coming soon to the US.

The Japanese have shown they will farm any and all production to China to increase profit as needed.

a very important quote from this article about the Citibank bailout

Analysts consider Citigroup the most vulnerable among the major U.S. banks – especially after it failed to nab Wachovia Corp. (WB) (WB), which was bought instead by Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) (WFC) That was a missed opportunity for Citi to gets its hands on much-needed U.S. deposits that would bolster its cash position.

I wonder what liberals taste like…hmmmm.

Anyone know how to cook’em?

/cleans gun, counts ammo

Wyznowski on November 24, 2008 at 12:22 PM

Greasy. No meat there. Better to make sausage outta them.

Anyone know how to cook’em?

/cleans gun, counts ammo

“At the risk of hyperbole, we should not be worrying about whether this is going to be a thin Christmas for retailers (it is), but whether Britain and the West are about to plunge into a years-long economic Dark Age – complete with mass unemployment and social unrest…

I hope so. Elections have consequences.

Read: you can thank the media for spreading panic in what should have been a difficult but manageable situation… but I guess they’re still doing their part to make the Messiah’s coming look miraculous.

Buy guns. That’s much better as then you can just take Gleen Beck’s canned goods for free.

Tuco on November 23, 2008 at 11:43 PM

Soylent Green is made of Glenn Beck!!!!

I’m sure Americans would be much better communists than Russians. We’ll see. All we have to do is appoint Mennonites like me to power, I’ll show you how it’s done.

anti-boomer on November 24, 2008 at 12:59 AM

It seems to me, that many people think that the only reason that communism has not worked is because the “right” people have not been in charge.

Terrye on November 24, 2008 at 6:40 AM

There will always be people out there who try to manipulate markets and transactions to screw other people. Robber barons are an example of this in a laissez-faire system. Many people have blamed today’s financial crisis on derivative transactions (e.g. credit default swaps) riding on top of securitized subprime loans. Obama says that “deregulation” (i.e., laissez-faire) in the derivative markets caused it. I, and other sensible adults, say that the problem is traceable to the doorsteps of Congress, Fannie/Freddie, and these freaking subprime loans (over 50% of which were made to minorities as part of a giant affirmative action program started under Carter and expanded by Clinton).

The real question you have to ask is, under what system are the risks from manipulation and corruption minimized? And given the absolute horrors perpetrated under communist regimes, and the abject corruption and tomfoolery that goes on DAILY in Europe, I’d say the government that interferes in private markets the least has the best outcomes. (Latin America, which is a stew of drug lords, communist rebels, and other various extremist groups, is not a good comparison.)

Buy Danish on November 24, 2008 at 7:10 AM

The misvaluation forced by the CRA propagated throughout the system – by hook and by crook and by threat of lawsuit. But the profits were enormous – especially after Fannie/Freddie really got the underlying market moving by taking inventory off the hands of lenders to encourage growth of the market – so once companies were forced to create the market, everyone jumped in to take part. That’s how I saw it.

No, they did not just lose money, they lost everything. In the late 19th century forclosure rates on farms in states like Kansas were more than 50%. Between the grasshoppers and the banks they went belly up in numbers that would stagger people today.

Terrye on November 24, 2008 at 6:40 AM

But this was just personal wealth. The monetary system was not really affected. This is not just about personal wealth, but about the dollar, itself. This is about the ability of the world to trade. This is about one of the most integral systems to the operation of the world going down in flames.

On the bright side, the US will be affected less than most of the rest of the world, who have been leeching off of us for a long time, accepting our generosity and help while cursing us the whole time.

I think the idea is to stop the bleeding so that more people do not lose their jobs, their homes, whatever. I am not justifying any of it, I am just saying that people want the government to fix things, they just don’t want it to cost any money.

Subprime mortgages are a problem but they are not the cause of the collapse. The collapse was caused by an OPEC generated precipitous rise in oil prices. Subprime mortgage buyers could no longer pay their mortgages because too much of their pay check had to go to pay for gasoline. Yes, I know, gas prices have since declined but not before Humpty Dumpty, the American consumer, was broken.

So where are we now? OPEC got the American president it wanted but at an exorbitant price.

No, they did not just lose money, they lost everything. In the late 19th century forclosure rates on farms in states like Kansas were more than 50%. Between the grasshoppers and the banks they went belly up in numbers that would stagger people today. Railroad men in parts of the midwest also refused to ship grain for farmers, that meant they could not pay their taxes and lost everything, the same railroad men came in bought up land for the taxes…that is why they were called robber barons and that is why we have the teamsters today. They were originally organized to help ship grain. Two men, one to handle the reigns and one to ride shotgun.

In fact during Grant’s tenure in office people bought up all the gold, drove it up to very high prices and then dumped it on the markets triggering a panic that lead to actual starvation in the cities.

Honestly, I don’t think people have any idea what it used to be like in the days of laissez faire. Things could just go to hell over night.

In fact that is what happened to Latin America. When WW1 broke out the Europeans who had treated south America like its colony just pulled its money out of the continent triggering a collapse that they never did fully recover from.