GOP Conservatives Delayed The Bailout, But They Can't Kill It
Yesterday's White House meeting didn't go according to plan. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking Republican on Senate Banking, emerged a little after 5 p.m. to declare "There is no agreement." and that the Paulson Plan wouldn't work. He waived objections signed by 192 porminent economists. Later, Democrats who attended described how House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) diverted the meeting with an alternative in which the government would insure the remaining half of mortgage backed securities that aren't already insured and in which tax incentives and regulatory reforms would be used to attract private capital back in financial institutions. I can't print what one of my clients said about how effective this plan might be.
At 8 p.m. last night, Secretary Paulson, Fed Chair Bernanke, and bipartisan congressional leaders met again to jump start the process of formulating a plan that Congress can pass this weekend. I expect them to succeed because Congress will have a front row seat this morning as the market crashes and Main Street begins to realize what will happen to the economy without functioning credit markets.
The plan is lunacy
These people know nothing about financial markets. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada.
They didn't even know that their idiocy would cause the market to crash today.
Thanks alot Republican idiots.
Looks like it might be too late
Markets in a panic. Investors going nuts.
Major European investors have been pulling out for days now.
Congress fiddling while Rome burns.
Geezus. Market should be halted/suspended today . . . circuit breakers hit? Could happen. They should just shut down the markets until Congress gets through their posturing.
But maybe that's the point . . . maybe they want this to happen to impress the American public re: the seriousness of the problem. But then they risk all-out panic.
Talk about taking a huge risk . . . are they THAT irresponsible?
These are NOT patriots . . more like they are in league with Al Qaeda.
Well Bush came out and spoke
5 minutes after markets opened to calm things down.
He says there will be a plan.
I think McCain just lost the election though.
The GOP conservatives can
The GOP conservatives can kill this plan, because the Dems are not going to push it through over their objections after years and years of being betrayed and trashed by Bush and the Republicans. There is no trust to counter partisan manipulation. There is no national interest to appeal to, under these circumstances.
If the Dems pushed this over the GOP resistance, that would play into the hands of a nascent right wing populism. It would be fuel for an ideological bubble. Better to let the chips fall where they may.
Bernanke and Paulson to resign over the weekend?
This has to be incredibly frustrating for them. I'd be packing my bags.
I like Bernanke. He's a Great Depression scholar, knows exactly what needs to be done in a credit crunch. And he's trying to do it, but they won't let him.
It's time to do the right thing, not the popular thing, but first priority is getting re-elected.
So we'll be lucky to get out of this alive.
Say it ain't so
I cannot imagine that they would resign. They know that their steadiness under pressure is one of the most important elements holding capital markets together. They wouldn't risk that. They wouldn't even threaten it. Having met both of them, I know they have the humility to know that this is much bigger than them personally and to feel called to public service in a crisis.
I don't think you would be packing your bags, either. Taking the Mom in Minnesota Mom literally, you would be sending the ones in Congress who are having a tantrum to a timeout. Maybe getting a bar of soap ready to wash their mouths out or a paddle for their bottoms if you are from an earlier generation.
Well that made me laugh
If the House Republicans would get that "public service in a crisis" message we could get off the dime on this . . . and I'm really not very nice. I yelled at my Republican congress critter today . . . one that keeps saying that the current crisis is the result of too much government intervention in the markets.
I'm not kidding . . . hey, if only we'd allowed them to leverage even more and hand out more and bigger subprime loans, maybe we wouldn't be in such a predicament . . . honest to pete, some of these congress people are dumber than tree stumps, and that includes mine.
Turns out I wasn't alone in blowing a fuse this morning
Rick Santelli did too. Takes a while for this to load.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=868551308
Paulson Plan
No doubt we're in quite a financial mess. The only good news is that the markets finished up a bit today. The bad news is that Monday could be a disaster in the markets if the House fails to pass a bill by then.
I share the frustration at having to bail out a lot of bad actors in the financial community, but, if we don't, the loss in jobs and economic growth would make us wish we had. It's like World War II. Most Americans were totally opposed to entering the war against Hitler. Then, on December 8, 1941, we declared war on both Japan and Germany. I hope we don't have to experience a financial Pearl Harbor before we act belatedly.
If there's one thing we've proven, when the pendulum swings too far towards unfettered market and back towards government control, we lose on each end. It's better to stay balanced in the middle. That's hard to sustain.