Report: “Overwhelming” House GOP opposition to stimulus
Remember that poll we took yesterday about how many Republicans would
vote for the bill? It’s a sign of how low the base’s expectations are
for Congress at this point……

The looting of the Treasury continues unabated.

None Dared To Call It Thievery

normsrevenge on January 20, 2009 at 1:03 PM

I think you’re on to something.

I’m curious if AP or Ed feel remorse for supporting the first bailout.

lorien1973 on January 20, 2009 at 12:42 PM

Doubt it. Not that it matters when you are scared you’ll do anything.

What cracks me up about the whole situation is that the failures of the banking industry are concentrated in a few major banks. If they go under then the hundreds of small local banks pick up the pieces and the market share. This would give the smaller banks more capital with which to loan to the credit worthy and the uncredit worthy would be back where they started. The market would be cleared of the bad loans. This would give the people that were conservative and saved while housing prices skyrocketed the opportunity to buy a home at a fair market price. Voila! Problem solved. But the media and Paulson hit the panic button just to save his Wall Street buddies.

Also the counter party risk. BofA, Citibank, and AIG probably represent a huge amount of counterparty risk if they did go under then the exchanges themselves would have been at risk. but so be it. If it melts down the the exchanges could be reconstituted by venture capitalist from smaller banks and they will be better run to avoid this in the future. The fear of loss of capital is highly self regulating.

If you’re thinking of having kids in the near future, maybe now you’ll consider a vasectomy.

Nah, on second thought, have tons of ‘em. If it’s really expensive to pay for my parents’ retirement now, imagine how many little workers it will take to pay for mine (if retirement is even an option at that point).

My mother gave me $200 this Christmas to buy stock. With this kind of crap, I’m buying gold. Who knows? With this going on it may be the only sensible way of saving money.

Chaz706 on January 20, 2009 at 2:34 PM

Nope. Buy more ammo for your firearm(s).

Weight of Glory on January 20, 2009 at 1:07 PM

Man that is such an ugly thought. But if they can they will the Dept of TARP. *shudders*

Train wreck in slow motion.

artist on January 20, 2009 at 12:39 PM

It truly is.

Tony Blankley is right this is a huge crapshoot. Our economy is undergirded by foreign central banks buying treasuries from the Fed. What happens if they stop buying and demand payment on outstanding debt? We will give them devalued dollars which they will most likely spend in America on our depreciated assets. Hello inflation.

China will float the yuan, because they have to, we can no longer support their exports and this is putting people out of work. The solution, depegging from the dollar will give the Chinese increased purchasing power and those closed factories can reopen to produce goods that the Chinese want to buy. The Communist Party has learned the lesson of previous unrest. Not obvious from media coverage but Tienamen Square featured workers that were upset over tight money (the central bank raising interest rates) the students did not miss an opportunity to add themselves to the mix as they had been demonstrating for sometime. Why would China risk political instability to save us when it is not in their interest to do so? China is are already trialing the yuan for international purchases. The handwriting is on the wall. Don’t be the last man out!

Ever get the feeling like we’re just buying time?

Yes, problem is we’re spending an enormous amount of money and we’re getting very little time in return.

All the freakin’ time. At best, we’re just treading water, except the bailouts are adding more water to the mix, not draining the basement.

Think this is bad? wait till the Lamest Generation starts retiring in droves. If the bailouts don’t kill us first, that will. Tens of trillions of dollars will be paid to them over the decades they’re retired.

What really kills me is that Krugman was given the Nobel prize for preaching this garbage. Who’s next for the Nobel in economics, Mugabe?

sublime on January 20, 2009 at 12:56 PM

He did get the prize , but the reason doesn’t relate to crisis management. So he’s guessing , like everyone else..

We’re buying something. I just don’t know what.

I feel like someone sold my soul (without my permission) and is now trying to buy it back. And the Devil keeps changing the terms.

Ever get the feeling like we’re just buying time?

and borrowing to do it.